Week 8!

Hi guys! It’s hard to believe that it’s week 8 of my senior project already. Time goes by so much faster when I’m busy with research and work.

This week, I focused on learning how to write an executive summary. I also dabbled in the value of AI for proof-reading and organizational purposes (especially with helping my reports sound more professional). I also had an interesting conversation with my mentor, where we discussed the process of building a business including some specific methods businesses could undertake to explore new opportunities and reduce the costs of those new opportunities.

I also began reading some parts of Folger and Bush’s “The Promise Of Mediation”. In this novel, Folger and Bush provide summaries of mediation theories, and make the case that a transformative approach to mediation (i.e. focusing on recognition and empowerment as opposed to just solving a conflict) is helpful for personal growth and development. Through personal growth, this kind of conflict resolution helps to address the root issues of a conflict. While some aspects of Bush and Folger’s theory might better apply to more micro, individual conflicts, I find the idea of addressing the root issues of a conflict to be very applicable to my current conflict resolution research. Many of the reasons for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine stem from historical events and the prolonged tensions brought about by those events. These underlying tensions might also explain why ceasefires/conflict resolution techniques were so unsuccessful following Russia’s annexation of Crimea. Anyway, I really like the direction I’m taking with my research right now, and I think I’ll reformat my project to focus more on what might be preventing both sides of the conflict from engaging in peace talks, de-escalating, adopting a ceasefire, etc.

Thank you all for reading, and see you in Week 9!
~ Maria