From Oct. 28 through Nov. 1, all 20 students in the political science course Women, Peace and Security went on a field trip to the United Nations (U.N.) main headquarters in New York City.
Women, Peace and Security, taught by political science Professor Wendy Weber, is a course focusing on U.N. Security Council Resolution 1325 and nine subsequent resolutions.
“[These resolutions] collectively seek to protect women and girls in armed conflict and also promote greater participation of women in all aspects of peace processes,” Weber said.
Although the course has been offered in previous semesters, this was the first time a field trip to the U.N. was part of the curriculum.
According to Weber, the opportunity for the class to visit the U.N. came after she had a conversation with Tonderai Chikuhwa ’96, senior policy adviser in the Office of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Sexual Violence in Conflict, who was on campus as a visiting professor last academic year.
“He knew all of the people that we were meeting with,” participant Dallas Watson ’26 said. “He was the bridge that allowed us to be at the U.N. and made those connections for us to be able to talk to those folks.”
The students spent three days at the U.N. headquarters touring the buildings, sitting in on official proceedings and meeting with U.N. workers.
“We started with a tour of the United Nations so that students could get a sense of what the building looks like and what the meeting rooms look like,” Weber said. “We had three days of briefings on a variety of topics, and we got to sit in on a session of the U.N. Security Council.”
The Security Council meeting that the students sat in on was about the ongoing tensions in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
“It was really interesting to learn more about [the tensions in Bosnia and Herzegovina] and then hear different debates in the Security Council about how to bring peace in the country, to end discrimination,” Watson said. “It was crazy to actually be in the Security Council and listen and know what was actually happening.”
The students also attended briefing sessions on disarmament, child marriages and sanctions. One such session was led by Noel Kututwa, senior women’s protection advisor at the United Nations Assistance Mission in Somalia, who discussed gender-based violence.
“He basically described how in Somalia, the military and police aren’t as recognized by their residents, because residents don’t know who the actual police [are] versus [the] non-state actors,” Watson said. “A citizen could go to a supermarket and buy a uniform. That way, [residents of Somalia] don’t know who actually is the real police or the military. That was one of the reasons why gender-based violence was happening in the country, because women in particular didn’t know who to actually trust.”
“[The employees are] doing all of this for the betterment of the global world, and that may necessitate [them] being overqualified and better prepared than some of [their] supervisors,” participant Liv Peterson ’27 said. “All of the speakers that we talked to were non-white and not native to America. It was just very interesting, because obviously it’s an organization that works in the global context, and so it’s good to see that even in the United States, it’s not U.S.-dominated. What was impactful for me was the amount of work it requires, [and] the desire to make a positive change for people in the world.”
From her time visiting the U.N., Watson realized how much work the organization does in the field of protecting women and children. Going there firsthand allowed her to interact with the people making changes on a global scale and working to minimize gender-based violence, especially in regions affected by war.
The class also had opportunities to see how day-to-day work happens at the U.N. and experienced what it was like to be immersed in that environment.
“We got to eat with all of the other workers in the U.N. and so I really enjoyed it, because I can really see a future in this space,” Peterson said. Before taking the course, she was not interested in a career at the U.N. “The trip definitely changed my mind and gave me some inspiration,” Peterson said.
Weber plans to offer the course in future years, and said she believes the immersive aspect of the course gives students an “inside look,” a different behind-the-scenes perspective than what can be gained by just reading the resolutions from a classroom.
“I think that Professor Weber makes it a very accessible class, especially to those who don’t have any prior knowledge about the U.N.,” Peterson said. “It was just a really awesome experience to go through.”