Dr. William Carlton Warters

My primary work explores innnovative ways to support conflict resolution knowledge and skill development, with recent efforts focused on the use of technology and the world wide web for instruction and professional development. In addition to my faculty position I also serve as a Faculty Fellow at the Office for Teaching and Learning two days per week where I specialize in emerging technologies for scholars.

My research training and experience leans heavily on qualitative methods for exploring the lived experience of project participants. Back in graduate school I received a Guggenheim Fellowship to conduct my dissertation research on abusive men who had been pushed to change their behavior. The dissertation passed with distinction and received the distinguished Syracuse University Dissertation Prize. A paper from the project received the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs Dean's Award. Continuing this line of work, I have been working sporadically on a book on a symbolic interactionist view of men's violence prevention.

In addition to my long-standing focus on violence and masculinity (including 3 years editing the Ending Men's Violence News), I have been very active in the area of dispute resolution and mediation in higher education, exploring it in terms of teaching, research and practice. In 1990 I co-chaired the First National Conference on Campus Mediation. In 1996 I conducted a delphi study on the rapid emergence of graduate-level degree-granting programs in dispute resolution across North America. This research was followed by a symposium I hosted at Nova Southeastern University that brought together representatives from 15 different programs to discuss the future of the field. An article reporting the results of this study was published in the Online Journal of Peace and Conflict Resolution. I served two terms as Chair of the Higher Education Committee of the National Association for Mediation in Education and later as Co-chair of the Education Section of the Association for Conflict Resolution. Work in this area has continued.

My current research agenda includes continuing my work on dispute resolution in higher education, building up the toolset and information available at the Campus Conflict Resolution Resources Web site http://www.campus-adr.org, as well as establishing new information portals, looking at various "sub-cultures" of disputing on campuses (as outlined in my 1995 ombuds journal article), and at the growth and spread of dispute resolution as a field of study.

I have also had administrative experience in number of different settings. Significantly, I served as Director of Nova Southeastern University's doctoral program in Dispute Resolution during it's first year and a half. I also served as Faculty Supervisor of the Conflict Resolution Resource Service (CRRS) at NSU beginning February of 1994. The CRRS was/is a campus and community mediation and conflict resolution program that I initiated that provided students with practical experience offering mediation, conflict resolution, and group facilitation services to the local community. Previously I developed and directed a similar program called the Campus Mediation Center at Syracuse University, serving as coordinator for 2 and a half years.

My book, ''Mediation in the Campus Community: Designing and Managing Effective Programs'' was published in late 1999 by Jossey-Bass press, in affiliation with the National Institute for Dispute Resolution and the Conflict Resolution in Education Network. The book provides a theoretical grounding for campus dispute resolution efforts, while serving as a technical assistance manual for developing campus dispute resolution systems, published in conjunction with the National Institute for Dispute Resolution.

I still hope to expand my men's violence research by doing more analysis at the group level of interaction in men's violence prevention groups, and by exploring the coping and sense-making efforts of anti-violence workers who are in regular contact with violent individuals. I have begun to explore this in my doctoral ethnographic methods course that I teach in our Communication Department. My thinking on this has been facilitated via a reading and discussion seminar series I organized at Wayne State entitled Masculinity, Violence, and Conflict Resolution.

I also have a community-focused research agenda on local cultures of disputing that examines how various identity groups resolve internal disputes. Thus far I have explored five different communities, with special emphasis on the Chaldean population (Christian Iraqis). This work received seed funding from the Benjamin Barber Fund for Interdisciplinary Legal Research.

Lead Developer, Conflict Resolution Education Connection: http://www.creducation.org. With the support of funding from the JAMS foundation and others I designed a new (2006) clearinghouse of information on Conflict Resolution Education in Teacher Education. The site debuted at the Inter-American Summit on Conflict Resolution Education held in on March 14, 2006.

Chair, Library Interoperability Project, Conflict Resolution Information Infrastructure Initiative (a national project funded by the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation) December 2003 - Present.

Invited Presenter, National Communication Association Peace and Conflict Communication Commission Panel Session: Theory to Reality: Experiences in Implementation of the Warters Model of Campus Mediation at a Mid-Sized Public University. Miami Beach, November 20, 2003

Convenor, National High School to College Campus Mediator Bridge Initiative Planning Retreat, Timber Ridge Lodge, Georgia, May, 2004.

Convenor, National Guidelines for Best Practice in Dispute Resolution in Higher Education Working Group, April 2002-Present

Keynote Speaker, Conference on Mediation in Higher Education and Public Sector Employment, UC Davis, Davis California, May 18, 2001

Instructional Software Designer, Developed 'Stand-Off at Oka', an award-winning WebQuest, for use in Social Conflict Courses.

Convenor, National Campus Conflict Resolution Program Evaluation Kit Development Team Meeting, April 5-6, 2001 Wayne State University

Board of Governors, Core Planning Committee Member (1997-present), Conflict Resolution Information Infrastructure Project, funded by the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation ($575,000) to explore ways to use information technology to it's full advantage in the conflict resolution field.

Convenor, Lead Trainer, Wayne State University Annual Summer Institute on Dispute Resolution in Higher Education. Sponsored by the Mediating Theory and Democratic Systems program, (1998, 1999, and upcoming 2000)

Steering Committee Member, Dispute Resolution Theory to Practice Initiative, international project funded by the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, Christopher Honeyman, PI (initial term 1997-1999, with the grant and my board role just renewed for 2000-2003) Project attempts to connect conflict researchers, theoreticians, and practitioners in more effective ways.

Chair, Committee on Higher Education, National Association for Mediation in Education. Coordinated national network of individuals, service organizations, and academic programs interested in conflict resolution in higher education. July 1994-Sept.1996

Project Team Member, Advisory Board Member, Comprehensive Peer Mediation Evaluation Project, a Hewlett Foundation and Surdna Foundation Funded evaluation project involving 4 different cities and 36 different schools. Project Coordinator, Tricia Jones, Temple University. 1996-1998

Faculty Superviser, Director,Conflict Resolution Resource Service, Nova Southeastern University. Founder and supervisor of campus and community mediation service. February 1994-1997.

Program Organizer and Convenor, international symposium on graduate programs in dispute resolution (15 universities represented) entitled 'Mapping the Contours of Graduate Studies in Dispute Resolution,' Nova Southeastern University, Fort Lauderdale, Florida, March 22-24, 1996.

Program Chair, International Conference on 'Conflict and Violence: Causes and Responses,' May 11-14, 1994, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia. Sponsored by The Network: Interaction for Conflict Resolution, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. Approximate attendence was 375 conflict resolution and violence prevention researchers, practitioners and policy-makers, including participants from Canada (including places as distant as the Yukon, Labrador, the Northwest Territories, etc.), New Zealand, Australia, Belgium, and the U.S.A.

Co-chair (with Dr. Loraleigh Keashly) of Conference Section on Gender and Conflict, National Conference on Peacemaking and Conflict Resolution, Portland, Oregon, May 27-June 1, 1993.

Co-chair (with Margaret McHugh) of First National Conference on Campus Mediation, hosted by the Campus Mediation Center at Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY, March 22-23, 1990

Assistant Task Group Coordinator, Ending Men's Violence Network. National Organization for Men Against Sexism (formerly NOCM) Maintained a national network of pro-feminist, anti-sexist organizations and individuals working to end men's violence against women. 1987-1992;

Editor of the Ending Men's Violence Task Group Newsletter for 3 years (11 issues), and as regional Coordinator of four annual ''BrotherPeace'' community events as part ofaninternational annual coordinated day of men's actions to end men's violence. 1987-1992

Family Student Housing Community Conflict Resolution Program; Coordinator, Lead Trainer. U.C. Santa Cruz. Developed, organized and implemented a model community-based conflict resolution program for residents of the Family Student Housing Complex at University of California at Santa Cruz. 1985-86.

Network Coordinator, California Men's Alternatives to Violence (MATV) Task Group. Served as coordinator of MATV, a network of 11 pro-feminist, anti-sexist programs in the state of California that work with men who batter or men who rape. Organized annual statewide conference. 1985-86.

Board Member, Center For Men's Health Education. Oakland, CA.Served as working board member for the Center For Men's Health Education, a program which administered, among others, federal family planning grants involving urban teen men in familyplanning, and counseling men whose partners are using abortion clinic services. 1984-85.

The development and maintenance of community in online learning environments has my attention right now. We are exploring enhanced models for creating, hosting and managing learning simulations, learning repositories, synchronous and asynchronous discussions, often using the conflict studies area as our testing ground. As my campus conflict resolution resources website grows (now over 1700 unique visitors daily) I am interested in exploring ways to building a sense of community there as well.

I also hope to expand my prior men's violence research by doing more analysis at the group level of interaction in men's violence prevention groups, and by exploring the coping and sense-making efforts of anti-violence workers who are in regular contact with violent individuals.

Comments from Reviewers of book - Mediation in the Campus Community

'Far and away the most comprehensive guide available to colleges and universities, or indeed at any public institution with an active staff and an involved client base. Warters presents a wide range of possible program structures and provides the information that organizers and participants need to select the best option.'

--James B. Boskey, editor and publisher, The Alternative Newsletter, and professor of law, Seton Hall Law School, New Jersey

'Professionally written, logically organized, and delivered in a personal style that is appealing to the reader.... I have found the text to be truly 'user-friendly' with a thoughtful balance of theory with pragmatic suggestions for developing and integrating a mediation program on campus.'

--Roger Witherspoon, vice president, Student Development, John Jay College of Criminal Justice

'Warters not only conveys the need for mediation on campus, but the importance of relating mediation to existing mechanisms such as student judicial affairs and other grievance processes.'

--Gene Zdziarski, developer of Student Conflict Resolution Services and associate director of Student Life, Texas A&M University, and former board member of the Association for Judicial Affairs

'Every academic administrator will find dozens of specific ideas that will bring relief from the constant challenges of conflict. This book helps show where the conflicts come from--and how mediation and conflict resolution training can support a conflict-competent organization.'

--Mary Rowe, Ombudsperson, Massachusetts Institute of Technology