Dr Peter T. Coleman

Professor Peter T. Coleman is a world-renowned expert in the field of conflict resolution; researching, writing, practicing and teaching on it for over 20 years. Dr. Coleman holds a Ph.D. in Social/Organizational Psychology from Columbia University, where he today serves as Professor of Psychology and Education and holds a joint-appointment in Social-Organizational Psychology at Teachers College and at The Earth Institute. He directs the International Center for Cooperation and Conflict Resolution, a center committed to developing knowledge and practice to promote constructive conflict resolution, effective cooperation, and social justice founded in 1986 by Dr. Morton Deutsch, an eminent scholar in the field of Conflict Resolution. He is the author of The Five Percent, a book representing the culmination of over a decade of research in the Intractable Conflict Lab at Columbia University, a research facility designed for the study of conflict dynamics in cases of highly polarizing issues and extremism.

Career at Columbia University

Coleman has studied some of the more marginalized yet critical aspects of peace and conflict dynamics, including issues such as the use and abuse of social power, intractable conflict, humiliation and conflict, polarized collective identity formation, culture and conflict, injustice and conflict, and sustainable peace. These phenomena can manifest themselves in families, schools and other organizations, communities, and nations. They tend to be complex, long-lasting, and difficult to work with, and thus are relatively understudied by contemporary social scientists. Over the last two decades, Coleman's approach has been to develop conceptual models that address gaps in existing theory, often through eliciting insights from informed participants (local stakeholders and practitioners), and then to empirically test the models using a variety of methods. His scholarship aims to bridge the theory-practice gap in the field of conflict resolution and peace studies by bringing new insights from research to bear on important technical and social problems, and by honoring practical expertise in the development of new theory.

Trained as an experimental social-organizational psychologist, Coleman has worked with renowned experts from different disciplinary perspectives in the field, including Dr. Andrea Bartoli, Dr. Katharina Kugler, Dr. Larry Liebovitch, Dr. Robin Vallacher, Dr. Andrzej Nowak, Rob Ricigliano, Danny Burns, and Dr. Rob Ferguson.

In the area of conflict intractability, Coleman’s work focuses on the dynamics involved in seemingly unsolvable conflicts; both generally as whole systems as well as specifically through the investigation of key components of these problems. This has included research on the underlying motivational processes involved, identity formation and change under these conditions, the role moral emotions play in sustaining such conflicts, and differences in the complexity of the dynamics between more and less destructive forms of conflict.

Books

Coleman, P. T. and Ferguson, R. (2014). Making Conflict Work: Harnessing the Power of Disagreement. New York: Houghton-Mifflin-Harcourt.

Coleman, P. T., Deutsch, M., & Marcus, E. (Eds.) (2014).The Handbook of Conflict Resolution: Theory and Practice, 3rd Edition. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Translated into Japanese (2003), Polish (2006).

Vallacher, R., Coleman, P. T., Nowak, A., Bui-Wrzosinska, L., Kugler, K., Bartoli, A., & Liebovitch, L. (2013). Attracted to Conflict: The Dynamic Foundations of Malignant Social Relations. Springer.

Coleman, P. T. & Deutsch, M. (Eds., July, 2012). The Psychological Components of a Sustainable Peace. Springer Books. Four authored chapters. Coleman, P. T. (Ed., 2012). Conflict, Justice, and Interdependence: The Legacy of Morton Deutsch. Springer Books. Three authored chapters.

Coleman, P. T. (Ed., 2012). Conflict, Justice, and Interdependence: The Legacy of Morton Deutsch. Springer Books. Three authored chapters.

Coleman, P. T. (2011). The Five Percent: Finding Solutions to (Seemingly) Impossible Conflicts. New York: Public Affairs, Perseus Books.

Deutsch, M., Coleman, P. T., & Marcus, E. (Eds.) (2000, 2006 2nd Edition). The Handbook of Conflict Resolution: Theory and Practice. San Francisco: Jossey- Bass. Translated into Japanese (2003), Polish (2006).