Andrea Schneider Interview – The Future of Mediation and Negotiation in Our Culture, Politics and Society

Before Andrea Kupfer Schneider even knew or understood the words negotiation or mediation, she figured a way to outsource her chores to her younger brother by paying him a part of her allowance. Not a new trick, but noteworthy that she hit upon the idea naturally. Such is the somewhat tainted beginnings of what would become a notable career as a professor and prolific writer in the disciplines of legal practice, deal making and conflict management. Only many years later, having obtained her A.B. degree from the Woodrow Wilson School of International Affairs and Public Policy at Princeton University, and her J.D. cum laude from Harvard Law School, and studying with Roger Fisher and others associated with the Negotiation Project, did her interest and passion for understanding how people deal with difficult issues and make decisions begin to gel. And afterwards, enhanced the breadth of her perspective with study and a postgraduate Diploma from the Academy of European Law in Florence, Italy. She joined the faculty of Marquette University Law School in 1996, where she continues to teach ADR, Negotiation, Ethics, and International Conflict Resolution and is the Director of the nationally ranked Dispute Resolution Program.

Andrea’s writing reflects an integrated perspective of the importance of negotiation and mediation that is not bounded to one or a few particular disciplines. She is either an author, co-author, co-editor, or contributor to numerous books, texts and articles in the field of dispute resolution, including: THE NEGOTIATOR’S FIELDBOOK with Christopher Honeyman; NEGOTIATION: PROCESSES FOR PROBLEM-SOLVING and MEDIATION: PRACTICE, POLICY & ETHICS, and DISPUTE RESOLUTION: BEYOND THE ADVERSARIAL MODEL with Carrie Menkel-Meadow, Lela Love & Jean Sternlight; and co-author of two books with Roger Fisher, BEYOND MACHIAVELLI: TOOLS FOR COPING WITH CONFLICT and COPING WITH INTERNATIONAL CONFLICT. And beyond practice theory, strategies and techniques, she also explored the frequently overlooked presence of negotiative process in every part of our society; her book, CREATING THE MUSEE D’ORSAY: THE POLITICS OF CULTURE IN FRANCE, explores the place of negotiation and politics in art and architecture, and her most recent book, SMART & SAVVY: NEGOTIATION STRATEGIES IN ACADEMIA, written with her father David Kupfer, a teacher and psychiatrist, as the title suggests, explores the necessity for negotiation in an arena that is not easily or openly admitting of the need for such skills. Andrea has also published numerous articles on negotiation, ethics, pedagogy, gender and international conflict and currently serves as the co-chair of the editorial board of the ABA DISPUTE RESOLUTION MAGAZINE. She is a founding editor of Indisputably, the blog for ADR law faculty and the 2017 recipient of the ABA Section of Dispute Resolution Award for Outstanding Scholarly Work, among other awards. All of this is capped off with her 2016 TEDx talk entitled Women Don’t Negotiate and Other Similar Nonsense.

                       

Andrea Schneider

Before Andrea Kupfer Schneider even knew or understood the words negotiation or mediation, she figured a way to outsource her chores to her younger brother by paying him a part of her allowance.  Not a new trick, but noteworthy that she hit upon the idea naturally. Such is the somewhat… MORE >