By way of introduction, I have worked closely with communities in Bosnia-Herzegovina (BiH) on post-war recovery, reconciliation and peacebuilding since the year 2000. Initially, this work stemmed from my graduate studies in conflict resolution, and the invitation that I accepted to head a team of graduate students that would implement a pilot project of Education for Peace in BiH schools, in collaboration with BiH educators. More information on that project and its evolution over the past 12 years can be found at www.efpinternational.org. After 18 months in the field, I lead the development of curricular resources, based on the pilot experience, which would subsequently be used by schools across the country as the Education for Peace embarked on several expansion phases. The result is a co-authored series of volumes with the programme's director and senior expert, Dr. H.B. Danesh (www.hbdanesh.org). The curricular work distanced me somewhat from the daily lives of ordinary Bosnian communities as I delved into the theoretical landscape of peace education. Though I continued to return to BiH periodically for curriculum development meetings with local educators and teacher-training events. After several years away from the schools there, I recently completed a qualitative research project towards an MPhil at the University of Cambridge examining the experiences of BiH educators engaged in education for peace and reconciliation, as they navigate between theoretical constructions of these concepts, the contempory social-political environment of BiH, their personal histories of "ethnic violence", and their personal and professional identities.
All this has moved me back into relationship with the human dimensions of mass violence -- a place where I have many questions about the dynamics of group violence, the prospects of personal and social rehabilitation following atrocities, the possibilities and limits of education as a vehicle for peacebuilding and reconciliation, and the interaction between social-psychological and social-political aspects of peacebuilding. My on-going concern for the challenges in Bosnia-Herzegovina is acute, though I am also increasingly exploring the experiences of other post-conflict and post-genocidal societies, such as Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Sri Lanka, Cyprus, Liberia, etc., and the possible lessons from the reconciliation models they are employing for both BiH and newer sites for reconciliation work, such as Azerbaijan, Pakistan and Iraq.
As I process what I am finding, I invite dialogue with others who are interested and/or working with related issues, theories and programmes.