BU Research Blog

Stephanie Schwandner-Sievers, Melanie Klinkner, Wendy Cutts and Elina Kuusio delivered a fantastic Festival of Learning event yesterday.  The event focused on how to reconcile social communities, for which the team had carried out research in the Balkans and many other places where conflict has arisen in communities.

We looked into the pre-conditions of reconciliation, such as willingness/desire, forgiveness, benefit/interest, understanding, apology/sincerity and recognition, truth, and how time, peace and safety are crucial to the process beginning.  A trusted mediator is essential for such an arena, as is eating and drinking together.

The audience role played two warring Italian families (no, not the Montague’s and Capulet’s) with some being mediators of the process.  It was a fun afternoon as we really got into character and it was fascinating to see how we found common ground and interest and eventually, a way forward.

You can find similar events taking place at the FoL with ‘Anthropology in the World’ taking place each day at 11am, and Wendy Cutts will be delivering ‘Seen but seldom Heard: Challenging Perceptions of Disability within Secondary Schools through E-learning’ on Thursday at 10.30am.