April 28, 2020

I am writing to you to let you know that I have recently started Peace Education Hub Sarajevo, at my University, which is the Center I have been trying to start for many years now, and with the international research project Peace building pedagogies in higher education: Peace Hubs, that involved Rwanda, UK, Colombia and Bosnia, the moment was right and the time was ripe for such a project. My idea is to integrate teacher training, research, and resource materials development in the field of peace pedagogy, citizenship and human rights education, that will be based on integrative and interdisciplinary approaches of different fields in our University and primarily geared towards teacher education, professional development of teachers, and research with schools and community in peace building.

Since my MLK nonviolence training Level I at the Summer Institute 2011 has made a great influence in my professional and personal life. Since a lot of the ideas that I learned back at the time when I first attended your summer program have been influencing my curriculum that resulted in some modules in my courses and teaching, I thought that we should explore the possibility of collaborating and perhaps FINALLY making our collaborative project possible. Remember when I told you that I would really like to bring you to Bosnia and make MLK training in Sarajevo, so I believe that we can now start brainstorming some ideas for this project. 

Are there possibilities for us to collaborate and formalize our collaborative projects through the Peace Hub Sarajevo now? Do you have any ideas on how this could be done on your side? I would also like to come back to the US at some point in time and attend the Level II, and hopefully one day Level III, and in the meantime, also make it possible for my other colleagues to attend the seminar either in Bosnia or at RI. My idea is also to have you on our advisory board, if you would agree, since we have just started as a Center, and it would be a privilege and honor to collaborate with you and your team. 

This is only a first idea so that we can continue discussing our collaboration and making some of our dreams finally come to life ? 

Peace and best wishes from Sarajevo, and hope you are well and in good spirit!

Larisa