Our founder and president, Velma Šarić, took part in the annual conference “Intergroup Norms after Violent Conflict: Insights from Research and Practice” organized by Global Scholars Network on Identity and Conflict (GSNIC), and held at the Faculty of Political Science, University of Sarajevo.
As active members of GSNIC, our founder and president Velma, Program Development Coordinator Marko Kljajić (Harvard University), and Evaluation Expert Sabina Čehajić-Clancy (Stockholm University) took part in the conference. They discussed how academia and civil society can influence elites to take on a more constructive role in society, and which types of interventions have proven most successful in transforming intergroup norms after violent conflicts.
During the conference, participants also discussed ways to improve intergroup norms through practical interventions, the role of elites in shaping social relations, the importance of “bottom-up” approach and the mobilization of civil society, as well as the influence of national and international institutions on building trust and tolerance.
The conference brought together leading experts and practitioners from several countries and was organized within the framework of the (GSNIC), jointly led by Melani Cammett from Harvard University (Weatherhead Center for International Affairs), Richard English from Queen’s University Belfast (Senator George J. Mitchell Institute for Global Peace, Security and Justice), and Damir Kapidžić from the Faculty of Political Science, University of Sarajevo.