On Saturday, July 5, focus groups were held at the Faculty of Law, University of Sarajevo, with law students participating as part of the “Building Peace Across Generations” study. This initiative is part of the “Peacebuilding Initiative” led by the Jackson School of Global Affairs at Yale University.
The Faculty of Law hosted Professor Dr. David Simon, Associate Dean for Graduate Education, Senior Lecturer in Global Affairs, and Director of the Genocide Studies Program at Yale, along with Dr. Emir Nurkić Kačapor, Chief Operating Officer of the Institute for Development Impact (I4DI) in Washington, D.C., and co-founder of the Maryland-Bosnia and Herzegovina Exchange Council (MBHEC).
The focus groups explored how peace is understood, maintained, and negotiated in everyday life across generations and communities. The Sarajevo study is coordinated by Mak Nurkić Kačapor, a researcher from Yale’s Jackson School of Global Affairs, and is part of a broader project overseen by Professor Dr. Catherine Panter-Brick and Professor Dr. David Simon, co-directors of the Peacebuilding Initiative at Yale.
Professor Dr. Zinka Grbo, Dean of the Faculty of Law in Sarajevo, proposed strengthening and expanding cooperation between the Faculty and Yale University. It was agreed that starting next academic year, students at the Faculty of Law will have access to online lectures from Yale University over two semesters. In return, professors from the Sarajevo Law Faculty will give online guest lectures at Yale, sharing their expertise in transitional justice, constitutional law, human rights, and other topics of mutual interest.
The Maryland-Bosnia and Herzegovina Exchange Council (MBHEC) plans to use this project as a model to propose similar initiatives to higher education institutions in Maryland, encouraging them to collaborate with other faculties at the University of Sarajevo, as well as universities in Banja Luka and Mostar.
