Ed Inch, dean of the School of Arts, knows the communication skills he teaches are important. He hopes that after his students graduate, his lessons will be an essential part of their professional toolkit.It is another matter entirely for students to take his lessons and, within two weeks, use them to help rebuild a country after generations of war and ethnic violence. Such was the case when he spent two weeks in March teaching mediation and conflict management techniques to citizens of war-torn Serbia, Macedonia and Kosovo. When dealing with people who have deep-seated hatred for one another, the goal is to get at the root issues that underlie the conflict. “All sides perceive that they are right – and they are right,” said Inch. “All sides perceive that they are victims. And they are that, too. The question is one of perception – what one thinks of the other. “My job is to have them tell me what they think the conflict is and what they think the options are to solve the conflict and stop violent outbreaks,” he said. The trick, said Inch, is to make sure that all sides understand that it is possible to be both right and victimized. Once they understand that, then they can begin to see the issues from a point of view from other than their own – the beginnings of finding commonalities among issues as opposed to differences. Inch went with Steinar Bryn, a Norwegian visiting professor who has worked for peace and democracy around the world. The two taught a course in conflict and communication at PLU in the spring leading up to the trip. Inch said the experience was an opportunity to use the mediation Bryn is director of the Democracy, Human Rights and Peaceful Conflict Resolution project at Nansenskolen (The Nansen Academy) in Lillehammer, Norway. The Nansen Academy helps people who live in war zones or conflict areas and others who are working for democracy, reconciliation and peace. Bryn established Nansen Dialogue Centers in Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia to create a place for opinion leaders – newspaper editors, teachers, lawyers – of different ethnic groups to discuss the many issues that drive conflict in the Balkans. Part of Inch’s trip focused on observing work that takes place at the centers. The Nansen centers provide trained mediators to facilitate discussion. The meetings are private, so participants can meet face-to-face with people they would otherwise avoid in public. “They know they have a hatred,” said Inch, “but often they don’t know why. Their stories are wrapped up in their histories, experiences, myths and perceptions. Often the causes of the conflict are forgotten. All they know is that their community or family hated these people, so they do too.” The region has been a hotbed of conflict for centuries, including as recently as 1999, when NATO troops were summoned to quell the violence. Divisions still run deep. Inch described a street in Vranje, Serbia, where Albanians live on one side and Serbs on the other; both groups consider it unsafe to cross to the other side. Inch met with the School for Young Politicians on the shores of Lake Ohrid, Macedonia. The school offers an intensive 30-day seminar for students who will be the political leaders of their parties. They come from different ethnic and political backgrounds and outside the walls of the classroom, these same students would never communicate with each other. By training these aspiring leaders to seek commonalities and understanding, Inch believes he and others will begin to sow the seeds of tolerance. “If I can get them all to agree on the facts of a situation, then there is a chance they can agree on a solution,” he said. Such solutions won’t come easily. Inch had planned to accompany repatriation teams attempting to reintegrate Kosovo Serbs into their homes in Albanian-dominated Kosovo, but the project was cancelled when violence broke out in Kosovo between the Serbs and Albanians and the borders into Kosovo were closed. When his trip ended prematurely, he could have considered his mission a failure. However, Inch notes that the violence did not spill into other territories and he heard stories of residents who sought to contact their ethnic counterparts to talk things through, to look for peaceful solutions. These are signs of budding success. And the leaders of tomorrow – like those at the School for Young Politicians – will be even more equipped to address these conflicts. “To avoid violent outbreaks, they need to learn strategies for building a shared understanding and tolerance,” he said. Accolades
Matt Smith, assistant professor of biology, received a $35,000 grant from the Murdock College Research Program for Life Sciences. The grant will fund Smith and two students for two summers of research on “The Role of Tachykinins in Modulating Luteinizing Hormone Secretion in the Female Rat.”
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