Lori Merrill's Sabbatical
Today is the last Friday of Summer Break. Faculty Workshop 2010 starts on Monday, and my students return to school in a week. I remember last year how strange I felt knowing I would not be going back in the fall. The "Back to School" ritual is something I had done since the age of five when I entered kindergarten; so last year's freedom was unsettling, just as this year's return to "Normal" has me a bit unbalanced. I'm both excited, and apprehensive. My year has been a dream come true, but I fear I lack a sense of completion.
As you know, the topic of my sabbatical was conflict resolution. I studied this concept on a personal level when I participated in the Religion and Society Interfaith Dialogue Project in Chicago last summer. I met wonderful people, of many faiths, from all around the world, and I learned so much through these interactions.
Last Fall, I attended a class at Harvard entitled Global Education, Human Rights and the Middle East Region, followed by the annual MESA (Middle East Studies Association) Conference in Boston. While there I attended numerous workshops on the current issues facing the region as a whole, and Lebanon in particular. This was an academic pursuit, and I found it very valuable, but I missed the personal interaction of the previous summer, and I was anxious to engage in more direct learning experiences.
In January, I returned to Boston for a weekend workshop at Axis of Hope on the campus of Boston University. This experience was wonderful, and I will definitely be using some of the simulation activities in my classes. I then went on to Washington DC to take the class, Economics and Conflict, at the United States Institute of Peace. This intense study was taught by experts in the field, each possessing on-the-ground experience from all over the world. My fellow students were from the military, various NGO's, and the federal government. They taught me as much as the instructors, and I will always value the lessons I learned through this experience.
My sabbatical veered off the path I initially proposed when I encountered Padraig O'Malley while I was in DC. Professor O'Malley is the John Joseph Moakley Distinguished Professor for Peace and Reconciliation at the McCormack Graduate School of Policy Studies at the University of Massachusetts in Boston. He has spent most of his adult life promoting conflict resolution around the globe. Starting in his native Ireland, he was instrumental in helping to pave the way for the eventual 1998 Good Friday Agreement that is still in place today. Since then, he has engaged in the peace process in South Africa, and throughout of the Middle East. My interview with Professor O'Malley led me to the most wonderful opportunity when he invited me to be part of his team at the Inaugural Peace Forum for Cities in Transition, which was held this May in Mitrovica, Kosovo. The cities represented at the forum included Beirut, Belfast, Derry/Londonderry. Kirkuk, Kaduna, Nicosia, Haifa, Jerusalem, Mitrovica, and Mostar. All met to discuss their common problems associated with having divided populations in a conflict/post-conflict region. While I originally intended to visit Beirut, I decided that this was an opportunity I could not pass up. Working with Professor O’Malley, meeting the people in post-conflict Mitrovica, and participating in helping to make the Cities in Transition Forum a success was more than I could ever have imagined when I first wrote my sabbatical proposal in January, 2009.
I did get to Ireland and England as planned, but Beirut will have to wait for another day; perhaps when Cities in Transition locates its annual conference in Lebanon. Next year it will be held in Derry/Londonderry and I have a standing invitation to be part of the team. My hope is that I will someday be able to take a group of Breck students with me to experience this event.
If asked specifically, “What did I Learn?” I would probably give you different answers with each passing day. I am still processing everything I read, heard and saw. I did come to understand that there is a huge difference between “peace” and “conflict resolution.” Peace is the absence of war, which is definitely a good thing. However, once a peace settlement is in place there remains a huge mountain to climb before true conflict resolution can occur. In every city represented at the forum, all had serious issues that need to be addressed before their conflicts can be resolved. All have crumbling infrastructures with limited electricity, water supply, and transportation. All are struggling to police their populations. All have residual ethno-religious tensions that threaten the existing peace. All have to deal with the serious problem of how to provide health care for populations filled with individuals experiencing PTSD. And, perhaps most importantly, all must address how to fairly and equitably educate the next generation. Some of the cities are closer to having these issues resolved than others, and some are clearly more vulnerable to the return of war than others. But all participants clearly understood how much they had in common.
After a year focusing on the issue of conflict resolution I find myself no less hopeful for the future, however, I am far less certain about how we get there. My optimism now rests on the individuals I met who commit themselves day after day to the process of making the world just a bit better today than it was yesterday. Baby steps toward a more peaceful world… While in Mitrovica I often thought, “This is impossible” and then someone came along to show me the possibilities. It will take far longer to explain this last thought than in the space provided in this blog. I do look forward to having many conversations in the coming months, with my students and the Breck Community, where I can share what I learned over the course of the past year.
So goodbye Sabbatical… And thank you so much Breck for providing me with this amazing opportunity.
One last link for you all to ponder:
Cartoons of Conflict From Cities in Transition
As you know, the topic of my sabbatical was conflict resolution. I studied this concept on a personal level when I participated in the Religion and Society Interfaith Dialogue Project in Chicago last summer. I met wonderful people, of many faiths, from all around the world, and I learned so much through these interactions.
Last Fall, I attended a class at Harvard entitled Global Education, Human Rights and the Middle East Region, followed by the annual MESA (Middle East Studies Association) Conference in Boston. While there I attended numerous workshops on the current issues facing the region as a whole, and Lebanon in particular. This was an academic pursuit, and I found it very valuable, but I missed the personal interaction of the previous summer, and I was anxious to engage in more direct learning experiences.
In January, I returned to Boston for a weekend workshop at Axis of Hope on the campus of Boston University. This experience was wonderful, and I will definitely be using some of the simulation activities in my classes. I then went on to Washington DC to take the class, Economics and Conflict, at the United States Institute of Peace. This intense study was taught by experts in the field, each possessing on-the-ground experience from all over the world. My fellow students were from the military, various NGO's, and the federal government. They taught me as much as the instructors, and I will always value the lessons I learned through this experience.
My sabbatical veered off the path I initially proposed when I encountered Padraig O'Malley while I was in DC. Professor O'Malley is the John Joseph Moakley Distinguished Professor for Peace and Reconciliation at the McCormack Graduate School of Policy Studies at the University of Massachusetts in Boston. He has spent most of his adult life promoting conflict resolution around the globe. Starting in his native Ireland, he was instrumental in helping to pave the way for the eventual 1998 Good Friday Agreement that is still in place today. Since then, he has engaged in the peace process in South Africa, and throughout of the Middle East. My interview with Professor O'Malley led me to the most wonderful opportunity when he invited me to be part of his team at the Inaugural Peace Forum for Cities in Transition, which was held this May in Mitrovica, Kosovo. The cities represented at the forum included Beirut, Belfast, Derry/Londonderry. Kirkuk, Kaduna, Nicosia, Haifa, Jerusalem, Mitrovica, and Mostar. All met to discuss their common problems associated with having divided populations in a conflict/post-conflict region. While I originally intended to visit Beirut, I decided that this was an opportunity I could not pass up. Working with Professor O’Malley, meeting the people in post-conflict Mitrovica, and participating in helping to make the Cities in Transition Forum a success was more than I could ever have imagined when I first wrote my sabbatical proposal in January, 2009.
I did get to Ireland and England as planned, but Beirut will have to wait for another day; perhaps when Cities in Transition locates its annual conference in Lebanon. Next year it will be held in Derry/Londonderry and I have a standing invitation to be part of the team. My hope is that I will someday be able to take a group of Breck students with me to experience this event.
If asked specifically, “What did I Learn?” I would probably give you different answers with each passing day. I am still processing everything I read, heard and saw. I did come to understand that there is a huge difference between “peace” and “conflict resolution.” Peace is the absence of war, which is definitely a good thing. However, once a peace settlement is in place there remains a huge mountain to climb before true conflict resolution can occur. In every city represented at the forum, all had serious issues that need to be addressed before their conflicts can be resolved. All have crumbling infrastructures with limited electricity, water supply, and transportation. All are struggling to police their populations. All have residual ethno-religious tensions that threaten the existing peace. All have to deal with the serious problem of how to provide health care for populations filled with individuals experiencing PTSD. And, perhaps most importantly, all must address how to fairly and equitably educate the next generation. Some of the cities are closer to having these issues resolved than others, and some are clearly more vulnerable to the return of war than others. But all participants clearly understood how much they had in common.
After a year focusing on the issue of conflict resolution I find myself no less hopeful for the future, however, I am far less certain about how we get there. My optimism now rests on the individuals I met who commit themselves day after day to the process of making the world just a bit better today than it was yesterday. Baby steps toward a more peaceful world… While in Mitrovica I often thought, “This is impossible” and then someone came along to show me the possibilities. It will take far longer to explain this last thought than in the space provided in this blog. I do look forward to having many conversations in the coming months, with my students and the Breck Community, where I can share what I learned over the course of the past year.
So goodbye Sabbatical… And thank you so much Breck for providing me with this amazing opportunity.
One last link for you all to ponder:
Cartoons of Conflict From Cities in Transition
Comments
Brad Kohl
Aug 28, 2010
Congratulations Lori!
I've always said that you don't go out into the world to change the world, you go out into the world for the world to change you. You may well have succeeded in both.
-Brad