By Ariana Falco
Following up this long week, I would like to add some lighter notes to my blogs. Two presentations this week that really grabbed my attention and took them in a different direction was, “Spaces of Domination and Reconciliation” by Guntram Herb and “Can there be peace without development?” by Jerome Sigamani. Each of these presentations offered a different way of looking at peacebuilding that was not yet discussed.
The presentation from Herb was a unique way of looking at peace-building, but one that is often overlooked. He focused on the use of geography and anthropology through spaces. There are different ways of looking at space, place, and scale. Each of these are necessary pieces when it comes to peace-building. Addressing the issues of what physically and theoretically divide people are both needed equally to look at conflict. These are often overlooked when it comes to addressing conflict and building peace. Where people sit within a mediation or resolution meeting as well as what structures divide these people/groups need to be discussed. This topic brought in a new conversation that I will keep in mind moving forward within this field. I wish we could have dived deeper into these topics but I understand the importance of explaining the basics so everyone is on the same page before beginning, This presentation really made me think and the group work stimulated it even more. The second presentation by S Jerome was over the idea of an individual’s brand and how it can be curated through each person work. This work of conflict resolution comes from a passion and can not be looked at as a project. This leads to creating an individual’s brand which leads to being an instrument of peace. A main topic that was discussed during the lecture was the idea of emotional intelligence. I have personally never heard the term E.Q. but it was an engaging concept. I believe a lot of times people think of peace-building as putting other people first 24/7, which is not always in fact true. In order to properly work on others, we need to be able to understand ourselves and our brand. The concept of empathy was again prevalent in conversation which keeps reminding me of how important it is. Overall this conversation was very compelling and reminded me that there must be identity known within us before we can help others. This lesson will help me carry out other projects in my future career with this field by reminding me that we can all lean on each other for support. For me this presentation and its activities were the most peaceful of all so far and felt like it really brought the group together. From a simple task of holding each other up, to looking at a case study, this presentation did not disappoint.
