Why this Summer School?

The 4^th international summer school “Learning from the past – Bosnia and Herzegovina 1995 – 2017: Lessons Not Learned?” aims to make a contribution to the process of dealing with the past, reconciliation and transitional justice approaches in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) and the region. The School will look into what lessons have (not) been learned and why history seems to be repeating itself. By examining the ways how and what we as students and researchers can learn from the recent past in order to confront the challenges in the present, the International University of Sarajevo (IUS) promotes the idea of education as an essential tool for reconciliation and an agent of positive societal change in a post-war country like Bosnia and Herzegovina. Furthermore, the school emphasizes the importance of experiential and reflexive learning, intercultural learning and action learning as practical pedagogical tools in such a post-conflict context. Subsequently, the main field trip to Eastern Bosnia and a three-day-stay with a local family in the village of Klotjevac aims to provide the participants with the opportunity to experience learning beyond the classroom, in a community setting, and obtain more intensive hands-on practice with methods discussed during the class sessions.

This international summer school is the fourth summer school organized by IUS and builds upon a long experience of immersive learning by summer school coordinators and lecturers. Previous three summer schools were highly commended for their scope, interdisciplinary approach and innovative pedagogy involving experiential, intercultural and action learning. Like with those summer schools, our distinguished lecturers, renowned in their fields globally, will facilitate students’ active learning by involving them in the learning process at all stages, including interactive learning activities, class discussions, site visits and action learning in a local community context.