This 8-day academic field program examines how Bosnia and Herzegovina continues to navigate the legacies of genocide, mass violence, and political fragmentation. Through meetings with leading scholars, journalists, survivors, civil-society leaders, and policymakers, students analyze how memory, governance, and identity interact in a post-conflict society shaped by the Dayton Agreement and its enduring constraints.

The program also engages with gendered dimensions of conflict and recovery, situating Bosnia as a critical case for understanding Women, Peace, and Security. During the Bosnian war, systematic sexual violence was used as a tool of war, and Bosnia became the first context in which mass rape was prosecuted as a war crime by an international tribunal. Engagements with women-led organizations and survivor advocates explore how sexual violence has shaped post-war justice efforts, and how gender issues are entwined in ongoing struggles for accountability, inclusion, and human security.

The program uses Bosnia as a high-resolution case study for understanding how societies remember atrocity, rebuild trust, and negotiate pluralism after war. These perspectives are examined alongside broader questions of reconciliation, political reform, and democratic development. Sarajevo forms the central base of study, complemented by fieldwork in Srebrenica, the Drina River corridor of Republika Srpska (Zvornik), and Mostar. Academic sessions, site visits, and structured reflection tie each location to core questions in transitional justice, conflict resolution, democratic development, and gendered approaches to peace and security.

Learning Objectives

• Analyze how political institutions, collective memory, and ethnic identity shape Bosnia’s post-war trajectory.

• Evaluate the role of survivor testimony, memorialization, and civil society in transitional justice.

• Assess Dayton’s institutional design and its effects on governance, interethnic cooperation, and democratic consolidation.

• Compare reconciliation frameworks across Sarajevo, Srebrenica, Republika Srpska (Zvornik), and Mostar.

• Examine how the waging of war and the pursuit of peace are gendered processes, including the role of sexual violence, accountability, and women’s participation in post-conflict recovery.

Program Structure

1. Sarajevo: Foundational study of war, siege, and the governance structures that emerged after Dayton.

2. Srebrenica: Deep engagement with genocide memory, survivor testimony, and justice.

3. Republika Srpska (Zvornik): Examination of borderland governance, identity formation, and local political narratives within the RS entity.

4. Mostar & Blagaj: Case study in divided cities, reconstruction, and the role of cultural and spiritual heritage in post-war recovery.

5. Sarajevo: Final synthesis through final sessions and academic reflection.

Program Themes

• Justice and Memory

  • Memory is political. Acknowledgment enables reconciliation; denial entrenches division.

• Trauma and Social Recovery

  • Healing requires space, testimony, and trust. Trauma is intergenerational and social, not only individual.

• Gender, Peace, and Security

  • Gender shapes how violence is experienced, remembered, and addressed. Bosnia illustrates the central role of women in justice-seeking, trauma recovery, and post-war peacebuilding, as well as the long-term consequences of sexual violence used as a tool of war.

• Governance and Identity

  • Bosnia’s post-war structures shape political behavior, representation, and everyday interethnic interaction at both national and local levels.

• Divided Cities and Reconstruction

  • Urban space becomes both a symbol and instrument of post-war coexistence.

• Regional Interconnection

  • Bosnia’s trajectory influences, and is influenced by, its neighbors. Conflict and peace unfold across regional systems.

What Students Gain
Students leave with a grounded understanding of how societies confront atrocity, rebuild institutions, and negotiate pluralism after war. The program cultivates analytical rigor, cultural literacy, and field-based research skills essential for careers in conflict resolution, international affairs, public policy, human rights, and global development.