2020 - International Summer Course

Additional essays are available on the BHS site.

Author: Khushboo Chauhan (Bengaluru, Karnataka, India)

This essay aims to understand the role of the concepts of populism and nationalism by shedding light on how these two have emerged resulting in conflict in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Nationalism as a discourse is focused around the notion of “the nation” whereas populism is structured around antagonism against “the elite”, who are considered as a small illegitimate powerful group and the populists who claim to represent “the people” (Cleen,2017). We are witnessing a global rise of populist nationalism around the globe, from America to Asia to Europe. Undoubtedly, it is a scary uprising as both waves of populism and nationalism have the potential to polarize both people and politics.

Author: Jason Sizya Sipulwa (Nairobi, Kenya)

 

“Some people ask: “Why the word feminist? Why not just say you are a believer in human rights or something like that?” Because that would be dishonest. Feminism is, of course, part of human rights in general—but to choose to use the vague expression of human rights is to deny the specific and particular problem of gender. It would be a way of pretending that it was not women who have, for centuries, been excluded. It would be a way of denying that the problem of gender targets women.”

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, We Should All Be Feminists1

What is feminism? Why is feminism imperative? The answers to these questions elicit controversies in the contemporary world.

Author: Ana Gvozdić (Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina)

None of us who started this course had a simplistic understanding of Bosnia and Herzegovina that I encounter far too often: the idea that we are a country with irreconcilable ethnic groups that have been fighting for longer than any of us can remember. Not only that the course immediately distinguished its approach from such superficial understandings, but it offered unique perspectives for interpreting the last 25 years in Bosnia and Herzegovina grounded in local-first, feminist, and workers’ acts of resistance to the dominant ethno-nationalist politics in the country. Having engaged with these different grassroots voices, I share the new concepts and ways of thinking that I acquired as part of the course and reflect on how they shaped my understanding of Bosnia and Herzegovina as its citizen, but also as a student of Peace and Conflict Studies with an emphasis on the Southeast European region and as future practitioner.

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Essays