The scars of trauma from the violence of three wars in the last century are deep and overlapping in the Balkan region. Multiple memories are not simple stories of suffering, but play into socio-political agendas through competing victimization narratives. From a historical perspective, the experiences of pain and great loss on all sides in these armed conflicts and repressive regimes means that whole communities carry the all-encompassing impact of trauma in their very atomies and psyches, which call out for recognition and healing. This reality, mixed with the instrumentalization of suffering into victimhood, creates a social dynamic lacking the safety and trust conditional for collective healing. Instead, it may lead to future conflict, through the perpetuation of vicious cycles of violence. In order to open a process of recovery, a social environment is needed that positively confirms the authenticity of individual trauma/s as well as the credibility of traumatic group narratives. TPO Foundation and her distinguished partners take up this theme in the Second international conference on the theme of trauma, memory and healing, 12-14 July 2016, held at the Catholic School Center in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina. This interdisciplinary conference, a joint effort of scholars and practitioners/activists from Bosnia and Herzegovina and abroad, seeks to build a network of activists and scholars who share best practices for psycho-social trauma recovery and the healing of memories. From this, it aims further to create an archive of knowledge for trauma healing work in the Balkans as a basis for strategic recommendations to organizations and governmental agencies. As a result, the conference hopes to provide:
• Interdisciplinary learning that goes beyond regional group divisions through examining the existing truths constructed by previous generations and to broaden these into new possibilities for collective healing.
• Raised awareness of this ubiquitous facet of post-war life: the on-going, trauma-related circumstances, from local to global historic, economic, political and cultural realities.

• Opening a process of psychosocial healing and re-energizing dignity as part of the healing process. Such healing requires public deliberation, conscious decision-making plus political will on all levels of society (government, local communities and individuals), as well as critically rethinking the roots of social trauma and sharing the experiences of these phenomena and expertise about their mechanisms.
• Facilitating the development of just and non-harmful cultural memories, social solidarity and collaboration across the Balkan region. Non-Balkan scholars and practitioners will assist this process through comparative, external perspectives.

Scientific Board & Partners
• Zilka Spahić Šiljak, Stanford University and TPO Foundation (organizer)
• Julianne Funk, University of Zurich and TPO Foundation (organizer)
• Barry Hart & Katie Mansfield, Center for Justice and Peacebuilding, Eastern Mennonite University
• Al B. Fuertes, New Century College / School for Conflict Analysis & Resolution, George Mason University
• Alisa Mahmutović, University of Zenica
• Richard Mollica, Harvard Program in Refugee Trauma
• Shelly Rambo, Boston University
• Srdjan Sremac, Center for the Study of Lived Religion, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
• Vesna Teršelić, Documenta, Center for Dealing with the Past

Useful Links:
Conference description
Conference brochure
Registration form
More info on conference venue
Airport-Catholic Sch. C. route