As part of the Societas Ethica Conference, on behalf of the UNIGeRC Center, professor Zilka Spahić Šiljak PhD held a workshop with doctoral students from Western European countries dealing with issues of ethics and reconciliation. The gender dimension is crucial to feminist approaches to justice and reconciliation because without this dimension it is not possible to see how both conflict and peace building affect women and minorities who carry the biggest burden as collateral damage.

The workshops were attended by doctoral students from several Western European countries, including Germany, Switzerland, Hungary and Sweden. The workshop was also attended by the professor of education Taro Komatsu PhD from Sofia University in Japan. Workshop participants read three texts from the book “Healing and Peace building After War. Transforming Trauma in Bosnia and Herzegovina” which elaborate on the issue of the female body, agency, vulnerability, but also resilience. The personal experience of trauma and pain is crucial for survivors, but also the freedom not only to have their voice heard, but also to be in a position to change dominant narratives and create new ones about how to talk about the experience of gender-based violence in war. Through a joint discussion, the participants of the workshop analyzed questions such as what it means to be a victim, how to deal with the denial of crimes, and what roles religion can play in a post-conflict society.

Professor Spahić Šiljak pointed out that narrative strategies are important in the transformation of trauma, reterritorialization, as an active process of creating a space of normality and subjectivity in the midst of displacement or hostility, and liberatory epistemology, which calls into question existing knowledge and ways of knowing, and offers space for creating language that will spring from the experience of victims and survivors.