28th May 2008

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Laura Fowler, Lee Lavis, Gaudence Nyirabikali, Professor Liam Kelly, Clare Magill, Lucy Ladira and Sahla Aroussi

Six postgraduate students from the University of Ulster have been selected to take part in the prestigious Trent Lott Leadership Initiative.  

The programme is a partnership between Ulster, the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, South Africa, the Lott Leadership Institute and the Department of Outreach, University of Mississippi.

The team of students, led by Professor Liam Kelly from the School of Art and Design, will visit South Africa and the USA in July 2008 as part of an international group of outstanding students examining the problems and experiences of reconciliation in societies historically divided by prejudice and conflict. 

The advanced student exchange will focus on the problem of reconciliation in societies that have experienced deep and destructive religious political divisions.

The purpose of the programme is to provide for a select number of postgraduate students  the opportunity to examine the reconciliation process across three societies, once a peaceful regime has been achieved for overcoming burdens of the past.  

The programme will be organised around five major themes, with each theme being developed in a comparative perspective:

 

• the politics of memory and the road to reconciliation
• public religion and the problem of reconciliation
• economic growth, prosperity and the challenges of reconciliation: what policies work
• race and gender and competing leadership models for the reconciliation process
• societal trauma and the problem of reconciliation: issues related to post-traumatic stress.

Laura Fowler hails from Memphis where she graduated with a first degree in political science. She had served as a legislative intern at the Tennessee General Assembly in Nashville before embarking on the MA Peace and Conflict Studies programee at the Magee campus last year.

Gaudence Nyirabikali is studying for a PhD in Social Sciences at Coleraine, having already completed a political science degree in Linköping University, Sweden. Gaudence was born in Rwanda and has also lived and worked in Zambia.  She is based at the School of Education and is conducting research into the role of peace education in conflict transformation.

The Masters degree in International Human Rights Law was a natural progression for Lucy Ladira when she completed her law degree and diploma in legal practice in Kampala, Uganda.  She has already worked for the State Attorney in different regional stations and as Chairperson of the Mpigi District valuation court in Uganda.

Sahla Aroussi from Tunisia has successfully completed her Masters in Human Rights and Transitional Justice and is undertaking doctoral studies in politics at the Jordanstown campus. She has worked as an intern at the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission, and has undertaken previous study in Tunis and Malta.

Clare Magill was born Belfast, educated in Dublin and did her first degree in Scotland at the University of St Andrews. She also studied Spanish in Barcelona before deciding to study for a Master's degree. in Coleraine. Clare is currently based at the University's UNESCO Centre where she is a research assistant specialising in peace and conflict issues in divided societies.

Lee Lavis was born in Staffordshire and worked in public services before returning to education as a mature student. He started with a foundation studies certificate in Bangor and then moved to the Coleraine campus where he completed a degree in American Studies, gaining the Dean’s award for academic excellence and other prizes for his dissertation and finals examinations.  

Professor Kelly was chosen to head up the team as his research has explored the visual arts engagement with issues related to identity, conflict, trauma and reconciliation. In 1997 he organised the International Association of Art Critics Congress in Belfast and Derry on the theme of Art and Centres of Conflict – Outer and Inner Realities.  

In 2005 he co-curated an exhibition entitled Prepossession that was shown in Sydney and Belfast. The exhibition and related colloquium brought together artists and writers from South Africa, the Caribbean, Australia and Ireland whose works intersect with key debates on the representation of trauma and the effects of political violence, racism and colonisation.

Professor Kelly said: “I think this is a unique exchange opportunity for our postgraduate students to visit two very different cultural, social and political locations. Importantly, it is based on the principles of cross cultural interchange, learning on the ground, and first hand experience.”

For further information, please contact:

Press Office, Department of Communication and Development
Tel: 028 9036 6178
Email: pressoffice@ulster.ac.uk