Practical Peacebuilding in Rwanda

We take participants to Rwanda where you learn from experts in the field the peacebuilding skills that help heal deeply divided societies. This programme is taught online for the first two days, and in person in Kigali, Rwanda for the following nine days.

The course provides exciting opportunities for both students and practitioners to conduct:

• hands-on qualitative research in the field of peacebuilding
• experience methodologies in the peacebuilding
• peacemaking and peacekeeping fields.

It is a space for participants to compare and contrast theory and practice within the specific post-conflict context of Rwanda. Participants will meet with Rwandan grassroots (youth) peacebuilders, the UN, NGOs and peace activists.

This course uses the pedagogies of Experiential learning and Threshold learning.

Course design

The course will begin with an intake meeting with instructors to determine the area of interest and consider potential projects. Then there are two sections:

• Section One: 2 days Wednesday 2 and Thursday 3 July 2025: historical and cultural contexts of Rwanda, including lectures, presentations and readings—all conducted online. Readings will be made available before the course commences;
• Section Two: 9-day field trip to Kigali, Rwanda, meeting with peacebuilders in Rwanda (4-13 July 2025);

Section One comprises two days of four-hour (with breaks) online lectures, discussing readings, presentations and project preparation. Participants will learn about the historical and political background of Rwanda. This includes the impact of colonisation and theories regarding post-conflict areas in general. Peacebuilding, peacemaking and peacekeeping will be contextualised. These classes will be conducted online, so that participants can fly directly from their locations to Kigali.

During Section Two, the nine-day trip to Rwanda, participants will meet with personnel from various UN organisations and NGOs, discuss post-genocide peacebuilding, local cultures of human rights, youth participation, colonisation and other issues. This field training aims to provide deeper insights into the practical tasks, difficulties and expectations with which human rights officers in the field are faced, and to gain a better understanding of various perspectives in a post-colonial, post-conflict country.

Learning objectives:

By the end of this course, the participants will have:

• Gained necessary experience toward becoming high-level professionals in the field of human rights. This helps qualify them and give them a vision toward working as academics, staff members or field workers for inter-governmental, governmental, and non-governmental organisations;
• Learned and practiced qualitative research fieldwork skills such as interview techniques, identifying themes and active listening;
• Increased their ability to critically examine academic debates through a solid understanding of theories, concepts and methods within a specific post-conflict context;
• Translated theories into practice through their assessment, interacting with key peacebuilders;
• Built the basis on which they can conduct independent research at an advanced level at a later date, and evaluate and critically use materials;
• Opened a possibility to engage in meaningful academic and policy debates;
• Created a chance to network and to contribute to the culture of peace and human rights.

For whom?

This Summer School is open to students with a bachelor’s degree or more and professionals who desire a deeper understanding of peacebuilding and who want to learn practical skills such as active listening, transformative dialogue technique and conflict resolution behaviour, from the practitioners themselves.