Honors Theses and Capstones

Date of Award

Spring 2015

Project Type

Senior Honors Thesis

College or School

COLA

Department

Political Science

Program or Major

Political Science and International Affairs

Degree Name

Bachelor of Arts

First Advisor

Mary Malone

Abstract

During the summer of 2014, I lived in Sanski Most, Bosnia-Herzegovina, with funding from an International Research and Opportunities Program (IROP) grant from the Hamel Center for Undergraduate Research at the University of New Hampshire (UNH). Through a series of semi-structured interviews and participant observation, my research highlighted the roles of truth, memory, and justice in rebuilding a post-conflict society in Bosnia-Herzegovina―essentially, on peacebuilding since the war ended in 1995. The Bosnian War stands as the worst genocide since the Holocaust, with 350,000 casualties and over 100,000 dead―80% of whom were Muslim Bosniaks, targets of an ethnic cleansing campaign by neighboring Serbia. Of the interviews I conducted, the majority of respondents believe that truth is the most important part of rebuilding Bosnia-Herzegovina, which includes reconciliation and coming up with one common history of what happened during the war. I worked with my UNH mentor, Dr. Mary Malone (political science), and my foreign mentor, Vahidin Omanović (co-director of the Center for Peacebuilding in Sanski Most), to develop interview questions and use my research as the basis for my undergraduate honors thesis. I hope my work on peacebuilding in Bosnia-Herzegovina will be a useful addition to the field of studies in an area of the world that is often overlooked by Western media.

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