Sussex postgraduate Sabina Cehajic hopes to use her degree studies to help heal the wounds of war in her home country.
Sabina, who received a Master of Science (MSc) degree in Applied Social Psychology, interviewed Serb and Bosniak (Bosnian Muslim) students in Bosnia and Herzegovina to assess emotional responses such as shame, guilt and hatred to the violence and horrors of the country's inter-ethnic war from 1992-95.
Sabina says: "I was intrigued by how young people deal with the recently experienced violence and with the fact that members of their own group have harmed others."
Like most Bosnians, Sabina had direct and life-changing experience of the war. She and her family fled their Sarajevo home in 1992 when the city was occupied and she spent most of her teenage years as a refugee in Germany.
Many of the emotional scars of fear, mutual hatred and lack of trust between the communities have yet to heal. Sabina says: "The war issues, especially the question of atrocities, are still very fresh and people are avoiding discussion about them. Conflict resolution is only the first step towards reconciliation."
Sabina's studies have led to her acting as a consultant for the United Nations Development Programme, working on a project dealing with war victims in Bosnia. She was also asked to be involved with the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in Bosnia, which will try to help the different communities to find a way to live together in peace again. This led to her attending the first conference on reconciliation in August 2005, in Sarajevo.
Sabina came to Sussex on a Chevening Scholarship (awarded by the British Council and the Foreign Office) to work with social psychologist Professor Rupert Brown, whose research areas include prejudice and inter-group relations.
She is now looking forward to doctoral research, again under Rupert's supervision. Sabina will divide her time between campus and Bosnia, where she will continue to raise awareness of dealing with the past.