Fantastic Meeting!

Yesterday I met in Sarajevo with Senada Kreso, who is a very well-connected and important person in Bosnia-Hercegovina. She was able to tell me many people and organizations that might be interested in collaborating on a project together. When I said I wanted to work with women who survived the war, she said, "the first thing that comes to my mind are the rapes." Anyone who has been along for the "wild and disturbing ride" of my scholarly and clinical interests will know that this is EXACTLY what I wanted to focus on, but there is such a veil of secrecy, protection, and shame around sexual violence that I was fully prepared to compromise my main interests in order to be in alignment with Bosnian/Croatian collaborators.

So this was fantastic... and it only gets better...

By sheer coincidence, Senada had arranged to meet another friend around the same time and place, and when he arrived, it was synchronicity at its best!

He is the associate dean (vice-dean) of the University of Sarajevo (for education) and he is a professor of political science there. The school of social work is affiliated with the school of poly-sci, and he actually teaches the ethics course for social workers.

He was totally jazzed about my ideas, and said that we could have a great collaboration if I came to Sarajevo fr my dissertation. He said that the SW program is still developing and they do not have a lot of strengths in the area of research. So it is a perfect fit, with my rigorous Berkeley research-centric education, skills, and background.

This conversation was one of the most professinally and personally validating experiences of my life so far! It was all I could do to control myself and not go around jumping and singing for joy... (I did a little happy dance later at the hostel though!)

At the end of this talk, he basically invited me to come to Sarajevo and do my project there; he even suggested that maybe they could arrange for 8-10 of the best students (English and Bosnian speaking) to work on the project (for credit) under my direction. This was my dream come true (as many of you who have patiently listened to me as I formulated the idea of working with a team of SW students... but I thought I would get maybe 1-2 at best!). Of course there are still administrative hurdles (including the possible election of a new dean at the University of Sarajevo which sounds like a poliical nightmare). So nothing is definate... but this fellow seemed to feel that I could bring a lot to the school, the students, and the faculty.

This made me feel so good, because I do not want to just go to a place and gather knowledge for my own use: that is missing the point entirely (and it is antithetical to the core of what I believe social work is about). I really want to have a meaningful and mutually beneficial exchange, which sounds like what would happen here!!!

So I am walking on air and this was a fantastic way to spend my last day in Sarajevo.