ICON HAS A NUMBER OF FORMAL AND INFORMAL LINKAGES WITH UNIVERSITIES IN AFRICA AND BEYOND

In the Seychelles, Professor Harris has been instrumental in setting up a new MA in Peace Studies at the University of Seychelles which has been approved by the Seychelles Qualifications Authority.

And in 2021, Professor Harris was appointed Honorary Visiting Professor at Bishop Stuart University in Mbare, Uganda. The Dean of the Faculty of Management Studies and ICON PhD graduate, Dr Noel Kansiime, has nominated two of his HoDs to begin PhD studies with ICON in 2022, with the intention of introducing peace studies at BSU in the medium term.

Ignatius Kabele, who is scheduled to graduate in December, has contributed an article on Zambia’s July elections to ACCORD’s Conflict and resilience monitor

Zambia’s 2021 Elections: Implications for Social Cohesion – ACCORD

In 2020, Prof Harris and Dr Chrys Kiyala (Honorary Research Associate with ICON) ran a five-day workshop in Goma, DR Congo, with 20 staff from local universities. The workshop examined the ways and means of establishing peace studies programmes and resulted in the formation of a consortium of five universities which are working to establish postgraduate peace programmes. Two staff from the coordinating university – La Sapientia Catholic University of Goma – are now in their second year of PhD studies with ICON.

 Outside Africa, in 2020, Dr Kaye established linkages with Royal Roads University in Vancouver, Canada which has among other things provided a wider pool from which to draw examiners for ICON’s PhD submissions. 

In Zimbabwe, Professor Geoff Harris and Dr Sylvia Kaye ran 10-day schools on peace research methods in 2018 and 2019 with students in the Applied Conflict Transformation Studies (ACTS) programme, which is coordinated by ICON PhD graduate Dr. Dumusani Ngwenya. It is planned that these students will commence their master’s degrees in peace studies at the Catholic University of Zimbabwe.