Through a unique partnership between Georgetown and leading scholars, advocates, and non-governmental organizations working for justice and peace in Pakistan, summer students enrolled in Justice and Peace in Pakistan will participate in video conferences with experts in Islamabad. The series of video conferences will feature leaders who are developing and implementing practical solutions to problems of inequality and injustice.
After a week of training in research and interviewing, students will form teams and plan, design, and carry out video conference interviews with the leaders in Islamabad in near real time. Each team will collaborate to produce projects that rise above stereotypes and best profile the leaders’ involvement in works of hope and human potential and in causes of justice and peace.
The story of shaping better lives begins when exemplary individuals and organizations step in to fulfill basic human needs. Students will learn why and how such key actors provide food and shelter, sanitation services, and health care; offer accessible education and adult literacy training; organize labor, and advocate for women’s and minorities’ rights, the rule of law, media openness, and conservation and sustainable development.
“For decades, Pakistan was ruled by powerful regimes that crushed aspirations and attempts to develop civil society and democracy,” said Veronica DiConti, associate dean of Georgetown’s Summer and Special Programs. “The Summer at Georgetown Program offers students the opportunity to understand and be moved by history through interactions with inspiring guest leaders working for causes of justice and peace.”
“Often the media only seem to project poverty, corruption, and extremism in stories sounding alarm over instability in this Muslim-majority state,” said Maggie Ronkin, instructor, Georgetown alumna, and Pakistan scholar. “This summer, we proudly partner with colleagues on the ground to focus on Pakistanis’ own narratives of identity through participatory development and community building.”
Recently Ronkin learned of an incredible micro-financing institution operating through faith networks in Lahore. This institution is helping destitute bonded laborers, who almost live in slavery, buy freedom and dignity to pursue their own livelihoods. “This is one remarkable example of how entrepreneurship and philanthropy are marshaled at a local level every day to help people help themselves,” said Ronkin.
About Justice and Peace in Pakistan
The new course is produced by Maggie Ronkin with Nadeem Akbar, director of the American Institute of Pakistan Studies, and Fayyaz Baqir, director of the Akhtar Hameed Khan Resource Center. Islamabad studio facilities are provided by the United States Educational Foundation in Pakistan. The course, JUPS-288-10, meets June 7 – July 9, Monday - Thursday, from 8:00 to 10:00 a.m. To register for this course, visit: http://registrar.georgetown.edu/.
About the Georgetown Summer School
Georgetown Summer School is open to members of the Georgetown community as well as to students from other universities and colleges. For more information, visit: http://summerschool.georgetown.edu/.