Nonkilling at Åbo Akademi University, Finland

Åbo Akademi University, the only exclusively Swedish language university in Finland, has incorporated nonkilling into its Master’s Programme in Peace, Mediation and Conflict Research. The February issue of its “MFÅA, Meddelanden från Åbo Akademi” magazine highlighted a series of interviews featuring CGNK Director Joám Evans Pim and some of the students that took his Advanced Studies on Nonkilling course last year.

In an interviews by Klas Backholm (“Ett samhälle utan dödande är möjligt”, “A nonkilling society is possible”), Joám clarifies the concept of nonkilling and the work of the Center. Risk factor that lead to violence and ways to reduce them are among the topics discussed. The full magazine is available in PDF for download at this link.

In a another piece, graduate students Farida Anwar (from Pakistan), Hasan Habes (from Cyprus) and Ingrida Grigaitytë (from Lithuania) explain how they were impacted by the concept of nonkilling, which they explain in terms of a paradigm shift: “If you believe that nonkilling is possible, go out and start working for it, and then it could be a reality in maybe 100 years. But you have to be stubborn!” The article (“Du måste vara envis!) is also available here in Swedish.

This year’s edition of the Master, a joint program of the Department of Social Sciences at Åbo Akademi University and the Tampere Peace Research Institute, will again include Nonkilling as one of its courses as part of its goal to provide interdisciplinary approaches to research on the complex issues of peace and conflict in the contemporary world.