Make books,not war: workshops at a summer camp in Bosnia |
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| Authors: | Jacqueline Darvin |
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| Institution: | Secondary Education & Youth Services Department, 150J Powdermaker Hall, Queens College, City University of New York, 65–30 Kissena Boulevard, Flushing, NY 11367‐1597e‐mail: jdarvin@qc.cuny.edu |
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| Abstract: | This article focuses on a bookmaking project that was conducted with pre‐adolescent Serbian and Bosnian girls at a summer camp outside Sarajevo, Bosnia in 2005. During this camp, children from Bosnia, Serbia and Croatia were brought together by the Global Children's Organisation to engage in a variety of activities, including conflict resolution, art, athletics and academics. The literacy workshops that were offered gave the children the opportunity to write, illustrate and construct their own books about topics such as peace, friendship and the preservation of nature in Bosnia. The workshops were conducted in English and Serbo‐Croatian, using a variety of pedagogical strategies. Upon completion of their books, the girls hosted a ‘story hour’ for the younger children at the camp and their stories were read aloud and discussed. This article explores the story telling of children in post‐war Bosnia (through writing samples) and discusses the powerful social component of literacy events and their ability to unite and heal disparate groups. Additionally, this article explores writing as a means of imagining a more hopeful future and how as writers, children are shapers of their own cultures and of their individual and collaborative identities within those cultures. |
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| Keywords: | Bosnia peace social justice bookmaking narratives story telling |
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