Hi, my name is Princess Inshuti. I’m currently pursuing my Master of Arts in International Studies at Chapman University. Originally from East Africa, Uganda, Kisoro home to the beautiful mountain gorillas shared across Rwanda, Uganda, and the Democratic Republic of Congo.   

Previously, I had the opportunity to serve as an EAC (East African Community) Youth Ambassador, where I actively participated in regional peace and security dialogues and youth consultations, contributing to discussions on peer review processes under the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM). I also took part in the Kenya Ya Amani campaign during the 2022 Kenyan elections, an initiative that focused on meaningful youth participation in the election process and peaceful voting. These experiences gave me firsthand insights into youth inclusion, democratic processes, and the vital role of dialogue in preventing conflict. 

As a young person from a region familiar with the conflict trap, I look forward to exploring the narratives that have shaped Northern Ireland’s journey through conflict and towards peace. I’m eager to learn how the region has navigated historically unjust systems, religious divisions and to find peer lessons that can inform peacebuilding efforts in diverse settings around the world. 

Personally, I’m excited to engage with people from different backgrounds and learn from their lived experiences, reinforcing the power of storytelling and intergenerational communication in addressing conflict. I hope to gain practical skills in fostering strategic dialogue and understanding, skills that are essential for meaningful research in conflict resolution, and for enabling communal participation in peacebuilding efforts. 

I anticipate that navigating sensitive discussions and cultural nuances will be a challenge, but I see this as an invaluable opportunity to grow and refine my abilities in strategic peace communication and reconciliation. I look forward to sharing ideas and learning from others’ experiences and research in the field as we work together towards a more just, peaceful, and inclusive world. 

Hello! My name is Coco Ridge. I am a sociology major and a leadership studies and philosophy minor. I am co-president of Sociology Club and involved with various other student organizations on campus. I recently took Peace Studies classes and got involved with Peace Studies Union because it naturally sparked my interest. My internship experiences got me involved in the labor movement. I am passionate about improving people’s daily lives and material conditions. That requires the skill of deeply understanding people and conflict that I hope to improve on this trip. I am excited to learn from people’s lived experiences and immerse in the communities affected by the conflict. I am specifically interested in learning about integration and peace-building post-conflict, ideologically and physically. I hope to learn from Northern Ireland’s local politics and community work to apply to future career aspirations. The biggest challenge I anticipate is witnessing the heavy aftermath of violence and seeing how intergenerational trauma affects people after The Troubles. I am very excited to learn from the people and my experiences.

Hi! My name is Jaden, and I am an incoming senior at Chapman University. I am in my final year studying Integrated Educational Studies as well as Peace and Justice Studies. I was drawn to this course after my prior experience studying abroad in the United Kingdom last spring. Even though I did not spend much time in Ireland, The Troubles is consistently discussed in the culture of the whole UK. Additionally, I am excited to get practical, hands-on experience to apply to my Peace and Justice Studies course back at Chapman next year. I am intrigued to learn more about the history of the conflict, how it really began, the different opinions and perspectives on all sides, and how Ireland exists peacefully (or non-peacefully) today with The Troubles as the background of its society. I think I will be challenged to continue revising my own opinions, beliefs, and understandings of the conflict. Educationally, I oftentimes find something that resonates with me and hold strong to that, rarely changing my views. This will be an exercise in flexibility for me, as I am sure, and I hope, that my understanding will change due to the experiences I am having and the people I am meeting in Ireland. I look forward to practicing this skill and expanding my knowledge of the world around me. I also love to travel, so I am excited to explore a new place and culture as well!

Hey everyone, my name is Seif El-Askary.

I’m currently majoring in Communication and have been thinking more seriously about getting into Health Sciences. I’m still figuring things out, but I’ve always been interested in how people connect with each other, especially in tough situations. That’s part of what drew me to this course.

I signed up for this trip because I wanted something more than just lectures or textbooks. I wanted to actually go somewhere with a real history of conflict and learn directly from the people who lived through it. Northern Ireland stood out to me because of the way it’s been through so much division, yet there are still people working every day to build peace. I want to see how they do that and what role communication plays in it.

On a personal level, I’m looking forward to learning through experience. I think it’s different when you’re standing in the places where things happened and talking to people face-to-face. I’m hoping this trip helps me grow and opens my mind in ways that a regular class can’t.

I think the hardest part for me might be taking in some of the emotional weight of what we’ll be learning about. It’s one thing to read about conflict, but being there and hearing people’s stories in person is probably going to be challenging. Still, I think those are the moments that will stick with me the most.

Thanks for reading. I’m really looking forward to the journey and everything that comes with it.

Hi, my name is Frankie and I am an incoming senior majoring in Writing for Film and Television and minoring in Sociology. My background in peace studies is not very extensive, I took a peace studies class first semester of junior year and really enjoyed it. I also have an extensive background in activism and am very interested in the intersection between that and peace studies. I am particularly interested in this course because of my Irish heritage, as well as my interest in Irish history and what decolonization looks like in the context of Ireland. I hope to gain a better understanding of the history of The Troubles and what reunification could look like. I think it will be difficult to learn about the trauma inflicted on Ireland, but I believe it’s important to learn about these difficult things so we can ensure they don’t happen again, as well as figure out what is best for Ireland now. I’m excited to get started!

Hello my name is Devin Goodwin, I am a senior religious studies major. I have not had a lot of experience with the Peace or Communications Studies departments, I have taken Introduction to Peace Studies with Professor Lederach and I really enjoyed the class and the aspect of peace studies. I have taken multiple classes with the focus on nonviolence conflict resolutions. What I hope to gain from this travel course is how a nation of oppressed people overcame oppression to be able and live within their nation. For the United States, the oppressed minorities had to fight for their rights to be seen as equal and being a black man myself I would like to learn how the oppressed Irish population fought for their rights. Something I anticipate being a challenge for me will be the time change, luckily I can run off of just a couple of hours of sleep. However, being tired during the day could hurt my chance of taking notes. So I plan on being fully caffeinated and present during each tour and talk we get during the trip.

Hello, my name is Olivia Gluck, and I am a sociology major with a minor in peace and justice studies. In my first year attending Chapman, I was unfamiliar with peace studies, but after taking my first introductory course, I quickly grew deeply interested in the subject matter. I really enjoyed learning about the roots of conflict in different contexts and how the application of nonviolent strategies can promote meaningful change. Freshman year, I was an undecided major, so I spent most of my time sampling classes to find out what I could see myself doing. Upon declaring sociology, I knew I wanted to find a minor that both fit my interests and aligned with what I am passionate about, and after my first peace studies class, I found exactly what I was looking for. I’ve taken multiple peace studies classes on account of my requirements, it is the cornerstone of my education here at Chapman. Although it is a huge part of my academic pursuits, I don’t have many opportunities in my day-to-day life to fully experience what it is I’m learning about, which is one of the reasons I was so drawn to participating in this course. I have done many projects and written papers on all sorts of different conflicts, both modern day and historical however, I have never had the chance to witness firsthand how peace building and reconciliation efforts are carried out in real communities. That being said, I was also excited to find out the course would take place in Northern Ireland. As a Derry Girls fan, I’ve had a growing curiosity about Northern Ireland’s history. Although the show is a comedy, there are moments that showcase the everyday realities of growing up during the Troubles. I am eager to deepen my understanding of this period beyond what I’ve seen on screen and read in preparation for this course. In addition to this, I hope to gain a more nuanced perspective on the long-term impact of conflict and the various approaches communities use to foster peace. I am confident this experience will provide me with that opportunity and enrich my senior year because I will have had practical insight that aligns with my academics. As far as challenges go, I’m a little apprehensive about seeing firsthand the violence that occurred, however, it’s important to face these truths as it is necessary in understanding the entirety of the region’s history.

Hello!
My name is Rubi. A fun fact about me is that I have a pet chicken named Cleopatra, but I call her Cleo. I’m a first-year graduate student in the Health and Strategic Communication program. My academic focus is on improving patient-provider communication in healthcare settings. Through my studies in persuasion, health campaigns, communication theories, intercultural, and group communication, I have developed skills in formative research, message framing, and adapting communication strategies for diverse cultural and group settings.
What attracted me to this course was Dr. LaBelle. She mentioned during our class that she would be participating in this course, and it sounded interesting. This opportunity will allow me to apply the skills I’ve gained in a real-world setting and challenge me by using them in other contexts besides health. I’m excited to explore which concepts I apply the most to reach my goal of a deeper understanding of those concepts. I also hope to gain a deeper understanding of the complexities that groups from a different culture face and be able to identify similarities to other conflicts I know of. Some anticipated challenges is terminology. Since I am a health communication major, I know I’ll have to quickly learn terminology and concepts that everyone might already know.

Pet chicken

Hi! My name is Gabi and I use they/them pronouns. My major is Writing For Film and Television and my minor is history. While I have not formally taken Peace Studies or Communication courses, I have found that similar themes have shown up in my history classes. An example of this is the class HIST 215 Israel-Palestine, which goes in depth about conflict through time and strategies to pursue peace. I was attracted to this study abroad course because of the history involved in conflict resolution, specifically pertaining to The Troubles and how the political climate evolved to what we see today. From this course, I hope to gain more knowledge of the history of Ireland, as well as understand how conflict resolution strategies have played a part in the successes and flaws in the current state of peace in the region. I look forward to the challenge of receiving the stories of both sides on equal footing, as it is an essential part of history and understanding how they came to the ceasefire that has been in place for decades.