King's welcomes delegation from Rodine

King’s welcomed the delegation from Rondine, Citta della della Pace, a Peace and Conflict Resolution centre located in Arezzo, Italy on November 26, 2019. The delegation was led by Dr. Franco Vacarri, President and Founder of Rondine, and included Dr. Blerina Duli, Director of Education for Rondine; Spinella Dell’Avanzato from Rondine’s research office and two communications officers.

Dr. Vaccari delivered a lecture to a Social Justice & Peace (SJPS) class and then met with Dr. David Malloy, King’s Principal. After the visit to King’s, Dr. Vaccari and the Rondine delegation visited Western University’s Italian Studies program and Western's School for Advanced Studies in the Arts & Humanities 

Rondine brings together youth from war torn regions of the world to “live with their enemy,” while studying resolutions to conflict together. For example, youth are paired with their state’s or culture’s “enemy” - Israelis with Palestinians and Lebanese; Serbians and Albanians, etc. Rondine was nominated and was a finalist for the Nobel Prize in 2015.

In May 2020, SJPS will send students to Rondine for the fourth year. In 2017, King’s and Western University Italian Studies (through Dr. Cristina Carracini and Dr. Pietro Piranni), entered into a pilot partnership to host an international experiential learning course which takes them to Rondine for the month of May. Philosophy, Political Science and Religious Studies have all partnered internally with SJPS to share the teaching load for the seminar.

Students will study intensive Italian, host and participate in workshops and visit key sites in Italy. In years past, that has included the Section for Migrants and Refugees at the Vatican and S’ant Egidio, a community with a global network working to directly support refugees and migrants, spiritually and materially.

“It’s a very comprehensive program and a very demanding one in terms of experiential learning,” says Dr. Allyson Larkin, Associate Professor, Social Justice and Peace Studies, and a past faculty member with the King’s at Rondine program. 

For more information on the King’s Social Justice & Peace Studies May 2019 trip to Rondine, please visit https://www.kings.uwo.ca/about-kings/media-and-communications/newsroom/studying-peace-initiatives/