Last week's main event
UPEACE signs a new Cooperative Agreement
Last Wednesday, 29 March, a Cooperative Agreement with the Moscow State Institute of International Relations (University) of MFA of Russia was signed by Rector Julia Marton-Lefèvre. This Agreement was also signed by the Rector of the Institute, Mr. Anatoly V. Torkunov, on 25 January 2006 in Moscow. H. E. Valery Dmitrievich Nikoláyenko, Ambassador of the Russian Federation to Costa Rica, and his Counselor, Mr. Alexey Sáltychev were present during the signing.
The Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MGIMO-University) is one of the oldest universities in Russia (1944) and most prestigious one in the area of international relations. This agreement will allow the exchange of qualified students, faculty for joint research and teaching, experts in the sphere of education, and scholars and administrative staff of the universities. It will also enhance the exchange of teaching materials, publications, and textbooks, and it will promote joint research programmes.
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Visiting Professors
Makau Mutua 
From 27 March until 31 March, Professor Makau Mutua taught the course "Human Rights Gender and Religion” as part of the MA in International Law and the Settlement of Disputes.
The course explored the complex and vexing intersection of human rights, gender, and religion – three of the most urgent questions of our time. Until recently, the universal human rights movement had a blind spot with respect to women’s rights. Historically, religion has been one of the most dominant social forces. But gender and religion have always had an uneasy, if troubled, co-existence.
Makau Mutua is a Professor of Law and Director of the Human Rights Center at the State University of New York at Buffalo School of Law, where he teaches international human rights, international business transactions, and international law. Professor Mutua has been a Visiting Professor at Harvard Law School, the University of Iowa College of Law, and the University of Puerto Rico School of Law. He is also co-director of the Program on International and Comparative Legal Studies of the UB Baldy Center for Law & Social Policy. He was educated at the University of Nairobi, the University of Dar-es-Salaam, and at Harvard Law School, where he obtained a Doctorate of Juridical Science in 1987.
Professor Edward Moxon-Browne 
Professor Moxon-Browne taught the course “The Nature of International Terrorism: Causes, characteristics and consequences”, from 23-31 March. The course belongs to the MA in International Peace Studies.
This course focused on providing students with a comprehensive understanding of the origins, prevalence, and various types of terrorism in three continents: Asia, Europe and Latin America. The students were made aware of the conceptual difficulties that lie behind definitions of terrorism, political violence and guerrilla warfare.
Professor Eddie Moxon-Browne was born in Canada, educated in Scotland and the USA, and is now Director of the Centre for European Studies at the University of Limerick (www.ul.ie/~ceuros). Before that he was at the Queens University of Belfast, Northern Ireland.
Mary Jo Larson 
Dr. Mary Jo Larson arrived at UPEACE on 22 March to teach the course “Environmental Conflict Management and Peace Building” in conjunction with Rolain Borel, head of the Department of Environment Peace and Security at UPEACE.
The course focuses on the politics, theory and practice of environmental conflict analysis and resolution. Students examine local and historical cases to identify techniques contributing to cooperation and peace building following tensions over threats to environmental security, and explore prospects for applying similar approaches in relation to contemporary trans-boundary conflicts.
Dr. Mary Jo Larson earned her Ph.D. at the Institute for Conflict Analysis and Resolution, at George Mason University. Dr. Larson is an international educator and consultant specializing in multilateral approaches to ecological conflicts, peace building and security. She is a trained Advanced Mediator, experienced global program director, and author of numerous journal articles on multilateral negotiations, leadership, gender, peace building and low-power contributions to environmental diplomacy.
Dr. Liana Babbar
Dr. Babbar will be teaching the course “Ecological Foundations for Sustainable Land Use” from 22 March until 7 April 2006. This course belongs to the MA in Natural Resources and Sustainable Development.
The course addresses the basic ecological factors that need to be taken into account for the production of goods and services and to ensure that the land use systems are in harmony with ecological foundations based on climate, soils, and other features that are difficult, costly, and often impossible to change.
She holds a Ph.D. in Natural Resources from The University of Michigan, and M.S. in Natural Resources, from CATIE, Costa Rica. She has conducted research in agroforestry, soils, watersheds, protected areas, land-use planning, and sustainable development. <she has taught and coordinated courses and educational events, for almost 20 years at the graduate and undergraduate levels in different universities of Costa Rica and the USA, including the University of Michigan and Boston
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Student Life
Heather Page
Current student
Natural Resources and Sustainable Development
Intercambio: A Language Exchange
Everyone knows how hard it is to be in a new country where everyone speaks ‘Greek’, and you don’t. We’ve all been there and, in fact, many of us are there right now.
Although we are loving our lives and experiences in Costa Rica, ultimately we are limited from fully enjoying the culture and integrating into this society. Since it’s really all about immersion, it can be quite tricky up here in our little UPEACE bubble on top of the hill.
So, I had an idea: Why not do intercambios? It wasn’t until the NRSD Practicum class that I was able to motivate enough people to put the idea into action. I started talking to my classmates to see if anyone would be interested in pairing with a Tico for a little language exchange. The project’s goals are not limited to just practicing English and Spanish - it’s really about forming ties and relationships in the community as well.
Now, after an intercambio kick-off party the other week, we have a total of 44 individuals meeting once a week, for an hour, to speak in Spanish and English for the next eight weeks. They talk about themselves, their likes/dislikes, their families, life in Costa Rica… you name it. As this is the pilot program, we’re hoping its success will lend to an expansion to other UPEACE students in the future. By the end of the year, maybe we’ll all be speaking ‘Greek’, err Spanish.
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Rachna Toshniwal
Current student, MA in NRSD
BINGO at El RODEO
Ciiiiiiiiiiiiiincueeeeeeenta Miiiiiiiiil Coooooolones….the sound of Oscar’s voice calling out the Bingo numbers building up to the grand finale prize of 50,000 colones in the packed hall of Finca Maranatha still echoes in my ears! The Grand Bingo Regalón organized by the Development Association of El Rodeo and UPEACE was a grand success and a wonderful experience!
At a meeting held almost two months ago at the house of Marie Elena in El Rodeo, the Association gathered to brainstorm on how to get their community hall up and running. The Hall needed a floor, better lighting and other facilities like a kitchen in order to be functional and available for community events. As a way to further strengthen relations with the community, Ronnie de Camino invited Rector Julia and me, as a student representative, to the meeting. It was decided that a Bingo Regalón would be organized on 25 March 2006 as a fundraising event. Tickets would be sold in the community and at UPEACE, flyers printed, and the event adequately advertised. Also, the community would contribute food and snacks and gifts would be collected to give away as prizes.
And it happened! We sold around 180 tickets of the 200 we had committed to among staff and students at UPEACE. Thank you all for contributing and for putting up with us hounding you at lunch time!! Over 300 people from the community and outside, including students and staff from UPEACE attended. The games started at 2:30 p.m. and went on till 7:00 p.m. with seasoned players listening intently while kids ran around and played outside. It was a wonderful evening of fun and games and great home-cooked food, Costa Rican style!
Taking the time and effort to participate in this event was very fulfilling. One really felt like a part of the community, and by sharing and contributing in the many ways that we all did I feel the event has laid the foundations for closer relations between two communities that have so much to learn and give each other. It was an experience that added a wonderful and essential dimension to my education at UPEACE. Again, thank you all for joining in and making it possible
Last week’s brown bag session
On 30 March, the Brown Bag session took place in Council Room at 1:00pm with the participation of Dr. Günter Bierbrauer. The topic of the session was “Culture, Conflict and Death”.
Prof. Günter Bierbrauer, Ph.D is from the University of Osnabrück, Osnabruck, Germany, where he is a professor of psychology. He obtained his Ph.D. in Social Psychology from Stanford University, USA, and a diploma in Psychology from the University of München, Germany. His research interests are in the areas of Interface between psychology and law, conflict management, international mediation, cross-cultural mediation, and court-annexed mediation.
He has been involved in a number of professional activities including: training seminars on mediation for German judges, affiliated faculty on the Master Program on Mediation, Fernuniversität Hagen, Germany; visiting and research appointments in psychology departments and law schools in Switzerland, USA, Norway and Poland; member of the advisory board research project, "Conflict management in small and medium-sized (KMU) companies", University of Luzern, Switzerland; editorial panel member on various journals (e. g. Social Justice Research, Asian Journal of Social Psychology); numerous publications related to conflict management/mediation/negotiation; cross-cultural negotiation and conflict management in ethno-plural contexts; and psychology and law.
Prof. Bierbrauer is a member of American Psychological Association (APA), International Society for Social Justice Research, and International Association for Cross-Cultural Psychology.
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System-Wide Activities
Professor Ronnie de Camino from the Environment, Peace and Security Department of UPEACE, has been invited by the State of the Amazonas Government to participate in the International Consultive Council of the project, "Sustainable Development of the Amazonas," to be executed by the Governemnt and the ECLA (Economic Commission for Latin America of United Nations). This invitation is an important recognition of the personnel from the Department of Environment, Peace and Security of the University for Peace that acknowledges their well-known capacities for handling policies regarding natural resources. The invitation to Professor De Camino means an active participation in real processes of policy evaluation and reform, as well as the gaining of knowledge that could be transmitted to the UPEACE Students. This opportunity also means the strengthening of the new UPEACE programme for Latin America and the Caribbean headed by Dean for Academic Programmes, Victor Valle.
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