ISESS seminar and cooperation with the University of Rwanda
12 12 2025
A UNESCO Chair for Interdisciplinary Studies on Anti-Semitism and Group Hate will be established at the University of Warsaw. The university has established a partnership concerning this issue with the University of Rwanda in Kigali.
The University of Warsaw has established a partnership with the University of Rwanda in Kigali as part of the newly established UNESCO Chair for Interdisciplinary Studies on Anti-Semitism and Group Hate, which will function at the Professor Robert Zajonc Institute for Social Studies at the Adam Mickiewicz University. Professor Robert Zajonc. On the 10th and 11th of December, the University of Warsaw hosted representatives of universities from Kigali: prof. Vincent Sezibera, head of the Centre for Mental Health at the University of Rwanda, and Pauline Atete, a psychologist from the University of Rwanda and the University of Ghent.
The aim of cooperation with the University of Rwanda will be to analyse the psychological consequences of genocide and collective violence and to create methods to counteract the negative consequences of collective trauma. Prof. Vincent Sezibera at the Seminar of the Centre of Excellence in Social Sciences (ISESS) gave a lecture “Collective Reconstruction: On Crossing the Boundaries of Collective Trauma in Rwanda after Genocide”, while Prof. Sezibera and Pauline Atete spoke at the Faculty of Psychology UW with the lecture “From the clinic to the community: Coping with trauma, social identity and well-being in Rwanda after the genocide”.
During the visit, the delegation from Kigali met with Prof. Maciej Raś, Vice-Rector for Student Affairs and Quality of Education at the University of Warsaw, and Prof. Michał Bilewicz from the Faculty of Psychology and the Institute for Social Studies at the University of Warsaw. Professor Anastase Shyaka, Ambassador of the Republic of Rwanda to Poland. The talks concerned, among other things, psychological support systems for students in Poland and Rwanda, and the experiences of both universities in this area. Participants expressed hopes for the development of further joint research initiatives within the new department, and other forms of cooperation between universities.
The Centre for Mental Health at the University of Rwanda is one of the four foreign partners of the emerging UNESCO Chair. The others are the Institute for Interdisciplinary Research on Conflict and Violence at Bielefeld University, the Research Group on Intergroup Relations and Social Change at Stockholm University, and the UNESCO Chair for Studies on Anti-Semitism and the Holocaust at the University of Southern California.