Canadian Theatre artist David Diamond, one of the most important voices who carry the legacy of Augusto Boal, the Brazilian founder of the Theatre of the Oppressed, joins Norbert Koppensteiner and Adham Hamed during their third institutional visit to Haramaya University in Eastern Ethiopia, in the framework of the APPEAR funded project HU-UIBK Partnership for Strengthening Institutional Capacities in Peace Building and Conflict Transformation (PSICPCT). Well into the second year of the project, the development of a legislative theatre play shall facilitate community engagement while also providing a feedback loop about the content of a fully revised MA Curriculum, based on a modular system in line with the European Bologna System. “We are excited and honored to have David here with us for this project. Through his vast experience in facilitating groups and eliciting their potentials in a large variety of contexts, we hope to gain new insights for capacity building at Haramaya University and further improvements for our partners’ revised curriculum.”, says Austrian Project Coordinator Norbert Koppensteiner.
David Diamond’s relational sensitivity and skill combined with an innovative method that has been inspired by systems theory and the work of Fritjof Capra in particular, makes him one of the outstanding facilitators of elicitive conflict transformation work. Since the 10thanniversary of the University of Innsbruck’s MA Program in Peace, Development, Security and International Conflict Transformation, Diamond has been a regular visiting faculty member at the Unit for Peace Studies. His book Theatre for Living has been translated into German and very soon it will also be launched in Spanish.
