Stellenbosch University (SU), through the Centre for the Study of the Afterlife of Violence and the Reparative Quest (AVReQ), has concluded a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Europa-Universität Flensburg (EUF), Germany, represented by the European Wasatia Graduate School for Peace and Conflict Resolution. 

The agreement formalises a strategic international partnership aimed at advancing collaborative research, postgraduate education and academic exchange in the fields of peace, conflict resolution, reconciliation, trauma studies and transitional justice. In particular, the partnership fosters academic collaboration at master’s and doctoral levels in reconciliation, conflict resolution and trauma-related research.

The MoU signing ceremony was held on 22 January at the Stellenbosch Institute for Advanced Study (STIAS).

SU was represented by Prof Sibusiso Moyo, Deputy Vice-Chancellor:  Research, Innovation and Internationalisation, Prof Pumla Gobodo-Madikizela, Director: AVReQ and holder of the South African Research Chair in Violent Histories and Transgenerational Trauma, and Dr Anell Daries, a lecturer at AVReQ.

Europa-Universität Flensburg was represented by Prof Dr Ralf Wüstenberg and Dr Zeina Barakat, respectively Director and Executive Director of the European Wasatia Graduate School for Peace and Conflict Resolution.

The MoU establishes a comprehensive framework for intensive and sustained academic cooperation, encompassing joint research initiatives, postgraduate training, scholarly mobility and the co-organisation of academic programmes and events. Both institutions reaffirmed their shared commitment to fostering interdisciplinary scholarship on peacebuilding, reconciliation processes, transitional justice and the enduring social and moral consequences of violence.

This partnership reflects a common vision to strengthen institutional collaboration between South Africa and Germany, enhance the international reach of both centres, and contribute substantively to global debates and policy-relevant research on peace, justice and social transformation. Currently, Wüstenberg is spending part of his sabbatical at SU in the Faculty of Theology.