A great thing about working for CANVAS, and the ability to work remotely, is that they encouraged us to travel, especially around the rest of the Balkans. Travel is fun, yes, but it can also be incredibly informative.
One day in early July, I had the chance to visit the home of the late Dr. Gene Sharp, founder of the Albert Einstein Institution (AEI) and life-long scholar of nonviolent action.
As a rising senior at Tufts, I have come to realize that the beauty of my education is that, every so often, I take a class that greatly alters my perspective about the relationship between peoples, states, and institutions.
After being selected as an Oslo Scholar through the Institute for Global Leadership (IGL), I began interning in June at the Center for Applied Nonviolent Action and Strategies (CANVAS) under Serbian human rights activist Srdja Popovich.
Helping organize, create and eventually participating in the CANVAS Summer Academy was the most meaningful part of my experience with CANVAS, an organization focused on promoting and teaching non-violence globally.
Two weeks ago, I began my remote work as an Oslo Scholar with the Albert Einstein Institution (AEI). AEI is a nonprofit that specializes in the study of strategic nonviolent action and communicates nonviolent methodology to movements and activists around the world.
Working with CANVAS, a non-violence training center based in Serbia, has given me the opportunity to work on a breadth of issues that relate to activism in the world today, while understanding the impact of the pandemic. Every week, I work on reports that discuss current human rights abuses and protests around the world.
