University Infrastructures for Peace in Africa: The Transformative Potential of Higher Education in Conflict Contexts

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to consider how higher education responds to conflict on campus and in the community. Moving beyond the victim/perpetrator paradigm prevalent in the literature on education in conflict contexts toward the transformative capacity of education, this research suggests that public universities may develop mechanisms that orient the institution toward capacity and consensus building—constructs associated with infrastructures for peace. Findings from comparative case studies conducted in Côte d’Ivoire and Kenya at two public universities demonstrate that both intentional and indirect policies were cultivated to contend with and possibly transform the conditions for localized conflict and begin to theorize university infrastructures for peace.