Hi, my name is Tine Bergli and I am a student at the Centre for Peace Studies and the two-year Master in Peace and Conflict Transformation. My academic background is a Bachelor in Sociology with history and anthropology from the University of Tromsø. The reason why I chose to study this Master is that it gives me many experiences that I would not get if I were to do another Master Programme at the University of Tromsø. First of all I wanted to challenge myself by doing my thesis in English and although this was somewhat scary in the beginning it quickly became very natural. I also wanted to meet and get to know people from all over the world, and that is the biggest benefit one can have while doing this Master Programme since every person will have another perspective on a conflict, management or peace.

The MPCT Programme has opened my eyes to the world and I have learned a lot about what conflicts are, that peace can be many things, how one can go about managing conflicts, how to create peace both individually and on the group level and most importantly I have learned how to cooperate with people from different parts of the world.

I am currently very active in Student Politics and have been elected the new Leader of the Student Parliament at the University of Tromsø for the year 2010/2011. This is a full-time job as the highest representative for all of the students who study at UiT, which means that I will be postponing my Master Thesis for one year. This is of course voluntarily, but I will miss my fellow classmates. One thing that is quite unusual at the other Social Sciences studies is this feeling of belonging to a class, about at the MPCT Programme we all belong to the same class and we attend very much the same courses. You will of course have some electives, but you will first of all get to know your class.

In my Master Thesis I will discuss the Peace Process of the Sudan. My topic of interest is in that way a traditional peace and conflict thesis with a critical view of the United Nations and their involvement in peace processes. For this I would do both interviews and document analysis, and I would have to use all of the knowledge I have learned at the MPCT. Luckily for me our curriculum has been great and I feel, already after one year, that I have the tools that I need for writing a good Master Thesis. Also, I have to mention that we have the greatest staff and many lecturers flying in from other universities.

Welcome to the time of your life!