Projects

One of our team members – Ideja Bajra – has been diving deep into cell biology to explore its potential for visualising peace and peacebuilding in productive new ways. Watch this space for some exciting outputs!

We are in the process of an exciting collaboration with music students at the University of Andrews and the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. We look forward to sharing our research and their outputs soon! Music is a deeply affective art form. It can paint pictures with soundscapes and tell stories without words. Music … Read more

Over the past three years, the Visualising Peace team has been exploring the power of photography to represent and help build peace. We have learnt a lot from scholars working in visual politics and from professional photojournalists like Hugh Kinsella Cunningham – who worked with us on a photography exhibition in June-July 2023, which featured … Read more

Dialogue is at the heart of peacebuilding. Adversarial styles of debate, in person and online, are driving conflict. These two truths have got us interested in exploring different approaches to discussion and debate, and the role that they can play in bringing people together or creating divides. Of course, this connects closely to our overarching … Read more

Several members of our research team have been exploring peace-storytelling from different angles. We have drawn on a range of scholarship and practice along the way, including developments in ‘useful fiction‘ and the work of the Narrative Transformation Lab. As Peter Singer and August Cole explain, Useful Fiction ‘works at the intersection of strategic narrative, … Read more

We often think about peace in relation to conflict; but peace is also something that we experience – and can build – in our ordinary, everyday lives, both near and far from conflict. As our research team has discovered, paying attention to ‘everyday peace’ and ‘everyday peacebuilding’ can be both empowering and inclusive. It amplifies … Read more

Among other projects, we have been researching trends in peace education across different sectors and settings. Despite the enormous benefits of supporting young people to learn and think critically about peace and peace-building, many students still spend more time studying war than peace. We have been surveying teachers, pupils and curriculum designers to find out more … Read more

Mathias is an undergraduate student in the University’s School of International Relations, and has been a member of the Visualising Peace team since Spring 2022.   His research in the Visualising Peace project has been into psychology and peacebuilding, particularly in post-conflict zones. In this presentation, Mathias reflects on his research into psychology theory, international relations, … Read more

I have been part of this research project since it started in January 2022, and the magnitude of my learning journey is difficult to articulate. Initially, I was interested in how peace is visualised and narrated in realms of cyber- and outer space. Today, I focus on inner peace. Echoing many of my peers’ views, … Read more

Language is a fundamental building block for peacebuilding, peaceful communication, and coexistence. Language itself is often also a political tool, adding another layer of complexity to an already dense and difficult process such as peacebuilding. But the politics, aesthetics, and inherent value of language can aid in the peacebuilding process just as much as they … Read more