Projects

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. This is something that Visualising Peace student Joe Walker reflects on in a series of museum entries about peace and/as transcendence. As … Read more

War memorials have long played a role in marking the transition from war to peace and in post-conflict recovery. Several members of the Visualising Peace team have researched the storytelling done by different war memorials, the perspectives they represent, and the potential they can have for driving conflict as much as mourning, remembering and recovering … Read more

Peace gets built in many different ways, by many different actors. Our research team has been studying the range of roles played by NGOs in different peacebuilding processes, and also in humanitarian contexts (such as natural disasters) where peacebuilding might not be the explicit mission but a key dimension nonetheless. Visualising Peace student Robert Rayner … 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

Extending our research on peace-storytelling habits, and our interest in using narratives in different media to deepen peace literacy, we have been collaborating with professional theatre company NMT Automatics, who specialise in using ancient myths to tell modern stories. Since theatre first became an art form, war has been frequently represented on stage; but we have seen … 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

Several members of the Visualising Peace team have been exploring the complex relationships that have evolved over time between different religious movements and belief systems and ideas of peace and approaches to peace-building. This research has helped us to think more about discourses of peace and metaphors for peace-building – for example, what impact appeals … Read more

Photographs are world-building. They don’t just reflect the world around us: they shape what we know, colour how we think, and impact how we feel. They focus our gaze towards certain events and people – and away from others. The perspectives they take frame our perceptions, direct the questions we might ask, and prompt particular … Read more