Updates from the Faculty’s Transforming Conflict Research Theme

Posted on: 9 September 2019 by Pete Shirlow in 2018 Posts

The Transforming Conflict Research Theme provides a site for various forms of conflict and conflict transformation work to be explored by colleagues from across the Humanities & Social Sciences Faculty, and the wider University of Liverpool. Here we share highlights from the Theme’s most recent activities.

Memory, Victims, and Representation of the Colombian Conflict

This project, led at the University by Professor Claire Taylor, brings together an interdisciplinary team of experts working in the fields of Modern Languages, Media Arts, Computer Sciences and Human Rights Law, as well as practitioners, to address the issue of the representation of conflict and victims in Colombia’s 60-year long conflict.

The project team focuses on how these topics are represented in museums and official exhibitions and also interrogates the voices that are not yet heard or represented in these official, in particular those of women victims.

Read all about the project and see selected artworks here.

Agreement: A People’s Process

Marking 20 years since the signing of the Belfast/Good Friday Agreement, the ‘Agreement: A People’s Process' is an online resource combining photography, painting, sculpture, installations, video and textiles. It examines the Belfast/Good Friday Agreement and violent conflict in Columbia, Iraq and Argentina. The project also included an exhibition at the Victoria Gallery & Museum on campus in Liverpool.

So far, over 80,000 users have visited the resource, which you can see here. 

The Citizens’ Panel

Professor Pete Shirlow, Transforming Conflict Research Theme Lead, introduced the Citizens’ Panel, held at Queen’s University Belfast on 11 May 2019. This examined how greater citizen engagement and participation in decision making in Northern Ireland/North nor Ireland could be strengthened and supported.

The Citizens’ Panel was a joint project undertaken between the Initiative for Civic Space (ICS), the Institute of Irish Studies at the University of Liverpool and the Senator George J Mitchell Institute for Global Peace, Security and Justice at Queen's University, Belfast. Funding was provided by the Irish government through the Department of Foreign Affairs. The ICS promotes inclusive and respectful dialogue between all citizens irrespective of political opinion or community background. ICS is neutral on the constitutional issue. Its vision is to create a space for the voices of people to be heard; to promote inclusivity, respect and the peaceful resolution of our differences based on the promotion of rights for all; and to provide opportunities for citizens to influence public debate and policy-making through informed deliberation and decision-making.