Ulster University partnered with Build Up and the Centre for Democracy and Peace Building to host the fifth international Build Peace Conference on 29-31 October 2018. The conference brought together practitioners, activists, academics, policy makers, artists and technologists from across the world to share experience and ideas on using technology, arts and other innovations for peacebuilding and conflict transformation.
The Chair helped organise a showcase event to highlight the work of Ulster staff in the important area of peace and technology. The event took place on 31 October and was entitled “Division. Data. Design. Debate”. This highly interactive session worked with the audience to solve the problems with Ulster University research teams relating to Wellbeing & Data, Societal Division, Social Media & Political Discourse, and Arts & Conflict. The session also included inputs from Ulster MSc and PhD researchers tackling subjects such as the use of memes in conflict, Twitter and its role in conflict, and Alt-right discourses on social media.
Alex Proudfoot, Cristal Palacios, Brandon Hamber and Gabriel Nuckhir
Last week David Coyles, Dr Adrian Grant and Professor Brandon Hamber presented research findings to a Knowledge Exchange Seminar Series (KESS) at Stormont on “Hidden barriers and divisive architecture: the case of Belfast”. The research notes that “peace-walls” are particularly symbolic of the role that architecture plays in separating residential communities and a comprehensive scholarship continues to assess their effects, but the research focuses on other barriers in the city. The presentation outlines original findings from a three-year multi-disciplinary academic research project funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), which extends this current understanding of physical and social division. It reveals new evidence of a distinct and important, yet largely unrecognised, body of divisive architecture; an extensive range of ‘hidden barriers’ embedded in various architectural forms across Belfast’s residential communities. You can download the Policy Brief, 
As part of the Northern Ireland Human Rights Festival, join Amnesty International and the Innovative Peace Lab (InPeaceLab) a partnership of the Nerve Centre and Transformative Connections (and international partners) for an innovative and interactive session exploring how technology can be used to boost human rights research and campaigning at home and abroad.