Peacebuilding Archives - Hume O'Neill Peace Blog

Magee Summer School

The Chair is delighted to announce a new Summer School on the Magee Campus of Ulster University on 8-18 July 2022. Applications open.

The Peacebuilding, Public Order and Conflict Management Summer School run by The Department of Conflict Resolution, Human Security and Global Governance at the John W. McCormack Graduate School of Policy and Global Studies, University of Massachusetts Boston, (UMASS) in partnership with Ulster University’s INCORE and the John Hume and Tip O’Neill Chair in Peace and community-based charity International Peace Education Resources (IPER) invite applications for the 2022 Summer Institute on Peacebuilding, Public Order and Conflict Management. This unique programme is back in a new location in person after two years of pandemic shut down.

Described by one former participant as ‘life-changing’, this exciting course is led by Professor Marie Breen-Smyth. It is delivered by UMASS and Ulster University professors from INCORE and the Hume O’Neill Chair, Rural Community Network, Holywell Trust, Bloody Sunday Trust, the Newgate Centre, as well as high profile activists and politicians from across the spectrum in Northern Ireland.

This year, we will be based in person on Ulster University’s Magee Campus, in Derry Londonderry. The programme includes classroom-based work, a film screening and panel discussions alongside study visits to sites and events in Armagh, Portadown, Derry Londonderry and Belfast where you will meet local community organisations who participate in the design and delivery of the programme.

The Summer School is also an international experience. Sitting with diverse classmates from around the globe, participants will draw comparisons between the local situation and other societies such as South Africa, Nigeria and Israel / Palestine.

Application Form, Bursary Information and Summer School Flyer

If you want to find out more about costs, logistics and bursaries, click here.

Partners

Youth Visions for Peace

On 29 March 2022, the Chair – with partners The John and Pat Hume Foundation, International Fund for Ireland (IFI), and Interpeace – hosted “Visions for Peace – Perspectives on Local and Global Youth Practice”.

Speakers addressed the questions: How do we engage young people in peacebuilding? What vision do our young people hold for a peaceful society? How does that influence what we prioritize when doing this work?

The event was Chaired by Professor Hamber with the following speakers:

Andy Hamilton is currently a Research Associate at Ulster University. He recently completed his PhD study titled Theorising Youth Sector Peacebuilding in Northern Ireland.

Eliška Jelínková is a Co-Director at the United Network of Young Peacebuilders and a co-chair of the Global Coalition on Youth Peace and Security.

Ali Altiok is a doctoral student in Peace Studies and Political Science at the University of Notre Dame. His research examines political inclusion and securitization of young people in the context of peacebuilding processes.

The seminar series is a partnership between Ulster University (INCORE, the Centre for Youth Research and Dialogue & TJI), The John and Pat Hume Foundation, John Hume and Thomas P. O’Neill Chair in Peace, International Fund for Ireland (IFI), and Interpeace.

Peace as Violence

On 10 March 2021 the Chair presented a paper at the “Understanding Violence Seminar Series” hosted by the Department of War Studies, King’s College London.

This talk explored how peace processes, and the aftermath, are experienced by survivors and former combatants. It argues that the change in context embodies a range of new forms of violence and harm for some. It draws on case studies of empirical research with former combatants and survivors in Northern Ireland and South Africa, as well the case of some Vietnam Veterans who formed part of a recent research project. It explores how a sequential understanding of trauma can help explain the challenge of reframing meaning away from violence once a formal peace has been established.

Watch the lecture online

Book launch: Family Betrayals

The Chair facilitated a discussion with Dr Wilhelm Verwoerd at the Belfast launch of “Verwoerd: My Journey through Family Betrayals” on 17 October 2019. The discussion focused on key aspects of the book, and particularly Dr Verwoerd’s challenges of coming to terms with the fact that HF Verwoerd, his grandfather, was the South African Prime Minister who is widely considered the architect of the apartheid system. Topics for discussion included key questions of the responsibilities of those who benefitted from the apartheid system, the question of “betrayal” when you take a different path to peacebuilding from those around you, as well as the relevance of the book to wider contexts.

Book Launch: Competing Worldviews

The Chair, with the Transitional Justice Institute and INCORE, hosted a successful book launch of “Reconciliation and Building a Sustainable Peace: Competing Worldviews in South Africa and Beyond” by Dr Cathy Bollaert. The book, based on her PhD research at Ulster University (co-supervised by Brandon Hamber, Kris Brown and Fionnuala D. Ní Aoláin), explores how competing worldviews impact on intergroup relations and building a sustainable peace in culturally diverse societies. It raises the question of what happens in a culturally diverse society when competing values and ways of interpreting reality collide and what this means for peace-building and the goal of reconciliation.

Resilience to Conflict: Sierra Leone

Professor Hamber with partners Fambul Tok (Sierra Leone), Catalyst for Peace (US), Refugee Law Project (Uganda), Green String Network (Kenya), and the Research and Advocacy Unit and African University (Zimbabwe) secured a seed grant to develop a Global Challenges Research Fund project to bring together partners to consider: “What are the internal-external framework and relationships that genuinely, in practice, support the creation of resilient communities facing ongoing and dynamic peace and development challenges, and how can communities, local organisations and international donors help to grow these?”. A large inter-country meeting took place in Freetown in 22-26 January 2018. A range of new initiatives will now flow from the meeting including joint research and proposals.

Participants from Uganda, Sierra Leone, Kenya, Zimbabwe, US, Netherlands and Northern Ireland in Sierra Leone.

Professor Erin Baines Visits Belfast

In December 2017 Professor Erin Baines, Associate Professor at the School of Public Policy and Global Affairs (SPPGA) at the University of British Columbia, visited Belfast to explore ongoing partnerships and also engage with Ulster University MSc, LLM and PhD students. Professor Baines offered two classes on focusing on her work in Uganda entitled “Children & Futurities” and a second research focused workshop entitled “De-colonial approaches to research on violence”. Wider than this Profess Hamber and Professor Baines outlined some future plans for joint co-operation and research.