Transforming Conflict and Displacement through Arts and Humanities Leeds 16-27 November 2020

Arts and Humanities for Global Development

Since 2015, the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) has made over 200 awards under the Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF) and the Newton portfolio. These awards have drawn on AHRC’s research base to address development challenges that are ultimately global challenges, including poverty reduction, global health, climate change, resilience, conflict, displacement, inclusive education, and rapid urbanization.

PRAXIS exists to champion the role of Arts and Humanities research through maximising the impact of AHRC GCRF projects. This PRAXIS virtual workshop brings together research projects that address global challenges related to Conflict and Displacement.

The workshop had two aims: to encourage networking among GCRF projects and key partners; and to generate and collect key findings, reflections and lessons learned from GCRF projects to inform a PRAXIS report commissioned by AHRC and to be released in 2021.

In parallel with the workshop programme, PRAXIS hosted a virtual space where delegates could review and engage with the creative artefacts generated by over 100 projects that use the arts as a key research method.

In 2020, the wholly online nature of this event was a new and exciting frontier in academic and policy engagement. We exploited the opportunities a virtual platform offers – including flattening accessibility issues – while working through the challenges the new format presented.

For general questions regarding the event, please contact Robyn via R.E.Gill-Leslie(at)leeds.ac.uk or Esther via E.Dusabe-Richards(at)leeds.ac.uk.

The workshop took place over 8 working days with one session per day, divided into multiple Chaired discussions, followed by a plenary feedback session. This resulted in a time commitment on any day of around two hours in the afternoon (plus a comfort break). Attendees were not required to join each day or even for the whole of a session!

Research cohorts and cross-cutting themes

Participants were assigned to one of three research cohorts:

• Research cohort 1: education in conflict
• Research cohort 2: gender, intersectionality and faith perspectives
• Research cohort 3: Peacekeeping, reparations and visions for the future

The three cohorts met daily in three panels, with each panel discussing a daily cross-cutting theme. For example: on day two, all three panels drew on their project experience to explore the cross-cutting theme ‘decolonial perspectives’. After such discussions, all three cohorts joined in a plenary session.

Attendees did not have to stick to this cohort or attend every session; but hopefully the opportunity to network with projects in a similar research area over different days and across a range of cross-cutting themes was useful.