UU to hold conflict resolution conference

Experts from around the world will gather at the University of Ulster this week to discuss a wide range of topics concerning conflict research.

The Conflict Resolution Research Society conference will take place at the University’s Magee campus from Wednesday bringing together a host of conflict researchers from the Netherlands, the US, Norway and the Philippines as well as from the University itself.

John Hume, holder of the University’s Tip O’Neill Chair in Peace Studies will be a keynote speaker at the opening of the event – a showcase of contemporary international conflict research.

Joining him will be Professor Chris Mitchel from George Mason University in the USA, a highly regarded scholar of conflict resolution and media issues.

Themes such as peacekeeping, intervention and mediation, as well as the role of education and the justice system in the Northern Ireland peace process will feature prominently. Also on the agenda are case studies looking at issues such as regional minorities, de-mining in the Sudan and an examination of the role of loyalist groups in Northern Ireland.

Among the many papers being presented will be a number from UU postgraduate students from the Research Graduate School, Faculty of Social Sciences, the UNESCO Centre and INCORE, the international centre for peace and conflict studies based at the Magee campus.

Silvia Mussano, a PhD student at the School of Policy Studies, who played a central role in organizing the conference, said: “Like INCORE, this conference emphasises a multidisciplinary approach to peace and conflict issues. We hope to demonstrate the wide-ranging reality of causes and consequences of conflict, and the need to for a variegated approach to transforming and resolving conflict.”

A number of student participants will be partially funded by the Conflict Research Society’s Sidney Bailey Funds.

(MB)