While conflict and security is typically assessed in strategic, material terms, creating the conditions for lasting peace must go beyond that. How may communities work towards a positive peace, negotiating their experience of war while imagining a better future, both personally and collectively?
This event will explore the underappreciated role and value of art in post-conflict reconstruction. Discussion points include the participatory nature of art and its value in peacebuilding, the relationship between art and personal healing, as well as the gendered dynamics of art in post-conflict scenarios.
This event will take place from 1630–1800 at CLM 1.02 (Clement House, LSE), and will be open to the public. This event was organised by Speaker Officer Luka Lacey and VP Jinyi Li.
Speakers
- Georgia Holmer is Senior Associate Fellow (Terrorism and Conflict) at the Royal United Services Institute. Ms Holmer has 25 years of experience in international security policy, research and practice on issues related to the prevention of conflict and violent extremism, human rights and counterterrorism, and women, peace & security. She is the former Head of the Action Against Terrorism Unit at the OSCE Secretariat and the former Director of CVE (counter violent extremism) at the United States Institute of Peace (USIP). She has designed, led and evaluated capacity building programs to build peace and security on the ground in Nigeria, Kenya, the Balkans, Central Asia, and North Africa. She served as an analyst for the FBI in international counterterrorism investigations for ten years in Athens, Copenhagen, and Washington, DC. Ms Holmer is also a visual artist working in mixed media (Gaia de Lime). Her creative work explores issues of bodily and emotional autonomy, human dignity in life and death, and the nature of peace and violence. She holds graduate degrees in international human rights law from Oxford University and in international relations from Boston University.
- Arma Tanović Branković is Associate Professor at the Academy of Performing Arts Sarajevo., where she has been teaching since 2007. She is a Bosnian actress, director, screenwriter and educator, with themes in post-conflict reconciliation in Bosnia and Herzegovina. She is simultaneously Vice-Rector for art, artistic research, culture and sport at the University of Sarajevo. Her work in theatre, film and television has been supported by the Ministry of Culture of Sports in Sarajevo and international organisations such as UNICEF. Through her work, Tanović Branković makes contributions to Bosnia and Herzegovina’s cultural and educational landscape, particularly in using arts for social transformation and education.
- Maja Salkić Burazerović is Director of the Sarajevo War Theatre in Bosnia and Herzegovina, where she has produced more than 20 performances and co-productions. Since 2013, she has been engaged in the project Commemorating the Genocide in Srebrenica, an annual performance held in Potocri and Sarajevo. Apart from her work in theatre, Ms Salkić Burazerović has a strong track record of educational and social engagement. She has collaborated with the organisation Hope and Homes for Children, promoting foster care in Bosnia and Herzegovina through theatrical representations of real-life stories of foster mothers. She also regularly leads acting workshops for children and youth at the Hermann Gmeiner SOS Center. Ms Salkić Burazerović is passionate about women’s rights, coordinating the Educational Scenes project on gender-based violence and women victims of war (screenplay, direction, acting) within the UNFPA BiH program, as well as the UNFPA Bodyright Project, focused on protecting women’s rights and safety online.
Academic Chair
- Professor David Lewis is Professor of Anthropology and Development in the Department of International Development at the London School of Economics and Political Science. His research interests lie at the interface between development studies and anthropology, and most of his work has been concerned with understanding people's encounters with development actors and development processes. He undertakes regular fieldwork in Bangladesh on governance, policy and civil society and also worked in Nepal, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Palestine and Uganda. He has a growing interest in representations of development in popular culture, including music, fiction and film, and is a Faculty Advisory Group member in the LSE South Asia Centre. Professor Lewis has advised a range of development agencies including UNDP, IFAD, Oxfam, the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida), and the UK Department for International Development (DFID).