The new book chapter "We Are Alive, but Have No Life": Rohingya Refugees, Deprived of the Prospects for a Future written by Senior Researcher Marte Nilsen, explores some of the everyday strategies of survival that stateless, Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh make use of to navigate under the precarious conditions of being denied rights and recognition.
Please be invited and save the dates for the INSPIRE seminar series autumn 2021! The seminars will take place monthly, on Wednesdays from 12:00-13:00 CET, online, with invited researchers and artists.
Klo Kwe Moo Kham has successfully defended his thesis "The Quest for Peace in Kawthoolei: The Strategies, Outcomes, and Sustainability of Peacebuilding in Southeast Myanmar, 2012-2020".
Congratulations Klo!
In societies at war or facing severe repression, what motivates individuals to take action for social justice when doing so involves great risk and uncertainty? How do such small but often heroic everyday acts of common people inspire larger transformations? And what is the impact of storytelling about everyday acts that challenge inequalities and injustices in places like Myanmar, Somaliland and Syria?
The TRANSFORM research team has grappled with these questions for four years, and you will find some answers in this online exhibition.
On June 3rd 2021, the INSPIRE research platform was launched with a live performance by Faytinga and a presentation of artwork by Diala Brisly. The research platform can be explored at inspire.gallery
PRIO invites applications for three Doctoral Researcher positions.
How do political opposition groups in Myanmar and Thailand use popular culture and art to generate legitimacy for their political causes and propagate their messages?
Norad has awarded funding through its NORHED II scheme for a six-year project to strengthen higher education institutions' ability to produce high-quality research and teaching. The project was initiated by The Norwegian Center for Human Rights (NCHR) and the Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO) in partnership with five leading institutions in Africa, Latin America and the Middle East.
The project will investigate the current crisis of statelessness affecting millions of people in the Bengali borderlands, including the Rohingya population of Myanmar and Bengali Muslims in the Northeast Indian state of Assam.
Next Tuesday December 8th at 14.00 CET (Oslo time) we will have the PRIO Annual Peace Address, this time with young peacebuilders Hajer Sharief and Ilwad Elman.
On this occasion we wanted to highlight projects and research that focus on youth activism. We're sharing our work on young engagement in political change, because social movements that turn into positive societal transformation are not only initiated by people in power, but very often are initiated or inspired by youth trying to improve their communities. Here are some of the projects showing the importance of youth in peacebuilding.
What drives the small but often heroic everyday acts of people in their attempts to challenge dehumanization and abuse in violent conflict? PRIO is proud to share the first of a series of three animations and comics from Myanmar, Syria and Somaliland, made for the TRANSFORM project in collaboration with PositiveNegatives.
On October 5-6th a workshop on creative methods was held for the INSPIRE project. The goal was to discuss creative approaches to study inspiration and social justice. Workshop participants were INSPIRE team researchers; Katarzyna Grabska, Cindy Horst, Marte Nilsen, Trude Stapnes and Sara Christophersen as well as invited artists and academics; Anna Konik (visual artist and advisory board member for the INSPIRE project), George Mahashe (artist, photographer, academic and advisory board member for the INSPIRE project), Solveig Korum (Senior Advisor at Kulturtanken and advisory board member for the INSPIRE project), Cathy Wilcock (musician and academic) and Marisa Cornejo (visual artist).
On September 15th the INSPIRE advisory board and INSPIRE researchers had their first meeting. Due to corona virus restrictions the meeting was held online.
From January 22-23, 2020 a kick-off workshop was held for the INSPIRE project. The kick-off marked the formal start of the INSPIRE project.
PRIO's Centre on Culture and Conflict has received funding from the FRIPRO programme of the Research Council of Norway for the 4-year project Inspirational Creative Practice: the Work of Artists in Times of War (INSPIRE). Congratulations to project leaders Katarzyna Grabska and Cindy Horst, as well as Marte Nilsen and Covadonga Morales Bertrand, who will also take part in the project. There will also be a PhD position.
The book describes women’s efforts as agents for change in Myanmar and examines the potential of the peace process as an opportunity for women’s empowerment.
The Research School on Peace and Conflict invites applications for the PhD course Ethnographic Fieldwork Methodology: Approaches, Tools and Ethics to take place in Oslo on 19-22 March 2018. The deadline for applications is 1 February.
The Research School on Peace and Conflict invites applications for the PhD course SECURITY in the ARCTIC to take place in Kirkenes 16-20 April 2018. The course is organized by the Centre for Peace Studies in collaboration with the Barents Institute, UiT. The deadline for applications is 1 February.
PhD Candidates are invited to apply for membership in the Research School on Peace and Conflict. Members get direct access to research courses, as well as to internal seminars and generic skills training with leading experts.
Deadline: 15 January 2018
PhD Candidates are invited to apply for membership in the Research School on Peace and Conflict. Members get direct access to research courses, as well as to internal seminars and generic skills training with leading experts.
The Research School on Peace and Conflict invites applications for the PhD course Governance, Identity and War to take place in Oslo on 31 August – 6 September 2017. The deadline for applications is 23 June.
The TRANSFORM project had its kick-off workshop 1-2 June 2017.
The workshop functioned as the formal start of the TRANSFORM project.
The project researchers devloped a shared understanding of aims, research questions, methods, communication strategy and output.
The team members also defined each other's roles and responsibilities.
The project will focus on how individual deeds, in times of radical uncertainty and flux, inspire collective action or lead to new institutional practices in ways that determine the direction a society takes. The emphasis will lie on the small but often heroic everyday acts of common people who attempt to challenge dehumanizing trends of exclusion and abuse in violent conflict and civil war in Syria, Somalia and Myanmar.
Are the people of Myanmar able to distinguish between Norway’s role in promoting peace and the commercial interests of Norwegian businesses? Now that several state-owned Norwegian companies have entered into large and risky ventures in Myanmar, Norway is walking a tightrope between peace and commerce. The maintenance of support for the peace process is critical.
Norway has spent NOK 40 million to help fund a census in Myanmar (Burma). The census results are at odds with previous assumptions and may increase the level of conflict in the country in the run-up to the elections in 2015. Norway must take responsibility.
The Research Council of Norway (RCN) funds two PRIO projects on the effects of aid: “Conflict of Interest? ‘Business For Peace’ as Development Aid in Volatile Environments” and “Aid in Crisis? Rights-Based Approaches and Humanitarian Outcomes”.
In a new policy brief from PRIO, Political Parties and Peacebuilding in Myanmar (PRIO Policy Brief 5/2013), Marte Nilsen and Stein Tønnesson examine the role of Myanmar’s political parties and ask: How well are they equipped for the task of building peace? Are the ethnic-minority parties ready to take the lead role in promoting the interests of their constituencies? Will this cause armed groups to fade into the background? As previously marginalized opposition parties are playing an increasingly important role, an essential question in the run-up to the elections in 2015 is to what extent ethnic minority parties may be able to take over the role played by the armed groups in promoting ethnic-minority interests.