Core Team

Dr Allely Albert, Dr Lauren Dempster, Dr Laura Dunne, Professor Louise Mallinder, Dr Liam O’Hare 

This research priority examines theory and practice relating to transforming conflict and achieving sustainable peace.  It views the pursuit of peace as entailing multi-layered and evolving activities that can operate at the level of national and international law and policy as well as everyday lived experiences of conflict, wellbeing, and social repair.  As such, it examines peace work at diverse levels amongst a variety of actors, interrogating the dynamic interplay between grassroots and elite forms of peace, highlighting the tensions and synergies between top-down processes – such as institutional reforms and international negotiations – and bottom-up innovations led by communities, including young people, women, former combatants, and local practitioners.  The theme considers peace not as a static end-state but as an ongoing, negotiated process shaped by historical, political, social, cultural, economic and environmental factors, including legacies of colonialism and repression.