Tuesday 27 October 2020: Peace-making in a world of conflict
Published: 28 September 2020
Cyrenians CEO Ewan Aitken and UNESCO Chair Alison Phipps will be in discussion drawing us into a rich world of lived experience so we can better learn from those with long experience of living with conflict.
On 27th October Cyrenians CEO Ewan Aitken will host a discussion with Alison Phipps, UNESCO Chair in Refugee Integration through Languages and the Arts at the University of Glasgow.
In this event, Ewan will be speaking with Alison about her work with people seeking sanctuary around the world, and ways she has found, though learning with communities, of turning differences into something to celebrate. He will discuss the central, and understandable role of fear in an encounter with something we do not readily understand, and how intercultural conflict transformation approaches help re frame conflict, aided by arts, and thoughtful, nuanced communication.
Alison and guest from Zimbabwe and The Occupied Palestinian Territories will use story telling to unpack complexity and focus on human dignity, showing how a story is both an anecdote and an antidote. The vaccination potential of the arts and well chosen words against viral fears will be a central themes of the conversation. The issues of conflict and poverty and oppression which lead people to seek asylum will them allow us to weave together sotires in specific conflicts with the epic stories of exile, it’s experience and it’s transformation and it’s potency in human history.
This event will be delivered on the online platform Zoom. For more information and to register please visit the Eventbrite page.
Bios:
Ewan Aitken is CEO of Cyrenians, a charity tackling the causes and consequences of homelessness. Born in Dunfermline, Ewan has over 30 years’ experience working in the public and third sectors. Alongside his position at Cyrenians, he holds a number of roles, including: co-chair of the Edges of Care workgroup for the Independent Review of Care; member of the Scottish Governments Rapid Rehousing Transition Plans Delivery Group; member of the Regional Council of the Edinburgh and South East Scotland City Regional Deal. In 2018, he received the SCVO Charity Awards Leading Light Award.
Alison Phipps UNESCO Chair in Refugee Integration through Languages and the Arts at the University of Glasgow, Professor of Languages and Intercultural Studies and co-Director of the Global Challenge Research Fund MIDEQ Hub. She is an academic, activist and published poet
First published: 28 September 2020