School of Education

Culture for Sustainable and Inclusive Peace (CUSP) Network Plus

The Culture for Sustainable and Inclusive Peace Network Plus (CUSP N+) draws together non-academic partners in the UK and in low and middle-income countries (Ghana, Mexico, Morocco, Palestine and Zimbabwe) who work with people in different artistic and cultural settings.

This work is funded by UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) via the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) as part of the Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF) Collective Programme. The GCRF is part of the UK's Official Development Assistance (ODA). Its aim is to support cutting-edge research that addresses challenges faced by developing countries.

CUSP N+'s aim is to strengthen arts and cultural institutions/organisations in LMICs so they can become a reference point for the identification and transformation of social conflict.

This is a holding page, the main CUSP N+ website will be up and running towards the end of Autumn 2020.

This Network Plus has three strands or phases:

1. Original research with core partners

2. Commissioning of research to new partners

3. Synthesis of insights and knowledge exchange / sharing

CUSP N+ will focus on key issues identified by each partner and context:

(a) fragile, and presently resilient cultural work in communities of the global south;

(b) the arts and cultural work in southern contexts as means to explore and share relevant strategies for conflict prevention and conflict transformation;

(c) the arts and cultural work for the promotion of individual wellbeing and sustainable employment; and

(d) south-south and south-north partnership building and networking towards the sharing of sustainable cultural and governance practices to maximise the reach and usability of digital technologies for artistic sustainability and peaceful cultural change.

Strand 1 CUSP N+ partners will work with artistic and cultural organisations in each location to identify, explore and disseminate culturally- and age-appropriate conflict transformation strategies to achieve positive change in relation to challenges experienced by women and girls. CUSP N+ partners will reflect on and share insights on processes and outcomes.

Strand 2 The portfolio of activities thus developed will be expanded and refined through the commissioning of new research to explore further emerging themes, open questions and 'translatability' of practices to different contexts. CUSP N+ will also engage in ongoing critical reflection on the internal dynamics of the network as it employs conflict transformation strategies also to work collaboratively.

Strand 3 The synthesis of findings, and divergence of approaches, will offer innovative insights in relation to theoretical, methodological and policy-oriented questions. Drawing together expertise from a range of disciplines (i.e. theatre studies; arts practice; languages, literature and cultural studies; gender studies; anthropology; sociology; postcolonial studies) CUSP N+ builds on and expands established academic and non-academic collaborations with a range of partners based in fragile contexts and contexts of conflict and protracted crisis.