School of Social & Political Sciences

Upcoming GLARN events

Workshop - Thinking Across Borders: Comparative and Participatory Approaches to Migration Research in Latin America (25 September)

Collaboration between GRAMNet and GLARN 
Date/Time: Friday 25th September 15:00-17:30 + networking drinks until 18:00
Venue: University of Glasgow, CTT ADAM SMITH:383
Description: This interactive workshop brings together scholars and creative practitioners to explore comparative, participatory, and activist approaches to migration research in Latin America. Designed for postgraduate students and early career researchers, the session will provide opportunities to reflect critically on research design, ethics, collaboration, and knowledge production through presentations, discussion, and hands-on engagement. The workshop opens with Professor Gisela Zapata (Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Brazil), who will draw on experiences from the CAMINAR Network to examine comparative migration research across Latin America, highlighting both the possibilities and challenges of comparison across diverse national and local contexts. The second session, led by Dr Vania Reyes Muñoz (Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile), will explore participatory and activist methodologies, focusing on knowledge co-production, research-advocacy relationships, and the ethical and political questions that arise when scholarship is oriented towards solidarity and community engagement. The final session introduces El En-Tendedero Viajero, a creative participatory method developed at Universidad de los Andes, Colombia, led by Camila Echevarría Martínez and María Andrea Luque García. Through engagement with a physical prototype, participants will explore how arts-based methods can create spaces for sharing experiences and collective reflection. Bringing together comparative analysis, activist scholarship, and creative participatory practice, the workshop offers new methodological tools for migration research and concludes with informal networking drinks for participants and speakers.
Register here

Fashion show - Weaving Stories, Weaving Peace: Experiences from Colombia and Scotland (29 Sep 2026)

A workshop on textiles, peace, and social enterprise. Register below!

Tuesday 29th September 2026
2:00 pm - 5:00 pm
Debates Chamber, Glasgow University Union

Organised by the Glasgow Latin American Research Network and the Peaceful, Secure, and Empowered Societies Interdisciplinary Research Theme, University of Glasgow, in partnership with the Scottish Peace Platform.

We’re delighted to welcome Manifiesta, a women-led social enterprise from Colombia that uses clothing production as a tool for peacebuilding, supporting the reintegration of former combatants and creating sustainable livelihoods for victims of conflict. Through fashion and textiles, Manifiesta has built a model of social transformation that turns the very act of making clothes into an act of peacebuilding and reconciliation.

What to expect:

An interactive workshop: participants will work directly with Manifiesta to explore how textile production can foster dialogue, trust-building, and reconciliation between societal stakeholders. Using textile practices as a shared starting point, the workshop creates space to exchange experiences, draw connections across very different contexts, and reflect on what Colombia’s journey might offer Scotland’s own conversations around sustainable and socially engaged textile practice.

A fashion show: the event closes with a fashion show showcasing both Manifiesta’s work as a form of political and creative expression, and the pieces created by workshop participants on the day.

Background

2026 marks ten years since the signing of Colombia’s landmark Peace Agreement – a milestone that offers a rare opportunity to reflect on a decade of hard-won lessons about what rebuilding trust, livelihoods, and community after conflict requires. This workshop brings those lessons into conversation with Scotland’s own growing movement around sustainable textiles, circular economy, and social enterprise.

The workshop is held as part of a wider programme of events reflecting on ten years of peacebuilding in Colombia, identifying lessons in policy, practice, and thinking from civil society that hold relevance to Scotland and beyond. It is delivered in partnership between the University of Glasgow and the Scottish Peace Platform.

Register here