Item List
The IGN e-Conference
The Conference
The IGN e-Conference is an annual online conference, taking place over multiple days. Aimed at practitioners it aims to enable a conversation on negotiation-related topics between practitioners from different global contexts and with different experience levels. Every year, the e-Conference explores a different issue or topic through a Keynote Address by a noted expert in the field, as well as multiple interactive conference sessions, focused on different aspects of the overarching topic. Through participatory formats such as workshop sessions, as well as less formal sessions like presentations, the conference offers the opportunity to expand participants’ network through a broad range of attendees from various backgrounds.
IGN e-Conference 2024
Building Peace Together: Exploring the Roles of Feminism, Religion,
and the Arts in Peacebuilding
1st/2nd March 2024
The 2024 conference will consider Building Peace Together: Exploring the Roles of Feminism, Religion, and the Arts in Peacebuilding.
As the number of escalating conflicts grows worldwide, peace seems ever more elusive in the 21st century. In light of this, sustainable peacebuilding can be a means of preventing conflicts, helping to deescalate them if they break out, and reconciling society after conflict. The 2024 e-Conference by the Institute for Global Negotiation aims to take a practitioner-focused closer look at different dimensions of and approaches towards peacebuilding, highlighting the roles of Feminism on the one hand and Religions on the other, as well as examining the potential of the Arts in peacebuilding. Through these examples, the conference will look at different community-based approaches towards sustainable peacebuilding, and provide a forum for practitioners and other experts to share experiences, discuss challenges, and locate their work within a wider context.
Image: Luxerta via flickr, CC BY-SA 2.0 DEED.
Conference Sessions
The conference will feature three main topical sessions which explore different aspects of peacebuilding in greater depth. Each session will feature input from noted experts from the field. The sessions are designed to be interactive and give participants an opportunity to share their own insights and perspectives with the facilitators and other attendees. The IGN e-Conference is not an academic conference featuring papers and panels with only limited time for engagement with the audience through Q&A-Sessions.
Further details on the individual sessions, including details on facilitators and speakers, will be published on our website under 'Program' and on our social media channels in the coming weeks.
Artistic Insights in Peacebuilding: Expanding Horizons of Knowledge and Transformation
Art is a form of expression which can make the unspeakable speakable – whether it is an unbearable personal trauma or political resistance in a censored environment. Therefore, the field of peacebuilding has begun to see art’s potential to promote conflict transformation at an individual as well as at a collective level, to foster peacebuilding between communities, and to bridge justice and peace for sustainable reconciliation. Even though the power of art in fostering peace and reconciliation has been recognized throughout transcending borders, cultures, and conflicts, it remains at the edge of discussions around peacebuilding. This session brings together artists, scholars, and practitioners, to explore the multifaceted role of art in building and sustaining peace. These interdisciplinary discussions will highlight the transformative potential of art as a catalyst for positive change.
The interactive session will invite everyone to examine how various art forms contribute crucial additional (incorporeal) knowledge in peacebuilding.
Feminism and Peacebuilding: Empowering Voices, Transforming Narratives
Feminist approaches have proven vital in building inclusive and sustainable peace. Marginalized groups – such as women, LGBTIQA*, refugees, migrants, and others often overlooked in peacebuilding – raise their voices through such approaches. Therefore, this session seeks to explore the intersections between feminism and peacebuilding, examining the transformative potential of feminist perspectives in shaping more inclusive, equitable, and sustainable approaches to peace. Together, practitioners, researchers, and activists will enter a dynamic dialogue at this year's e-Conference on how feminist ideologies shape and inform peacebuilding efforts around the world. The session will address the importance of intersectionality and amplifying the voices of marginalized communities, revolutionary strategies, such as technology, gaming, the art of resistance and civil disobedience to explore the challenges and successes in applying feminist principles to peacebuilding initiatives.
Through this interactive session, participants will engage directly with panelists through a world café to exchange ideas and best practices and explore the ways in which feminist peacebuilding goes beyond gender binaries, amplifying the voices of marginalized communities.
Religious Communities in Peacebuilding: Building Alliances towards Peaceful Societies
The destructive role of religions in many conflicts throughout history has time and again shown the potential for harm and the immense influence that resides with the religions of the world. Turning this influence into a force for good, religious communities can be understood as key actors in promoting a message of sustainable peace and cooperation between different factions and groups. Enabling religious leaders to be the voice of peace in their community but also anchoring peace processes within local education and the family, religions have the potential to use their influence and power for peace and conciliation instead of division. Various initiatives from around the world have successfully contributed towards peace in their respective contexts, and continue to do so.
Following an initial presentation, this session will allow participants to enter into small conversation circles with representatives of various initiatives in religion-centred peace work from around the world, sharing best practices, and highlighting challenges and opportunities. A final plenary discussion will bring together these varied perspectives, trying to establish common threads.
Team
Christian S. Trenk
Project Coordinator
Karoline Möller
Conference Team
Lucas Steinbach
Conference Team
Previous e-Conferences
Find out more about past editions of the IGN e-Conference:
Negotiating Complexity: Lessons from Food Security
22-23 February 2023
Russia’s war in Ukraine triggered a sharp rise in food, fuel and fertiliser prices, leading to a spiralling food crisis that has affected the whole world. This online conference examines cases related to food security to draw lessons for the conduct of complex negotiations.
