BU Research Blog

February 23, 2023

War in Ukraine anniversary: Webinar on March 1st & Academic Forum co-edited by Dr Alina Dolea

international, Women's Academic Network edolea

On February 24, 2022 when Russia invaded Ukraine, the “What can we do?” question was obsessively emerging in our private talks, in our professional conversations, in social media interactions. Russia’s invasion was literally hitting very close to home for Dr. Alina Dolea, as an Eastern European scholar with personal experiences of life under Soviet domination and of the dissolution of the Eastern Bloc in the early 1990s, as well as parents and family living in North Romania, close to the border with Ukraine and the Republic of Moldova.

She initiated conversations with colleagues in the field which resulted in an academic Forum co-edited with Nadia Kaneva (University of Denver, US) and Ilan Manor (Ben Gurion University of the Negev, Israel) for Place Branding & Public Diploma cy. The Forum Public diplomacy and nation branding in the wake of the Russia–Ukraine War | SpringerLink aims to identify academic concepts, theories, and assumptions from the field which have been cast in doubt—or need to be re-examined—in light of the Russia-Ukraine war. In order to encourage continued engagement, each of the eleven essays in the Forum, as well as the editorial Introduction, conclude with a section that outlines specific gaps in public diplomacy scholarship and directions for future research.

To mark the publication of the Forum, the co-editors are organizing a webinar on March 1, starting with 4pm. Together with Nadia Kaneva, Nicholas Cull, Maria Repnikova, Roman Horbyk, Ilan Manor (PhD), Alina will reflect on nations’ reputational security, the need to reconceptualize soft power, the use of transmedia storytelling and memes in war, the consequences of displacement for Ukrainian refugees and the relevance of emotions and trauma in diaspora and public diplomacy.

Please join the webinar and RSVP here: Public Diplomacy & Nation Branding in the Wake of the Russia-Ukraine War Tickets, Wed, Mar 1, 2023 at 4:00 PM | Eventbrite

October 7, 2019

WAN & Seldom Heard Voices: ‘Gender in Conflict’ conference Wed 09/10/2019

conferences, Knowledge Exchange, Knowledge Transfer, Public engagement, Women's Academic Network sssievers

Staff, students and colleagues are warmly invited to an inspiring and engaging half-day conference on Wednesday 9 October from 1pm (BG11, Lansdowne Campus). Speakers include visiting colleagues from Kosovo and BU academic staff. The conference opens with an informal networking lunch, followed by presentations and panel discussion.

The focus of this conference is to discuss and debate whether issues of gender, violence and conflict that have heightened visibility in post-conflict environments, can be recognised similarly in the UK. By asking what we can learn from questions of gendered violence in a fragile international context and whether these can be applied to our social environments in the UK, the aims are:

To de-exoticise gendered violence in war and post-conflict contexts abroad by going beyond stereotypical assumptions and representations;
To interpret contemporary UK conceptualisations of gendered violence through an alternative lens inspired by international experience.
We are fortunate to have the opportunity of the Erasmus-funded presence of two visiting Kosovar colleagues who are presenting at this event. Dr Linda Gusia and Assoc. Prof. Nita Luci are the founders and directors of the Programme for Gender Studies and Research at University of Prishtina, Kosovo. They are highly active for women’s rights in the public sphere of in Kosovo. This poses unexpected challenges to equal rights not only arising from classic patriarchal cultural legacies but also from masculinity reiterations in the totalising field of international, post-conflict intervention.

We are also joined by two BU criminologists of the Department for Social Sciences who are working in related fields of gendered gang crimes: Jade Levell on gang crimes in the UK) and Dr Shovita Dhakal Adhikari on questions of human trafficking in Nepal. This conference arises from our own academic interests in questions of gendered hate crime in the UK (Dr Jane Healy) and on transnational and post-conflict questions of social justice (Dr Stephanie Schwandner-Sievers).

1.00: Arrivals and networking lunch

2.00: Welcome by Sara Ashencaen Crabtree, WAN, and by Stephanie Schwandner-Sievers, Centre for Marginalised Voices

2.15: Jade Levell, BU: “The competing masculinities of gang-involved men who experienced domestic violence/abuse in childhood”

2.45: Nita Luci, Univ. of Prishtina: “Researching Gender in the Balkans”

2.55: Break for tea and coffee

3.15: Linda Gusia, Univ. of Prishtina: “Recognition of Sexual Violence in Kosovo after the War”

3.45: Shovita Dhakal Adhikari: “Exploring Child Vulnerabilities: pre- and post-disaster in Nepal”

4.00: Panel Discussion: “Inverting the gaze: Juxtaposing gender and conflict in transitional societies abroad and the UK”

5.00: Close

Please register at: https://genderconference.eventbrite.co.uk/

Event Date: 09/10/2019

Event Description: Women’s Academic Network & Centre for Seldom Heard Voices present: Gender in Conflict Conference

Contact Details: jhealy@bournemouth.ac.uk & sssievers@bournemouth.ac.uk

Wednesday 9 October: BG11 1-5pm: ALL WELCOME

Please register at: https://genderconference.eventbrite.co.uk/

June 26, 2019

Doing research in conflict areas

conferences, international, PG research, Publishing, Research Ethics, Research Integritiy, student research, writing Edwin van Teijlingen

Prof. Bhimsen Devkota will be presenting our paper ‘Challenges and Dilemmas in Conducting Conflict Research During Armed Violence: Lessons Learnt from Fieldwork in Nepal’ at a conference tomorrow. The two-day Nepal Research Conference on Peace, Justice and Inclusive Society will be held in Lalitpur, Nepal. Bhimsen was my PhD student at the University of Aberdeen and he is now based at the leading government university in Nepal, Tribhuvan University. He studied the role and motivations of Maoist health workers in Nepal who were part of the insurgency against the government /king (1995-2006). We published four papers on his exciting fieldwork [1-4].

During the conflict the Maoist recruited their own health workers to treat combatants (Bandage) and to provide limited services to the communities under their control. However, there was no systematic information on numbers, their abilities/ skills, experience and career motivations and their integration strategies in the subsequent peace process. During his fieldwork in rebel controlled areas Bhimsen had to use all his social and emotional skills to get the research done. He is the only PhD student I have ever supervised who was put a gun to his head during his fieldwork. Our paper is highlighting some of these real-life research issues, including gaining trust and having an identity acceptable to the research participants.

Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen

CMMPH (Centre for Midwifery, Maternity & Perinatal Health)

References:

Devkota, B., van Teijlingen E. (2009) Politicians in Apron: Case study of Rebel Health Services in Nepal, Asia-Pacific J Publ Health 21: 377-384.
Devkota B, van Teijlingen E. (2010) Demystifying the Maoist Barefoot Doctors of Nepal, Med Conflict Survival 26: 108-123.
Devkota B, van Teijlingen E. (2010) Understanding effects of armed conflict on health outcomes: the case of Nepal. Conflict & Health 4 (20) www.conflictandhealth.com/content/4/1/20
Sahay, G., Devkota, B., van Teijlingen, ER. (2016) Rebel Health Services in South Asia: Comparing Maoist-led Conflicts in India & Nepal, Sociol Bull 65(1):19-39.

June 8, 2019

Dr. Sascha Dov Bachmann addresses Australian military at the Australian Defence College

Public engagement sbachmann

This week, Dr. Sascha Dov Bachmann, A/P in International Law at BU’s Dep of Law and Director of CROLS and extraordinary Docent (A/P) in War Studies at the Swedish Defence University gave a skype presentation as part of the Australian Defence College Profession of Arms Seminar series titled the Future Joint Leader 2040: An Intellectual Edge in the 21st Century.

Sascha spoke about Lawfare and the Future Military Leader and building on his work w/ A Munoz from NATO SHAPE HQ:

‘Lawfare takes place in the hybrid communications based perspective with Lawfare “reaching the desired target as the warhead of a missile, while media Information Operations (InfoOps)/StratCom would be the power flight of that missile” with Information Ops resembling: “non-kinetic, communications related, and informational activities that aim to affect cognitive, psychological, motivational, ideational, ideological, and moral characteristics of a target audience”’

Lawfare is using the whole spectrum of so called ‘accelerated warfare’.

July 27, 2018

New Research Collaboration between Bournemouth University and La Trobe University, Melbourne, Australia

BRIAN, BU Challenges, conferences, Fusion, international, Knowledge Exchange, Knowledge Transfer, Public engagement, REF Subjects, staff profile pages sbachmann

Dr Sascha Dov Bachmann, Associate Professor in International Law (BU) and War Studies (Swedish Defence University), acting Director of BU’s Centre for Conflict,Rule of Law and Society has joined forces with Professor Louis de Koker and Professor Pompeu Casanovas from La Trobe University, Melbourne, Australia to convene the conference

Hybrid threats and the Asia – Pacific region: Hybrid warfare and cyber-attacks within the Australian – Pacific context

Global peace and security has seen the arrival of new security threats in the form of hybrid threats and cyber-attacks.

This symposium provides a platform for the discussion of a new form of warfare, namely ‘hybrid warfare’. Hybrid war is the use of a range of non-conventional methods (e.g. cyber warfare and lawfare) in order to disrupt, discourage and disable an adversary’s capabilities without engaging in open hostilities and may use the full range of military and non-military options for achieving its strategic objectives. Such hybrid warfare might include aspects of ‘cyber terrorism’, ‘cyber war’ and cyber-based ‘information operations’, a topic of particular interest given Russia’s ‘Ukrainian Spring’, the continuing threat posed by radical Islamist groups in Africa, the Middle East and the Asia-Pacific region as well geopolitical shifts.

The interdisciplinary symposium will discuss military doctrines, new and traditional approaches to war and peace and its perceptions, the use of cyber warfare, the use of mass media communication to meddle in internal state affairs, including impact on state elections and public sentiment, as well as the use of lawfare (the strategy of using – or misusing – law as a substitute for traditional military means to achieve a war-fighting objective) to achieve military goals in a non-kinetic way and the use of various means to disrupt a nation’s economy, public services and national interests.

At the heart of the symposium stand the questions of how to increase resilience and whether responses to such hybrid threats need to change in the future.

This seminal conference brings together academics and military professionals from the region and beyond to discuss new security challenges from a Asia-Pacific and especially an Australian perspective.

Deadline for submissions: 31 October 2018

Symposium Date: 25 – 26 March 2019

Place: La Trobe University, Melbourne, Australia

Proposals must be sent by email to the Lead Convenor: Professor (AP) Sascha Dov Bachmann (email: sbachmann@bournemouth.ac.uk).

Convenors:

Professor (AP) Sascha Dov Bachmann (email: sbachmann@bournemouth.ac.uk (Lead Convenor)
Professor Pompeu Casanovas (CasanovasRomeu@latrobe.edu.au) and Professor Louis de Koker (L.deKoker@latrobe.edu.au).

February 22, 2018

BU-led Kosovo-strand of AHRC-project ‘Changing the Story’ commenced with Dorset artist residency in February, 2018

Awarded & submitted bids, BRIAN, BU Challenges, innovation, international, Knowledge Exchange, Knowledge Transfer, Public engagement, Research assessment sssievers

Bo urnemouth University leads the Kosovo-strand of a major four-year AHRC ‘Global Challenges’ project titled ‘Changing the Story‘. This project aims at supporting the building of inclusive civil societies (CSOs) with, and for, young people in five post-conflict countries. It asks how the arts, heritage, and human rights education can support youth-centred approaches to civil society building in Cambodia, Colombia, Kosovo, Rwanda and South Africa. The Kosovo strand benefits from an established track record of collaboration with University of Prishtina (Co-I) and Stacion: Centre for Contemporary Arts in Prishtina as well as several arts-based civil society organisations in the country. The BU-led strand focuses on formal and informal civic education through the arts in Kosovo, to be explored locally by a Postgraduate Research Assistant, attached to University of Prishtina, through a critical review and proof of concept exercise during the first year. In support, BU is contributing a fully-funded PhD scholarship under the title ‘Imagining New Futures: Engaging Young People Through Participatory Arts in Post-Conflict Kosovo‘, which is currently being advertised.

International collaborative activities commenced last week in collaboration with an internationally-acclaimed CSO partner in Dorset, devoted to developing global youth citizenship through culture and the arts. The award-winning Complete Freedom of Truth project (TCFT), with which BU collaborated already previously, kindly offered a one-week residency to Albert Heta, Director of Stacion: Centre for Contemporary Arts in Prishtina. This residency brought together a group of artists, workshop leaders and young people from across the UK between February 12 and 16 in Bridport. Albert’s visit from Kosovo was funded by the AHRC and facilitated by BU’s new Research Centre ‘Seldom Heard-Voices: Marginalisation and Society Integration’ of the Faculty of Health and Social Sciences (FHSS). Together with Albert, some of the Centre’s members also participates in the events organised by TCFT, exchanged experiences and discussed best practice of working with young people of various background through the arts towards social justice. TCFT has a long history of working with young people, internationally, starting in post-conflict Srebrenica in 2008. Based on our observations during one week in Dorset, including of the issues selected as important by the young UK-participants during this period, we are currently reflecting on the extent to, and ways in, which arts-based interventions with a given set of young people in one specific socio-cultural context and its underpinning conceptualisations (such as of empowerment or vulnerability of, and pressures on, young people) can or cannot be transferred to another, such as that in which young people in Kosovo negotiate their aspirations.

Stephanie Schwandner-Sievers

sssievers@bournemouth.ac.uk

Photo credit below: Robert Golden

Kosovo strand activities begin via a global youth citizenship project

June 15, 2017

BU to present to Members of Qatar Armed Forces and Qatar Embassy

Fusion, Public engagement sbachmann

Dr Sascha Dov Bachmann, Associate Professor in International Law and Extraordinary Associate Professor in War Studies (Swedish Defence University) will speak to Members of Qatar Armed Forces and Qatar Embassy in London about Hybrid Warfare within the GCC context. He will be joined by Brig (rtd) Anthony Paphiti (UK) and Prof Hakan Gunneriusson from the Swedish Defence University. The event will touch upon various fields of interest associated with Hybrid Warfare such as Lawfare, Information Operations and how particular vulnerabilities can be exploited. This activity is taking place as part of the wider project on Hybrid Warfare by Sascha Dov Bachmann in collaboration with colleagues from the UK, NATO, Sweden, South Africa and Qatar.

Tagged / Conflict and Security

War in Ukraine anniversary: Webinar on March 1st & Academic Forum co-edited by Dr Alina Dolea

Dr. Sascha Dov Bachmann addresses Australian military at the Australian Defence College

New Research Collaboration between Bournemouth University and La Trobe University, Melbourne, Australia

BU to present to Members of Qatar Armed Forces and Qatar Embassy

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