Peace as Violence

Speaker: Professor Brandon Hamber, John Hume and Thomas P. O'Neill Chair in Peace, International Conflict Research Institute (INCORE), Ulster University

Chair: Dr Craig Larkin, Senior Lecturer in Comparative Politics of the Middle East and Deputy Co-Director of the Centre for the Study of Divided Societies, King’s College London

In this webinar, Professor Brandon Hamber, will explore his paper on how peace processes, and the aftermath, are experienced by survivors and former combatants. He argues that the change in context embodies a range of new forms of violence and harm for some.

The session will draw on case studies of empirical research with former combatants and survivors in Northern Ireland and South Africa, as well the case of some Vietnam Veterans who formed part of a recent research project. It will explore how a sequential understanding of trauma can help explain the challenge of reframing meaning away from violence once a formal peace has been established.

Bio:

Professor Brandon Hamber is the John Hume and Thomas P. O’Neill Chair in Peace based at the International Conflict Research Institute (INCORE) at Ulster University.

He is also a member of the Transitional Justice Institute at the university, and is an Honorary Professor of the African Centre for Migration and Society at the University of the Witwatersrand in South Africa.

He has consulted to a range of community groups, policy initiatives and government bodies in Northern Ireland and South Africa.

Brandon has undertaken consulting and research work, and participated in various peace and reconciliation initiatives in Liberia, Mozambique, Bosnia, the Basque Country and Sierra Leone, among others. He has written extensively on the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission, the psychological implications of political violence, masculinity, and the process of transition and reconciliation in South Africa, Northern Ireland and abroad.

He has published some 30 journal articles, over 25 book chapters and 4 books.

Please register via Zoom, all registered attendees will receive an email with access information.

This event will be recorded.