Events

10 June 2026

Professor Aidan McGarry’s (Loughborough University London) presentation sets out a large research grant application to UKRI focused on how communities challenge and resist overtourism. It argues that overtourism is a growing issue globally and is particularly acute in Europe. Cities like Amsterdam, Venice, Barcelona and Dubrovnik have developed policy responses which have been ineffectual thus far because they fail to put the needs of local residents first. The presentation will share the rationale, existing research and methodology for the project exploring how local communities protest overtourism in UK, Spain and Malaysia. It will conclude by sharing some research in progress focused on the civic activism and policy interventions in Edinburgh.

18 March 2026

Valentina Otmačić is a peace scholar and practitioner from Croatia. Her book Resisting Inter-Ethnic Violence: Community Approaches to Conflict Transformation in Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina  (Routledge, 2025) explores local resistance to ethnic segregation and violence in the ethnically mixed communities of Gorski kotar (Croatia) and Tuzla (Bosnia-Herzegovina) during the 1991-1995 wars in former Yugoslavia.

During this talk, Valentina will present the main findings of her research and key insights into the local dynamics of peace preservation during violent conflict. She will also discuss the emerging framework for community resistance to identity-based violence in multi-ethnic societies. 

4 February 2026

Susannah Lisbet Wright (Oxford Brookes) and Tomás Irish (Swansea) presented their paper, "Children and young people and the League of Nations".

30 September 2025, 2.30-4.00pm
Hybrid 

Orit Shimoni is a peace activist, an academic with qualifications in Literature, Philosophy, and Theology, and an award-winning musician who has released 12 albums She is currently mid-way through a European tour,* and will be talking to the PNRG on 30 September. She will be discussing her views about the potential value of music and the arts to promote cross-cultural understanding and dialogue-making, reflecting on themes of trauma, peace activism, diaspora and identity. Her thesis, in brief, is that sometimes words alone are insufficient. Her practice as a musician and artist is informed by theoretical engagement with language and philosophies of ‘goodness’. Her humanitarian impulse is to ensure pacifist voices in, and about, Israel-Palestine, are not only amplified, but that their meaning is heard.

28 May 2025

Several authors – including Mark Bernstein and Lisa Kemmerer – have defended militant animal rights activism using just war theory. I argue that the just war case for animal rights militancy fails. It fails because animal rights militancy does not have a reasonable chance of success, and because no legitimate authority has declared war on animals’ behalf. Would-be animal rights militants are advised to look elsewhere for justification, while scholars at the intersection of animal ethics and the ethics of war are assured that they are not committed to animal rights militancy.

21 May 2025, 1.00pm
Hybrid

Research seminar with Dr Elisa Piras (Center for Advanced Studies of Eurac Research). "An analysis of theoretical framings of the problem of peace in the global justice debate".

23-25 April 2025
Online

Three-day online workshop hosted by Loughborough University’s Institute of Advanced Studies for scholars from around the globe to present and discuss draft papers for potential submission to the Journal of Pacifism and Nonviolence.

5 February 2025, 1.00pm
Hybrid

Research seminar with Dr Noga Glucksam (UCL and Richmond American University London): "Peacebuilding as Rewilding: Ecosystem Thinking for Post-Conflict Reconstruction".

6 November 2024, 1.00pm
Hybrid

Research seminar with Professor Caroline Kennedy-Pipe (Loughborough University): "What makes a Pacifist? Reflections on Rengger's biography". 

22 October 2024, 5.30pm
Hybrid

IRPH Guest Lecture by Professor Ramin Jahanbegloo (Jindal Global University) titled: "The Relevance of Gandhian Nonviolence". Hosted by the Department of International Relations, Politics and History.

24 April 2024, 2.00pm
Hybrid

Research seminar with Dr Louise Ridden (Tampere University): “The Spatio-Temporal Violence of the Longue Durée.”

16-18 April 2024
Online

Three-day online workshop hosted by Loughborough University’s Institute of Advanced Studies for scholars from around the globe to present and discuss draft papers for potential submission to the Journal of Pacifism and Nonviolence.

27 November 2023, 4.00pm
Hybrid

The first of seven weekly sessions of a Pacifism and Nonviolence Discussion group.

18 October 2023, 5.00pm 
Hybrid

Journal launch event for the Journal of Pacifism and Nonviolence. Included Guest lecture by IAS Visiting Fellow Professor Richard Jackson (University of Otago), Guest Speaker Professor Berit Bliesemann de Guevara (Aberystwyth University), and IAS Visiting Fellow Dr Felicity Gray (Nonviolent Peaceforce).

30 May 2023, 11.00am 
In-person

Sandpit sponsored by Challenges to Democracy and the Public Sphere (CHADS) and Hidden Voices, Contested Pasts bringing together Loughborough University colleagues with research interests in the area.

19-21 April 2023
Online

Three-day online workshop hosted by Loughborough University’s Institute of Advanced Studies for scholars from around the globe to present and discuss draft papers for potential submission to the Journal of Pacifism and Nonviolence.

15 September 2022, 4.00pm 
Hybrid

This double seminar brought together a group of scholars to analyse different dimensions and examples of nonviolent protest and resistance, including, in the first seminar: civil resistance in Thailand, the constructive resistance of the #MeToo movement, the challenges faced by today’s social movements, and the idea of rebellion; and in the second seminar: nonviolence and cooperative power, the constructive resistance of nonviolent struggles, and Gandhian nonviolence.

Featuring the following talks:

• Dr Iain Atack, University of Dublin (Ireland) - Nonviolence and Cooperative Power 
• Prof Stellan Vinthagen, University of Massachusetts, Amherst (USA) - Constructive Resistance: Combining the YES and NO in Nonviolent Struggles
• Prof Ramin Jahanbegloo, O.P. Jindal Global University (India) - Gandhian Nonviolence: Reconciling Ethics and Politics
• Dr Javier Argomaniz, University of St Andrews - Civil resistance to non-state violence: the case of Basque Country

Further information and recordings about Pacifism and Nonviolence on the IAS website and on the  IAS Spotlight series on Pacifism and Nonviolence on YouTube.

15 September 2022, 1.00pm
Hybrid

This double seminar brought together a group of scholars to analyse different dimensions and examples of nonviolent protest and resistance, including, in the first seminar: civil resistance in Thailand, the constructive resistance of the #MeToo movement, the challenges faced by today’s social movements, and the idea of rebellion; and in the second seminar: nonviolence and cooperative power, the constructive resistance of nonviolent struggles, and Gandhian nonviolence.

Featuring the following talks:

• Dr Janjira Sombatpoonsiri, Chulalongkorn University (Thailand) - Civil resistance in the shadow of digital repression: Insights from Thailand
• Prof Mona Lilja, University of Gothenburg (Sweden) - The constructive resistance of the #MeToo movement
• Dr Michael Loadenthal, University of Cincinnati (USA) - From Terrorization to riotization: Challenges for today's social movements
• Dr Chris Rossdale, University of Bristol (UK) - The Limits of Rebellion

Further information and recordings about Pacifism and Nonviolence on the IAS website and on the IAS Spotlight on YouTube.

20 June 2022, 3.00pm
Hybrid

This seminar brought together a group of scholars to discuss various facets of militarism, including faith in the institutions of violence, how political philosophers overlook militarism, wargaming in the US military, and militarisation in Palestine.

Featuring the following talks:

• Dr Ned Dobos, UNSW Canberra (Australia) - Militarism and Faith in the Institutions of Violence
• Prof Cheyney Ryan, University of Oxford (UK) - How Political Philosophers Ignore Militarism
• Dr Aggie Hirst, King's College London (UK) - The Politics of Play: Wargaming with the US military
• Dr Marwan Darweish, Coventry University (UK) - Growing Militarisation in Palestine

Further information and recordings about Pacifism and Nonviolence on the IAS website and on the IAS Spotlight Series on YouTube.

20 June 2022, 11.00am
Hybrid

This seminar brought together a group of scholars to examine more closely a range of concrete examples of responses to violence, including in civilian protection initiatives, with military defectors, and in responses to ‘killer robots’ and to counterinsurgency. 

Featuring the following talks:

• Dr Molly Wallace, Portland University (USA) - Credible messengers, formers and military refusers: Former fighters as resources for violence and war prevention
• Prof Rachel Julian, Leeds Beckett University (UK) - Community-led protection from violence in Mindanao: how civilians are using nonviolence to be more secure
• Dr Naomi Head, University of Glasgow (UK) - Responding to counterinsurgency: Female Engagement and ‘Hearts and Minds’ in Iraq and Afghanistan
• Dr Jeremy Moses, University of Canterbury (New Zealand) - That human dignity of having a human decide to kill you

Further information and recordings on Pacifism and Nonviolence on the IAS website and on the IAS Spotlight on YouTube.

29 April 2022, 11.00am
Hybrid

This seminar brought together a group of scholars to consider a variety of critiques of common rationalisations for violence and pacifist responses to it.  

Featuring the following talks:

• Prof Richard Jackson, Otago University (New Zealand) - Pacifism and the Cult of Violence in Counterterrorism
• Prof Kimberly Hutchings, Queen Mary University of London (UK) - What is Peace Time
• Dr Helen Dexter, University of Leicester (UK) - Deferred Pacifism
• Prof Paul Rogers, University of Bradford (UK) - Systemic Ill-preparedness: The Cult of Violence in the Face of Climate Breakdown and Pandemics

Further information and recordings on Pacifism and Nonviolence on the IAS website and on the IAS Spotlight on YouTube.

28 April 2022, 3.00pm 
Hybrid

This seminar brought together a group of scholars to reflect on the way violence is remembered and commemorated from the World Wars to the climate crisis.

Featuring the following talks:

• Dr Alexandre Christoyannopoulos, Loughborough University (UK) - Contesting the Red Poppy Today: A Pacifist Critique of Dominant Remembrance Commemorations
• Dr Peter Yeandle, Loughborough University (UK) - “Honour the Dead, Serve the Living”: Poppy Politics in Britain in the 1920s and ‘30s
• Dr Mathias Thaler, University of Edinburgh (UK) - Commemorating Loss in the Age of Slow Violence

Further information and recordings here and on YouTube.

27 September 2021, 9.00am
Online

This closed workshop brought together most Editorial Board members of the anticipated Journal of Pacifism and Nonviolence to discuss the journal’s remit.