Changing the Story - Meet the Researchers: Cultural Connections

Professor Paul Cooke discusses the multi-disciplinary project which supports the building of inclusive civil societies with, and for, young people in post-conflict countries.

Please note this is an online event – book your place here.

Professor Paul Cooke will introduce the Changing the Story project, which explores how the arts, heritage and human rights education can support youth-centred approaches to civil society building in post-conflict settings across the world.

This four-year ‘Global Challenges Research Fund’ Network Plus project, currently runs 22 projects in 12 post-conflict countries across the Global South.

This talk will focus on the network's work in the Balkans. PhD student Katie Hodgkinson will also highlight some early research findings, looking in particular at how Changing the Story is informing thinking around the relationship between ‘informal’ and ‘formal’ educational systems.

Changing the Story projects range from a small-scale, youth-led, intervention in Zimbabwe that uses graffiti and other forms of participatory art as a tool for activist youth to raise awareness of human-rights issues connected to the social exclusion of the Tonga people, to a national-level project in Rwanda designed to shape the country’s art curriculum and to support critical thinking.

This event takes place as part of the Meet the Researchers: Cultural Connections webinar series.

Photograph taken during Paul's work in Cambodia - by Keo Theasrun, Documentation Centre of Cambodia.