The world seems to be in transition. Openly fought armed conflict between nations has returned and become a new normalcy in the news, re-triggering fears of nuclear war that long seemed forgotten. At the same time, hybrid warfare online and through new forms of attacks emerges as a menace that we are only starting to grapple with. Other issues such as climate change, (racial) inequalities, and minority rights that have mobilised millions of people around the world only a few years ago have been pushed to the sidelines even if they are far from resolved and continue to force people to leave their homes. And all this takes place against the backdrop of severe governance crises in many established democracies around the world that struggle to meet the multi-faceted challenges of our times, with citizens that lose trust in democratic norms and regimes that become increasingly authoritarian. How can we make sense of our world in transition and what can peace and conflict studies contribute to a better understanding of these crises?

This PhD workshop, hosted by the Conflict & Change Research Cluster at the Department of Political Science at University College London (UCL) brings together doctoral students working on peace and conflict, contentious politics, human rights, and migration to discuss their research on these complex phenomena.

Each panel includes three to four 10-minute presentations followed by a response by a member of the Conflict & Change Research Cluster at UCL, and an open discussion involving all workshop participants.