ARC Public; Social Sciences Hub
Date: Tuesday 09 May 2023 - Thursday 18 May 2023
Time: 09:00 - 18:00
Venue: Advanced Research Centre
Category: Concerts and music, Conferences, Exhibitions, Public lectures, Academic events, Student events, Alumni events, Courses
Speaker: More than 50 speakers from all over the world

Join us at the UNESCO RILA Spring School 2023: The Arts of Integrating!

This year the Spring School will focus on culture as a binding factor in society. For 2023, we have curated a programme which explores meeting, greeting, sharing, and other cultural practices that are centred around communal experiences.

Please note this is a hybrid event and you register for each day individually. 16-18 May are online only, 9-11 May are in person in Glasgow, Scotland. Please scroll down for the programme details for each day.

Inspiration

Universal Declaration of Human Rights Article 27

Everyone has the right freely to participate in the cultural life of the community, to enjoy the arts and to share in scientific advancement and its benefits.

“The right to take part in cultural life guarantees the right of everyone to access, participate in and enjoy culture, cultural heritage and cultural expressions. A human-centred approach to development based on mutual respect and open dialogue among cultures is key to safeguarding heritage, strengthening creative industries, and encouraging cultural pluralism. The full realization of this right depends on concrete steps for the conservation, development, and diffusion of culture.”

(source: https://en.unesco.org/human-rights/cultural-life (02/11/2022))

Sub-topics

This year's sessions will touch on or address:

  • parallels of ‘ceilidh’ in other cultures
  • examples by community groups/organisations where culture is part of the integration methodology: what are the difficulties and best practices?
  • researching “culture” and issues such as quantifying qualitative data, cultural representation etc.
  • making space for cultural differences within society, while also acknowledging the need to preserve the culture of the host community
  • culture loss, destruction and emergence of new culture

To read the full programme, please click here.

IN PERSON PROGRAMME

Tuesday 9 May 9:00am-5:00pm BST

Keynotes:

  • Drawing time: A journey by Arafa & The Dirars - Mónica Laiseca (Edinburgh Printmakers) and Arafa and The Dirars (In From The Margins)
  • The Shifting Goalposts of Becoming, Belonging and “Integrating” in a Newly Found Home: Personal Reflections of an Integree - By Dr Daniel Mekonnen
  • POET: S'pongo

Contributors:

  • Data is Art - by Dr Hyab Yohannes, Tawona Ganyamatopé Sitholé and Prof Alison Phipps (UNESCO RILA team)
  • Tea: A Cup of Heritage - By Hsiao-Chiang "Hope" Wang, Pinar Aksu, Qian-Yao "Claire" Shen (all University of Glasgow) and Yen-Ting "Lupin" Lin (Glasgow Science Centre)
  • Lessons from the Cèilidh House: Concepts for Contemporary Community Arts Work - By Rhona Dougall (NicDhùghaill) (independent community arts worker and producer)
  • Fostering a multicultural community of library users in Athens, Greece - By Emma Raibaut (We Need Books)
  • The Power of Song for Resilience Building after Disaster - By Emily-Marie Pacheco, Martha Lomeli-Rodriguez, Elinor Parrott, Andrea Bernardino, Hélène Joffe (all University College London)
  • Creating culture: zine-making as a means of retelling individual, social and cultural stories - By Dr Emmaleena Käkelä (University of Strathclyde) and Marzanna Antoniak (Migrant Voice)
  • Death of the nine-night - By Dr Predencia Dixon (independent artist)
  • Tuning as Communication: Listening Interaction and Adjusting Tones and Other Codes - By Dr Gameli Tordzro (UNESCO RILA team)
  • CEILIDH - By Glasgow University Ceilidh Band (Glasgow University Trad Society)

Wednesday 10 May 9:00am-5:00pm BST (in person)

Keynotes:

  • Growing Together: Reclaiming our lost commons - By Avril Bellinger and Deirdre Ford
  • Bearing Witness is the Beginning - By Mariem Omari (Bijli Productions)
  • POET: Chantelle Warner

Contributors:

  • Invisible aesthetics: non-object, post-studio art practices and the post-contemporary - By Dr Daniel Connell (independent artist)
  • New Syria - By Seif Eddine Jlassi (Fanni Raghman Anni)
  • Txalaparta - Dialogue, Invitation, Celebration - By Nerea Bello Sagarzazu (independent artist & University of Glasgow)
  • Breaking out of the echo chamber: engaging with Edinburgh’s World Heritage Site management plan - By Gaby Laing (Edinburgh World Heritage)
  • Creating Welcome through Community and Culture - By Ashley Beckett and Gün Orgun (City of Sanctuary UK)
  • Ngano led by Tawona Ganyamatopé Sitholé - By Tawona Ganyamatopé Sitholé (UNESCO RILA team)
  • When words are not enough: Learning literacies of the pluriverse - By Prof Mia Perry, Dr Lisa Bradley, Marcela Ramos (all University of Glasgow) and Mindy (Amanda) Ptolemey (Glasgow Caledonian University)
  • Re-assembling – an alternative to integration by understanding communities - By Dr Azadeh Fatehrad (Kingston University), Dr Davide Natalini (Anglia Ruskin University) and Dr Cristina Douglas (University of Aberdeen)

Thursday 11 May 9:00am-5:00pm BST (in person)

Keynotes:

  • artasfoundation: Artistic Collaboration in Conflict Mediation - By Olivia Jaques and Shoghakat Mlké-Galstyan (artasfoundation)
  • A Permaculture Ceilidh: Designing Restorative Sanctuaries - By Prof Alison Phipps (UNESCO RILA team)
  • POET: Anita Govan

Contributors:

  • Crafts for Dark Times - A bookbinding workshop - By Dr Sarah Stewart (Friends of Scottish Settlers) and Erdem Avşar (University of Glasgow)
  • Coffee Ceilidh - By Dr Hyab Yohannes and Prof Alison Phipps (both UNESCO RILA team)
  • Multilingual Making through Poetry - By Assoc Prof Chantelle Warner (University of Arizona)
  • Growing integration: an informative discussion session on the The New Scots Refugee Integration Strategy report from the UNESCO RILA team - By Dr Esa Aldegheri (UNESCO RILA team)
  • Practices of wellness, self-confidence, and magic - By Brittnee Leysen (UNESCO RILA team)
  • Migrant Voice's Multicultural Ceilidh - By Marzanna Antoniak (Migrant Voice) and member of Migrant Voice
  • White Water Writers: A novel way to learn more about young people’s views of difference and diversity - By Dr Yvonne Skipper and Daniel Boatwright (White Water Writers), presented by Dr Emily-Marie Pacheco (University of Glasgow)
  • The Pragmatic Value of Keeping the Sabbath on Lewis and Harris - By Eilidh Harris (University of Glasgow)
  • Somali refugee girls visualizing integration in urban primary schools in Kampala: Representations, contradictions, oppositions - By Manya Oriel Kagan (Ben Gurion University in the Negev)

ONLINE PROGRAMME

Tuesday 16 May 9:00-10:00am BST

Contributors:

  • How we name what we name - By Brittnee Leysen (UNESCO RILA team) and Sahara Wallace (teacher and cultural advisor)
  • Learning to ‘Belong’: Reinterpreting culture through a migrant integration programme - By Kirstin Sonne (University of Malta)

Tuesday 16 May 5:00-6:00pm BST

Contributors:

  • Exploring language, migration and identity using podcasts: A listening and discussion session - By Dr Sadie Durkacs Ryan (Accentricity podcast)

Wednesday 17 May 9:00-10:00am BST

Contributors:

  • Who Are We Now? A Cultural Reimagining of People, Place & Purpose - By Nadine Malcolm (Due North Studio) and Lee McNeish (University of Edinburgh)

Evening programme

  • GRAMNet film screening for Nakba Day

Wednesday 17 May 5:00-6:00pm BST

Contributors:

  • Exploring creative, cross-cultural research collaborations: A case study of an humanitarian healthcare clinic in Lebanon - By Nader Tabri (independent Lebanese artist), Molly Gilmour (University of Glasgow) and Fátima Fouad (independent Lebanese interpreter)
  • Music Fighting labor exploitation! The case of Orchestra dei Braccianti - By Isabella Corvino (Perugia University)

Thursday 18 May 9:00-11:00am BST

Contributors:

  • Third Culture Dialoguing - By Dr Laura Cariola (University of Edinburgh) and Dr Deirdre MacKenna (Cultural Documents)
  • Arts-based, healing-focused approaches to language in resettlement: Co-creating places of hope - By Dr Rachel Burke (University of Newcastle, Australia)
  • The Merry Dancers - Creative responses to the night - By Gabrielle Barnby (independent artist)

Thursday 18 May 5:00-6:15pm BST

Contributors:

  • Education for Sustainable Futures in Adult, Community, and Youth Contexts: A distance programme offering - By Prof Mia Perry, Dr Lisa Bradley, Dr Sadie Durkacz Ryan, Dr Giovanna Fassetta and Dr Elizabeth L. Nelson (all University of Glasgow)
  • Short closing ceremony - By Prof Alison Phipps (UNESCO RILA team)

For full details of all contributors, please click here.

For more information about previous Spring Schools or the UNESCO RILA project, please click here.

Last but not least, we sincerely thank our sponsors for this year: the Culture for Sustainable and Inclusive Peace Network (CUSP), the Culture, Literacies, Inclusion and Pedagogy research and teaching group, the New Scots Refugee Integration Delivery Project and the Music Department of the School of Culture & Creative Arts at the University of Glasgow, without whom there might not have been a Spring School at all this year. Thank you all!

More information