UNESCO Chair Refugee Integration through Languages and the Arts (RILA)

Spring School 2022

Our Shared Values

Spring School 2022 has now concluded (11-13 May 2022).

Thank you to everyone who made the 2022 event so special.  It was wonderful to be back together both online and in person.  Please see our post event report for some pictures and content from the event.   

Please download and view the Spring School 2022 full programme or flick through the virtual booklet here.

What is the first thing that comes to mind when you think about your own values and how they shape your identity, or identities?

This year the Spring School is linking conceptually with the Festival of Europe (FoE), and is one of a series of inter-connected events which take place throughout the UK from May to September 2022 called The Summer of Europe. FoE will be an opportunity to reflect upon and will create a memorable experience of exploring European identity. This European identity, or multiple identities, is/are sometimes complementary, sometimes conflicting. We cannot remove conflict, but we can transform it. We can discuss our identity, critique it, pick it up and examine it from different angles.

The UNESCO Chair is also partnering on The People's Global Summit, an initiative seeking to shape a Global Values Declaration for a new eco-social world that will be delivered to the United Nations High-Level Political Forum in July 2022 and will create a catalyst for further global action.

The Festival of Europe is to be a celebration of culture, values and hope. The People’s Global Summit seeks to co-build a conversation on the creation of globally shared values.

In this year's Spring School, we draw out the concept of values a little further, by exploring the following questions and provocations:

• Do we need shared values? How do we decide what these are? Where do we get them from?
• How do values interact with identity or identities. How do identities interact with each other?
• How do identities and/or values change in response to different or shifting relationships with people/places/objects?
• In what way are our values shaped by the environment, by our and others’ cultures, by our experiences and understanding and by histories? And how do our values shape them in turn?
• Can we employ shared values to bring people together? How do we do this?

Line-up for Wednesday 11 May (online)

Keynote speakers:

• Aubépine Dahan, Aline Lasry (both Paris D'Exil), Catherine Larré and Marie-Laure Colrat (both Association 4A) - L’Atelier «Edition Originale» (more info)
• Max Frieder, Esero Nalyong and Ayakaka Flora (Artolution) - Artolution: The Next Phase In the History of Public Art for Transformational Change Globally (more info)

Keynote poet:

• Nyashadzashe Chikumbu (more info)

Contributors:

• Rachel Burke (University of Newcastle, Australia) - Elevating Every Voice: Documenting Strengths-Based Approaches to Languages Education in Displacement and Resettlement (more info)
• Rachel Morley (clinical and community psychologist) and Lucy Cathcart-Frödén (community development practitioner, researcher and musician) - Finding buried treasure: a shared ritual  CANCELLED
• Ashley Beckett and Gün Orgun (both City of Sanctuary) - The Value of the Arts in our Sanctuary Work (more info)
• Seif Eddine Jlassi (Fanni Raghman Anni) - We Are Here/ Nous Somme Ici / نحن هنا (more info)
• Hyab Yohannes (CUSP Academic Coordinator, University of Glasgow (UofG)), Giovanna Fassetta (CUSP Co-Investigator, UofG), Maria Grazia Imperiale (Lecturer in Adult Education, UofG) - Safeguarding in Collaborative Research (more info)
• Christian Hanser (University of Edinburgh) - A Tiny Campus on tour: experimenting with pop-up academic hospitalities across Europe (more info)
• Saskia de Wildt (Queen's University, Canada) and Leonard Netser (Coral Harbour, Nunavut) - Exploring Polar Bear Research as Ethical Space, Practice and Process of Engagement (more info)
• Ewa Szwabowicz and Flore Fridén (Spray Peace) - Spray Peace: Art as a universal language (more info)
• Nakárori “Rarámuri” ZacEnTlána Colimaitl (The Autochthonous Biosphere Coalitions) - Lessons learned from Indigenous Climate Injustice (more info)

Evening programme:

• GRAMNet Film Series Watch Party and discussion "Exodus" + watch in your own time "9 Days in Raqqa" (More info)

Line-up for Thursday 12 May (in person)

Keynote speakers:

• Debra Kelly (University of Westminster, King’s College London, Centre for Language Acts and Worldmaking, Festival of Europe) - Language Acts! What Are ‘Our Values’? (more info)
• Awol Allo (Keele University) - Country of Origin Expert Evidence in Immigration and Asylum Cases (more info)

Keynote poet:

• Esa Adegheri (more info)

Contributors:

• Dr Yvonne Skipper (School of Education, University of Glasgow) and Daniel Boatwright (University of Strathclyde) - Using character development to understand our own and other’s values and identities (more info)
• Dr Gameli Tordzro (UNESCO RILA team) and Dr Sadie Ryan (UNESCO RILA team) - Listening Beyond The Ear (more info)
• Mirna Šolić (University of Glasgow) and Alice König (University of St Andrews) - What kind of film would YOU write about migration? (more info)
• Pinar Aksu (University of Glasgow) - Connecting Values with Human Rights (more info)
• Francesca Zappia (UNESCO RILA Affiliate Artist), Mia Gubbay (community development officer) and Paria Goodarzi (UNESCO RILA Affiliate Artist) - Monuments for Equality (more info)
• Tawona Sitholé (UNESCO RILA team) - Pasichigare: We Are Nature (more info)
• Christine Kammerer (independent singer, musician and composer) - Illuminating Shared Values and Cultural Identity through Conversations in Music (more info)
• Paria Goodarzi (UNESCO RILA Affiliate Artist) and Mousa AlNana (artist), both representing Maryhill Integration Network - Museum of Things (more info)
• Ashley Beckett and Gün Orgun (both City of Sanctuary) - The Value of the Arts in our Sanctuary Work (more info)

Line-up for Friday 13 May (in person)

Keynote speakers:

• Prof Alison Phipps (UNESCO Chair in Refugee Integration through Languages and the Arts, University of Glasgow) - Cry Freedoms: Sticks, stones and the Value of Sharing (more info)
• Dr Fatou Cessé Kane - Taboo and intimacy in Wolof (more info)

Keynote poet:

• Aine McAllister (more info)

Contributors:

• Marzanna Antoniak (Poetry Patter) - Home and Family values in World Poetry (more info)
• Naa Densua Tordzro (Migration for Development and Equity project) - Lunchtime with Naa Densua Tordzro (more info)
• Rachel Morley (clinical and community psychologist) and Lucy Cathcart-Frödén (community development practitioner, researcher and musician) - Finding buried treasure: a shared ritual CANCELLED
• Esme Smithson Swain, Lidewij van der Vaart, Jeremy Vial, Alaa Aldrobe (all Amsterdam University College, Right2Education) - Right2Education (more info)
• Les P’tits Déjs Solidaires - The Arts of the (Breakfast) Table, or How to Wake Up Unsuspected Possibilities (more info)
• Presenters from MIN Voices group (Maryhill Integration Network) - The importance of creating spaces of hope using creativity: interactive workshop with MIN Voices of Maryhill Integration Network (more info)
• Flore Fridén and Alessio Di Pinto (Spray Peace) - Spray Peace: Art as a universal language (more info)
• Brittnee Leysen (UNESCO RILA team) with colleagues from Aotearoa - Immersive soundscape: from Alba to Aotearoa (more info)
• Joyous Choir (Maryhill Integration Network) - an international singing workshop (more info)
• Surprise poetry by Sawsan Al-Areeqe (more info)

Last but not least, we sincerely thank our sponsor for this year: the Culture for Sustainable and Inclusive Peace Network (CUSP) at the University of Glasgow, without whom there might not have been a Spring School at all this year. And in that context, a special thanks goes out to Jennifer McArthur - you're a star!