Advertise on podcast: UNESCO RIELA: The sounds of integration

This episode was recorded at the 9th UNESCO RIELA Spring School: The Arts of Integrating 2025. In it, the speaker, Xiaofan Xu, talks about a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Afghanistan, the Buddhas of Bamiyan. She tells us about how, against this backdrop, the organisation she's been volunteering with, the Guardians of Bamiyan, actively developed and launched a heritage education project known as the Naan Class. Xiaofan Xu's biography: Xiaofan Xu holds a Master’s degree in Museum Studies from the University of Glasgow and currently works in museum education. She has been volunteering with the Guardians of Bamiyan / Guardians of Gandhara for over two years, where she is committed to diversifying the Naan Class project — an initiative that connects world cultural heritage with education, sports and museum. Working in gender-sensitive contexts, Xiaofan has engaged with local educators to promote women’s self-advocacy and development, particularly focusing on girls who face policy-related barriers to education. Abstract of her talk: Afghanistan once again plunged into turmoil in 2022, amid a reemerging humanitarian crisis and the world’s fading memory of the empty niches that once held the Buddhas of Bamiyan. Against this backdrop, the Guardians of Bamiyan actively developed and launched a heritage education project known as the Naan Class. Children from impoverished families have gathered to participate in this reward-based course taking on the role of “breadwinners”. Through the Naan Class, instructors introduce aspects of the world cultural heritage and history, while the children create related sculptures and paintings that nurture a love for peace — healing the scars of war and allowing hope to return to this valley. For more information about the Spring School, please visit our website: https://www.gla.ac.uk/research/az/unesco/events/springschool/ This episode was edited by Silvana Esquivel Marquez.

This episode was recorded at the online UNESCO RIELA Spring School: The Arts of Integrating 2025. Abstract: This presentation draws on current research into the challenges and opportunities for peacebuilding in state-provided services in Germany where substantial public funds are still allocated for refugee integration. Using data from integration managers in Germany and immersive ethnography at Students and Refugees Together (START) a conceptual framework that links the strengths of people and communities with the resources of the social environment is offered with examples of practice that promotes social justice. Our aim is to encourage restorative integration through unruly practice. Speakers: Kathrin Warth has been working as a social worker in various municipalities for 20 years, currently working as a coordinator in the so-called integration management. She's a traveler, always looking for new ideas and challenges and recently completed a part-time Master's degree as a young mother. She's particularly interested in finding creative ways to overcome restrictive regulations, tries to build bridges or tear down walls while working within an uncritical system. Avril Bellinger is a grandmother, allotmenteer, social worker, honorary associate professor and honorary fellow at the University of Plymouth. She has been a social worker and academic activist for 50 years with interests in emancipatory practice, international education and climate change mitigation. She founded the NGO Students and Refugees Together (START) 25 years ago in Plymouth, UK and continues her unpaid work with them. Co-author of The Strengths Approach in Practice: How It Changes Lives she is keen to explore the strengths approach as a positive response to complex difficulties. For more information about our Spring Schools, please visit our website: www.gla.ac.uk/research/az/unesco/events/springschool/ The next one is coming up: 2-6 November 2026, tickets are free: https://events.humanitix.com/onlinerielaspring26

In this episode, Esa Aldegheri interviews Predencia Dixon about her book A Guide to Jamaican Death Rituals. The guide came our of Predencia's PhD research and presents a practical guide to Jamaicans both in Jamaica and in the Diaspora, as well as to others interested in rituals more broadly. The book is available on Amazon: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Guide-Jamaican-Death-Rituals/dp/B0FS7BXW8W Predencia Dixon is a writer, poet, playwright, dancer and actor. She was born in Jamaica, moved to the UK at the age of ten, attended school in Manchester, moved to Birmingham for higher education and, despite several attempts to leave, still lives there. More information about Predencia can be found on her website http://predencia.co.uk. In April 2023, she completed her PhD at the University of Birmingham, researching the changing approaches to death rituals in Jamaica, and in the Jamaican diaspora in the UK. She has a passion for metaphysics; most of her musings can be found on her blog Writing Creatively With Spirit (https://writingcreativelywithspirit.com/). Predencia is an Affiliate Artist of the UNESCO Chair on Refugee Integration through Education, Languages, and Arts at the University of Glasgow. For more information about the UNESCO Chair project, our activities and the Affiliate Artist Network, please visit www.gla.ac.uk/research/az/unesco/

This episode was recorded at the online Spring School 2025: The Arts of Integrating. Abstract: This presentation explores how music-making can open spaces for reconciliation, dialogue, and relationship-building in post-conflict contexts. Based on qualitative research in Rwanda that took place earlier this year, it shows how music creates encounters – with others and with oneself – that nurture healing and reconciliation. Music’s unique ability to touch both individuals and communities enables a context-specific, holistic approach to peacebuilding that reflects complex local realities and individual experiences of conflict. This presentation is also an invitation to reflect on your own experiences: Have you experienced a musical moment that left a deep impression on you to this day? Biography of the speaker: Sophie Spickenbom recently completed the Erasmus Mundus Joint Master’s in Education Policies for Global Development (GLOBED), studying at the Autonomous University of Barcelona and the University of Glasgow. Her work centres on peace education, peacebuilding, and non-formal education, with a regional focus on East Africa. Inspired by an internship at the Goethe-Institut in Rwanda, she returned to Kigali to conduct her Master’s research with local music initiatives. Her study explored how music contributes to peace and reconciliation in the country, reflecting her broader interest in creative, context-sensitive approaches to education and social change. For more information about the UNESCO RIELA project and our Spring Schools, please visit www.gla.ac.uk/research/az/unesco/.

Bonus: Deborah Olivier performs Neil Gow's Lament for the Death of his Second Wife by UNESCO RIELA

Bu bölümde, Ocak 2026'da UNESCO RIELA ekibinde misafir araştırmacı olarak bulunan Elif Naz Altaş-Kuşhan'ı dinleyeceksiniz. Elif, Türkiye’deki okul öncesi dönemdeki mülteci çocukların erken okuryazarlık gelişimi üzerine yaptığı doktora araştırmasından bahsedecek; çocukların dili öğrenmek ve görünür olmak için kullandıkları stratejilerin yanı sıra, sınıf içerisindeki stratejilerine de değinecek. Elif, bu stratejileri ‘dilsel misafirperverlik’ ve ‘dil zenginliği’ perspektifinden analiz ediyor.

In this episode, you will hear from Elif Naz Altaş-Kuşhan, visiting scholar with the UNESCO RIELA team in January 2026. Elif will be talking about her PhD research on early literacy development of refugee pre-schoolers in Türkiye, looking at strategies employed by children to learn the language and be visible , as well as teacher tactics to teach the children Turkish. Elif is analysing these strategies through a lens of linguistic hospitality and language plenty.

This episode is a recording of Ramon Ayres and Alison Ribeiro de Menezes' keynote presentation at the online UNESCO RIELA Spring School 2025. Abstract: How can we tell stories of impossible suffering without losing hope? What potential can theatre offer to build empathy and connection, and to buttress memory? In this talk we discuss the development of REWIND, Ephemeral Ensemble’s award-winning production inspired by testimonies of refugees whose lives were affected by dictatorship in the 70s in Latin America and young adult migrants affected by human rights abuses in Latin America in 2019-2021. We explore how embodied theatre-making can take us beyond the rational and help to push aside arguments that impede peace-building. We propose a ‘dramaturgy of care’ that promotes connectedness, exchange, and mutual respect. Inspired by our concern for each other, for a caring relationship to society, and a vision of a better future, our work aims to see future potential in relatedness, and to build each from our unique positions to a shared vision of hope. Ramon Ayres is the director of Ephemeral Ensemble, a multi award winning, Global Majority and Migrant-led theatre collective. Their work has been acclaimed in 3 continents and named by The Guardian as having one of the best theatre shows of 2024, Ephemeral Ensemble makes unique work that smashes together raw physicality, electrifying original music and scorching visuals to craft a narrative that hits hard and sparks imagination. Inspired by fact-based stories, their work spotlights urgent social issues, and is created in collaboration with global communities to empower a narrative of care. Alison Ribeiro de Menezes is founding Professor of Hispanic Studies at the University of Warwick and Deputy Chair (Research) of the Faculty of Arts. Her research focuses on cultural memory in Spain and Latin America. She is PI on the AHRC-funded project, ‘Voices of Humanitarianism: British Responses to Refugees from Chile’. She is also currently completing a monograph on Poetics of Disappearance: Embodied Memory Work (which includes a chapter on Ephemeral Ensemble’s REWIND, for which she acted as advisor). Alison continues to collaborate with Ephemeral Ensemble on new work on memory and sustainability and to think about ways to use physical theatre to develop a dramaturgy of care. For more information about the Spring School and the work of the UNESCO Chair, please visit: www.gla.ac.uk/research/az/unesco/events/springschool/ This episode was edited by Catherine McGrath.

This episode is a recording of Tola Benjamin Kehinde's presentation at the online UNESCO RIELA Spring School: The Arts of Integrating 2025, which took place in October 2025. The presentation explores how peacebuilding can be reimagined through decolonial educational practices and emerging technologies, with a focus on Nigeria. It draws on teaching experiences and research into AI ethics in Africa to examine how interdisciplinary approaches that combine history, language, digital tools, and the arts can foster inclusive and intercultural peace education. Using case studies of Nigerian historical education and civic engagement, the session highlights both the opportunities and challenges of using AI to support peacebuilding while addressing colonial legacies. Participants will gain insights into creating culturally grounded and sustainable non-violent strategies for conflict transformation. Kehinde Tola Benjamin is a historian and researcher specializing in African history, digital humanities, and peace education. He lectures at the Department of History and International Studies, Redeemer’s University, Nigeria. His research focuses on the relationship between AI ethics, decolonial pedagogy, and civic engagement, exploring how emerging technologies shape historical knowledge and peacebuilding in Africa. Kehinde has presented at international conferences and co-authored papers on digital governance, African studies, and sustainable development. He is passionate about promoting inclusive education that draws on local knowledge and digital tools to create equitable and transformative learning experiences. For the slides to the presentation, please visit: https://www.slideshare.net/slideshow/reimagining-peacebuilding-in-nigeria-through-decolonial-pedagogy-and-ai-lessons-from-nigeria/289189544

This presentation by Blessing Oluchikwu Awamba about her work with students and teachers in Nigeria, was recorded at the online UNESCO RIELA Spring School: The Arts of Integrating in October 2025. Blessing's work focuses on strategies for integrating global citizenship education into classroom learning to promote peace. She details some of the ways she has used writing and film shows to help students understand peace better, reflect on their daily lives, and take actions to become more peaceful from within. She also shared how her work is helping teachers become ambassadors of peace and create classrooms that serve as incubators for changemakers who promote peace. The presentation offers a compelling case for reforming education to prioritise peaceful coexistence alongside literacy and numeracy. Blessing Oluchukwu Awamba is a Nigerian peacebuilding educator and champion for Global Citizenship Education. As the Founder and Lead Educator of Change A Child Community Initiative, she works to transform narratives of violence into opportunities for growth by working with teachers and students to integrate peace education into school learning. Her work has been recognised and supported by international bodies, including UNESCO-APCEIU and SIMA Studios. She is the author of the children's book, Building Our Ideal Community, and a winner of the 2024 UNODC-GRACE international essay competition. Blessing’s vision is to reform educational policy to ensure that peaceful coexistence becomes the primary measure of education across Africa.

In this podcast, Sundas shares some aspects of her recently completed research project that investigated the use of indigenous, faith, spiritual, and cultural environmental literacies for sustainability education. She elaborates on how these pluriversal environmental literacies are important for not only sustainability and regeneration for all life and life forms on earth, but also for peacebuilding. Dr Sundas Mahar is a researcher and educator currently based at the University of Glasgow. She is specifically interested in using decolonial and pluriversal frameworks to create impactful approaches to education for sustainability and regeneration. Her research focuses on creative, participatory, and embodied approaches to inquiry with students and communities in non-formal educational contexts. To find out more about her work, you can connect with her on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sundas-mahar/

This episode is a recording of a presentation by Dr Maria Grazia Imperiale, Dr Giovanna Fassetta, Dr Sahar Alshobaki and Damian Ross, shared with us at the online UNESCO RIELA Spring School: The Arts of Integrating 2025. The presentation highlights the LINEs4Palestine projects, launched in March 2024, to reduce isolation and support Palestinian students, especially in Gaza. Initially, English and Education graduates received tailored workshops and up to six hours of one-to-one mentoring. The expanded phase of the project now serves students across disciplines and universities, offering, e.g., ELLT Oxford test training, research methods course for social sciences, critical pedagogy course, drama-based teaching and learning, and sci-fi film creation. The presentation offers pathways of what could be done in such dire circumstances, lessons learned and how we imagine things can go forward. Things have moved on since this recording was made, and you can read all about the continued work on the website of the University of Glasgow: https://www.gla.ac.uk/schools/education/research/researchimpactstories/continuingacademicworkduringthegenocideinpalestine/ For the biographies of the speakers, please head to the show notes on the podcast website: www.gla.ac.uk/research/az/unesco/podcast/

A mini poem created at the UNESCO RIELA Spring School: The Arts of Integrating, in the workshop The Story of the Travelling Plate, led by Dilara Özel and Erdem Avşar.

In this episode, we explore the story, challenges, and outcomes of the VERIS project — VERIS – Voices of Palmyra: Engaging in Tangible Memorial Heritage in Social Innovation for Refugee Inclusion — through a conversation with Patrick M. Michel, Oana Șerban, and Brittnee Leysen. Together, they reflect on the collaborative process behind VERIS, a CIVIS Open Lab, the inclusion of Syrian refugees in participatory heritage practices, and the opportunities and limits of using virtual reconstruction as a tool for cultural memory and social innovation. Starting from the reconstruction of tangible heritage associated with Palmyra, the discussion addresses a central question: how can digitally mediated encounters with endangered or destroyed cultural sites become a point of departure for recovering intangible heritage — memories, narratives, identities, and lived cultural practices? The episode also unpacks the ethical, methodological, and practical challenges of working with displaced communities, co-creation, trauma-sensitive engagement, and digital representations of cultural loss. VERIS emerged from a strong interdisciplinary and inter-university collaboration under the umbrella of CIVIS – Europe’s Civic University Alliance, bringing together University of Lausanne, represented by Patrick M. Michel, University of Bucharest, represented by Oana Șerban, and University of Glasgow, represented by Brittnee Leysen. This conversation offers insight into how heritage, technology, and civic engagement can intersect to support refugee inclusion, cultural resilience, and new forms of participatory knowledge-making. For the full show notes, including the biographies of the speakers, please head to our website www.gla.ac.uk/research/az/unesco/ and head to the podcast section.

Can singing and dancing serve as non-violent responses to oppression? The Estonian song and dance festivals played a crucial role in the Singing Revolution, a series of peaceful mass protests that helped the Estonian people regain their freedom in 1991. Based on my experience as a singer and dancer in this year’s festival, I will provide an insider’s perspective on how these performances allow contemporary Estonians to confront the past and process intergenerational impacts of war, forced deportations, refugee migration, and occupation. This presentation explores how cultural performances can be used as non-violent responses to conflict and facilitate healing. Speaker biography: Dr Kalika Kastein (she/they) is a queer, non-binary Estonian-American who was raised in a multi-generational household with her parents and her grandparents, who fled Estonia as refugees. Kalika has participated as a singer and dancer in the Estonian national song and dance festival. Kalika has nearly 15 years of experience as an educator and is a certified primary teacher in both Aotearoa New Zealand and Hawaiʻi. Based at Ōtakou Whakaihu Waka University of Otago, they specialise in peace education and currently work in Te Kura Ākau Taitoka College of Education. This episode was recorded at the online UNESCO RIELA Spring School: The Arts of Integrating 2025. For more information about our Spring Schools, please visit www.gla.ac.uk/research/az/unesco/events/springschool/.