20 YEARS CONFLICT RESEARCH GROUPConference 23 and 24 May 2022
On the occasion of its 20th anniversary, the Conflict Research Group at Ghent University (Belgium) organizes an international conference that will take stock of where we are with the study of violent conflict. The conference is scheduled on 23-24 May, 2022, and will be held in Ghent.
During our conference, we want to go into dialogue with leading international researchers, policymakers and practitioners, and provide a platform for debate and exchange with the ambition to suggest new research agendas, strengthen research-policy dialogue and create more space for voices from the Global South.
Please note that registrations are closed for the conference. If you would like to attend our conference, please email us at: Carla.Kuehleis@UGent.be
Programme

9h00
Introduction
By Prof. Koen Vlassenroot, Director of the Conflict Research Group
Film hall, entrance 4, Paddenhoek 1, Campus Aula
9h30
Keynote
by Prof. Paul Richards
Film hall, entrance 4, Paddenhoek 1, Campus Aula
10h30
Coffee and Tea Break
11h00
Two parallel panel sessions
Mineral extraction and the politics of data
Chair: Godefroid Muzalia
With Kasper Hoffmann, Jeroen Cuvelier, Steven Van Bockstael, Thomas Muller, Lotte Hoex and Astrid Jamar
Film hall, entrance 4, Paddenhoek 1, Campus Aula
and
The cultural politics of conflict
Chair: Dr. Maarten Hendriks
With Benjamin Chemouni, Sam Kniknie, Kristof Titeca, Eva Willems, Arthur Owor and Florence Anek
Leslokaal 5.2, entrance 5, Paddenhoek 1, Campus Aula
12h30
Lunch Break
Screening of ‘Street Life’,
a film of Alain Nepapa, produced by TD Jack Muhindo and CRG’s Maarten Hendriks
Film hall, entrance 4, Paddenhoek 1, Campus Aula
13h30
Parallel panel sessions
Understanding Jihadi (counter)organisation
Chair: Dr. Christoph Vogel
With Sky Mkuti, Tanguy Quidelleur, Hans de Marie Heungoup and Marte Beldé
Film hall, entrance 4, Paddenhoek 1, Campus Aula
and
Landscapes and the nature of conflict
Chair: Dr. Mary Ann Manahan
With Johanna Malm, Esther Marijnen, David Mwambari and Godefroid Muzalia
Leslokaal 5.2, entrance 5, Paddenhoek 1, Campus Aula
15h00
Coffee and Tea Break
15h30
Roundtable on the State of the Art
Chair: Prof. Bert Suykens
With Prof. Christian Lund, Prof. Jolanda Demmers, Prof. Nandini Sundar
Film hall, entrance 4, Paddenhoek 1, Campus Aula

9h00
Roundtable on Epistemologies and Methodologies
Chair: Prof. Maria Martin de Almagro Iniesta
With Prof. Adam Branch, Prof. Atreyee Sen and Prof. Aymar Nyenyezi Bisoka
Film hall, entrance 4, Paddenhoek 1, Campus Aula
10h30
Coffee and Tea Break
11h00
Two parallel panel sessions
Conflict Resolution and Peacebuilding
Chair: Dr. Tomas van Acker
With Josaphat Musamba Bussy, Caitlin Ryan, Wol Athuai, Krishna Kumar Saha, Jonathan Eli Libut and Naomi Pendle.
Film hall, entrance 4, Paddenhoek 1, Campus Aula
and
Networks and spaces of violence
Chair: Dr. Stéphanie Perazzone
With Sheikh Shams Morsalin, Siyum Adugna Mamo, Ali Aljasem, Christoph Vogel and Peer Schouten
Leslokaal 5.2, entrance 5, Paddenhoek 1, Campus Aula
12h30
Lunch Break
Screening of ‘Street Life’,
a film of Alain Nepapa, produced by TD Jack Muhindo and CRG’s Maarten Hendriks
Film hall, entrance 4, Paddenhoek 1, Campus Aula
13h30
Roundtable on The Conflict – Peace Continuum and Policy Responses
Chair: Prof. Karen Büscher
With Dr. Devon Curtis, Dr. Nina Wilén, Ananeza Aban and Ornella Moderan
Film hall, entrance 4, Paddenhoek 1, Campus Aula
15h00
Coffee and Tea Break
15h30
Roundtable on the Future of Conflict Studies
Chair: Prof. Bruno De Cordier
With Dr. Yvan Guichaoua, Dr. Jason Stearns, Prof. Marie-Eve Desrosiers, Dr. Cyril Obi
Film hall, entrance 4, Paddenhoek 1, Campus Aula
Keynote speakers


To read
To see
CRG Book Launch: Dawn Rose on a Dead Body: Armed Violence and Poppy Farming in Mexico
Who are the poppy farmers, caught between military repression and exploitation by those who buy their crops? What does it mean to be a woman in a place where men’s violence looms?
New Publication: Marks and mobility: a photographic exploration of cattlesmuggling across the India–Bangladesh border
This photo essay argues that cattle markings have had an intrinsic connection to cattle mobility across and within borders.
Bandung Conference and South-South Cooperation: Knowledge, Solidarities, and Worldmaking
Doctoral School Course
May 6-8, 2025
UFO Campus, Ghent University
Book Launches 17: Learning through Collective Memory Work- Troubling Testimonio in Post-war Peru by Goya Wilson Vasquez
Dr. Eva Willems will be in conversation with Goya Wilson Vasquez (University of Bristol) .
Keynote Lecture: Genealogies of the Un/Citizen in “Hometown,” USA: From Colonial New Jersey to the Magical Coalition by Prof. dr. Carolina Alonso Bajarano
April 22, 2025 (Tue) UFO Campus, Ghent University. The lecture is part of the Spring School 2025: Re-imagining field work through creative methodologies and collaborative learning
New Publication: Mineralised Urbanisation: Rural-Urban Linkages, Migration and Mobility, and the Making and Unmaking of Cities in Africa
The chapter describes how mining towns in Southern Africa are strongly characterised by rural-urban linkages and mobilities.
CRG Book Launch: Surrounded: Democracy, Free Markets, and Other Entrapments of New Colonialism
This book touches on the informal, ignorable, subtle and seemingly benevolent ways through which new colonialism has encircled the continent...
CRG Book Launch: Decolonising Education in Islamic West Africa
is grounded in an ethnography of educational decision-making in northern Senegal which shows how young people struggled to obtain an Islamic education
EVENT: Film and Contentious Politics in Senegal
Seminar and Screening of Baanum Nafi ( Nafi's Father)
by Professor and Filmmaker Mamadou Dia