UPCOMING EVENTS
Keep up with our upcoming workshops, conferences, seminars, and networking events!
PAST EVENTS
Mapping Hope Cohort
Where does hope live in your geography? We believe that in times of rupture, the practice of mapping hope helps us to return to our self, reconnect with others and engage our context, activating our imaginations in order to envision new possibilities for a shared future.
Through the Mapping Hope cohort we will practice the art of mapping hope. Together with other change agents you will network, share experiences from your work, and map hope using the various art and peace tools for building geographies of hope. Participants will receive a small toolbox for Mapping Hope in their context and have opportunities to share their findings with others.
This cohort is available at no cost, however space is limited. Leaning into our value for diversity we will also work to have a diverse group to build ongoing global connections, thus a number of participants may only be accepted from a specific region in the world.
This first cohort group will meet 4 times between March - June of 2022. Each session will last 90 minutes and attendance is required for each session. The Mapping Hope cohort will be offered again if you’re unable to attend at this time.
Registration closes on February 15, 2022.
The hope xchange
First Geographies of Hope Digital Workshop and Networking Event
NOVEMBER 30th, 2021
This November, Geography of Hope will present the inaugural Hope Xchange. The Hope Xchange will explore the role of hope in the work of peacebuilding and the arts. Keynote speakers, case studies, and examples from the field will be offered to encourage dialogue and conversation amongst peers. Collectively participants will map hope and share their own experience and geographies, contributing to ongoing research and documentation of hope in diverse contexts.
This will be a 3-hour online event taking place from:
7:30am - 10:30am (Los Angeles)
10:30am - 1:30pm (New York)
4:30 - 7:30pm (Central Europe)
5:30 - 8:30pm (Johannesburg, Cairo)
10:30pm - 1:30am (Hong Kong)
Registration closes November 11th, 2021
The event will include presentations by three panelists (listed below), dialogue and a Q&A session, a short break, and a collaborative art exploration involving all participants.
PANELISTS
BONFACE NJERESA BETI
Bonface Njeresa Beti is a Kenyan international multidisciplinary practitioner with over ten years work experience integrating theatre-based approaches as healing centred peacebuilding practices in delivering transformative intercultural pedagogies. He has integrated and utilized both Theatre of the Oppressed, Playback Theatre as well indigenous African folktales and storytelling processes in linking individual trauma to the large breaking structural, historical and contemporary cycles of violence. His works builds on wholistic wellbeing and contextual cultural resources while expanding on the practices related to trauma, peacebuilding, healing, justice, spirituality and human security. His experiences emanate from his work and lived experience as an African artist-peacebuilder who has developed practical artistic tools with grassroots communities. This artistic work has seen him work in Kenya, Somalia, Liberia, South Sudan, Ethiopia and Canada. Bonface Njeresa Beti holds a BA in communication from Daystar University in Kenya, MA degree in Peace and Conflict Studies from the University of Manitoba in Canada and is currently enrolled at EGS pursuing advanced certificate in EXA. He’s also currently admitted into the PhD program at University of Manitoba, Canada pursuing Peace and Conflict studies. He has previously co-published a book chapter and journal article titled: Truth Comes in Many Colors: Theatre of the Oppressed for Conflict Transformation, Trauma Healing in Kenya, Grassroots Leadership and the Arts for Social Change (Building Leadership Bridges) and Forum theatre for conflict transformation in East Africa: The domain of the possible. He’s a co-editor the book: Engaging with Historical Traumas: Experiential Learning and Pedagogies of Resilience by Routledge conceived at University of Turku’s Centre for Storytelling in Finland in 2019 and a memo: Making the case for addressing complex challenges through artistic and cultural processes with ReCAST, Inc., IMPACT, and the Brandeis University Program in Peacebuilding and the Arts, USA. He works with the Amani People’s Theatre and the Green String String Network in Kenya.
NANDINI GUPTA
Nandini Gupta is a PhD Candidate in the Peace Studies Program at Trinity College Dublin. Her PhD title is The Wandering Minstrels of Hope: Tracing the Role of Women’s Grassroots Peacebuilding in Kashmir and Northern Ireland.
Her research is in feminist peace studies and war politics. She is identifying the similarities of peacebuilding approach in terms of non-violent peace movement against the militarism in both of these societies. Her work is preoccupied with the pivotal role of women in investigating the importance of political identity in post-conflict reconstruction and the agency of unarmed political collaborators in bringing out the waves of sustainable change and practices of inclusion.
She is also a research assistant for “Pericles”, an EU funded project and has presented papers at international conferences around Dublin, London, Oxford and Delhi. Her research interests are Feminist peacebuilding, Transversal Politics, and Non-violent political action. Nandini's academic background includes an MPhil in Gender Studies, an MA in English and Cultural Studies, and a BA in English.
DR. MELINDA ASHLEY MEYER DEMOTT
Professor Melinda Ashley Meyer DeMott, PhD is the Director and Co-founder of the Norwegian Institute for Expressive Arts Therapy and Communication (NIKUT). She is a Psychodrama Director and a founding member of the Federation of European Psychodrama Training Institutes (FEPTO). She is Professor and Program Coordinator of Expressive Arts in Global Health and Peace building at EGS, Campus Malta. Her main training today is the Certificate program in ”Expressive Arts in Transition” (EXIT) a manualized group intervention for populations enduring severe stress. She is a researcher and project leader at the University of South East Norway. Ms Meyer DeMott has made three documentary films about EXA and refugees and written several articles and chapters