Political Turbulence PhD Workshop - Call for Papers

The civil wars in Syria and Yemen, the crackdown on peaceful protesters in Sudan and Hong Kong, and rising tensions between the US and Iran represent extreme cases of political turbulence afflicting civilians across the globe. The causes, consequences and solutions to these events often transcend international borders. This workshop, supported and hosted by UCL’s Institute for Advanced Studies (IAS), the School of Public Policy/Department of Political Science, and the Global Governance Institute (GGI), will bring together doctoral students working on armed conflict and political violence.  The workshop addresses PhD students in order to encourage cooperation and critical engagement early in their academic careers and to ensure that such activities are fostered into the future. Participants are invited to present their own work and provide feedback to other presenters, while senior scholars from the UCL Department of Political Science’s Conflict & Change research cluster will facilitate discussions.

The workshop takes a broad perspective on the causes, dynamics and consequences of violent political turbulences.  Hence, papers on all issues related to the workshop theme are welcome, with papers on the following topics of particular interest:

• How can we understand and analyse conflict dynamics, such as escalation, diffusion, and termination, as well as post-war reconstruction? 
• Which actors engage in violent and non-violent actions that disrupt institutionalized politics? How do international and domestic actors shape political turbulences and armed conflict?
• What are the social and political consequences of armed conflicts and how do communities cope with experiences of violence?
• Under what conditions—and how—are armed actors held to account after wars come to an end? What are legal, social, and economic long and short term consequences of armed conflict?

Image by Studio Incendo