'Routes to Peace? is an event in two parts; a conversation exploring research into the stories of people who have to leave their homeland in search of peace and safety, and a workshop that encourages the audience to explore these stories creatively.

Agenda:

12 pm In conversation with Dr Vicki Squire, University of Warwick, and International Artist and Activist Salma Zulfiqar.

• Learn about the academic research Dr. Vicki Squire and her team have carried out with people on the move who leave their homeland in search of peace and safety. The research is documented through an online interactive story map and in a report entitled Crossing the Mediterranean Sea by Boat, which emphasises the importance of recognising the voices and claims of people on the move in debates surrounding migration.

12:50 pm A short break

1 pm Salma Zulfiqar will introduce her artwork Routes to Peace?, followed by a mini ARTconnects workshop

• International artist and activist Salma Zulfiqar has created artworks based on the research by University of Warwick entitled: ‘Routes to Peace?’, which brings to life the stories of 10 refugee women from Syria and Africa. The artwork highlights the dangerous journeys the women made when crossing the Mediterranean Sea to reach safety in Europe. In this session you will have a chance to listen to the women’s stories about their harrowing journeys and also take part in an ARTconnects creative workshop to explore ‘Routes to Peace’.

1:50 pm a musical performance from refugee Millicent Chapanda

• The presentation, Q&A and workshop will be followed by a short musical performance by Zimbabwean Refugee Millicent Chapanda. She is a creative cultural artist, who performs mbira and African led percussion music.

2 pm Event ends

Tickets are available for the full event as well as separately for the talk and for the workshop.

Speakers:

Dr Vicki Squire is Reader in International Security at University of Warwick, and author of The Exclusionary Politics of Asylum (2009), The Contested Politics of Mobility (2011), Post/Humanitarian Border Politics Between Mexico and the US: People, Places, Things (2015), Europe’s Contested Migration Crisis (forthcoming 2019) and Reclaiming Migration (forthcoming 2020). She is also Co-Editor of the journal International Political Sociology. She was a Leverhulme Fellow from 2015-2018 and is a visiting professor to Sapienza University (Italy) and Soka University (Japan) in 2019.

Salma Zulfiqar’s work focuses on migration, empowering women, peace building in communities and preventing extremism. She was voted one of the most inspirational women to hail from Birmingham UK in a book called Women Who Dared to Dream, published to mark the centenary of the vote for women(https://theemmapress.com/books/once-upon-a-time-in-birmingham/). She is also a finalist for the national Asian Women of Achievement Awards 2019.

For more information on the artist:www.salmazulfiqar.com
For more information on the research: www.warwick.ac.uk/crossingthemed
The stories on which this art is based are available in full on an on-line digital map at www.warwick.ac.uk/crossing-the-med-map

Location: The Steps, Rawthmells Coffeehouse, RSA House, 8 John Adam Street, WC2N 6EZ

Rawthmells, the RSA's new 21st century enlightenment coffeehouse, is a natural home for anyone who wants to change the world, enabling people to connect, share knowledge, collaborate, and build new communities to tackle the social challenges of our time. The space itself, as well as the events and displays within Rawthmells, have been designed to foster the creative thinking and collaborative action needed to address the challenges of the 21st century.

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