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  Dr Shannon Doherty is a  Research and Campaigns Worker with the  Committee for the Administration of Justice (CAJ) and North West Migrants Forum (NWMF) I n 2024 she completed a PhD at Ulster University "All of My Problems are Related to Language": Assessing the linguistic needs of refugees and asylum seekers in Northern Ireland since 2015. A link to the thesis is available at the end of this blog.  This blog has been released to coincide with Good Relations Week (12th-18th October 2026) Introduction Northern Ireland is internationally recognised for its transitional justice and peacebuilding architecture, developed in response to decades of protracted political violence. The 1998 Good Friday Agreement marked a defining historical moment, signalling the end of large-scale conflict and the emergence of a new political settlement. Central to the Agreement was a normative commitment by the British and Irish governments, and by the newly established Northern Ireland ins...

  Prepared by Ester Nergis Canefe, York University, Canada.  The 2026 Disappearance Studies Conference convened at Ulster University in Derry-Londonderry, co-organized by INCORE (International Conflict Research Institute) and the Journal of Disappearance Studies. This multi-day event commemorated the International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances. From Sunday, August 30th to Tuesday, September 1st, 2026, the conference assembled researchers, forensic experts, legal scholars, artists, and families affected by enforced disappearances worldwide. Professor Élise Féron, Director of INCORE and co-editor-in-chief of the Journal of Disappearance Studies, oversaw the organization. Historically, the study of disappearances remained confined to specific disciplines, primarily international human rights law, transitional justice, forensic anthropology, and sociology. The urgent need to conceptualize disappearance as an ongoing structural, psychological, cultural, ...

Ali Sahib  ali731981@gmail.com   This blog post is a conceptua l summary that bridges the author's previous 10 years of policy experience at the Iraqi Ministry of Environment with current work as Vice Director of Al Weyam Organization ( https://al-weyam.org ) Introduction For over two thousand years, the Sabian Mandaeans, one of the world's oldest monotheistic communities, have called the banks of the Tigris, Euphrates, and Shatt al-Arab Rivers their home. Their faith is inextricably linked to water; not just as a resource, but as a living deity. For a Mandaean, water is "Yardna" — the Great River of Light. All their sacred rituals, from baptism and marriage to the final rites for the dead, must occur in "living," running, and pure water . However, in contemporary Iraq, now the fifth most climate-vulnerable nation on Earth, this sacred bond is being severed. As the rivers choke under the weight of pollution and drought, an entire religious identity is begi...

  Dr Micheàl Hearty currently lectures in the School of Applied Social and Policy Sciences. He completed a PhD at the Transitional Justice Institute at Ulster University in 2024. m.hearty@ulster.ac.uk  This INCORE Blog is Based on elements of his PhD Thesis "How and why do we (not) collectively remember non-combatants in Northern Ireland?" ‘Recognisability’, Collective Remembrance & Transitional Justice   I arrived at the first finding of my PhD in a way unlikely to rival the folklore of Newton and his apple. My PhD examined the collective remembrance of those killed in the North of Ireland/Northern Ireland (NI) conflict who were neither state nor non-state armed actors. As repeatedly typing and reading “the collective remembrance of those killed who were neither state nor non-state armed actors” would quickly become tiresome, I reasoned a more suitable (and shorter) term was needed. I identified three possibilities from the literature: “victim”, “civi...

  Dr Andrea Carlà, is a Senior Researcher at Eurac Research Bozen-Bolzano, Italy. [1] Andrea.carla@eurac.edu This INCORE blog is based on: Andrea Carlà, “ Shifting Political Landscapes and Outbidding Effects in South Tyrol: Narratives of South Tyrolean Political Forces towards the Autonomy System,” EJM Europäisches Journal für Minderheitenfragen , 18, 1-2 (2025): 221-246 .  Introduction South Tyrol, a small autonomous province in northern Italy, has long been seen as a success story of peacebuilding and managing diversity . Home to German-, Italian-, and Ladin-speaking communities, since 1972 the province is characterized by a sophisticated autonomy and power-sharing system which contributed to appease ethnic tensions and foster a stable system of coexistence. Yet recent political developments suggest that even well-established peace arrangements remain subject to change.  Image supplied by Andrea Carl à The 2023 provincial elections marked a turning point . For the first...

INCORE ( https://www.ulster.ac.uk/incore )  at Ulster University's Derry-Londonderry Campus is inviting contributions for a new series of short, accessible blog posts that explore how peace and conflict are lived, understood and negotiated in different places and communities. We are particularly interested in research that looks at the everyday and community-based dimensions of peacebuilding, sometimes described as peacebuilding from below. This includes work on how people navigate division, rebuild relationships or create new forms of connection in contexts shaped by conflict or social tension. We also welcome contributions that reflect more broadly on peacebuilding, memory, identity and social change. The blog will be linked to the INCORE website. Who should submit This call is aimed at academic researchers who would like to share their work in a clear and public facing way. Submissions should aim to summarise recently published research, share insights from ongoing projects or c...

Dr Éamonn Ó Ciardha is a Reader in History in the School of Arts and Humanities at Ulster University E.ociardha@ulster.ac.uk This INCORE blog is based on an article due to be published in the forthcoming Volume: Frenk, J., Freier, N., Ó Ciardha, É and Pearson, V. (eds) (2026) Irish Studies in a Changing Europe. Saarbrucken: Saarbrucken University press. Comparing Ireland and Ukraine may seem unconventional at first, yet placing these two regions side by side reveals patterns that offer valuable insight into how communities today negotiate division and identity. Ireland and Ukraine’s histories remind us that the contemporary society of both places is shaped not only by political agreements but by deep-rooted cultural memories and long-term experiences of historic conflict. These influences continue to shape Ireland’s ongoing peace process and remain ever present in Ukraine, where conflict continues as an everyday reality. Both Ireland and Ukraine have been imagined, and at ti...