05.08.2025 Regional SAUP Conference in Marburg

Scholars and practitioners from Southeast Asia and Germany exchange knowledge on teaching peace and conflict under the SDG partnership framework.

The annual Regional Conference of the DAAD funded SDG Partnership Project SAUP (Southeast Asian University Partnership for Peacebuilding and Conflict Transformation) took place from July 14th to July 18th 2025 in Marburg. The event, which was co-organised with the GIZ Civil Peace Service, was attended by participants from Timor-Leste, the Philippines and Cambodia and Germany.

The conference, held under the theme “Didactics in Peace and Conflict Studies”, offered a variety of workshops, including “The Nexus of Peacebuilding and AI” and “Constructive Alignment in Module and Course Planning”. Furthermore, Prof. Adam Kochanski (University of Guelph, Canada) contributed a lecture on “Practicing Norm Localization in the International Human Rights Regime” and participants and individuals interested were welcomed to join a public roundtable on “Teaching Peace and Conflict in Troubled Times”. During these workshops and events participants actively engaged in discussions on the use of teaching tools, different higher education systems and their respective structural constraints, as well as potential research collaborations. Additionally, the conference agenda included a tour of Marburg’s old town, as well as a guided visit to the Marburg University Library.

The SAUP project was established in collaboration with the GIZ Civil Peace Service in 2019 and aims to support support and strengthen universities in Cambodia, the Philippines and Timor-Leste in the conceptualization and implementation of curricula on peace and conflict studies. Central to the project is the mutual learning experience for all partners involved, where every organization is conceived of as an expert, sharing and gaining knowledge from each other.
Since 2024, the project has received funding for activities by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) within their SDG partnership framework.