Hauptinhalt

The Future of Building Peace

Zentrumstage 2026 / 25th Anniversary CCS

Detailed Programme

Day 1 | 22.10.2026

  • Vergangenheit und Gegenwart der Konfliktforschung in Marburg und Deutschland (16:00-17:30, 001 B|05), roundtable A

    Seit der Gründung vieler Institute und Zentren für Friedens- und Konfliktforschung haben sich die weltpolitischen Rahmenbedingungen sowie die institutionellen Voraussetzungen wissenschaftlicher Forschung grundlegend verändert. Anlässlich des 25-jährigen Bestehens des Zentrums für Konfliktforschung (ZFK) reflektiert das Panel die Transformationen der Friedens- und Konfliktforschung in den vergangenen Jahrzehnten und diskutiert ihre zukünftigen Aufgaben. Hierzu werden Perspektiven des Forschungsfeldes sowie ehemaliger geschäftsführender Direktoren des Zentrums eingebracht, um Bilanz zu ziehen, Kontinuitäten und Brüche sichtbar zu machen und über die zukünftige Entwicklung des Feldes ins Gespräch zu kommen.

    Prof. Dr. Mathias Bös
    (Leibniz Universität Hannover, Institut für Soziologie; ehem. Geschäftsführender Direktor ZFK)

    Prof. Dr. Ralf Zoll
    (Philipps Universität Marburg, Zentrum für Konfliktforschung ZFK/CCS; Gründer ZFK)

    Dr. Thomas Held
    (Deutsche Stiftung Friedensforschung DSF; Geschäftsführer)

    Prof. Dr. Ulrich Wagner
    (Philipps Universität Marburg, Sozialpsychologie; ehem. Geschäftsführender Direktor ZFK)

    Moderiert von Prof. Dr. Thorsten Bonacker (Philipps Universität Marburg, Zentrum für Konfliktforschung)

  • Critical Voices and Collective Actions for the Future of Peace and Conflict Studies (18:00-19:30, 001 B|05), roundtable B

    Collectives, initiatives, and networks in and around Peace and Conflict Studies discuss inclusion, representation, and structural change in academia. The roundtable explores how inequalities related to class, gender, race, age, hierarchy, and dominant epistemologies are challenged through collective action and critical engagement. Participants present their work and experiences before engaging in a discussion on fostering more inclusive, solidaristic, and epistemically just academic cultures, and on how these practices can shape the future of the field.

    Dr. Roy Karadağ
    (University of Bremen, Institute of Intercultural and International Studies InIIS; KriSol)

    Laura Kotzur
    (Free University of Berlin, INTERACT Center for Interdisciplinary Peace and Conflict Research; Editorial team of UNEINS magazine)

    Dr. Philipp Lottholz
    (Marburg University, Center for Conflict Studies; AFK AK Herrschaftskritische Friedensforschung)

    Andréa Noël
    (University of Duisburg-Essen, Institute of Political Science; AFK Frauen*FLINTA Representative)

    Dr. Patricia Rinck
    (University of Duisburg-Essen, Institute for Political Science; AFK AK Feminist Peace Research)

    Dr.  Siddharth Tripathi
    (University of Erfurt, Postcolonial Hierarchies in Peace and Conflict; AFK Diversity Representative)

    Moderated by Nilgün Yelpaze (Marburg University, Center for Near and Middle Eastern Studies CNMS; Center for Conflict Studies)

Reception (19:30, lobby B|05)

Day 2 | 23.10.2026

  • International Interventions for Peace and Security (09:30-11:00, 001 B|05), panel #1

    International intervention remains central to efforts to manage conflict and build peace. Bringing together perspectives on military interventions, UN peacekeeping, and international administrations, the panel examines how external actors shape post-conflict transitions, governance, and security. Contributions situate contemporary interventions within longer historical trajectories and analyse how securitisation frames conflicts and legitimises international engagement. The panel critically reflects on the promises and limitations of intervention, exploring its implications for sovereignty, authority, and local political orders.

    The Politics of Security and the Limits of International Intervention
    Dr. Werner Distler (Marburg University, Center for Conflict Studies)

    Effects of Humanitarian Interventions on Deadly Conflict Violence
    Dr. Thorsten Gromes (Peace Research Institute Frankfurt PRIF)

    Peacebuilding in the Age of Transactionalism: From Local Ownership to Deal-Making
    Dr. Julius Heise (German Federal Foreign Office, Stabilization Desk Officer - East Africa)

    Colonial Difference under UN Supervision? Racialized Status Hierarchies and the Reconfiguration of Empire in the UN-Trusteeship System
    Dr. Maria Ketzmerick-Caladrino (Leibniz-Zentrum Moderner Orient ZMO) 

  • Unequal Access to Political Power (09:30-11:00, 201 B|07), panel #2

    Sustainable peace requires addressing inequalities in both resources and political power. The panel examines unequal political influence across regions, political contexts, and levels of governance, asking how and why some groups gain greater voice in decision-making than others. Contributions explore disparities in representation, participation, and responsiveness in national, local, conflict-affected, and post-conflict settings, including the role of politicians’ backgrounds and incentives in shaping unequal political outcomes

    Crisis Framing and Electoral Demand for Business Politicians
    Dr. Letícia Barbabela (Marburg University, Center for Conflict Studies; Institute for Political Science)

    Tracing Distributive Consensus: Argumentative Overlap in German Bundestag Tax Reform Debates and Implications for Inequality Reduction
    Dr. Aiden Gnoth (Marburg University, Center for Conflict Studies; Institute for Political Science)

    Multilateralism Seen from the South: Agency of the Weak in Global Tax Governance
    Dr. Katharina Kuhn (Technical University of Darmstadt, Institute of Political Science)

    Unequal Influence in Tax Policy-Making in the UK and Germany
    İbrahim Kuran (Marburg University, Center for Conflict Studies; Institute for Political Science)

Coffee break (11:00-11:30, lobby B|05)

  • Environmental Conflicts: Varieties or Extraction? (11:30-13:00, 001 B|05), panel #3

    This panel reframes environmental conflicts as interconnected forms of extraction. While studies of these conflicts often operate in silos—divided by resource type (land, minerals, water, carbon)—they share common drivers: global demand, political economies of resource control, and uneven development. Framing these processes as environmental conflicts highlights shared consequences—dispossession, degradation, inequality—and the resistance they generate. Featuring experts on Latin America, Northern Africa, and Europe, the panel asks whether the concept of "environmental conflict" can enable productive dialogue, integrated understandings of extraction, and comparative perspectives on resistance and (social) contestation over (natural) resources.

  • Doing Human Rights in Migrant Societies (11:30-13:00, 201 B|07), panel #4

    Migration and displacement are often consequences of violent conflict and repression, but also forms of seeking safety, dignity, and peaceful futures. The panel examines how migrant and refugee communities claim protection, mobilise human rights frameworks, and rebuild everyday forms of peace across borders. Contributions explore diaspora experiences of violence, activism, legal strategies, and transnational networks of justice and peacebuilding, while reflecting on research methods and ethical challenges in working with displaced communities.

    How Non-refoulement Became a Human Right: Origins and Contemporary Challenges to the Right to Asylum
    Prof. Dr. Jürgen Bast (University of Giessen, Public Law and European Law)

    Visualizing violent migration control: Non-state actors making human rights claims in the European border regime
    Dr. Laura Holderied (University of Giessen, Public Law and European Law)

    Whose Rights? Colonial and Androcentric Origins of the 1951 Refugee Convention
    Prof. Dr. Ulrike Krause (University of Münster, Institute of Political Science)

    Belonging in Urban Spaces: Situational Infrastructures
    Tasnim Jabali (Marburg University, Institute for Sociology; Center for Conflict Studies), 
    Sebastian Weste (Marburg University, Institute for Sociology; Center for Conflict Studies)

    Moderated by by Maria Hartmann (Marburg University, Center for Conflict Studies) and Dr. Mina Ibrahim (Marburg University, Center for Conflict Studies)

Lunch break (13:00-14:30) 

  • Postcolonial Hierarchies of Peace (14:30-16:00, 001 B|05), panel #5

    Postcolonial hierarchies of peace are examined through questions of whose visions of peace are prioritised, institutionalised, and legitimised in contemporary international politics. The contributions explore how colonial legacies shape peacebuilding norms and practices, and how current crises challenge dominant liberal peace paradigms. Focusing on global power asymmetries, legal regimes, epistemic hierarchies and the ways these are contested, alongside alternative visions of peace, the discussion rethinks whose peace is built, for whom, and under what conditions.

    Peace Movement Politics and the Global South
    Prof. Dr. Rirhandu Mageza-Barthel (Marburg University, Center for Conflict Studies)

    Memoria Popular, Neoliberal State Repression, and Peace in Santiago de Chile
    Dr. Fabricio Rodríguez (Arnold Bergstraesser Institute ABI, University of Freiburg)

    Reenvisioning Peacebuilding Futures: Undoing Postcolonial Hierarchies through Global South Knowledges 
    Dr. Siddharth Tripathi (University of Erfurt, Postcolonial Hierarchies in Peace and Conflict)

    Ethics of Decolonial Peacebuilding
    Dr. İbrahim Beyazoğlu (Eastern Mediterranean University, Faculty of Communication and Media Studies)

  • International Law, International Relations, and the Hope for Peace (14:30-16:00, 201 B|07), panel #6

    Amid declining confidence in the International Criminal Court and mounting challenges to the liberal international order, the future of international law, human rights and peacebuilding is under threat. This panel discusses the impact of current geopolitical power shifts and interventions in Venezuela and the Middle East. It examines the prospects for a rule-based order and explores ways in which human rights, the rule of law, and multilateral cooperation can be strengthened.

    Roundtable format

    Prof. Dr. Stefanie Bock
    (Marburg University, Marburg Law School; International Centre for War Crimes Trials)

    Prof. Dr. Thilo Marauhn
    (University of Giessen, Public Law & International Law; Peace Research Institute Frankfurt PRIF)

    Dr. Tareq Sydiq
    (Marburg University, Center for Conflict Studies)

    Prof. Dr. Stefan Peters
    (University of Giessen, International Relations and Peace Research; Instituto CAPAZ)

    Prof. Dr. Jonas Wolff (Peace Research Institute Frankfurt PRIF; Goethe University Frankfurt)

    Moderated by Prof. Dr. Anika Oettler (Marburg University, Institute for Sociology; Center for Conflict Studies)

Coffee break (16:00-16:30, lobby B|05) 

Reception (17:30, lobby B|05)

Day 3 | 24.10.2026

  • Justice, Memory, and Accountability in a Fragmented World (09:30-11:00, 001 B|05), panel #7

    Against the backdrop of proliferating armed conflicts, widespread grave human rights violations, and a global resurgence of authoritarianism, ideas and practices of justice, memory, and accountability are being reconfigured. So, too, are the ways in which societies confront violent pasts and presents. This roundtable explores how political change and democratic backsliding, contested knowledge politics of violence, evolving archival practices and transnational diaspora engagement are reshaping struggles over remembrance and transitional justice efforts across different contexts. Bringing together scholars from a range of regional and disciplinary backgrounds, the discussion reflects on emerging challenges and new possibilities for justice, memory, and reparative futures in an increasingly fragmented and polarized world.

    Roundtable format 

    Dr. Güneş Daşlı
    (Loughborough University, Department of International Relations, Politics, and History)

    Prof. Dr. Rosario Figari Layús
    (University of Bonn, Center for Reconciliation Studies)

    Dr. Mariam Salehi
    (Free University of Berlin, INTERACT Center for Interdisciplinary Peace and Conflict Research)

    Dr. Julia Viebach
    (Queen's University Belfast, The Queen’s Institute for Global Peace, Security and Justice, School of Social Sciences, Education and Social Work)

    Moderated by Dr. Kristine Andra Avram (University of Bayreuth, Conflicts.Meanings.Transitions)

  • Navigating Conflict in Higher Education (09:30-11:00, 201 B|07), panel #8

    Universities play a complex role in peace and conflict as spaces of learning, governance, and so-cial transformation. This panel brings together perspectives from Romania, Bosnia and Herze-govina, Georgia, Timor-Leste and the Philippines to explore how higher education shapes and is shaped by conflict, polarisation and post-conflict dynamics. Contributions will examine the oppor-tunities and limitations of universities in fostering dialogue, inclusion, critical thinking and sus-tainable peacebuilding.

    Why Do Students Remain Silent? Polarisation and Classroom Debates in Romanian Higher Education
    Prof. Dr. Ana Pantea (Babeș-Bolyai University, European Studies)

    Teaching Peace for the Future: The Role of Universities in Peace Education, Sustainable Development and Economic Stability in Bosnia and Herzegovina
    Fatima Mahmutović (University of Sarajevo, Faculty of Political Sciences), Prof. Dr. Ehlimana Spahić (University of Sarajevo, Faculty of Political Sciences)

    State Protectionism and Institutional Segregation in Georgia’s Higher Education System
    Dr. Ruslan Baramidze (Marburg University, Center for Conflict Studies)

    Understanding the Complex Role of Universities in Post-Conflict Peacebuilding: Insights from Timor-Leste and Mindanao
    Eva Froneberg (Marburg University, Center for Conflict Studies)

    Moderated by Dr. Stéphane Voell (Marburg University, Center for Conflict Studies)

Coffee break (11:00-11:30, lobby B|05)

  • Gender and Feminist Approaches to Peace (11:30-13:00, 001 B|05), panel #9

    Amid violent crises and growing backlash against gender equality, feminist and queer movements play a crucial role in envisioning peaceful societies. Drawing on perspectives from Africa, Latin America, and Eastern and Western Europe, the contributions explore the conditions for feminist mobilisation in the pursuit of peace, solidarity, care, and gender justice. The panel also examines how research on anti-feminism can inform political education and strengthen peace and democracy in times of nationalism and autocratisation.

    Roundtable format

    Dr. Juliana González Villamizar
    (University of Giessen, International Relations and Peace Research)

    Dr. Mariel Reiss
    (Marburg University, Center for Conflict Studies)

    Dr. Inga Nüthen
    (University of Kassel, Department of Political Science, International Gender Policy and Qualitative Methods)

    Elisabeth Winterer
    (Marburg University, Social and Cultural Anthropology)

    Moderated by Prof. Dr. Anika Oettler (Marburg University, Institute for Sociology; Center for Conflict Studies)

  • Engaging with Victims and Perpetrators (11:30-13:00, 201 B|07), panel #10

    Examining the blurred boundaries between victims and perpetrators, the panel explores their implications for peacebuilding and transitional justice. Contributions analyse why individuals participate in mass violence and what motivates victims to seek justice and reparations. Drawing on case studies from Cambodia, Timor-Leste, Guatemala, Morocco, and beyond, the panel investigates how structural conditions, emotions, and individual agency shape violence and its aftermath. It also considers how institutions and civil society engage with victims and perpetrators, offering new perspectives on accountability, reconciliation, and sustainable peacebuilding.

Coffee break (13:00-13:30, lobby B|05)