Embodying Peace, Navigating Violence: A network of auto-ethnographers in Iraq and Palestine

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This research network will explore and expand knowledge on the concept of embodied peace amidst conflict and insecurity. It will examine the means through which women living amid distrust and conflict experience atmospheres of peace and violence at a physiological level, and the different coping strategies they employ as they navigate through the shifting terrains they inhabit. Focusing on women at the margins, this network will bring an intersectional - and embodied - understanding to the differing impacts of physical and emotional insecurity. Additionally, by establishing a research network focusing on the experiences of multiply marginalised women, amplifying their voices and generating a set of norms and values for creating safe spaces in which women can engage across political and religious divides, it will contribute more nuanced, relevant and applicable approaches to peacebuilding initiatives. Through creative methodologies such as auto-ethnographic journaling, body-mapping and collaborative learning circles, the research will therefore address the following questions:- What can/or could peace feel like for women living within contexts of terror, conflict and/or colonialisms? - How can a felt sense of security be embodied amidst enduring violence? - What mechanisms are employed and deployed by women to embody peace and so that they may navigate their everyday lives under the weight of everyday terror, distrust and violence? Working in collaboration with the principal investigators, the research network will consist of the Institute of Development Studies (IDS), women community actors in Iraq and Palestine who will be engaged as autoethnographic researchers, and the members network Rethinking Security, which includes the organisations Conciliation Resources, Peace Direct, Saferworld and UNA-UK among others. Through this collaboration, we will generate contextually informed research - across geographic boundaries - that is rooted in local cultures, histories, identities, knowledges and communities, and the knowledge produced by those who have been most overlooked in centres of learning, policy and praxis will be disseminated to activists, academics, policymakers and practitioners in the peacebuilding sector. The network will be strengthened and publicised, and learnings disseminated, through monthly learning circles, blogs and seminars, as well as during three roundtable events and as one practitioner toolkit for incorporating and embodied approach in peacebuilding and one peer-reviewed journal output. Moreover, through co-developing methodologies to address these research questions with the women community actors, this research network will establish a platform and toolkit from which we can grow and expand in the study of embodied peace - centralising decolonial research and praxis throughout. As such, the findings and methodologies will be implemented in further research and networking activities that address the realisation of embodied peace and security as fundamental human rights and a core means of establishing deep rooted trust and future stability in fragile and conflict affected contexts.