Lutfia Rabbani Foundation Sponsors Musicians Without Borders

Interesting to come across the Lutfia Rabbani Foundation, which was founded by a Palestinian refugee who managed to study in the Netherlands. They promote the idea that

"that dialogue is essential for people to be able to unlock their collective wisdom, passion and creativity. Politically, economically, and socially, the fate of people across Europe and the Arab region is intertwined. Both regions are facing challenges and opportunities as a result of the same root causes. It is our sincere belief that through facilitated dialogue, people can make full use of the potential of their diversity and will be able to find common ground: common solutions and common opportunities."

They are one of the sponsors for the Musicians Without Borders project in Palestine. Read about both here:

https://rabbanifoundation.org/about-us/the-foundation/

https://www.musicianswithoutborders.org/eng/our-work/programs/where-we-work/palestine/

Keywords in Music and Peacebuilding

Music in peacebuilding is an emergent field with interested scholars representing a variety of intertwined fields, from applied ethnomusicology to sociology, from peace and conflict studies to social movement studies. In addition to scholarly pursuits, there are numerous practitioners and activists who are involved in the work of music in peacebuilding, sometimes explicitly connected through their work to music and peacebuilding and sometimes implicitly. The Min-On Music Research Institute (MOMRI)[1], based in Tokyo, Japan, is possibly the only research organisation in the world dedicated solely to music in peacebuilding. There is a growing interest in music in peacebuilding (and music, conflict and violence), but the one thing that became abundantly clear is that we did not share a collectively agreed upon vocabulary to effectively discuss matters of shared concern. After many discussions and break-out groups failed to develop consistent frameworks, MOMRI decided that we should attempt to find a common set of reference points and discourses to facilitate collaborative work in the future. This special issue of Music and the Arts in Action on Keywords for Music in peacebuilding is the result of this process.

 https://musicandartsinaction.net/index.php/maia/issue/view/keywords-for-music-in-peacebuilding-vol-1

[1] http://institute.min-on.org/

ISA Conference, Baltimore - Part 1

I have just returned from the International Studies Association annual conference in Baltimore. This was a massive event with over six thousand delegates. The scope was staggering: it included everything from peace studies to coercion studies and everything in between. Enlightening to sit in on intelligence gathering strategy panels. I had been invited to participate on the Emerging Canadian Scholars panel that focused on arts-based approaches to IR. I will give a full review of this event later, but it was very fruitful, making links between the ISA itself, especially the Canadian branch, MOMRI, the Centre for Trust, Peace and Social Relations in Coventry and Leuven University. Finally, I met Lesley Pruitt from the University of Melbourne who has written about music and peacebuilding in the below book, which I am now reading. I will give a review of this book later.