The project is a collaboration between academics, NGOs and artists. The project is lead by Dr Sahla Aroussi, a feminist researcher from the Centre for Trust, Peace and Social Relations at Coventry University in the UK.
Dr Aroussi’s research is focused on the area of gender, conflict and violence. In her research she is concerned with the impact and unintended consequences of policies and interventions on women in conflict affected communities. she has conducted extensive research on women processes and led a number of studies on sexual violence in armed conflicts in countries such as the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Over the last few year, Dr. Aroussi has been involved in conducting research on gender and violent extremism in Tunisia, Kenya and New York . Dr Aroussi is collaborating with Dr Michaelina Jakala (Coventry University) and Dr George Kut (Mshikamamo Trust, Kenya).
Dr Michaelina Jakala has a background in Peace Studies with particular focus on post-conflict peacebuilding in the everyday. She has worked with survivors of conflict and former underage soldiers in Bosnia-Herzegovina. Additionally, she has expertise in using creative and arts based methods. She has most recently worked with refugee children to create picture books around their stories of home.
Dr Kut is an experienced peacebuilder, a conflict transformation expert and currently the UN Women international consultant on gender and prevention of violent extremism in Tanzania. He has extensive
experience of conducting research and designing and delivering participatory training on peacebuilding for civil society organsations, local community groups and UN agencies.
This project involves art as an expression of everyday resistance and we will collaborate with Kenyan artists to create the artworks from this project.