Seminar series: our members' research
Reclaiming the spiritual meaning of ‘Allahu Akbar’ from media misrepresentation
Date: 27 February | Time: 12-1pm | Venue: Eden 005
Guest speaker: Dr Salman Al-Azami, Senior Lecturer language, Media and Communication
Allahu Akbar (God is Great) is one of the most used terms among Muslims due to its repeated utterance in prayer rituals and various social and emotional contexts. However, after 9/11, it has become a symbol of terrorism in the non-Muslim world due to its use by terrorists and the media portraying it as an integral part of terrorism. This talk examines the representation of this term in the British media with a view to comparing it to its actual meaning and usage among British Muslims. Three media articles are analysed using Critical Discourse Analysis followed by focus group discussions with Muslim professionals, young Muslims, and Islamic scholars and Imams applying Hall’s (1980) Encoding/Decoding model to investigate the reaction to these portrayals. The study finds overt Islamophobia in right-wing tabloids’ representation of the term, which led British Muslim participants in the study resolving to reclaim the term from its media misrepresentation.
Guest Speakers
Violence in South Africa: Foreigners' perspective
Date: 4 March | Time: 12-1pm | Venue: Eden 005
Guest speaker: Professor Emmanuel O. Adu, University of Forth Hare, South Africa and visiting Professor at Liverpool Hope University
South Africa is ranked No. 4 most violent country in Africa Continent which has 54 countries due to the Apartheid era, racial and economic inequality (Somalia, South Sudan and Sudan took 1st 2nd & 3rd respectively). Violence in South Africa is a multifaceted issue with various contributing factors and manifestations. It encompasses a wide range of forms, including interpersonal violence, crime, political violence, and social unrest. Some key aspects and drivers of violence in South Africa are unpacked. This workshop explores the major categories of violence, the perspectives of foreigners and possible solutions
Professor Adu is an inaugurated Teacher Education and Curriculum Studies Professor in the School of General and Continuing Education. A former Dean of Education Faculty at BA ISAGO University, Botswana, and Deputy Dean of Research and Internationalization at the University of Fort Hare, South Africa. He is a fellow of the Global Education Network (FGEN) and the current president of the Global Education Network (GEN) Africa. He received the Vice-Chancellor Senior Research Medal Awards in 2015 and 2017 at UFH and received the Faculty of Education Award of Excellence for the period 2015-2019. He has held a visiting professorship at Marymount University, Virginia, USA and now at Liverpool Hope University, UK. He has taught for over 24 years at universities in Nigeria, Botswana, South Africa, and the USA. Professor Adu is also an author with over 200 publications across 18 countries specializing in Teacher Education and Development; Social Science Education (Economics, Political Science and Social Studies); Educational Research; Curriculum Studies; and Integrated Co-Teaching (ICT) in Education.
2023
Curating Spaces of Hope: co-creating a social movement for eradicating poverty in the city
Date: 15 February| Time: 12-1pm | Venue: Eden114
Guest speaker: Dr Matthew Barber-Rowell, Honorary Postdoctoral Fellow, Liverpool Hope University
Dr Barber-Rowell will set out his postdoctoral work, exploring ways in which dialogue can be used to develop local leadership and shared values. He will introduce Curating Spaces of Hope as a toolkit for gathering stories of lived experience, brokering power, forming local leadership and cocreating movements. He will then set out how Curating Spaces of Hope has been deployed in Liverpool during 2023, with members from the third sector infrastructure network Liverpool Charity and Voluntary Services, to provoke a social movement for eradicating poverty in the city.
Seminar series: our members' research
Covid-19 and the re-emergence of ethnic conflict in the Western Balkans
Date: 22 January | Time: 3-4pm | Venue: Eden 114
Guest speaker: Dr Jasna Balorda, Senior lecturer in sociology at Liverpool Hope University. TBC
HMP 2 Hope: transforming education in prison settings (whilst building an impact case study for REF)
Date: 22 November | Time: 15:00 - 16:00 | Venue: Zoom
Guest Speakers:
Gary and Niamh have been working in prison settings together since 2018. They consider how an arts-based, prisoner-led approach to education provision in incarcerated spaces can be generated, sustained and even entered as an Impact Case Study for the next iteration of REF. Check out their
website for details of the many projects they have undertaken under the umbrella of HMP2Hope - an initiative to demystify university education to people living in prisons.
Some implications of the neoliberal massification of Colombian Higher Education for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals
Date: 26 October | Time: 12:00 -13:00
Guest speaker: Lee Mackenzie, Lecturer in Education and PhD in Education and Social Justice.
Seminar series: our Doctoral Students' research
Too Far from Ideal? Deviant Bodies within New Testament Writings
Date: 18 January | Time: 12-1pm | Venue: Eden 013
Guest speaker: Dr Emma Swai, PhD at Liverpool Hope University
Russia and Human Rights Law: The USSR, Russian Federation and Change
Date: 6 November | Time: 15:00-16:30
Guest speaker: Cal De Burgh, PhD Candidate at Liverpool Hope University
Broadening conversations: networking events
How we create an ontological foundation for peaceful coexistence
Date: 16 October | Time: 15.00 to 16.30
This was the first of a series of coversations led by Dr Abraham Waigi Ng'ang'a and Dr Silvia Battista with the aim of bringing together students and international scholars interested in the intersection of philosophy, theology, religious studies, anthropology, and creative practices. The events are organized under the umbrella of the School of Creative and Performing Arts (CAPA) of Liverpool Hope University, together with the Andrew F. Walls Centre for the Study of African and Asian Christianity and the Archbishop Desmond Tutu Centre for War and Peace Studies at Liverpool Hope University.
The first conversation took place on the 16th of October 2023 from 15.00 to 16.30 on Zoom and was entitled We are dying in the midst of plenty: the problem of onto-epistemological reductionism. 29 people attended from different regions in Africa and Europe, colleagues from Hope and many PG students The conversation was very rich and offered to all participants many points for reflections.
Research and Networking Workshop: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Food Insecurity, Climate Justice
Date: 13 October 2023 | Time: 1-3pm
The workshop was chaired by Catalina Montoya, Tutu Centre Director and Wendy Coxshall, and had the participation of Ana Rojas, visiting academic from Federal University of Sao Paulo, Brazil. Participants included: Leo Stevenson, Natalija Atas, Malcom Carey, Marzana Kamal, Ana Rojas, Wendy Coxshall, Ayesha Jawad, Ana Pereira
You can now view some of our previous talks and events on the Archbishop Desmond Tutu YouTube Channel