Imagine Belfast festival! Facets of War: critical voices on contemporary conflicts

Description

The event launched the special issue Criminological Encounters on Global Anti-Colonial Criminology of War, Genocide and Resistance, edited by T.Degenhardt and H. Wilkinson, and with contributors among many of colleagues such as
Prof. Dina Belluigi who curated a photo exhibition to accompany her published work.

The event included presentations by a select group of international authors and artists whose work appears in a recent publication on contemporary conflicts. The 2025 special issue of Criminological Encounters focuses on the urgent need to understand war from a global anti colonial, criminological, and interdisciplinary perspective, giving space to resistance and activism. By bringing together scholars and artists, the event fosters dialogue across disciplines and creative practices to critically examine how violence, surveillance and resistance are experienced, represented and silenced in different contexts.

The event features the two guest editors, Hannah Wilkinson (Nottingham University) and Teresa Degenhardt (Queen’s University Belfast), as well as Iman Aoun (Director of Ashtar Theatre Company, Jerusalem), the authors Dina Belluigi (Queen’s University Belfast), Fiammetta Bonfigli (University of Vienna), Iva Ramuš Cvetkovič (University of Ljubljana), and Maryna Shevtsova (Ukraine / Katholieke Universiteit Leuven).

The discussion will centre on the use of international courts in relation to the genocide in Gaza, the Israeli deployment of AI powered technology to target civilians, feminist perspectives on the conflict in Ukraine, and reflections on the criminalisation of dissent, resistance, and remembrance across the African continent.

The public will also have the opportunity to attend a short theatre performance of The Gaza Monologues (Ashtar Theatre Company, Jerusalem) by Curtis Lee Ashqar, as well as a photo and video exhibition entitled Criminalisation of Intellectual Thought: Representations for Consciousness about Dissent, Resistance and Remembrance.

Through these combined elements — academic presentations, visual art, and performance — the event promotes interdisciplinary dialogue, critical reflection, and creative collaboration on the harms of war and the possibilities for solidarity and resistance.

Period	27 Mar 2026
Event type	Other
Location	BelfastShow on map
Degree of Recognition	Local