2025

Unpacking Academic Writing: From Research to Publication

Writing workshop with Sebastian van Baalen, Associate Professor at the Department of Peace and Conflict Research at Uppsala University in Sweden. This workshop offered a practical guide to moving from research to published article, taking participants step-by-step through the writing, submission, revision, and proof stages of the publication process. Co-organised by ACCS and the RPA Conflict and Society.

• Date: 8 December
• Speaker: Dr. Sebastian van Baalen

 

Ëconeêrã – Wuasikamas: Decolonial Education for Biocultural Peace

Two workshops with Colombian community leader Dr. Hernando Chindoy, exploring decolonial education, biocultural peace, and collective action.

Building on previous dialogues on global health and multiple epistemologies organized by the Centre for Social Science and Global Health (SSGH), a workshop on 4 November explored the profound concept of biocultural peace, which Dr. Chindoy defines as the harmonious coexistence of all species and life systems.

On 7 November, Dr. Hernando Chindoy Chindoy led a collective action that engaged in a dialogue with both the Amstel River and artistic languages. He did this at Zone2Source in Amstelpark , where the exhibition "To Admit a Subtle Thread" showcased Latin American artists addressing diverse forms of resistance to extractivism.

• Date: 4 & 7 November
• Speaker: Hernando Chindoy Chindoy

 

Social Science Cinema: There Is Another Way

The Amsterdam Centre for Conflict Studies (ACCS) and the Amsterdam Institute for Social Science Research (AISSR) presented a screening of There Is Another Way – a film about Combatants for Peace, a group of former enemy combatants - Israelis and Palestinians - working together during the ongoing armed conflict. We wre honoured that Chen Alon and Suleiman Khatib, both co-founders of Combatants for Peace, were present this evening for a Q&A session.

• Date: 30 October
• Speaker: Chen Alon and Suleiman Khatib (co-founders of Combatants for Peace)

 

Everyday Struggle and Total Resistance through Capoeira

This talk explored the ways that capoeira mounts total resistance through an examination of the game, and through a presentation of the lived experiences of capoeira players whose diverse approaches take on everyday struggles in non-conventional ways.

• Date: 28 October
• Speaker: Prof. Zoë Marriage

 

Reproducing Revolution: Women’s Labour and the War in Kachinland

Dr Jenny Hedström discussed her recent book, in which she explores the Kachin revolution in Myanmar from the perspective of female soldiers, female activists, and women displaced by the violence in northern Myanmar.

• Date: 23 September
• Speaker: Dr Jenny Hedström

 

Increasing Polarisation of Hindu-Muslim Identity in India

Dr. Goyal discussed her study in which the long-term evolution of religious identity in India was documented by analysing the names of 505 million Hindus and Muslims born between 1950 and 1995.

• Date: 22 September
• Speaker: Dr. Tanushree Goyal

 

Three Discussion Sessions during the Commemoration Remembering and Solidarity: 60 Years After 1965

Three events  were organised by Watch65 (Netherlands-based voluntary association for justice for the victims of gross violations of human rights in Indonesia) in art space Framer Framed, as part of the exhibition Lawan! about the legacies of post-colonial imperialist expansion in the Indonesian archipelago and West Papua. All three events were co-funded by an ACCS activity grant:

• 17 September 2025: Cross-border Solidarity, the Case of Komitee Indonesië documentary screening and panel discussion reflecting on the work and legacy of Komitee Indonesië (1968-2000): a Dutch solidarity group which was part of the transnational networks that raised awareness about human rights situations in Indonesia during Soeharto’s New Order.
• 19 September 2025 (in the morning): Against the State's Single History: a Conversation with Indonesian Exiles. This panel with Indonesian exiles in the Netherlands foregrounded their perspectives on the ongoing fight to achieve justice for the victims of mass atrocities committed by the Indonesian state across Indonesia in 1965-1966.
• 19 September 2025 (in the afternoon): Moving Memories: Countering Historical Silences, Narrating Archives of the Indonesian Left. This was the public launching of Watch65’s archival website, GerakIngatan (gerakingatan.omeka.net). Aligning its efforts with like-minded memory projects on 1965, both in Indonesia and overseas, the ethos of GerakIngatan is to decolonize Indonesian historiography and reclaim the nation’s narration from the clutches of those in power.
• Date: 17-19 September
• Speakers: Welmoed Koekebakker, Fridus Steijlen, Yvette Lawson, Gde Arka, Jarna Mansur, Sungkono, Tatiana Lukman, Aminah Idris, Rika Theo, Yatun Sastramidjaja, Ward Berenschot

 

‘No Other Land’ - screening & aftertalk

In this film, the Palestinian activist Basel and Israeli journalist Yuval document the destruction of Basel’s village, Masafer Yatta, on the occupied West Bank. The screening is followed by a moderated aftertalk.

• Date: 27 May

Health Under Fire: The Assault on Gaza’s Healthcare and the Price of Impunity

In this lecture, Dr. Guy Shalev, Executive Director of Physicians for Human Rights Israel (PHRI), will examine the collapse of Gaza’s healthcare system through the lens of medical and political anthropology.

• Date: 15 May
• Speaker: Guy Shalev, Ph.D. (Executive Director of Physicians for Human Rights Israel (PHRI))

 

Book Talk & Workshop | Political Violence and Ethnic Conflict

The Amsterdam Centre for Conflict Studies (ACCS) and the Elections, Violence, and Parties (EVaP) project welcomed Dr. Aditi Malik for a talk about her newly published book Playing with Fire: Parties and Political Violence in Kenya and India.

• Date: 9 May
• Speaker: Aditi Malik (Associate Professor of Political Science at the College of the Holy Cross)

 

Social Movements and Political Polarisation: RPA Conflict & Society roundtable discussion

In recent decades, we’ve seen a rise in political polarization and social divisions in many parts of the world. We also see vibrant social movements trying to tackle inequalities and build transnational and intersectional solidarities such as Ni Una Menos in Latin America, Black Lives Matter, and Palestinian solidarity. But do these social movements bridge divides or deepen societal rifts?

• Date: 2 April
• Speaker: Dr. Conny Roggeband, Dr. Aurora Perego

 

This is not the 90s’: Myanmar and Change in ASEAN’s Normative Order

This presentation explored the response of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) to the 2021 coup in Myanmar. While scholars and practitioners often portray ASEAN as a relatively cohesive community of states united by a long-held and relatively stable set of norms – the “ASEAN way” – this presentation showed that ASEAN’s response to the coup has been driven by internal contestation. In particular, the presentation and the article from which it drew, explored how ASEAN’s response has been shaped by contestation over two competing normative impulses among elites in the organization – around centrality and non-interference. The presentation highlighted this tension and explored its development as the organization has struggled to respond to challenges in Myanmar, from the humanitarian disaster after Cyclone Nargis in 2008 to the Rohingya crisis after 2016, to the 2021 coup.

• Date: 31 March
• Speaker: Dr. Aarie Glas (Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science and Center for Southeast Asian Studies at Northern Illinois University)

 

Democratic Erosion and Resistance from Below: Subnational Perspectives on Autocratisation in the Americas

In this talk, Professor Kent Eaton explored how democratic erosion unfolds at the subnational level in the Americas, highlighting the role of local actors in both enabling and resisting autocratisation.

• Date: 28 March
• Speaker: Kent Eaton (Professor of Politics at the University of California, Santa Cruz)

 

Citizen’s Attitudes Towards State’s Electoral Security Provision in Non-consolidated Democracies

On 28 February, the Amsterdam Centre for Conflict Studies (ACCS) warmly welcomed political scientist Hanne Fjelde for a guest talk. In this talk, Fjede examined the ambiguous role of state security agents in Nigerian elections, a case that, throughout its more than two decades of experience with competitive elections, has struggled with persistent irregularities and insecurity tainting the democratic legitimacy of elections.

• Date: 28 February
• Speaker: Dr. Hanne Fjelde

 

Colonial Debris | Documentary & debate about palm oil and land conflicts in Indonesia

On 26 February, Amsterdam Centre for Conflict Studies presented a screening of the documentary Colonial Debris. In this documentary, Indonesian filmmakers explore why their country has so many land conflicts. As they film the protests of communities against palm oil companies and real estate developers taking their land, they find that the roots of these conflicts go back to Indonesia’s colonial past.

• Date: 26 February
• Speakers: Edy Purwanto (director of the documentary), Arie Rompas (Greenpeace Indonesia and land rights activist), Paul Wolvekamp (Both Ends and RSPO), Marieke Leegwater (Solidaridad), Ward Berenschot (KITLV/UvA and producer Colonial Debris), Raditya Bagas Wicaksono (PPI & PhD student at UvA)

 

Unsettling Times for Border Control: A Political Ecology of Date Plantations in the Lower Jordan Valley

This talk by Natalia Gutkowski (Environmental Anthropologist, Jerusalem) examined the political ecology of date plantations in the occupied Lower Jordan Valley, in Palestine/Israel, a borderland region shaped by the interplay of political, ecological, and sociotechnical timescapes.

• Date: 28 January
• Speaker: Natalia Gutkowski

 

ACCS Lunch Meeting About the new assessment guidelines for external collaboration

The CvB of the UvA released the new guidelines regarding external collaboration (Samenwerking met derden), which it planned to implement in the new year.  In 2024, a start was made with speaking to the ‘academic community’ about what should be in such guidelines, and an ad-hoc committee was put into place. Subsequently, a new (follow-up) committee was established, which led to a new set of guidelines. The framework was elaborately discussed with management at our university. However, ACCS believes that we as researchers, especially those working in a context where conflict and wars are rampant, and who are the main actors to be confronted with the guidelines, should also have a say and should be given an opportunity to give feedback.

The ACCS, together with the AISSR organised this meeting to discuss these new guidelines, with the idea to provide advice about it to the UvA management.

• Date: 21 January
• Speakers: Marlies Glasius (Professor of International Relations), Christa Boer (Dean of the Faculty of Social & Behavioural Sciences (FMG))