Sites and Spaces of Conflict

The cluster develops interdisciplinary, comparative investigation of the spatial locations of violent political conflict and the significance of conflict-related places, landscapes and sites in 'post-war' or 'post-conflict' cultures. Our distinctive focus is the intersection of spatial and temporal aspects of conflict and its afterlife, and the future-oriented transformation of conflict spaces.  

The cluster brings together an interdisciplinary grouping of anthropologists, cultural geographers, social and cultural historians, cultural and literary analysts, and psychologists concerned with the spatial locatedness of war and conflict; the erasure, preservation, development, memorialisation and representation of conflict-related places, landscapes and sites; the experiences of such spaces for those who live in or visit them; and their significance as manifestations of 'the past' in 'post-war' or 'post-conflict' cultures. Working comparatively across spaces with contrasting histories and geographies, our research addresses the intersection of spatial and temporal aspects of conflict and its afterlife, and investigates practices of transformation oriented towards imagined futures after conflict.