Conference in London

Universitetslektor vid Statsvetenskapliga institutionen

ImageMattias Pettersson

Why where you at The Conflict Research Society conference?

I was at the CRS conference to present ongoing research, to discuss the research of others and meet with colleagues from other universities around the world. Conferences are important occasions for learning about new research that is ongoing in the field, and for maintaining networks that are important for generating new ideas, carrying our research projects, and applying for funding. It is also a lot of fun as colleagues often become friends, so conferences can be both intellectually stimulating and socially rewarding.

What was the aim of the conference?

The CRS is an association aiming to promote research relating to the dynamics and resolution of armed conflicts. The aim of the annual conferences is to gather scholars in this field to share and discuss their work.

What was your contribution?

I was quite active at this conference – I presented ongoing work and new results from three different research projects, together with various co-authors. I was also the discussant at two different panel sessions. As a discussant my task was to read the papers presented beforehand and prepare constructive comments regarding how these research projects, and the resulting draft publications, could be developed.

Why was this specific conference important for your field of research?

This conference is one of the few that is exclusively focused on peace and conflict research. It is also of a good size – the conference had about 200 participants. It is big enough to be dynamic and showcase a lot of different research directions, but small enough to make it easy to find people you may want to speak to.