Description
Recent scholarship has underscored the urgency of interrogating and dismantling the epistemic and structural violences that underpin knowledge production in Peace and Conflict Studies (PCS). As PCS grapples with enduring global crises, structural inequalities, and calls to “undiscipline” its disciplinary boundaries, there is a need to explore methodological and pedagogical avenues to reconnect scholarship with the lived realities of conflict-affected populations. This panel examines how critical pedagogies and Participatory Action Research (PAR) can reconfigure the bridge between theory and practice of “doing peace,” particularly in ‘postconflict’ contexts. The panel’s contributions critically engage with participatory and dialogical methodologies as sites of resistance to dominant, Eurocentric epistemologies that have historically shaped the field. Centering experiential and situated knowledges, reflexivity, and collaborative inquiry, such methodologies can advance participatory and ethically grounded forms of research and teaching. By prioritizing co-creation and knowledge production in solidarity with communities, the panel seeks to democratize epistemic practices and reimagine the pedagogical foundations of the field. While engaging with the methodological and ethical tensions inherent in action-oriented research, the panel contends that critical pedagogies and praxis are vital for sustaining PCS as a relevant, inclusive, and transformative discipline committed to justice, epistemic plurality, and social change.
