UNESCO RIELA: The sounds of integration

This episode is a recording of a presentation by Rezvan Sayyad, who presented a talk with this title at the 2025 online UNESCO RIELA Spring School: The Arts of Integrating. Rezvan is researching how rap music in Iran has become a contested space for representation, identity and resistance. For the full show notes, including the biography of the speaker, please visit bit.ly/thesoundsofintegration

In this episode, recorded at the online UNESCO RIELA Spring School: The Arts of Integrating, we will hear from Prof Dr Bilgin Ayata, project leader of the research project Elastic Borders: Rethinking the Borders of the 21st Century. This project, generously funded by the NOMIS foundation, proposes a new conceptualization of the border building on the concept of elasticity in physics. Thinking of borders as elastic offers new avenues to understanding not only how state borders stretch and retract, but also how they create fields of stress and violations in the processes of extension and retraction. Borders become elastic when they are extended either beyond or behind the territorial confines of a state. The introduction and the editing were done by Catherine McGrath. For the link to the project and Prof Dr Ayata's biography, please see the full show notes at bit.ly/thesoundsofintegration.

In this episode, recorded at the online UNESCO RIELA Spring School 2025, Anna Burgin shares her research into refugee resettlement in Aotearoa, New Zealand. Abstract: Refugee resettlement, while offering refuge, is also what Pratt (1991) calls a “contact zone”, a space of contestation and unequal power dynamics. In Aotearoa New Zealand, resettlement is also dominated by the settler colonial government to the exclusion of Māori. This presentation will discuss the perspectives of NZ European volunteers supporting Māori-led welcome (pōwhiri) aimed at creating peaceful connections with former refugees and migrants in Dunedin. I discuss volunteers' reflections through the lens of Pratt’s contact zone and everyday peacebuilding as they discuss their positionalities in relation to the pōwhiri process and questions of belonging. Anna Burgin is currently finishing her doctoral studies through the College of Education and Te Ao o Rongomaraeroa (National Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies), University of Otago — a case study of refugee resettlement volunteers’ perspectives. She is an Assistant Research Fellow at Te Kura Ākau Taitoka ki Ōtākou Whakaihu Waka | University of Otago College of Education. For the full show notes, including a glossary, please visit bit.ly/thesoundsofintegration

This episode, recorded at the UNESCO RIELA Spring School 2025, is a discussion between Dr. Ray Di Marco Campbell, Dr. Haley Sneed, Jinming Liu and Gabriel, in which they explore contemporary and idealised community initiatives that take account of differences in residency status, recourse to public funds, employment opportunities, and access to quality nutrition in order to co-creative a peaceful and socially connected society. It draws upon the lived, professional, and community-based experiences of organising amidst hostile systems from the panellists, whilst also considering the financial and funding implications for the more formal charity sector and community member-run initiatives. Discussions on these alternative practices enables insights into mechanisms that can respond to the austere and hostile politics that plagues much of our society today, advocating for practices rooted in justice and meeting the needs of marginalised people. Please visit https://bit.ly/thesoundsofintegration for the full show notes, including the biographies of the speakers.

Timothy Peacock and Rebecca Sutton talk about peacegaming and their work at the Games and Gaming Lab at the University of Glasgow. This talk was inspired by their workshop at the UNESCO RIELA Spring School: The Arts of Integrating (May Peace Prevail), which took place in Glasgow in May 2025.

In this episode, Julie Ward, former MEP with a background in activism, talks about the Durham-based 'No To Hassockfield' campaign. Hassockfield is the site of an Immigration Removal Centre and the campaign was fighting for its closure, uses creative arts as a powerful tool to raise awareness of the harms caused by asylum detention and the need to provide community alternatives, whilst also providing a culture of care for the campaigners. This presentation was recorded at the UNESCO RIELA Spring School: The Arts of Integrating 2025. This event gets hosted annually in person in Glasgow, Scotland in May and online in October. The next edition is due on 27-31 October 2025. For the full show notes, please visit bit.ly/thesoundsofintegration

This episode is a recording of the opening keynote address Prof David Gramling delivered at the UNESCO RIELA Spring School: The Arts of Integrating 2025, in Glasgow, Scotland. Here is the abstract: Good News Bernice Johnson Reagon once sang for us a corrective teaching, along the lines that: “It’s ‘good news’ when you reject things as they are. […] And they don’t say ‘it’s good times’, they say ‘it’s good news’.” Fifty years later, these are definitely not good times. And, in this powerfully strange moment, even looking around for ‘good news’ often feels inappropriately consolational, often at fatal odds with the dreads and taunts of today’s geopolitical realism. This opening talk for our Spring School welcomes in the resources of “untimely optimism” (Feldman 2023), “out-of-phasedness” (Doumani 2007), “gramáticas de lo inaudito” (Acosta López 2023) and “anticipatory illuminations” (Bloch in Zipes 2019), in hopes of making room for a peace-in-this-time whose living vitality is the opposite of resigned quietism. To that end, we will meet head-on a few of the nightmares-of-the-self that may well haunt a peace-lover in Spring of 2025, seeking to expel that haunt and conjure in its place some unprecedented good news. For the full show notes, including David's biography, please visit bit.ly/thesoundsofintegration

In this episode, Elder in Residence Mike Gonzalez interviews Mohammad Alkhatib and Daniel Calvert about teaching languages, inclusion, second language acquisition, ESOL, linguistic landscapes and translanguaging pedagogy. Please visit our website for the shownotes, including their biographies: https://bit.ly/thesoundsofintegration

In this little bonus clip, you'll hear from a number of participants about their experiences at the UNESCO RIELA Spring School: The Arts of Integrating. The music is by Soloway Choir, a choir made up of Ukrainian women, currently living in Glasgow.

In this episode, Dr Tawona Sitholé speaks with academic and author Jo Beall (FAcSS) about her debut novel, Meadowlands Dawn, set in apartheid South Africa during the 1980s. Their conversation explores Jo’s personal connection to the story, how she switched from academic to creative writing, and the important distinction between love and infatuation. For the full show notes, including biographies of the speakers, please visit bit.ly/thesoundsofintegration

A wee bonus message for you all. Full show notes, including the names of the speakers and the languages: bit.ly/thesoundsofintegration

This week we have an episode in a different language for you. Listen to TafBob Mutumbi, telling us a story in Shona, one of the languages spoken in Zimbabwe by around 9 million people. Tafadzwa Bob Mutumbi is an actor, Director and Theatre maker from Harare, Zimbabwe. TafBob strives to create, perform and direct provocative ritual theatre pieces that are innovative and functional. He is committed to using his craft and artistic voice to tell marginalised African narratives with the express intention of bringing about social and political transformation. A graduate of the Theory X Theatre Initiative's 3 year acting programme, Harare, Zimbabwe, 2011. And the Dell'Arte International School of Physical Theatre's MFA programme, Blue Lake, CA, USA, 2017. He has performed in plays such as "The Convert" by Danai Gurira, "The Gospel of Othello" by Patrice Naiambana. "Broken" co created and performed with Everyone Ndlovu. He is the inaugural recipient of the Walter Mparutsa artist of excellence fellowship. His directing credits include the plays ""Ruvajena" By Virginia Jekanyika, My Father is a Goat", (devised.) The music theatre adaptation of The Merchant of Venice" (co-director with Juwon Ongungbe) "Mirror Magnet", (Devised ) "Chirorodziva", written by TafBob "Breathing Graves" (Devised) and "There is a Field" by Jen Marlowe. He has directed staged readings including "Familiar" by Danai Gurira and "Hashtag Blackgods Matter" By Sfundo Sosibo. As of 2021, he is working on a duet project exploring the world for ritual theatre for healing of racial and political trauma - IMDb Mini Biography By: Moyo

In this second episode about the Drawing Together project, Alison Phipps interviews Ravi Kohli, Kate MacKinnon, Sharon McGregor and Christine Uwase about their experiences working on the project. Please refer to part 1 for the full background of the project. For the show notes, including biographies of the speakers and links to the project, please visit: bit.ly/thesoundsofintegration. Rough timings of this episode's content: 0 to 1m50s: Alison briefly introduces the Drawing Together project and team. 1m50s to 3m40s: Christine talks about her role as project Ambassador and what the project meant to her with Alison’s reflections and questions. 3m40s to 9m30s: Christine and Alison reflect on their involvement in the project and the value person methodology. 9m30s to 16m15s: Ravi reflects on the challenges of running an international project e.g., overcoming language and cultural barriers and the covid-19 pandemic, with Alison’s reflections. 16m25s to 20m25s: Kate reflects on her policy role in the project and the policy context of the project in Scotland. 20m25s to 24m35s: Sharon reflects on some of the project findings in relation to young refugees growing new roots in a new country and the importance of language, cultural, stability, security, with Alison’s reflections. 24m35s to 24m40s: Alison reflects on the project findings in relation to the New Scots Integration Strategy delivery plan. 24m40 to 29m50s: Christine reflects on the challenges young refugees overcome when they are setting up a new life in a new country, with Alison’s reflections. 29m50s to 33m33s: Kate reflects on the policy findings and the importance of relationships, nature, faith, navigation, technology, with Alison’s reflections. 33m33s to 37m20s: Sharon reflects on the research findings in relation to the important features of professional relationships from young refugees in the project, with Alison’s reflections in relation to the New Scots Integration Strategy. 37m20s to 43m25s: Kate reflects on the importance of nature, faith and access to digital technology and travel as noted in the project’s policy brief, and the importance of children’s rights, with Alison’s reflections. 43m25s to 49m39s: Ravi reflects on the personal, cultural and research consequences of the Drawing Together project, with Alison’s reflections in relation to the New Scots Integration Strategy. 49m39s: Closing remarks and Alison’s thanks.

In this episode, Alison Phipps interviews Ravi Kohli, Sharon McGregor and Christine Uwase about the Drawing Together project, a project that looked at the relational wellbeing in the lives of young refugees in Scotland, Finland and Norway. For the full show notes, including biographies of the speakers and links to the project, please visit: bit.ly/thesoundsofintegration. Rough timings of this episode's content: 0 to 4 mins: Alison introduces the Drawing Together project team 4 to 12 mins: Ravi introduces the project and Alison responds 12 to 17 mins: Sharon reflects on the participants and project methodology and Alison’s reflections and questions 17 to 20 mins: Sharon explains the meaning behind some of the participants’ art objects and Alison’s reflections. 20 to 26.5 mins: Ravi explains the rationale behind past/present/future time dimensions and Alison’s reflections and questions. 26.5 to 28.5mins: Ravi reflects on the ‘past’ time dimension and Alison’s reflections. 28.5 to 30mins: Sharon reflects on the past methodology and Alison’s questions. 30 to 37mins: Christine explains her ambassador role on the project and Alisons’ reflections and questions 37 to 41mins: Christine reflects on the international visit to Norway to meet the Norwegian and Finnish teams and Alison’s response 41 to 43.34mins: Alison’s closing remarks, thanks and invitation for recording a part two.

This episode is a collection of 4 poems, written by the 4 keynote listeners Erdem Avşar, Adrianne Kalfopoulou, Herbert Cea and Heidi Perez-Cordero, who each summarised a day of the UNESCO RIELA Spring School: The Arts of Integrating 2024, a large conference which takes place every year in May in Glasgow. For more information about the event, please visit bit.ly/RILASpring24. For the full show notes, please visit bit.ly/thesoundsofintegration.

This episode is a recording of a session entitled 'Exploring creative, cross-cultural research collaborations: A case study of an MSF run thalassemia clinic in Lebanon', which was meant to take place at the UNESCO RIELA Spring School 2023, but which was cancelled because of the situation in Lebanon at the time. Dr Molly Gilmour has now kindly shared the research that she conducted, together with her colleagues Belal Shukair, Fatima Fouad and Nader Tabri. For the full show notes, including bios of the speakers, the presentation slides and images of the project, please visit https://bit.ly/thesoundsofintegration

In this episode, UNESCO RIELA PhD researcher Pinar Aksu discusses her workshop at the RIELA Spring School: The Arts of Integrating 2024 (Word Springs). Pinar's PhD research looks at the connection between art and law in the context of migration and how arts practices can be part of creating social change, as well as access to justice within the immigration system. Her workshop explored the language used to describe migration in headlines, legislation, policies, and by lawyers, and invited participants to bring the language of the law to life - and to create an alternative. For the full show notes, please visit bit.ly/thesoundsofintegration

This episode was recorded at the UNESCO RILA Spring School: The Arts of Integrating 2024 (Word Springs). In it, Michael Quinn argues for the inclusion of stories in teaching, to add a philosophical dimension to traditional fact-based teaching methods. For the full show notes, please visit bit.ly/thesoundsofintegration

This episode was recorded at the UNESCO RILA Spring School: The Arts of Integrating 2024. In it, Gillebrìde Mac'IlleMhaoil / Gilbert MacMillan shares stories from South Uist and surrounding islands, as well as some Gaelic songs. For the full show notes, please visit bit.ly/thesoundsofintegration

Margot Leys Johnston interviews Dr Hyab Yohannes from the UNESCO RILA team about his research into the 'refugee condition'. For the full show notes, including short biographies, please visit bit.ly/thesoundsofintegration