UNESCO RIELA: The sounds of integration

UNESCO RIELA

Welcome to the podcast series of the UNESCO Chair on Refugee Integration through Education, Languages, and Arts (RIELA) at the University of Glasgow. We bring you sounds to make you think about integration, languages, culture, society and identity. A collection of academic musings, poetry, lesser heard voices and personal stories for you to enjoy and expand you horizons with. In short: a podcast for everyone with stories from the world, about the world, released fortnightly. We work in collaboration with Glasgow Refugee, Asylum and Migration Network (GRAMNet) and its partners. Together, our aim is to promote creative, practical multilingual action for change at all levels of society to build capacity in research and action focused on fostering cultural expressions of heritage and diversity with displaced peoples, and academic freedom for those at risk. Please subscribe to get notified of new episodes coming out! Full show notes can be found on the University of Glasgow's UNESCO RIELA pages: bit.ly/thesoundsofintegration

  1. Aug 12

    E96 - Reimagining Peacebuilding through Decolonial Pedagogy and AI: Lessons from Nigeria

    This episode is a recording of Tola Benjamin Kehinde's presentation at the online UNESCO RIELA Spring School: The Arts of Integrating 2025, which took place in October 2025. The presentation explores how peacebuilding can be reimagined through decolonial educational practices and emerging technologies, with a focus on Nigeria. It draws on teaching experiences and research into AI ethics in Africa to examine how interdisciplinary approaches that combine history, language, digital tools, and the arts can foster inclusive and intercultural peace education. Using case studies of Nigerian historical education and civic engagement, the session highlights both the opportunities and challenges of using AI to support peacebuilding while addressing colonial legacies. Participants will gain insights into creating culturally grounded and sustainable non-violent strategies for conflict transformation. Kehinde Tola Benjamin is a historian and researcher specializing in African history, digital humanities, and peace education. He lectures at the Department of History and International Studies, Redeemer’s University, Nigeria. His research focuses on the relationship between AI ethics, decolonial pedagogy, and civic engagement, exploring how emerging technologies shape historical knowledge and peacebuilding in Africa. Kehinde has presented at international conferences and co-authored papers on digital governance, African studies, and sustainable development. He is passionate about promoting inclusive education that draws on local knowledge and digital tools to create equitable and transformative learning experiences. For the slides to the presentation, please visit: https://www.slideshare.net/slideshow/reimagining-peacebuilding-in-nigeria-through-decolonial-pedagogy-and-ai-lessons-from-nigeria/289189544

    E96 - Reimagining Peacebuilding through Decolonial Pedagogy and AI: Lessons from Nigeria

  2. Jul 22

    E95 - The Learned Ability to Coexist Peacefully

    This presentation by Blessing Oluchikwu Awamba about her work with students and teachers in Nigeria, was recorded at the online UNESCO RIELA Spring School: The Arts of Integrating in October 2025. Blessing's work focuses on strategies for integrating global citizenship education into classroom learning to promote peace. She details some of the ways she has used writing and film shows to help students understand peace better, reflect on their daily lives, and take actions to become more peaceful from within. She also shared how her work is helping teachers become ambassadors of peace and create classrooms that serve as incubators for changemakers who promote peace. The presentation offers a compelling case for reforming education to prioritise peaceful coexistence alongside literacy and numeracy. Blessing Oluchukwu Awamba is a Nigerian peacebuilding educator and champion for Global Citizenship Education. As the Founder and Lead Educator of Change A Child Community Initiative, she works to transform narratives of violence into opportunities for growth by working with teachers and students to integrate peace education into school learning. Her work has been recognised and supported by international bodies, including UNESCO-APCEIU and SIMA Studios. She is the author of the children's book, Building Our Ideal Community, and a winner of the 2024 UNODC-GRACE international essay competition. Blessing’s vision is to reform educational policy to ensure that peaceful coexistence becomes the primary measure of education across Africa.

    E95 - The Learned Ability to Coexist Peacefully

  3. Jul 15

    E94 - Environmental Literacies for Peacebuilding

    In this podcast, Sundas shares some aspects of her recently completed research project that investigated the use of indigenous, faith, spiritual, and cultural environmental literacies for sustainability education. She elaborates on how these pluriversal environmental literacies are important for not only sustainability and regeneration for all life and life forms on earth, but also for peacebuilding. Dr Sundas Mahar is a researcher and educator currently based at the University of Glasgow. She is specifically interested in using decolonial and pluriversal frameworks to create impactful approaches to education for sustainability and regeneration. Her research focuses on creative, participatory, and embodied approaches to inquiry with students and communities in non-formal educational contexts. To find out more about her work, you can connect with her on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sundas-mahar/

    E94 - Environmental Literacies for Peacebuilding

  4. Jul 8

    E93 - The LINEs for Palestine Project

    This episode is a recording of a presentation by Dr Maria Grazia Imperiale, Dr Giovanna Fassetta, Dr Sahar Alshobaki and Damian Ross, shared with us at the online UNESCO RIELA Spring School: The Arts of Integrating 2025. The presentation highlights the LINEs4Palestine projects, launched in March 2024, to reduce isolation and support Palestinian students, especially in Gaza. Initially, English and Education graduates received tailored workshops and up to six hours of one-to-one mentoring. The expanded phase of the project now serves students across disciplines and universities, offering, e.g., ELLT Oxford test training, research methods course for social sciences, critical pedagogy course, drama-based teaching and learning, and sci-fi film creation. The presentation offers pathways of what could be done in such dire circumstances, lessons learned and how we imagine things can go forward. Things have moved on since this recording was made, and you can read all about the continued work on the website of the University of Glasgow: https://www.gla.ac.uk/schools/education/research/researchimpactstories/continuingacademicworkduringthegenocideinpalestine/ For the biographies of the speakers, please head to the show notes on the podcast website: https://www.gla.ac.uk/research/az/unesco/podcast/

    E93 - The LINEs for Palestine Project

  5. May 27

    SS26 Day 1: travelling plates

    A mini poem created at the UNESCO RIELA Spring School: The Arts of Integrating, in the workshop The Story of the Travelling Plate, led by Dilara Özel and Erdem Avşar.

    SS26 Day 1: travelling plates

  6. May 22

    E92 - Patrick M. Michel, Oana Șerban, and Brittnee Leysen on the VERIS project

    In this episode, we explore the story, challenges, and outcomes of the VERIS project — VERIS – Voices of Palmyra: Engaging in Tangible Memorial Heritage in Social Innovation for Refugee Inclusion — through a conversation with Patrick M. Michel, Oana Șerban, and Brittnee Leysen. Together, they reflect on the collaborative process behind VERIS, a CIVIS Open Lab, the inclusion of Syrian refugees in participatory heritage practices, and the opportunities and limits of using virtual reconstruction as a tool for cultural memory and social innovation. Starting from the reconstruction of tangible heritage associated with Palmyra, the discussion addresses a central question: how can digitally mediated encounters with endangered or destroyed cultural sites become a point of departure for recovering intangible heritage — memories, narratives, identities, and lived cultural practices? The episode also unpacks the ethical, methodological, and practical challenges of working with displaced communities, co-creation, trauma-sensitive engagement, and digital representations of cultural loss. VERIS emerged from a strong interdisciplinary and inter-university collaboration under the umbrella of CIVIS – Europe’s Civic University Alliance, bringing together University of Lausanne, represented by Patrick M. Michel, University of Bucharest, represented by Oana Șerban, and University of Glasgow, represented by Brittnee Leysen. This conversation offers insight into how heritage, technology, and civic engagement can intersect to support refugee inclusion, cultural resilience, and new forms of participatory knowledge-making. For the full show notes, including the biographies of the speakers, please head to our website www.gla.ac.uk/research/az/unesco/ and head to the podcast section.

    E92 - Patrick M. Michel, Oana Șerban, and Brittnee Leysen on the VERIS project

  7. May 12

    E91 - When a Country Becomes a Choir

    Can singing and dancing serve as non-violent responses to oppression? The Estonian song and dance festivals played a crucial role in the Singing Revolution, a series of peaceful mass protests that helped the Estonian people regain their freedom in 1991. Based on my experience as a singer and dancer in this year’s festival, I will provide an insider’s perspective on how these performances allow contemporary Estonians to confront the past and process intergenerational impacts of war, forced deportations, refugee migration, and occupation. This presentation explores how cultural performances can be used as non-violent responses to conflict and facilitate healing. Speaker biography: Dr Kalika Kastein (she/they) is a queer, non-binary Estonian-American who was raised in a multi-generational household with her parents and her grandparents, who fled Estonia as refugees. Kalika has participated as a singer and dancer in the Estonian national song and dance festival. Kalika has nearly 15 years of experience as an educator and is a certified primary teacher in both Aotearoa New Zealand and Hawaiʻi. Based at Ōtakou Whakaihu Waka University of Otago, they specialise in peace education and currently work in Te Kura Ākau Taitoka College of Education. This episode was recorded at the online UNESCO RIELA Spring School: The Arts of Integrating 2025. For more information about our Spring Schools, please visit www.gla.ac.uk/research/az/unesco/events/springschool/.

    E91 - When a Country Becomes a Choir

  8. Apr 29

    E90 - Decolonial Love pt 3: Tawona Sitholé

    In this podcast series, Dr Mukuka Kasonde and Dr Brice Catherin continue their exploration of the concept of decolonial love which they first engaged with as an art exhibition in 2025. In conversation with guests, they critically reflect on how to imagine and enact forms of love that unsettle colonial hierarchies and open space for transformation. In episode 3, Dr Tawona Sithole highlights how the intergenerational care shown by family can help formulate ideas about love. More about Dr Tawona Sitholé: https://www.gla.ac.uk/schools/education/staff/tawonasithole/#biography More about Dr Mukuka Kasonde: www.linkedin.com/in/mukukakasonde/ More about Dr Brice Catherin: www.bricecatherin.org More about the Decolonial Love exhibition: indd.adobe.com/view/9b19dbd9-ebd…a3c2-6b040d3446d9 Music credit: Christophe Schweizer (Switzerland) and Able Chanda (Banthu Ndiwo Traditional Dance Group, Zambia)

    E90 - Decolonial Love pt 3: Tawona Sitholé
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About

Welcome to the podcast series of the UNESCO Chair on Refugee Integration through Education, Languages, and Arts (RIELA) at the University of Glasgow. We bring you sounds to make you think about integration, languages, culture, society and identity. A collection of academic musings, poetry, lesser heard voices and personal stories for you to enjoy and expand you horizons with. In short: a podcast for everyone with stories from the world, about the world, released fortnightly. We work in collaboration with Glasgow Refugee, Asylum and Migration Network (GRAMNet) and its partners. Together, our aim is to promote creative, practical multilingual action for change at all levels of society to build capacity in research and action focused on fostering cultural expressions of heritage and diversity with displaced peoples, and academic freedom for those at risk. Please subscribe to get notified of new episodes coming out! Full show notes can be found on the University of Glasgow's UNESCO RIELA pages: bit.ly/thesoundsofintegration

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