25 Years on From the Good Friday Agreement: Gendered and Grassroots Approaches to Peacebuilding

The conference marks the 25th anniversary of the signing of the Good Friday/ Belfast Agreement (GFA/BA) in Northern Ireland (NI). It centers the often overlooked "on-the-ground" efforts that operate at the intersections of gender, class, transitional justice and peacebuilding. For the first time, 20 working-class women from cross-community grassroots organizations in NI will travel to Boston to be in dialogue with students, scholars, practitioners, members of civic society & the extended Irish community. Our focus is to encourage the development of mutually beneficial relationships that extend beyond the conference.

The conference program cuts across a range of approaches, including round table “Conversations,” informal workshops, slam poetry, film, and first-hand accounts of conflict survivors. We invite students, scholars, practitioners, members of civil society as well as those curious about “post-conflict” NI to join this unprecedented event.

Keynote Speakers: Monica McWilliams, Ph.D. co-founded a political party, the NI Women’s Coalition (NIWC) played an instrumental role in the negotiation of the GFA/BA. Avila Kilmurray, Ph.D. co-founder of NIWC and a member of its negotiating team for the GFA/BA. She has written extensively on community development, women’s issues and conflict transformation. Cynthia Enloe, Ph.D., is internationally renowned for her work on gender and militarism and for her contributions to the field of feminist international relations. In 2017, she was selected to be named on the Gender Justice Legacy Wall, installed in the International Crimes Court, The Hague.

Co-sponsored by the Center for the Study of Europe. For more information about the conference , visit the GFA conference website.