Complicity in Universality: A deep dive into landscapes of peace knowledge
About this Event
Speaker
Dr Cristina Blanco Sío-López, Tenured Associate Professor of Contemporary History and Sociology, University of La Coruña (UDC), Spain; CDH Affiliate and CDH Visiting Fellow (May - July 2026).
Dr Cristina Blance Sío-López is Tenured Associate Professor (Profesora Titular) in History and Sociology at the University of La Coruña (UDC) in Spain, which she first joined as ‘Talent Attraction’ Senior Distinguished Researcher in Contemporary History, European Studies and Digital Humanities (DH). She leads the research cluster on ‘The historical legacies of human mobility rights in European integration’ and was the Principal Investigator (PI) of the NextGenerationEU research projects ‘FUNDEU’ and ‘FREEMOVEU‘, in cooperation with the Spanish National Research Agency (AEI). Her research and publications focus on European Integration History and DH, with an accent on: The European Union’s (EU) enlargement historical and policy narrative temporalities; Philosophy of Time and temporal perception management analysed through historical studies; the Schengen Area fundamental rights; a (po)ethical-practical critique of AI concepts from the Digital Humanities; quantum ‘norms’ from a historical perspective; a ‘Cosmology of History’ and ‘warped geometries’ as diachronic futures of opportunity; 1989 intersections between history and technology on the eve of radical societal change and on the search sustainable factors of peace via regional (e.g. European) integration studied though non-intuitive and innovative insights expressed from the Arts (e.g. through poetry and the visual arts) and shared via Digital Humanities conceptual maps she designates as ‘Peace-scapes’.
Abstract
This project bridges a major division between strategic and geopolitical views of peace-building and Arts-based conceptual itineraries in the groundbreaking yet challenging process of European integration. Indeed, cultural constructions have been traditionally seen as fragile and dependent on political decisions but they have proven capable of holding a long-term compelling soft power as well as an open invitation to transcend the self. As the future becomes more dependent on discerning and implementing factors of sustainable peace, building conceptual maps on an emergent Art-Peace historical analysis nexus brings us back to the deeply human legacy that historical archives can so intensely provide.
The main sources to build these Digital Humanities-enhanced conceptual maps of knowledge about peace via the languages of the Arts come from the Historical Archives of the European Union in Florence (HAEU) – especially focusing on the collections dedicated to ‘Imaginaries of Peace’ from the fifties to 2004 – and from the Churchill Archives and the Churchill College at the University of Cambridge, including the Philip John Noel-Baker Nobel Prize Peace collection on diplomacy, science, politics and Arts-based principles as a bridge for sustainable peace.
More particularly, this project is currently focusing on the Philip Noel-Baker papers at the Churchill Archives by shedding light on those collections addressing ‘Peace and Disarmament, 1908-1980’, peace debates in science and education and peace and human rights in international affairs throughout the 20th century. Against this backdrop, it aspires to use critical historical analysis as a basis for a societal rethink of scenario design in peace-building and peace-keeping deeply rooted in overlooked fundamental rights and freedoms that archival research can help bring back to the fore.
This research project has received the 2026 Colin Bell Award in Contemporary History from the Churchill Archives Centre and the Churchill College at the University of Cambridge.
Access
Events are free and open to all unless otherwise stated.
Please note there are 4 steps to access 2 Trumpington Street, which is a listed building; unfortunately, due to the incline, step-free access is currently unavailable.
CDH website event listing: https://www.cdh.cam.ac.uk/events/41631
Image: Poster on Europe’s Day produced by the Council of Europe, HAEU, CCRE-DOC-02-06_04 (cropped).
Where is it happening?
Event Location & Nearby Stays:
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