‘soft options’? reflections on an absence of men
Ute Kelly (2019)
I am an Associate Professor in Peace Studies and based in the Division of Peace Studies and International Development, working part-time.
In the other half of my time at the University, I am currently seconded to the role of Associate Dean for Equality, Diversity and Inclusion at the Faculty of Health Studies.
Over the years, I have been involved in teaching and research on a range of issues within what I have seen as a broad interdisciplinary field concerned with contested values and attempts to put them into practice. Much of my work has revolved around the question of how to encourage meaningful conversations about difficult and potentially divisive issues. Currently, I am trying to encourage such conversations on our individual and collective responses to climate change, ecological crisis and the social justice issues they raise, on difference, otherness and inequalities within and beyond the University, and on how, in difficult times, we might cultivate and practice 'the moral imagination' in ourselves and others.
Currently, my research focuses on two main areas of activity:
Against the backdrop of the converging ecological, economic and social challenges we now face, I am interested in exploring the communicative and collaborative dimensions of resilience, the relationships between people and the places in which they find themselves, and approaches to enhancing resilience at different levels and in a range of contexts. Currently, I am a co-investigator on a major UKRI-funded research project, Resilience of Anthropocene Coasts and Communities, which is exploring the question of what responsible and resilient management of historic landfill sites might look like in a context of coastal erosion on a number of UK sites. I am also involved in a smaller exploratory project - 'Re-imagining relationships with urban nature' - that will look at how people experience wasteland and explore how emotions, meanings and values bear on our ability to imagine future possibilities in such spaces.
In the past, related work has included a grounded exploration of discourses of 'resilience', work on local food initiatives, and field research exploring community-based responses to the Boxing Day 2015 floods in the Calder Valley, West Yorkshire. From 2018 to 2021, I was involved in a three-year action research project commissioned by the Environment Agency for England and Natural Resources Wales that has explored how to engage communities at risk of increased flooding and coastal change in the UK in difficult conversations around longer-term adaptation challenges. Work on this project (with Rhys Kelly and Icarus) began with an extensive evidence review that identified a number of engagement challenges and potential approaches. Following this, our work with two pilot locations included designing a set of tools to assess and enhance the readiness of professionals, stakeholders and communities to engage in critical conversations around climate adaptation. All of this work has been disseminated among relevant communities of practice. This work also generated several spin-off projects, including a readiness assessment process for the government-funded Flood and Coastal Resilience Innovation Programme and a role play simulation for UK coastal contexts.
As part of my own reflective practice, I have also been engaged in research around questions of pedagogy. This includes several co-authored pieces (with Rhys Kelly) on the implications of climate change and ecological crisis for our field and experiments with opening up difficult conversations around these issues with our students. It also includes book chapters reflecting on recent teaching experiences, including creative and trauma-informed pedagogic practices that I am hoping to develop further, both via my own teaching and through associated research and creative writing. In 2019, I worked with a group of Peace Studies alumni in a project exploring how we might encourage more honest explorations of challenging dynamics of privilege, difference and otherness within and beyond the University.
The objective of the HEIF project is to understand existing cultural and community connections with Horton Park to foster conversations that consider current and future aspirations. Specifically, we will increase our knowledge of community views of the park as focal places, and themes related to culture, diversity, cohesion, inclusion, conflict, values and participation by: 1) Establishing the physical historical and cultural context of the park in relation to the City to contribute to community awareness and interest in learning, drawing from baseline surveys and 3D representation of the park as a planning resource. 2) Drawing upon inter-generational family memories and oral history to bridge conversations that allow older generations to bring their narratives about their enjoyment of these spaces within living memory; whilst allowing younger generations to respond to these and find 'common ground'.
This project, run in partnership with the Environment Agency, Natural Resources Wales and Icarus, aims to - co-develop a simulation exercise focused on adaptation choices and scenarios relevant to coastal communities facing increased risks of coastal erosion and flooding associated with climate change; - draw together expertise from the project partners to enable the development of scientifically and policy informed materials; - pilot/test the simulation exercise to generate learning and refinement of the materials, and to support the creation of a pack for use nationally; - disseminate learning through relevant publications and professional education activities.
This project supported the development and trialing of a readiness assessment tool appropriate for contexts that are facing difficult and potentially contentious climate adaptation challenges.
Funded by the Environment Agency and Natural Resources Wales, this project explores a series of engagement challenges facing professionals and communities as they attempt to engage in the difficult work of climate adaptation. This work involves both an extensive review of existing research and practice and a phase of action research and reflection in two pilot locations in England, including the development and trialing of customised tools for practitioner and community engagement.
My teaching aims to encourage students to explore discourses and practices of peace, resilience, social justice and conflict engagement. This includes critical reflection on the assumptions, values and personal experiences that we bring to our study of these questions. My approach to teaching values reflective and creative practices, dialogue about questions that matter, careful engagement with a range of perspectives within and beyond the classroom, and the development of 'the moral imagination', and I try to create learning experiences that encourage these qualities and dispositions.
Ute Kelly (2019)
Ute Kelly (2019) The Politics of Representation Collective.
Ute Kelly (2019)
Ute Kelly (2019)
Ute Kelly & Juleus Ghunta (2019) ACEsConnection.
Ute Kelly (2019)
Ute Kelly (2019)
Ute Kelly (2019)
Ute Kelly (2019)
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Ute Kelly (2019)
Ute Kelly (2019)
Ute Kelly & Rhys Kelly (2015)
Ute Kelly (2023) Innovations in Peace and Education Praxis: Transdisciplinary Reflections and Insights. In David Tim Archer, Basma Hajir and William McInerney editor(s) Routledge.
Kelly, Ute and Kelly, Rhys (2020) Pedagogy of Vulnerability. Information Age Publishing.
Kelly, Ute and Kelly, Rhys (2017) Peace Education: Past, Present and Future. Routledge.
Kelly, Ute (2005)
Ute Kelly (2020) Recast: A co-operative and radical education zine.
Ute Kelly (2020) Recast: a co-operative and radical education zine.
Kelly, Ute (2013)
Bühler, Ute (2002)
Rhys Kelly, Ute Kelly (2023) Journal of Flood Risk Management.
Kelly, Ute; Kelly, Rhys H.S. (2017)
Kelly R.;Kelly U. (2013) Journal of Peace Education. 10, 283-302.
Kelly, Rhys H.S.; Kelly, Ute (2013)
Kelly, Ute (2006)
Bühler, Ute (2002) Review of International Studies. 28
Buhler, Ute (2002) Peace Review. 14
Ute Kelly, Rhys Kelly (2023) Environment Agency.
Rhys Kelly, Ute Kelly, Karen Saunders (2023) Environment Agency.
Rhys Kelly, Ute Kelly (2023) Environment Agency.
Ute Kelly, Rhys Kelly (2023) Environment Agency.
Rhys Kelly, Ute Kelly (2019) Environment Agency.
Rhys Kelly, Ute Kelly (2013) AHRC.
Kelly, Ute with Cumming, Lisa (2010) Carnegie UK.
Ute Kelly, Steve Smith, Rhys Kelly (2009) C-SCAP.