This Leverhulme Impact Seminar aims to generate discussion and debate among staff and postgraduate students about the role of the performing arts in peacebuilding. It will examine various forms of engagement with the public, musicians and arts practitioners.

Taking Min-On, the largest concert association in Japan today as a case study, Dr. Olivier Urbain will analyse the longstanding achievements of the association, especially how its activities have influenced the Japanese musical scene and facilitated exchanges between people of all backgrounds, nationalities and cultures.

As impact is a key aspect of the UK research agenda, this seminar will also provide a forum for sharing effective means of disseminating and evidencing research in the performing arts.

Dr. Olivier Urbain is Senior Research Fellow of the Min-On Music Research Institute (Tokyo) and Director of the Toda Institute for Global Peace and Policy Research (Tokyo/Honolulu). He has published the seminal edited volume Music and Conflict Transformation: Harmonies and Dissonances in Geopolitics (London, I.B. Tauris [2008], 2015) and numerous articles on the roles of art in peacebuilding. He is the founder/director of Transcend: Art and Peace Network and an active member of the board of the International Peace Research Association Foundation.

Dr. Olivier Urbain currently holds a Leverhulme Research Professorship at the Senator George J. Mitchell Institute for Global Peace, Security and Justice and will be on campus until 22 December 2016.