Creativity and Crisis Symposium

 Event 

Issues in Creative Practice Research Symposium: Creativity and Crisis

The Centre for Cultural and Creative Industries’ successful practice-based research symposium returns in 2021 to offer further discussion and exploration of practice-based and action research. The 2021 symposium is tailored to benefit academic staff and PhD students whose research regularly engages with and/or produces creative outputs. 

From the climate emergency through COVID-19 and from the waves of debate inspired by Black Lives Matter through the deep social inequalities revealed by the lockdown, our research has been challenged and reframed. This symposium will include researchers and practitioners from a broad range of fields who want to share how their work explores creativity/practice in response to crises. 

About the speaker

Our keynote is the Palestinian writer and architect Suad Amiry whose practice exemplifies creativity and crisis. In 1991, stuck at home under curfew during the first Gulf War (February 1991) Amiry came up with the idea of establishing the Centre for Architectural Conservation Riwaq, which has since won numerous architectural awards, including the renowned Aga Khan Award for Architecture.

In 2002, when the Israeli army reoccupied her city of Ramallah, once again stuck at home under a 44 day curfew together with her 91 year-old Mother-in-law, Amiry wrote her renowned book, Sharon and My Mother-in-Law, which has been translated into 20 languages and won the Italian Viareggio-Versilia Prize.

Amiry is the author of several books on architecture - the latest of which is Peasant Architecture in Palestine: Space, Kinship and Gender (2018) - and several non-fiction books, including Menopausal Palestine, Nothing to Lose But Your Life: an 18 hour Journey with Murad, Golda Slept Here, My Damascus and her latest book An English Suit and a Jewish Cow (2020). Amiry has also appeared on TEDxRamallah with a talk entitled My Work My Hobby.