Best Paper Award 2025

• For more on Samira's work: https://orcid.org/0009-0001-0583-6718

“Silent Path to Peace: Exploring Peace Education through an Intercultural Art-Based Workshop ”
The paper examines how peace can be understood, communicated, and co-created through silence and artistic expression. Drawing on arts-based research and semiotic analysis, the study explores how participants from diverse cultural backgrounds expressed their understandings of peace through visual art and collective reflection. The findings reveal that non-verbal creative practices can foster empathy, inclusion, and intercultural understanding by creating spaces for shared meaning-making beyond language. The paper contributes to peace education research by highlighting the potential of art-based approaches as innovative and inclusive pedagogies for increasingly diverse and multilingual societies.

Samira said of her Best Paper experience:
"Receiving the ERC Best Paper Award is both an honour and a source of encouragement. As a doctoral researcher, it is inspiring to see work on peace education, creativity, and intercultural understanding recognised in this way. The paper grew from a collaborative and meaningful experience that brought people together through art and reflection, and I am delighted that its message resonated with the reviewers.
The Best Paper process offered valuable feedback and an opportunity to refine my thinking as a researcher. It reminded me of the importance of remaining open to dialogue, critique, and new perspectives, which are values at the heart of both research and peace education.
Having worked in education for many years across different roles and contexts, I have seen how learning can create bridges between people, cultures, and experiences. This award reinforces my belief that education is not only about knowledge but also about fostering empathy, understanding, and human connection. Winning this award strengthens my commitment to exploring educational approaches that encourage inclusion, creativity, and dialogue across cultural and linguistic differences.
I am deeply grateful to my co-author, mentors, colleagues, and the wider research community whose support and insights have shaped this work. I hope this recognition will contribute to ongoing conversations about the role of arts-based and intercultural approaches in building more peaceful, inclusive, and compassionate societies."

• Samira Hasanzade is a PhD researcher in Education at the University of Glasgow. Her research focuses on peace education, intercultural learning, arts-based methodologies, and the educational experiences of conflict-affected and displaced communities. Drawing on extensive experience in educational leadership, assessment, curriculum development, and higher education teaching, she is particularly interested in how creative and participatory approaches can foster empathy, inclusion, and meaningful dialogue across cultural and linguistic differences.
  Her work examines the role of education, the arts, and intercultural engagement in promoting peace, social cohesion, and transformative learning. Through her research, she seeks to explore innovative educational practices that support understanding, connection, and more inclusive societies.