Paper details

Paper authors	Jessica Hawkins
In panel on	The active role of Higher Education Institutes & local actors in understanding and responding to the needs of crisis-affected communities
Paper presenter(s) will be presenting	In-Person / Online

Abstract

This paper presents my experiences as a lecturer in Humanitarian Studies of implementing Young People in Humanitarianism Conferences for secondary school pupils in the Greater Manchester area. The conferences formed part of an MA level module offered at the University of Manchester’s Humanitarian and Conflict Response Institute, as students were tasked with organising a day of workshops on a variety of themes related to humanitarianism. Within the British secondary school system, there is very little space for engagement with these issues aside from odd assemblies and a number of Citizenship lessons and yet, our responsibility to refugees, the UK aid budget and our relationship with global institutions are becoming debates which British children are encountering whether at home or via social media. The conferences sought to raise awareness of the theoretical and practical implications of humanitarianism for young people in our local community whilst addressing the challenges of such engagement. Further, we hoped to foster a new generation of local activists whilst also providing secondary school teachers with the resources and tools to continue the education of humanitarianism in their own school environments. The paper will therefore outline the practical elements of the conference whilst also detailing how we dealt with topics which are politically sensitive, ethically challenging and that focus on global inequalities.

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