Interdisciplinary Center for Peace and Conflict Research in Bavaria

Research program – Conflicts.Meanings.Transitions

When tyranny ends, when societies come to terms with their past, when values change, people contest what these transitions mean. How these interpretational struggles unfold is essential for societal peace in the present and future.

In the research network Conflicts.Meanings.Transitions („Deutungskämpfe im Übergang“) we examine such contestations from an interdisciplinary perspective.

In particular, we focus on meaning struggles over peace strategies by non-state actors, over violence, and over universal rights and diversity.

Our network promotes diverse methodologies, interdisciplinary exchange, and institutionalization of peace and conflict research in Bavaria. We strive for societal and political impact in the region and beyond by sharing results with political actors, academia, and the broader public.

Scholars from the Universities of Augsburg, Bayreuth, and Erlangen-Nuremberg, and from Leibniz Institute for Contemporary History (Munich-Berlin) are collaborating, coordinated at the University of Bayreuth.

Our guiding question

How do struggles over meaning contribute to peace?

Research Areas

Conflicts.Meanings.Transitions

News

We kindly invite you to the upcoming Bayreuth Peace Talks event: „Exit Wounds: Aftershocks of […]
Peace Graffiti
30 July-1st August 2025, Augsburg The BMBF-funded research network Conflicts.Meanings.Transitions invites young scholars to a […]
Language, Ideology, and the Dynamics of Conflict: Unpacking Political Behaviour 15 May 2025 | Workshop […]
Report of the roundtable discussion “Peace and Conflict Studies amidst the ‘Zeitenwende’: Which research, how […]
Since 14 March, the Historisches Museum Bayreuth has been hosting the special exhibition Leben im […]

Picture attribution: Stop the war coalition by Chris Beckett (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0); Hiroshima by Jan Sändig, Conflicts.Meanings.Transitions; Diversity/rainbow flag by Benson Kua (CC BY-SA 2.0)