at peaceable, we’re optimists
That doesn’t mean we turn away from the world’s most painful challenges.
As individuals we’ve studied conflict, war, divided societies, and the circumstances that lead to polarisation and violence. We’ve worked directly with communities impacted by social injustice, economic disenfranchisement, and asymmetrical power dynamics.
We’ve taught, organised, facilitated, mediated, trained, and mentored. We’ve worked in business, technology, research, media and the arts. We’ve been entrepreneurs, innovators, policy-makers and practitioners. What brought us together was our shared exploration of the potential for peace-enabling technology to become an essential social infrastructure, underpinning and enabling peaceful societies.
While we know technology has a significant role to play in building peaceful societies, we are passionate about bringing the human dimensions of relational intelligence, individual agency, and group dynamics into explorations of data aggregation, algorithmic platforms and AI.
The arts also have a significant role to play in building peaceful societies. Music, dance, painting, drawing, sculpture and poetry have the power to touch and transform negative emotions and build solidarity and a common purpose.
We believe in cross-fertilisation, sharing knowledge and insights from the public and private sector, between rational and intuitive thinkers, between different disciplines, generations, and cultures. We integrate evidence and experience from multiple domains of human endeavour as we develop new ways to transform relationships, groups and communities from conflicted to peaceable.
Each and any one of us can shape what happens in moments of divisiveness and conflict.
Despite the frustration and despair that suffuse the present moment, we believe that a better world is within our grasp. Peaceable societies are cohesive at the local and community level, held together by everyday peacemakers.
Peaceable exists to facilitate the building of more bridges. We at Peaceable have seen how bridging differences as individuals is not only possible, but transformational within the communities in which we coexist. When we see conflicting views or beliefs as problems that are certain to lead to negative and even dangerous outcomes, our ability to tolerate different perspectives shrinks. We limit our horizons for creative engagement and decision making.
Peaceability is a capability. Everyone can learn it.
meet Our founders
Nabeela Khan
Nabeela Khan, MA, is a researcher in Peace Studies and International Development at the University of Bradford currently working on a PhD. Her work explores the intersection of conflict, technology, and visual or creative research methods, contributing to emerging fields such as PeaceTech. She is an active member of interdisciplinary networks that examine how technology and innovation can support peacebuilding and conflict transformation.
Steven Overman
Steven Overman, MA, works in strategy, innovation and leadership development, and is the author of The Conscience Economy: How a Mass Movement for Good Is Great for Business (Bibliomotion, 2014). Trained as an artist and filmmaker, he produced the world’s first streaming news program for Wired Magazine, led global brand and marketing for Nokia, and drove the post-bankruptcy turnaround of Kodak’s film division. He is a mentor and advisor to social entrepreneurs, and holds an MA in Conflict Resolution in Divided Societies from King’s College London.
Hen Wilkinson
Hen Wilkinson, PhD, is a conflict transformation practitioner working at the intersection of peacebuilding, community practice and technology. Her work focuses on collaborative approaches, building bridges between research, practice, and innovation. She is a co-founder of both Community Resolve and the Interdisciplinary PeaceTech Network, from which Peaceable emerged, and currently works with organisations and agencies as a trainer, process facilitator and conflict consultant. Her forthcoming book, The Cost of Othering: Why Organisations Should Pay Attention to Team Dynamics, is published by Bristol University Press.
Lois Yellowthunder
Lois Yellowthunder, PhD, is an anthropologist and policy researcher affiliated with the University of Minnesota. Her work spans academic research, public policy, and local government, with a focus on social change, family policy, and the application of research to real-world decision-making. She has also contributed to initiatives in nonviolence and peacebuilding, bringing interdisciplinary insights from anthropology and public administration.