Applied Conflict Transformation Studies - ACTS

Two years of bringing your whole self, your context, your peacework, into a learning space and in the peacebuilding community. That’s what this degree represents.

Bunrithy Lav represented his cohort at Paññāsāstra University of Cambodia’s 12th Commencement. Every one of them graduated with honors.

To Bunrithy and the whole cohort: Congratulations!

ACTS approaches identity as central to understanding conflict and transformation, recognising how narratives, belonging and lived experience shape the way people relate to one another and to conflict itself.

Within ACTS, conflict analysis creates space to question assumptions and engage more deeply with the realities shaping the conflict.

Transformative Peace Leadership runs through the ACTS programme as a space for practitioners to reflect on how they lead, listen and position themselves within conflict. It invites deeper attention to self-awareness, relationships and the values that shape peace practice.

Action Research runs through the ACTS programme to connect practice, reflection and academic inquiry, strengthening how practitioners understand and engage with their realities.

ACTS brings together peace practitioners from across the region to deepen their understanding, reflection, and engagement with conflict through theory, practice and shared learning.

Theory in conversation with lived experience. A learning community built through critical exchange, honest reflection, and the sharing of conflict realities from across the region. As Module 1 closes, it leaves a cohort already building the trust, discipline, and depth that meaningful peace practice requires, and a strong foundation for the journey ahead.

In peace practice, ideas cannot be carried forward just because they are established. They need to be tested against lived realities, questioned for what they reveal and what they leave out, and engaged with seriously enough to sharpen practice. In Module 1, students built critiques of conflict theories through research, discussion, and concrete cases from their own contexts, deepening analytical discipline and strengthening the ability to work with theory in a way that is rigorous and grounded in practice.

ACTS places strong emphasis on conflict analysis because without a grounded understanding, work on conflict can easily repeat the patterns it seeks to change. Drawing from their own contexts across the region, students approached analysis as a practice, not just a tool, one that asks us to slow down, question assumptions, and be more nuanced in how conflict is understood. This is what enables peace practitioners to engage with conflict with greater clarity, responsibility, and intention.

Transformative Peace Leadership is one of the core strands of the ACTS programme, grounded in the belief that investing in leadership is one of the most powerful levers for change in conflict-affected settings. It is also a space for peace practitioners to pause, reflect, and practice the kind of reflexivity that sustains meaningful work grounded in shared values, care, and a commitment to doing this work well. This is part of our accompaniment approach, walking with the cohort throughout their entire ACTS journey.