Creating a difference – a role for the arts in addressing child wellbeing in conflict-affected areas

Background Details findings from a project on the potential for arts activities and art therapy to support the mental health and wellbeing of children living in Kashmir. Methods The intervention engaged 30 school children over the course of one year who produced various forms of artwork and performances. In this paper, we report on project impacts, drawing on some of our qualitative measures including observations and interviews. Results Our research details impacts and improvements in areas of emotional expression, belonging, and agency. We also found an important role for schools to create safe, secure, and caring spaces to allow students to express themselves and work through traumatic feelings in a non-judgemental way. Conclusions School-based arts interventions can play an important role in the mental health and wellbeing of children. Critical here, however, are dedicated space, time, and resources to provide a supportive environment and to sustain activity in long-term

Developing an evaluation strategy in Kashmir: assessing the impact of an arts intervention with school children in an area of conflict

About 1 in 6 children live in areas of conflict globally (Save the children, 2022), with significant impact on mental health, behaviour, and life outcomes (Buser et al., 2023). Research on ways to help prevent and reduce suffering is paramount, yet assessing the impact of interventions on children in the context of conflict is challenging, beset with ethical, cultural and psychometric difficulties (Newman et al., 2006). This practice report shares and reflects on the research strategy developed to evaluate the impact of an arts intervention in the Kashmir Valley, funded by an AHRC Urgency bid to help children in crisis. The study took part in a highly militarised area, where children were regularly exposed to violence, protests and resistance, and education and family life were heavily impacted by military lockdowns. When the study began (June 2020) conditions were further intensified by rising cases of coronavirus. The arts-based intervention occurred at one school and ran throughout their academic year (from August 2020). Thirty children (aged 12-15) were referred by the school to participate in a programme that was integrated into the curriculum and included a range of art activities: painting, writing, puppetry, music and performance, designed to enable expression and improve wellbeing, led by an artist and art therapist (Buser et al., 2023)

Geometric Phases for Mixed States during Cyclic Evolutions

The geometric phases of cyclic evolutions for mixed states are discussed in the framework of unitary evolution. A canonical one-form is defined whose line integral gives the geometric phase which is gauge invariant. It reduces to the Aharonov and Anandan phase in the pure state case. Our definition is consistent with the phase shift in the proposed experiment [Phys. Rev. Lett. \textbf{85}, 2845 (2000)] for a cyclic evolution if the unitary transformation satisfies the parallel transport condition. A comprehensive geometric interpretation is also given. It shows that the geometric phases for mixed states share the same geometric sense with the pure states.Comment: 9 pages, 1 figur

Generalization of geometric phase to completely positive maps

We generalize the notion of relative phase to completely positive maps with known unitary representation, based on interferometry. Parallel transport conditions that define the geometric phase for such maps are introduced. The interference effect is embodied in a set of interference patterns defined by flipping the environment state in one of the two paths. We show for the qubit that this structure gives rise to interesting additional information about the geometry of the evolution defined by the CP map.Comment: Minor revision. 2 authors added. 4 pages, 2 figures, RevTex

The Art of Healing

The Art of Healing was an AHRC-funded research project. Its central research question asked: what is the potential for arts activities and art-based therapies to support the mental health and wellbeing of children affected by conflict? To investigate and answer this question, we partnered with the Dolphin International School in the town of Pulwama (Jammu and Kashmir, India). We worked with 30 students (ages 11 to 15) at the school under a specifically designed programme called ‘Kalakar Qasbah’ (artists collective). Through a year of engagement, the students participated in drama, visual arts, puppetry, drawing and many other creative activities. Over the course of the art intervention, a series of impacts were identified that related to child wellbeing as well as programme design and delivery. Further funding from AHRC enabled a rolling out of the processes employed to other locations in the region