SCHEDULE
Welcome | ABS UK
Introducing the Promise of World Peace | Maximillian Afnan
Re-examining Peace and the Role of the UN in Peacemaking | Rayyan Sabet-Parry
A Dynamic Understanding of Peace | Nabil L. Khodadad
Coffee Break
From Fragmentation to Integration: The Role of Law in the Age of AI | Monica E. Maghami
The Earth as a Body: Global Health Inequality and its Foundational Causes | Nason Maani
ʻAbdu'l-Bahá in Edinburgh – a True Practitioner of Peace | Ruhy Parris
Lunch and guided tours of The Georgian House*
Reframing the Border: Film as a Bridge in Post-Conflict Northern Ireland | Ara Devine
When Worlds End: Apocalyptic Visions of Peace in Christian, Islamic, and Bahá’í Thought | Caleb Gilleland
Epistemological Considerations of Peace | Ariana Razavi
Tracing the Path of the Baha'i Community: From the Central Figures to the Plans of the Universal House of Justice | Ashkan Ziaie
Closing remarks
* Seminar participants are invited to a guided visit of The Georgian House, the home of the Whyte family who hosted ʻAbdu'l-Bahá in 1913
SPEAKERS
Maximillian Afnan is a postdoctoral fellow at the London School of Economics, specialising in political philosophy. His research concerns the principles that underpin the operation of the global order, and how processes of public deliberation operate at the global level.
Rayyan Sabet-Parry has over 15 years of experience in strategic communications, international affairs and journalism with the United Nations and the BBC among others. He currently works in a strategic communications capacity with the World Health Organization (WHO) and was previously Head of Communications for the UN health agency during the war in 2022 where he managed and coordinated humanitarian affairs and response in the country.
Nabil L. Khodadad is a partner in an international law firm, and is based in their London office. He holds a JD from The University of Chicago Law School and a BA in Economics from Northwestern University.
Monica E. Maghami is a client-facing regulatory lawyer specialising in corporate, commercial and public law, interested in ESG, AI and governance.
Nason Maani is a Senior Lecturer in Inequalities and Global Health Policy at the University of Edinburgh’s Global Health Policy Unit, in the School of Social and Political Science. His research focuses on the commercial determinants of health, seeking to describe the mechanisms through which commercial actors affect health inequalities, knowledge, and public discourse.
Ruhy Parris undertook postgraduate professional training in anaesthesiology and pain medicine in Edinburgh and Newcastle, working as NHS consultant in northeast England and Glasgow. Following retirement from her medical career she obtained a MSc in Persian Civilisation in 2019 from the University of Edinburgh and briefly worked as a Persian language tutor in the university’s department of Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies.
Nabil H. Khabirpour serves as Lecturer at the Faculty of Law at the University of Cambridge and as Fellow and Director of Studies in Law at Lucy Cavendish College. His research interests cover the fields of European Union Law, Human Rights, Access to Justice and Philosophy of Law. Prior to moving to academia, Nabil was a full time practitioner in the field of international dispute resolution.
Ara Devine is an artist and filmmaker, first graduating from the National College of Art and Design in Dublin before completing a practice-based PhD at Belfast School of Art, Ulster University. His award winning films explore the complexities of identity, memory, and national belonging. Ara is a member of BAFTA Connect and Co-Founder of Tiny Speck Productions.
Caleb Gilleland is a PhD candidate in Christian-Muslim Relations at the School of Divinity, University of Edinburgh. His research interests include modern views of the apostle Paul — especially in interfaith context, Baha'i studies, evangelical Christian missional method, and Quranist interpretations of Islam.
Ariana Razavi is an incoming philosophy PhD candidate at the University of Liverpool. Her work is focused on the notion of agency and the ethics of belief and draws on applied and social epistemology, as well as on various methods and ideas from legal and political theory. She previously studied for her MSc and BA, both in philosophy, at LSE and UCL respectively.
Ashkan Ziaie is a graduate of Edinburgh Medical School and also holds a degree in International Public Health Policy. He currently resides in Edinburgh, where he works as a General Practitioner with a special interest in the impact of family and community life on health and wellbeing. He serves as the Auxiliary Board member for Protection for Scotland and the Faroe Islands.