Ilaria Olimpico

I am a ‘Peace Studies’ PhD Researcher. My PhD research project explores stories of connection, compassion, and courage in Palestine–Israel, considering the ceremonies of ‘Combatants for Peace’ as third-narrative practices, between (re)shaping memory and future-making, towards collective liberation. I am also the Italian group representative of ‘European Friends of Combatants for Peace’.

I am a Facilitator of Social Arts & the ‘Work That Reconnects’, and a Focusing Trainer.

More than fifteen years of experience facilitating groups at the intersection of peace education, conflict transformation, deep ecology, and community building across borders, have led me to the methodological map ‘Stories that Reconnect’.

It is an invitation to honor the pain of the world and cultivate active hope, remember our inter-connection, expand our capacity for compassion, and awaken the courage to act from a space of embodied dreaming, political imagination, and emerging futures.

I am a trainer at ‘CISP Interdisciplinary Center Sciences for Peace’ at the University of Pisa. I have collaborated with the University of Florence and the University of Würzburg-Schweinfurt (FHWS). I have served as a facilitator and consultant for ANCI Umbria in the European FAMI projects ‘Puzzle’ and ‘LIFE’, focused on conflict transformation, social inclusion, and capacity building, collaborating with newcomers and institutions.

In recent years, I have been designing and facilitating workshops, both online and in person, in collaboration with international facilitators such as Elena Boukouvala, Arundhati Samudra, Ruth Cross, Héctor Aristizábal, Uri Noy Meir, and Caren Niemann.

Ilaria listens to the stories beneath words and midwifes the unseen through the alchemy of group presence . a subtle magician of what wishes to emerge. -Hector Aristizabal, founder of ImaginAction, Director at Re-Conectando, eco-psychologist and artist.

Ilaria’s work encapsulates her depth and sensitivity in working with groups, considering social, political divisions and inequalities, and creating possibilities for dialogue and systemic change across them. It values imagination, embodiment, cultural diversity, and the complexities of diverse positionalities.- Dr. Elena Boukouvala, Postdoctoral Fellow in Geography at the Open University, sociologist (PhD), drama therapist (MA), psychologist.

Ilaria's ability to move fluidly between academic analysis, artistic expression, facilitation of collective processes, and her personal life is astounding, quoting Haraway, Ilaria is an embodiment of “hanging with the trouble.”.- Dr. Paul Pulé, Honorary Research Fellow, Coventry University Centre for Global Learning, Education & Attainment.