Chelsea L. Wilkinson

Chelsea Wilkinson obtained her Master’s in 2017 from EGS in Expressive Arts and Conflict Transformation, as well as completed training in the expressive arts leadership program at EGS, now known as the Qualifying Phase of the PhD in Expressive Arts. She was awarded her PhD in Peace Studies from Trinity College Dublin in 2024, where her doctoral research focused on graffiti and conflict transformation. Chelsea teaches research methods and group process courses in the EGS Master’s program, and is a supervisor and adviser for both Masters and PhD students.

She is co-coordinator of EGS’s Expressive Arts and Global Health Program based in Malta, where community-based expressive arts skills are taught in trauma-informed and conflict transformation contexts. Chelsea’s personal artistic mediums are visual art, specifically collage and illustration, and music, primarily percussion.
Chelsea‘s research explores the role of the arts in nonviolent resistance, civil disobedience, and transnational solidarity movements as a response to systemic issues such as xenophobia, racism, extremism, and sectarianism in societies around the world today. Her doctoral research explored the intersections of conflict transformation and expressive arts theory regarding the use of graffiti as a nonviolent method for marginalized communities to raise awareness, reclaim identity and assert narratives, and create tangible and sustainable social change. Other research interests include how the arts are used as both a tool for peacebuilding as well as propaganda in the contexts of political conflict, the arts and far-right extremism, and the rise of Christian
nationalism in the U.S. Chelsea has taught several courses on the arts, peacebuilding, and conflict transformation, and has presented at numerous international conferences on her research.

Publications
FORTHCOMING: Wilkinson, C. & Clark, S. (2025). Christian Nationalism and far-right rhetoric and iconography in recruiting and mobilizing out-group members on Gab. Banal Fascism Online: Weaponizing the ‘Everyday’ for Extreme Ends. Pruden, M. & Stiverson (eds.). London, UK and New York, NY: Routledge.

Waybright, C. & Edelbi, K. (2024). Assessment and Cultural Sensitivity Regarding International Graffiti on the West Bank Barrier, Israel-Palestine (working title). Routledge Handbook for Arts and Global Development. Ware, V. (ed.). London, UK and New York, NY: Routledge.

*Waybright was previous name

Wilkinson, C. & Clark, S. (2023). Authoritarianism and Theocracy in the 21st Century: Far-right Christianity and Social Counter-movements in America. Social Justice in a Turbulent Era. Cheltenham, UK. Edward Elgar Publishing.