Religions, Social Conflict, and Peace Unit
Panel I: The Religion, Social Conflicts, and Peace Unit seeks co-sponsorship with the Religion, Holocaust, and Genocide Unit. We welcome proposals that engage in discussions about genocide in the context of the 30th anniversary of the Rwanda Genocide. Proposals can include one of the following:
- narratives and commemorations of genocides in Rwanda and Africa
- The role of Western powers in genocides 'in the margins' [presidential theme]
- comparison and relations between genocides at 'Centers' and 'Margins'
- interrogation of peacebuilding and reconciliation in the Global South
- the legacies of Western colonialism in the genocides in Africa
- the opportunity/problems of comparison" Holocaust, Kosovo, Gaza, Rwanda...
- Afro-American thought and genocides in the Caribbean and Africa
Panel II: we seek papers addressing the dynamics of religion, conflict, and peace from a global and international perspective, attentive to the legacies of coloniality/modernity. Topics can include
- Religion and American foreign policy
- Islamophobia and the analysis of religion's role in conflict
- religion and diplomacy
- religious and ethnic diasporas and the dynamics of violence and peacebuilding
- Manichean logic in framing conflicts
- religion and the disruption of civilizational discourse
Relationships between religions and the causes and resolution of social conflict are complex. On the one hand, religion is a major source of discord in our world, but on the other, religious agents have often played a central role in developing and encouraging nonviolent means of conflict resolution and sustainable peace. While religion as a factor in conflicts is often misunderstood by military and political leaders, it is also the case that the popular call for an end to injustice is quite often a religious voice. We seek to add a critical dimension to the understanding of how religion influences and resolves social conflict. We want to develop and expand the traditional categories of moral reflection and response to war and also to investigate kindred conflicts — terrorism, humanitarian armed intervention, cultural and governmental repression, ecological degradation, and all of the factors that inhibit human flourishing. We also hope to encourage theoretical and practical reflection on religious peace-building by examining the discourses, practices, and community and institutional structures that promote just peace. Through our work, we hope to promote understanding of the relationships between social conflict and religions in ways that are theoretically sophisticated and practically applicable in diverse cultural contexts.
Chair | Dates | ||
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Atalia Omer, University of Notre Dame | aomer1@nd.edu | - | View |
Santiago H. Slabodsky | santiago.slabodsky… | - | View |