Call for papers: Religion, conflict and reconciliation in a fragile world

Friday, 5 January 2024 , 12pm

Hybrid International Conference organized by the Archbishop Desmond Tutu Centre for War and Peace Studies in celebration of its 20th Anniversary, Hope Park Campus and online, 1st of July 2024

2024 marks the 20th Anniversary of the Tutu Centre, established first as the Centre for War and Peace Studies in 2004 and adopting the name of Archbishop Desmond Tutu since 2007. The Andrew Walls Centre for the Study of African and Asian Christianity, the Ecumenical Network and the Muslim in Britain Research Group at Liverpool Hope University are joining this landmark celebration.

This year's conference aims at engaging with how 'Religion' has been perceived to be caught up in processes of conflict, and why various religious traditions provide support for action for justice, reconciliation and conflict resolution. We propose to engage in depth with contemporary meanings of religion and spirituality, different religious traditions, as well as different meanings of conflict and reconciliation. In a context marked by the escalation of conflicts that put the very existence of states into question and their associated human costs, different understandings of these terms impact on how the goal of reconciliation may be interpreted by different groups moving between the secular and the religious.

We are inviting paper proposals from scholars, practitioners and activists on all the dimensions of religion, conflict and reconciliation including, among others:

• The legacy of Archbishop Desmond Tutu
• Ongoing conflict in Ukraine and escalation of conflict in the Middle East
• Religious intolerance, nationalism and deadly violence and intertwined with spiritual traditions of peace-building
• The role of religion in (inter)national conflict and geopolitical competition
• Ecological catastrophe/ poly-crisis 
• Contemporary meanings of religion and spirituality more broadly conceived in the light of conflict and peacebuilding
• Religion and the role of contemporary media, representation, and the arts.

Organising Committee: Associate Professor Catalina Montoya, Rev Dr Tony Bradley, Rev Dr Yazid Said, Associate Professor Simon Podmore, Dr Taras Khomych, Associate Professor Dominika Kurek-Chomycz, Dr Terry Phillips

Please send abstracts of maximum 300 words (word format) for presentations lasting no more than 20 minutes, together with a title for the paper, a maximum of 5 keywords and a biography of 150 words including name, title, institutional affiliation, contact information and technical requirements where applicable to tutu@hope.ac.uk by March 24, 2024.

Registration for the conference will open soon after the call for papers has been closed.

For all enquiries, please email: tutu@hope.ac.uk 

For updates, please visit the webpage.

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