The School of Social and Political Sciences, University of Melbourne will conduct a public panel discussion on Thursday 23 April 2015, 5.30pm – 7.00pm at the Woodward Conference Centre, Level 10 Melbourne Law School, The University of Melbourne, 185 Pelham Street Parkville.
Religious communities see their religion as peaceful and its institutions, beliefs and rituals as serving an important space of healing and consolation. However, many of today’s armed conflicts have a religious component. Religious leaders may be perceived to reinforce boundaries and fuel contention, but at the same time, some are able to bridge these gaps and play a unique brokering role as respected, apolitical authority figures.
How do we understand these contradictions? Does religion itself make a difference and, if so, what does this mean for international players intervening in war-torn contexts? Are we missing something when we conceptualise conflict mediation, state-building or peace-building without taking religion into account? Can peace-oriented forms of religious agency be strengthened, or does foreign support undermine what is perhaps their main resource: the legitimacy of being and perceived as locally grounded and apolitical?
These are among the many questions with which we will engage in this public panel discussion.
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Dr. Nasir Butrous is an Associate Professor of Management at ACU and a native of the city of Nineveh in Iraq. Nasir is also a member of the Melbourne Archdioceses’ Ecumenical and Interfaith Commission with a special interest in Muslim-Christian dialogue. |
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Dr. Denis Dragovic lectures at the University of Melbourne and has worked for over a decade with various UN agencies and NGOs in conflict and post-conflict environments in the Middle East, Africa and Asia. His work considers how and why religious institutions could contribute to statebuilding. |
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Dr. Raihan Ismail is a lecturer in the Centre for Arab and Islamic Studies (the Middle East and Central Asia) at ANU. Her research interests include sectarianism in the Gulf region, political Islam, and studies of religious institutions in the Middle East. |
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Prof. Jonathan Spencer is Regius Professor at the University of Edinburgh. His work considers ethnic conflict, political violence and non-violence and his current research looks at the fraught boundary between the religious and the political in Sri Lanka and elsewhere. |
What: Public Panel Discussion: Religion in the warzone: driver of conflict, force of peace?
When: Thursday 23 April 2015, 5.30pm – 7.00pm
Where: Woodward Conference Centre, Level 10 Melbourne Law School, The University of Melbourne, 185 Pelham Street Parkville.
Cost: Admission is free. Bookings are required. Seating is limited
To Register: visit: http://alumni.online.unimelb.edu.au/religioninthewarzone
More information: Contact Lauren Sanders in the School of Social and Political Sciences at lsanders@unimelb.edu.au or 03 9035 6909.
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