Prayers and Stories of Peace

Religious Imaginaries & Victimhood Narratives in Colombia’s Road to Peace

A joint Las Casas Institute – Rodeemos el Diálogo (ReD) event in-person and online.

After half a century of bloodshed and over nine million registered victims, a peace agreement was signed in 2016 between the Colombian government and the FARC  insurgency. Since then, enormous political efforts have been deployed to implement the agreements and to ensure conflict victims are front and centre of the peacebuilding process. However, the challenges underpinning Colombia’s transition from war to peace are substantial: meaningful peacebuilding requires a resolute effort on behalf of all sectors of society, which raises a myriad of questions that are fascinating as they are difficult.

With this in mind, this event explores the stories we tell ourselves and each other about violent conflict. It interrogates what it means to be a ‘victim’ of violence in Colombia and the role that religious imaginaries can play in restoring social relations disrupted by war. Drawing on their doctoral research, our two panellists will engage with some of the political, psycho-social, and faith-based determinants behind the recurrence of violence and the prospects for peace in Colombia and other conflict-torn societies.

Free and open to all. Registration is required. For in-person attendance, please email lascasas@bfriars.ox.ac.uk. For online attendance register here.

 

Participants:

Alejandro Posada-Téllez is a doctoral candidate in International Relations at St Antony’s College, (Oxford), and member of Rodeemos el Diálogo. His research explores the intersection between the politics of victimhood and peacebuilding, focusing on the experiences of Colombia, Sri Lanka, Sierra Leone, and the United Kingdom in the aftermath of war.

Eduardo F. Gutiérrez is a doctoral candidate in Science and Religion, Junior Research Fellow in Humanities and Social Sciences at Blackfriars Hall (U. Oxford), and member of Rodeemos el Diálogo. His research seeks to contribute to peacebuilding from theological and philosophical reflection: it focuses on the role of imagination in the formation and transformation of beliefs, and its use in the Colombian Truth Commission’s Report as a means to foster peace.

Dr Maria Power (Host) is a Fellow of Blackfriars Hall where she a Senior Research Fellow in Human Dignity at the Las Casas Institute for Social Justice. Her academic research focuses on the role that religions can play in ameliorating violence and ethnic conflict.

 

Venue: Blackfriars Hall - St Giles Oxford, OX1 3LY United Kingdom Array ( [lat] => 51.756248 [lng] => -1.259881 )

Contact:
Las Casas Institute
lascasas@bfriars.ox.ac.uk