Dr. Jude Lal Fernando

Dr. Jude Lal Fernando is Associate Professor and Coordinator of M.Phil Programme in Contextual Theologies and Interfaith Relations at the Irish School of Ecumenics, School of Religion, Theology, and Peace Studies, Trinity College Dublin. He is the Director of Trinity Centre for Post-Conflict Justice and brings praxis-based experience to the academic context in the fields of liberation theology, interreligious studies, and international peace studies. His main research interests are decolonising the interplay of religion, peace, and conflict, and the correlation between ethno-nationalisms and geopolitics, focusing on Sri Lanka in particular, and Asia more generally.He lays emphasis on the geopolitics of conflict and peace and on the political interpretations of ethno-religious identities while recognising the liberative potential in diverse faiths for just peace. He has authored two books, edited two collections of papers on faith and resistance to empire and militarization. His research has been published as journal articles and book chapters, presented at international conferences in Asia, Latin America, USA and Europe. Some of these have been translated into German, French, Italian, Korean, Japanese, Portuguese, Spanish, Sinhala and Tamil. Dr. Fernando's teaching duties comprise modules and individual lectures, across the four post-graduate programmes at the Irish School of Ecumenics, Trinity College Dublin both in Dublin (International Peace Studies, Contextual Theologies and Interfaith Relations, and Conflict and Dispute Resolution) and Belfast (Conflict Resolution and Reconciliation). He supervises Master's dissertations on PhD theses on political analysis of faith-related conflicts and the quest for just peace. He was a visiting lecturer at Dublin City University, Tampere University in Finland, Uppsala University in Sweden, Ritsumeikan and Sophia Universities in Japan and Chang Chung Christian University in Taiwan and is a guest lecturer at the Priory Institute and Carlow College in Ireland. He is a founding member and an associate editor of the editorial board of International Journal of Asian Christianity. Prior to his arrival in Ireland he has been a member of Tulana, the Centre for Interreligious Dialogue and Research in Kelaniya, Sri Lanka, and has been involved in Buddhist-Hindu-Christian-Muslim dialogue under the mentorship of Asian indologist and theologian, Professor Aloysius Pieris. Fernando was a founding member of two peace-building community-based journals, Kithusara (in Sinhala) and Oliyai Nokki (in Tamil) which explored liberative potential in faiths for a just peace. He was the national coordinator of the All-Ceylon Fisherfolk Trade Union, and a member of the Hiru Group, raising public awareness in Sri Lanka regarding the need for a negotiated political settlement to the ethno-nationalist conflict. In Ireland, as a human rights and peace campaigner Dr. Fernando coordinates the Irish Forum for Peace in Sri Lanka, which explores the lessons of the Irish peace process for Sri Lanka. He was also co-coordinator of the three sessions of the People's Tribunal on Sri Lanka, held in Dublin in January 2010, in Bremen in December 2013 and in Berlin in May 2022.

  Asian Religions   Public Theology in a Divided Society   Religion, Conflict and Peace   Theology and Ethics in a Divided Society   Theology of Peace-building and Conflict Transformation

.My academic research during the 14 years (since arriving in Ireland, 2004, for postgraduate studies) emerged from civic engagement in my native Sri Lanka (1983-2004) as a human rights and peace campaigner. .I was part of faith communities as well as secular human-rights groups in both working for a peaceful resolution to the country's long ethno-nationalist conflict and promoting dialogue to overcome interreligious tensions. In their imagination and articulation of human dignity and justice faith communities and human rights groups have distinct sources of ethics. I am deeply embedded in both these sources and their relationship. .Broadly, then, I have developed two disciplinary tracks in my research, teaching and publishing: 1) politics of conflict, peace and human rights, and 2) religion's role in conflict and peacebuilding. Initially, my main case-study was Sri Lanka: its ethno-nationalist conflict, local and global challenges for just peace and the role of interreligious dialogue for peacebuilding. .Following the same disciplinary tracks, my research expanded to other regions and adopted a comparative approach encompassing Northern Ireland, Korea and Japan. .In a major article (2014) I explored Christianity's role in conflict and peace in Asia; this led to an ongoing research-project. In this latter, I analyse broader global dimensions of the politics of conflict and peace and the politics of interreligious dialogue for peacebuilding, by utilising the disciplines of empire and postcolonial studies, studies in ethno-nationalist conflicts and the ambivalent character of faiths. .In recognition of my expertise the Council of World Missions, an ecumenical body of 37 churches, commissioned me to edit a two-volume collected papers (two conferences), in Mexico and Seoul, last year. As principal investigator of these conferences I worked with around 70 scholars from Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America, the Middle East, the Caribbean Islands, The Pacific Region and the USA. The project-theme is Faith and Resistance to Empire and Militarisation: Reclaiming the Sacredness of Lives, Lands, Seas and Skies. My methodology is engagement with the survivors of conflict, evoking a critical and creative response to conflict through alternative political, theological, interreligious and indigenous imaginations, and envisioning paradigms for just peace.