Dr Gladys Ganiel
Assistant Professor and Programme Co-ordinator, Conflict Resolution and Reconciliation
Gladys Ganiel is Assistant Professor in Conflict Resolution and Reconciliation. She has degrees from Providence College (Rhode Island, USA) and University College Dublin, where she earned her doctorate in Politics in 2005. Her primary research interests are religion and conflict, Northern Ireland politics, evangelicalism, congregational studies, qualitative research methods, and religion and transition in South Africa and Zimbabwe. She has authored the book, Evangelicalism and Conflict in Northern Ireland, Palgrave, 2008, and co-authored (with Claire Mitchell) the book, Evangelical Journeys: Choice and Change in a Northern Irish Religious Subculture, UCD Press, 2011. She has also published articles on religion, conflict and reconciliation in journals such as Journal of Peace Research, Democratization, Sociology of Religion, Irish Political Studies, Nationalism and Ethnic Politics, and Journal of Religion in Africa.
Her current research focuses on the emerging church movement, and includes a forthcoming book co-authored with Gerardo Marti, The Deconstructed Church: The Religious Identity and Negotiated Practices of Emerging Christianity, Oxford University Press, 2013. She is also researching religious change on the island of Ireland, with recent publications in this area in Doctrine and Life and Shared Space.
Dr Ganiel teaches on a range of modules including Reconciliation in Northern Ireland, Social Research for Transformation, Conflict Analysis and Models of Intervention, and Community Learning and Reflective Practice in Northern Ireland. She has been a visiting scholar at the University of Cape Town and the University of Zimbabwe.
Dr Ganiel’s current doctoral students are researching a range of topics including “The Impact of Immigration on Religious Identities and Inter-Religious Dialogue,” “Cultivating a Nature-Inspired Peace Practice and Harvesting the Seeds of Regeneration in Northern Ireland,” and “The Transformative Role of Memory in Dealing with a Violent Past: Transcending the Victim-Perpetrator Paradigm in Northern Ireland.” She welcomes doctoral research students in areas such as the role of religion in conflict and reconciliation, the politics of transition in Northern Ireland or Zimbabwe, multiethnic religious organisations or congregations, and evangelicalism, amongst other topics. She can supervise students working in the disciplines of anthropology, politics, sociology and religious studies.
She was an investigator on the 3-year IRCHSS funded research project Visioning 21st Century Ecumenism (2009-2011), with primary responsibility for conducting surveys of faith leaders and laypeople, as well as conducting focused case studies of various expressions of faith on the island of Ireland. Previously funded research projects include Religion, Reconstruction and Reconciliation in Zimbabwe (the Association for the Sociology of Religion Fichter Grant) and her doctoral research on Evangelicalism and Conflict in Northern Ireland (Royal Irish Academy). She serves on the editorial board of the Africa Peace and Conflict Network and is on the Board of the European Sociological Association’s Sociology of Religion Network.
She blogs about religion and politics at www.gladysganiel.com.
Areas of expertise
Religion and conflict, Northern Ireland, congregational studies, qualitative research methods, South Africa, Zimbabwe, emerging church, evangelicalism
Modules taught
Conflict Analysis and Models of Intervention, Reconciliation in Northern Ireland, Community Learning and Reflective Practice in Northern Ireland, Social Research for Transformation
Education
Ph.D. University College Dublin
M.A. University College Dublin
B.A. Providence College
Contact details
Email: gganiel@tcd.ie
Website: www.gladysganiel.com
Direct Tel: +44 (0) 28 9037 3988
General Tel: +44 (0) 28 9077 5010
Fax: +44 (0) 28 9037 3986
Select publications
- Evangelical Journeys: Choice and Change in a Northern Irish Religious Subculture, co-authored with Claire Mitchell, Dublin: UCD Press, 2011
- Evangelicalism and Conflict in Northern Ireland, New York: Palgrave, 2008
- ‘Religion, Politics and Law,’ co-authored with Peter Jones, in editor(s)Linda Woodhead and Rebecca Catto, Religion and Change in Modern Britain, Routledge, 2012, pp299 – 321
- ‘Striking a Balance: Christianity and the Challenges of Long Term Human Security in Zimbabwe,’ in editor(s)James K. Wellman Jr and Clark B. Lombardi , Religion and Human Security: A Global Perspective, New York, Oxford University Press, 2012, pp172 – 188
- ‘Religion in Northern Ireland: Rethinking Fundamentalism and the Possibilities for Conflict Transformation,’ with Paul Dixon, Journal of Peace Research, 2008
Publications Available On-line
- “Surveying Religion’s Public Role: Perspectives on Reconciliation, Diversity and Ecumenism in Northern Ireland,” (2010) Shared Space, Issue 9, pp. 53-68.
- “Everyday Evangelicals: Life in a Religious Subculture after the Belfast Agreement,” (2009) with Claire Mitchell, Working Papers in British Irish Studies, No. 86, Institute for British Irish Studies: UCD, Dublin, available at: http://www.ucd.ie/ibis/filestore/wp2009/86_ganiel%20rev%201.pdf
- “DUP Discourses about Violence and their impact on the Northern Ireland Peace Process,” with Amber Rankin, (2008) Peace and Conflict Studies, 15(1): pp. 115-135, available at: http://shss.nova.edu/pcs/journalsPDF/Summer_2008_PCS.pdf