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On May 26th 2023 Professor Linda Hogan was admitted as a member of the Royal Irish Academy. Membership is considered the highest academic honour in Ireland. The citation on her admittance read: “Linda Hogan is Professor of Ecumenics at Trinity College Dublin. A distinguished scholar, Professor Hogan is an internationally recognised leader in the field of social and political ethics. Known for her ground-breaking non-foundationalist ethics of human rights, Professor Hogan was recently awarded a doctorate honoris causa from Regis College, University of Toronto, for her outstanding contribution to the ethics of human dignity, conscience and rights.” Congratulations from everyone at the School on this wonderful recognition.

In a new article published in Third World Quarterly, David Mitchell analyses the contested understandings of reconciliation and its value as a concept in peace studies and practice. In ‘Rescuing reconciliation: finding its role in peace research and practice’, Dr Mitchell considers the four leading interpretations of reconciliation and analyses whether they are coherent and likely to be credible to people in conflict. He argues that reconciliation as ‘transformed social identity’ represents an understanding which is less open to political misunderstanding and criticism.

Prof. Etain Tannam participated in The Irish Association’s seminar at the Royal Irish Academy on April 4th to mark the 25th anniversary of the Belfast/Good Friday Agreement. The topic under the spotlight was ‘Britishness and Irishness’ with a focus on identity. The panel was chaired by the President of the Irish Association, Professor Brian Walker, QUB emeritus. Other speakers included Professor Peter Shirlow, Liverpool Institute for Irish Studies and Professor John Coakley, Queen’s University Belfast. The discussion examined how significant is the rise of the ‘neither’ identity in Northern Ireland and attitudes in Ireland to unionism and Northern Ireland.

You can now watch a recording of the latest ISE at 50 webinar where the panel provided their expert analyses on the timely and important subject of the teaching of Peace Studies in Ireland, north and south. A panel of leading academics examined amongst other questions, could academia be more connected to practice and how best to capture the wealth of knowledge that exists throughout the peace-building community. All webinars in the ISE at 50 series so far are available to watch. Follow the link to view the webinar resources page.