Completed Research Projects in Peace Studies

Etain Tannam member and co-author of, The Working Group on Unification Referendums on the Island of Ireland University College London, the Constitution Unit established in 2019 to examine how any future referendums on the constitutional status of Northern Ireland would best be designed and conducted. It published its Final Report on 26 May 2021. The report explores each aspect of the process, including, for example, how decisions would be made on whether to call a referendum, whether referendums would best happen before or after detailed plans for the form of a united Ireland had been developed, how referendum campaigns would be regulated, and who would be able to vote. It takes no view on whether such referendums should takes place.

Etain Tannam is a member of ARINS Analysing and Researching Ireland, North and South, and a member of its Executive Committee. Founded in 2019, ARINS is an initiative jointly developed and administered by the Royal Irish Academy and the Keough-Naughton Institute for Irish Studies, Notre Dame. The project provides authoritative, independent, and non-partisan research and analysis about constitutional, institutional, and policy options for Ireland, north and south, in a post-Brexit context. For more inforamtion see link to RIA website.

Dong-Jin Kim has received an Irish Research Council/Marie Curie Co-fund/CAROLINE. The research is carried out in partnership with Corrymeela, Northern Ireland and runs from 2017 to 2020.

The aim of this research is to assess and compare the impact of peacebuilding activities in Northern Ireland and in the Korean peninsula, and to identify fragile and durable conditions of the peace processes from the perspective of strategic peacebuilding.

Principal Investigator: Dr Dong-Jin Kim.

Sitting at the intersection between STEM and a range of social science disciplines, (including sociology, politics and anthropology), this research funded by the Wellcome Trust, critiques understandings of ‘Resilience’ and ‘Risk’ from a Palestinian youth perspective.

Those growing up in Palestine must transition from adolescence to adulthood whilst negotiating the everyday difficulties associated with an entrenched and expanding apparatus of occupation. By moving beyond the favoured quantitative analysis of ‘resilience’, the work seeks to gain a deeper and more critical understanding of the usefulness of the terminology, ‘risk’, ‘resilience’ and ‘resistance’ from the perspective of Palestinian youth.

Availing of firsthand qualitative research with Palestinian youth as active research participants, the work will shed light on strategies of ‘coping’ that are often sanitised in more rigid quantitative research frameworks.

TCIN Seed Funding, Wellcome Trust.

Principal Investigator: Dr Brendan Ciarán Browne

The conflict in and around Northern Ireland spanned a period of 30 years (1968 - 1998) and claimed the lives of over 3,500 people across the sectarian divide. The impact of the conflict was far reaching with some suggesting that almost 1 in 3 people were affected indirectly.

Since the onset of a peace process, one that remains unfinished, issues pertaining to the legacy of the conflict and how best to address the needs of victims and survivors, have dominated academic and practitioner discourse. Despite much by way of blue sky thinking, there has been an inability to implement a programme that addresses the diverse needs of those who were impacted. Within the myriad options for dealing with the past there is little to no mention of those who were violently displaced as a result of the onset of the conflict itself. In fact, the issue is almost completely absent from scholarly analysis of the ‘troubles’.

This project, ongoing since 2016, seeks to recover the narratives of these forgotten victims who were displaced, giving them a platform in the debates around dealing with Northern Ireland's past. It is a direct response to existing academic projects that overlook this aspect of victimhood in favour of more procedural based, fiscal responses to conflict transformation. Through a mix of creative methodologies (including semi-structured interviews, artistic representations of displacement, and documentary film) the research engages with both those who were victims and those who were victim makers, when it comes to better understanding the long term impact of violent displacement.

Funded by: Independent Social Research Foundation, Flexible Grants for Small Groups (ISF4)

Principal Investigator: Dr Brendan Ciarán Browne

Project's overall aim is to develop a comprehensive approach to prevent and counter violent radicalisation and extremism. To meet its aims, PERICLES considers violent right-wing as well as religious ideologies. A special focus is being set on the risks connected with digital violent propaganda.

The PERICLES project will deliver advanced and validated counter-propaganda techniques that are target-group-specific. Furthermore, the cooperation between relevant authorities who have been working against violent radicalisation or support the process of de-radicalisation will be enhanced through the use of the project outputs. The comprehensive PERICLES prevention strategy will therefore largely address law enforcement agencies (LEAs) but will also find use by prisons and social workers, teachers and even relatives of affected people.

The project is funded by Horizon 2020 it was awarded 3 million Euro. Prof Gillian Wylie, also from the Irish School of Ecumenics, is the gender adviser for the project and Dr Brendan Marsh joined the ISE in 2017 as post-doctoral researcher for the project.

Principal Investigator: Dr Maja Halilovic-Pastuovic.

The specific aim of the GATED Project investigates if segregated education in post-conflict societies causes the radicalisation of youth and increases the possibilities of future conflicts. GATED project presents an interdisciplinary investigation of segregated education in Bosnia with particular focus on the phenomenon of 'two schools under one roof' (TSUOR) that currently operates in the country.

TSUOR describes schools in Bosnia that are organised around the ethnic segregation of children. Children from different ethnic groups, namely Bosnian Muslims, Croats and Serbs, attend classes in the same building but are physically separated into different classrooms and are taught different curricula by teachers from their own ethnic and religious group. GATED project is funded by the European Commission under Marie Sklowdowska Curie Global Fellowship.

Principal Investigator: Dr Maja Halilovic-Pastuovic.

Growing up on an Interface: Findings and Implications for the Social Needs, Mental Health and Lifetime Opportunities of Belfast Youth Project is sponsored by the National Institute of Health (NIH) and OFM/DF. Working alongside colleagues at the Kroc Institute (Notre Dame University, USA), Dr Brendan Browne was responsible for collecting qualitative data from at risk children and young people living in the greater Belfast area.

Dissemination of the research to date includes; a policy report titled 'Growing Up On an Interface - Findings and Implications for the Social Needs, Mental Health and Lifetime Opportunities of Belfast Youth', publication of several high impact journal articles including 'Associations between mothers' experience with the troubles in Northern Ireland and mothers' and children's psychological functioning: the moderating role of social identity' and Social Identity and Youth Aggressive and Delinquent Behaviors in a Context of Political Violence and a book forthcoming (2017) entitled 'Young People, Risk and Social Justice in a Transitional Society: the Case of Northern Ireland', of which Dr Browne is a co-author.

Dr Geraldine Smyth was a Member of Programme Advisory Committee (7 international experts) chaired by Profs. James F. Leckman, Catherine Panter-Brick (Yale) and Dr Rima Salah UNICEF at the Ernst Strüngemann Forum. The Ernst Strüngmann Forum facilitates the continual expansion of knowledge by providing a creative environment within which experts scrutinize high priority problems from multiple vantage points.

The goal of this Forum was to assess child development in the context of familial/group relations, and its role in peacebuilding. The thematic of this Forum brought together bio-scientists, physicians, theologians, educators and peace theorists and practitioners to address the challenge of formative childhoods and peacebuilding. This Forum advanced the assessment of the role of early child development and familial relationships and their neurobiological underpinnings in peace-building. A major publication is forthcoming - timely in contributing to the renewal process for at least two global Declarations (2015) which will guide future programs and policies for children and families throughout the world: 1. United Nations Millennium Declaration (MDG, 2000), signed in 2000 by the representatives of 191 countries, which calls for an investment in social and economic development and 2. Education for All (UNESCO, EFA, 1990) declaration, signed by leaders of over 160 countries, which aims to enhance the quality of life and to reduce poverty through education.

Professor Linda Hogan was a Principal Investigator on the 'Visioning Ecumenism for the 21st Century: Diversity, Dialogue and Reconciliation' project. This three-year project was funded by the Irish Research Council. The project evaluated the contributions of ecumenism in Ireland and globally, and identified key areas in which ecumenics contributes to conversations about theological and cultural diversity, immigration, inter-faith dialogue and reconciliation.

The project has resulted in numerous publications and online learning resources. It also provided the basis for a major international conference to mark the centenary of the 1910 Edinburgh Missionary Conference. Associate Researchers included: Professor Gladys Ganiel, Professor Andrew Pierce, Professor Geraldine Smyth, Professor David Tombs and Professor John D'Arcy May. More than 40 publications were produced by associated researchers during the project time.

In 1907, Pius X condemned 'modernism,' imposing theological 'integralism' and a restrictive discipline which remained in force until Vatican II (1962-65). After a century, the construction of modernism and anti-modernism merit evaluation. Modernism occurred within a modernity the value of which is debated. Dr Andrew Pierce was principal investigator on this project. The aim of the project was to situate debates from the early twentieth century in the context of current theological contendings with modernity, thus contributing to debate within modernist studies, and to the theological reception of modernity's past. The project was funded by Government of Ireland Senior Research Fellowships in the Humanities and Social Sciences.

Resurgent religiosity has attracted widespread attention from social and political scientists, but not - in any significant way - from those engaged in Christian systematic theology. As a preparation for an in-depth study of fundamentalism's theological significance, this project involved a scoping study of the field, culminating in an international consultation in Dublin to make available the initial results. Dr Andrew Pierce was principal investigator on this project and the project was funded by St Stephen Green Trust and the Irish School of Ecumenics Trust.

This project was part of a six country study on 'Trafficking in Industries Other than the Sex Industry Across Europe'. It involved empirical research into the extent of labour trafficking in Ireland and analysis of the root causes of migrant worker exploitation and analysis of policy responses. This project was funded by the Irish Research Council for the Humanities and Social Sciences under ESF Eurocores framework.