Visit CLALS home page for Religion and Violence in Latin America to find non-scholarly short pieces, white papers, working papers, reviews, news articles, and multimedia produced as a result of and in association with the Center’s project “Religious Responses to Violence in Latin America,” a multi-year research endeavor supported by the Henry Luce Foundation.

The El Salvador Gang Truce and the Church:  What is the Role of the Catholic Church by Steven Dudley
This white paper is one of a series produced by American University’s Center for Latin American and Latino Studies’ multi-year project of research and structured dialogue on religion and violence in Latin America. In light of the consequences of criminal violence for the region’s democracies, the project seeks to better understand how religious actors are responding today, when they are less prominent than during the previous period of political, largely state-sponsored violence. Fresh research on Brazil, Chile, Colombia, El Salvador, Guatemala, Mexico and Peru allows comparative analysis between different countries as well as past and present. These studies will be published as a scholarly volume.

Project white papers aim to bridge and catalyze dialogue between scholarly and policy communities, religious practitioners and human rights activists. They are designed to inform the ongoing efforts of religious leaders, policymakers and advocates in civil society who seek effective strategies to diminish violence in contemporary Latin America and empower its victims.

Research scholar in residence Alexander Wilde co-directs the project with CLALS  Director Eric Hershberg and University Chaplain Joseph Eldridge. The project is supported by the Henry R. Luce Initiative on Religion and International Affairs of the Henry Luce Foundation.

For ongoing project developments, see:
http://www.american.edu/clals/Violence-and-Victims.cfm

Religion and International Affairs: Through the Prism of  Rights and Gender is not committed to any single answer to these questions or any particular account of the interrelations of rights, religion, and gender as they play out in international affairs. Rather, it provides the intellectual context, cross-disciplinary exchanges, and resources to address these issues more fully and deliberately than popular discourse or any single disciplinary approach can do. The project will explore the intersections of religion and international affairs through the prism of rights and gender through the following programs and activities: faculty seminar, visiting schoalrs and practitioners, Luce international fellows, interdisciplinary graduate seminars, research awards, and an international workshop.

Visit the  Religion and International Affairs: Through the Prism of Rights and Gender website.

View  the Religion and International Affairs: Through the Prism of Rights and Gender booklet.

The Berkley Center’s Religion and Global Development program, in close collaboration with the World Faiths Development Dialogue (WFDD), tracks the engagement of religious communities and faith-inspired organizations around global policy challenges and brings together stakeholders to examine best practices and advance collaboration.

Visit the Religion and Global Development program website.