Between Religious Patriarchy and Secular Feminism: Women of Faith and the Struggle for Peace

Thursday, October 8, 2-3 pm, Goddard Chapel
Tufts alumna Rev. Susan Hayward, A’02, F’07, is the director of religion and peacebuilding at the United States Institute of Peace. Her fieldwork has focused on Burma/Myanmar, Colombia, Iraq, and Sri Lanka, and her research interests include interfaith engagement in the midst of political violence, political Buddhism, and the role of religion in hampering and propelling women’s work for peace and justice. Her new edited volume, “Women, Religion, and Peacebuilding: Illuminating the Unseen,” examines the obstacles and opportunities women religious peacebuilders face as they navigate both the complex conflicts they are seeking to resolve and the power dynamics in the institutions they must deal with in order to accomplish their goals. Hayward is a minister in the United Church of Christ and a doctoral candidate at Georgetown University. Sponsored by the Tufts Catholic Chaplaincy, Religion Department, Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, the Peace and Justice Studies, and the Institute for Human Security at the Fletcher School, and the Social Justice Leadership Initiative.