SASNET Workshop: Everyday Understandings of Reconciliation in Sri Lanka

Kate Lonergan is is a postdoctoral researcher at the Hugo Valentin Centre at Uppsala University. Her research focuses on reconciliation and peacebuilding after mass violence and atrocities. Kate has PhD and a Master’s degree from the Department of Peace and Conflict Research at Uppsala University, where she was a Rotary Peace Fellow, and a Bachelor’s Degree from George Washington University’s Elliott School of International Affairs. Kate has previously worked with the United States Institute of Peace on reconciliation and atrocity prevention, with the World Bank on justice and development issues, and conducted research on community reintegration of ex-combatants in northern Uganda. She has also worked with community conflict resolution and restorative justice initiatives in the Washington DC area.

About the Workshop

Reconciling across the social and relational divisions which persist in everyday life is a vital component of building sustained peace after armed conflict. Existing research has explored how “extraordinary” reconciliation mechanisms like truth commissions and elite apologies differ from the everyday needs and priorities of grassroots communities. However, less consideration has been given to understanding how perceptions of reconciliation vary across localities within the same country. This paper investigates how everyday reconciliation priorities vary for grassroots communities across different conflict-affected localities in Sri Lanka, drawing on a novel dataset of community-generated indicators of everyday reconciliation. Specifically, I analyze whether reconciliation efforts are oriented toward horizontal relationships between local groups or vertical relationships with the state. The findings reveal significant variation in both the type and content of reconciliation priorities across localities. These differences highlight that reconciliation does not only concern social relations between identity groups but may in certain contexts concern the relational harms that endure between citizens and the state.

The workshop will include a shorter presentation followed by a discussion and opportunity to ask questions.

This event is a collaboration between SASNET, the Peace and Conflict Research Group, and Development Research Group at the Department of Political Science at Lund University.