The Senator George J. Mitchell Peace Lecture Series celebrates and recognises Senator Mitchell’s contribution to the Northern Ireland peace process and to conflict resolution in the Middle East. His aim of transforming conflict and promoting social justice in Northern Ireland and across the world is shared by our Institute.

The Annual Peace Lecture series was inaugurated in 2018 with a lecture from President Mary Robinson on climate justice. President Robinson has subsequently become Chair of The Elders and has held prestigious posts in Ireland and the United Nations.

In 2019 the Annual Peace Lecture was from Dr Mamphela Ramphele on Interconnectedness for Peace in our Times. Mamphela Ramphele has had a celebrated career as an activist, medical doctor, academic, businesswoman and political thinker. She is currently a trustee of the Nelson Mandela Foundation, a board member of Women Strong International. In October 2018 Dr Ramphele was appointed co-president of The Club of Rome.

This year our guest speaker is Prof Pumla Gobodo-Madikizela, who is a Professor in the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences at Stellenbosch University. She holds the South African National Research Foundation Chair in Violent Histories and Transgenerational Trauma. She has published extensively on victims and perpetrators of gross human rights violations, and her current research interest is in intergenerational repercussions of historical trauma and exploring what the “repair” of these transgenerational effects might mean in societies where victims, perpetrators, and their descendants live together in the same country.

Her books include the award-winning A Human Being Died that Night: A Story of Forgiveness, which won the Christopher Award in the United States in 2003, and the Alan Paton Award in South Africa in 2004; Narrating our Healing: Perspectives on Healing Trauma as co-author; Breaking Intergenerational Cycles of Repetition: A Global Dialogue on Historical Trauma and Memory, as editor; and the more recent publications Post-Conflict Hauntings: Transforming Memories of Historical Trauma, as co-editor; and the forthcoming volume, History, Trauma and Shame: Engaging the Past through Second Generation Dialogue as editor.

Among her awards are the following honorary degrees: Doctor of Laws from Rhodes University, South Africa; Doctor of Theology from the Friedrich-Schiller University, Germany; and Doctor of Laws from Holy Cross College, Massachusetts. Since 2017, she has been serving as Research Advisor and Global Scholar at Queen’s University, Belfast, affiliated with the Senator George Mitchell Institute for Global Peace, Security and Justice. Recently, she was named the 2020-2021 Walter Jackson Bate Fellow in Harvard University's Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study.

Please book by noon on Monday 26 October 2020.  A meeting link will be sent to you before the event.