Biography

Dr Maria Power is a Fellow of Blackfriars Hall, University of Oxford, where she a Senior Research Fellow in Human Dignity at the Las Casas Institute for Social Justice.  In December 2019, she was appointed as a Research Associate of the Centre for the Study of Bible and Violence at Bristol Baptist College, and in June 2019, she was a Holland Visiting Fellow at the University of Durham.  Maria is also a honourary Senior Research Fellow at the William Temple Foundation as well as being a Visiting Fellow at the Benedict XVI Centre for Religion and Society at St Mary’s University.  She is the Book Reviews Editor for the Journal for the Study of Bible and Violence, and is on the editorial board of the Journal of Social Encounters. 

Maria’s academic research focuses on the role that religions can play in ameliorating violence and ethnic conflict.  Her research on conflict and peace seeks to understand how religious organisations should behave in conflict and post-conflict situations to have a positive impact. Maria has expertise in intra- and inter-faith dialogue and peace-building practices. She is currently working on a project entitled: ‘Using Catholic Social Teaching’s concepts of peacebuilding to strengthen the social contract between citizen and state in post-conflict Northern Ireland.’ As well as producing a monograph which contextualises Catholic Social teaching for Northern Ireland, this project will also create two toolkits which will empower marginalized communities and help them engage with policy makers. Her research has been funded by the ESRC, the British Academy, The Spalding Trust and the Porticus Foundation.