Left: The clothing of thousands of victims are piled on pews inside the Nyamata Church near Bugesera, Rwanda. Right: A spear-pierced skull is lined up with hundreds of other victim remains inside the church.” Credit: National Geographic

Fr Dr Elisee Rutagambwa Lecture, 21 March 2024

20/03/2024

Fr Dr Elisee Rutagambwa

Dr Elisee Rutagambwa (Hekima University College) will speak on:

“Introducing the book Reinventing Theology in Post-Genocide Rwanda: Challenges and Hopes”

When: Thursday, March 21, 2024 at 3 PM

Where: Via Zoom (Meeting ID: 946 5262 5765 Passcode: 054958

This Lecture is part of Dublin City University’s Theology, Philosophy, and Religious Studies Research Seminars.

Reinventing Theology in Post-Genocide Rwanda: Challenges and Hopes

Biography

Fr Dr Elisee Rutagambwa is a Jesuit priest from Rwanda. After gaining a Licentiate in Philosophy from the Catholic University of Kinshasa, DRC, he pursued and obtained a Master’s degree and a PhD in Social Ethics successively from Weston Jesuit School of Theology in Cambridge and Boston College in MA, USA. He is currently the Dean of Hekima Institute of Peace Studies and International Relations at Hekima University College, a Constituent College of the Catholic University of Eastern Africa. Prior to coming to Hekima University College, he served as the Director of the Jesuit Social Research Center and headed St Ignatius School Complex in Kigali. At the same time, he was the Formation Assistant to the Regional Superior of Rwanda-Burundi Region of the Society of Jesus and worked for several years as a consultant to Regional Superior. For the last seven years he has been teaching different courses both at the school of theology and at the Institute of Peace Studies and International Relations. Throughout this time, he also served on different university committees. In 2018, he served as the Director of the Center for Research, Training and Publications and in 2019, he was a Visiting Lecturer of Social Ethics at Santa Clara University in California, USA. Dr. Rutagambwa is also a member of the following Professional Academic Organisations: The Catholic Theological Ethics in the World Church, Global Ethics Network, and The African Consortium for Law and Religion Studies. His research interests range from Social Ethics, Catholic Social Teaching, Political Theology, to Human Rights, Genocide Studies, Peacebuilding and Post-Colonial Studies. His latest publications comprise among others, “The Role of a Theologian in Genocide Prevention: Theology in Post-genocide Rwanda.” Horizons, vol. 47, no. 1, 2020, pp. 76–89., Published by Cambridge University Press: 18 May 2020, pp. 76-89.,“The Politics and Ethics of Memory, Justice and Reconciliation in Rwanda’s Post-Genocide Context,” In Orge Burgueño López [y otros]. -- Primera edición, Conferencia Internacional de reconciliación ignaciana de la crisis y el enfrentamiento a la sanación y el perdón: ¿cómo es posible la reconciliación? (Bogotá: Editorial Pontificia Universidad Javeriana; Madrid, España: Universidad Pontificia Comillas, 2022), and the Edited Book: Reinventing Theology in Post-Genocide Rwanda: Challenges.