Interfaith Institute for Justice, Peace and Social Movements

Interfaith Institute for Justice, Peace and Social Movements is a small anti-racist, anti-colonial collective working on unceded Coast Salish territories. We organize education events that explore the intersection of faith traditions and progressive social change. Our institutional home is the J. S. Woodsworth chair in the Humanities at Simon Fraser University.

The institute brings together faith-based activists and leaders and learners for interfaith solidarity and mobilization, and to explore the interconnections between religion, spirituality, violence, conflict transformation, and just peace.

Two guiding threads undergird our work: the role of women, children and youth in conflict and peacemaking; and Indigenous environmental logic and knowledge of place.

At a time when local conflicts have global significance, religion is often blamed for division and violence but seldom recognized and studied as a factor in peacemaking. We explore the ways that religion and spirituality impact contemporary movements for social justice and peace. We are not interested in interfaith “dialogue” that normalizes inequity, but strive for challenging collaboration that engages our differences and seeks common areas for action among communities of diverse religious, cultural and ideological traditions.