Scholar in Residence
2024 Scholar in Residence - Professor Dr. Dr. h.c. mult. John Laughlin
Professor John Loughlin is Emeritus Fellow of St Edmund’s College, Cambridge, Senior Research Fellow at Blackfriars Hall, Oxford, and Emeritus Professor of European Politics at Cardiff University. He is a political scientist with a longstanding interest in the intersection of political theory, religion, and European integration. Formerly Director of the Von Hügel Institute at St Edmund’s, he has led research and public engagement on questions of human dignity, religious freedom, and the role of Christianity in European political life.
He has published widely on subsidiarity, regionalism, and the relationship between Church and state, and most recently authored Human Dignity: Its Roots and Challenges in Western Thought (forthcoming Bloomsbury T&T Clark, 2026), a major study of the intellectual history of human dignity and current debates about the concept. Professor Loughlin continues to contribute to international research networks and serves as a reviewer for European-funded academic projects. His work has been recognised by the French government which appointed him Officier dans l’Ordre des Palmes Académiques and by the Swedish Umeå which awarded him an honorary doctorate both for his contribution to the study of European politics.
His research currently focuses focuses on the philosophical and theological foundations of European political life, particularly the concept of human dignity as it has evolved in the Western tradition. He is especially interested in Catholic social teaching, Christian democracy, and the tensions between religious and secular visions of the human person.
He spent two months (May-June 2024) as a scholar-in-residence at the Wasatia Institute during which time he advised the doctoral students on pursuing a PhD on peace and conflict issues . He also contributed a public lecture on the case of the Good Friday Agreement in Northern Ireland.
2025 Scholar in Residence - Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. mult. Pumla Gobodo-Madikizela
Pumla Gobodo-Madikizela is a professor at Stellenbosch University and holds the South African National Research Foundation Chair in Violent Histories and Transgenerational Trauma. She is also the founding Director of Stellenbosch University’s Centre for the Study of the Afterlife of Violence and the Reparative Quest (AVReQ). Recently named the 2024 Templeton Prize Laureate, her research interest is in historical trauma and its transgenerational repercussions and exploring what the “repair” of these transgenerational effects might mean. She has published extensively on victims and perpetrators of gross human rights violations, and on forgiveness and remorse. Her books include the critically acclaimed A Human Being Died that Night: A Story of Forgiveness, which was awarded the Alan Paton Prize for non-fiction in South Africa, and the Christopher Award in the United States for “a book that affirms the highest values of the human spirit." She has edited and co-edited several book volumes on the topics of historical trauma and transgenerational memory, including: Narrating our Healing: Perspectives on Healing Trauma as co-author, Memory, Narrative and Forgiveness: Perspectives on the Unfinished Journeys of the Past, as co-editor; Breaking Intergenerational Cycles of Repetition: A Global Dialogue on Historical Trauma and Memory, as editor; Post-Conflict Hauntings: Transforming Memories of Historical Trauma, as co-editor; and editor of a collection of essays on Jewish-German dialogue titled History, Trauma and Shame: Engaging the Past Through Second Generation Dialogue.
Gobodo-Madikizela’s awards include the Harry Oppenheimer Fellowship Award, which recognises scholarship of the highest caliber and is considered the highest academic award in Africa; the Harvard Radcliffe Institute Fellowship; an honorary Doctor of Theology from the Friedrich-Schiller University, Jena, Germany; and an honorary Doctor of Laws degree from Rhodes University.
