Kathryn Poethig

I’m interested in worlds – this world, that world, the worlds in-between, and the marginal people who shuttle between them. I myself shuttle between the U.S. and Southeast Asia. I've worked in refugee camps in Southeast Asia and in resettlement programs in America. My theoretical work is focused on religion and conflict transformation. As a scholar –practitioner, I've written on the Dhammayietra, a Buddhist peace walk and women’s inter-religious alliances for peace in the Philippines.

I think we need to involve students in real world issues, but help them reflective on their own impulse to “save.”

To check my own impulses, I'm a member of several transnational interfaith anti-Empire networks, and have taught Conflict Transformation for Asian peacebuilders at the Center for Peace and Conflict Studies in Cambodia. I’m currently fascinated with social suffering and how it affects religious lifeworlds and practice, and how these communities interact with invisible worlds that provide guidance, succor and protection to them. I call it “invisible aid.”