Transformation & Resistance in the Interfaith Classroom

Although Canada is a religiously plural society, interfaith theological learning remains uncommon. This reflective paper explores the experience of team-teaching at Emmanuel College’s Master of Pastoral Studies Program. The Master of Pastoral Studies is a professional degree with Christian, Muslim, and Buddhist streams that trains students to become chaplains, psycho-spiritual therapists and spiritual care providers in the Canadian context. Using anecdotes from our classroom experiences, this paper reflects on three values central to inter-religious learning: cultivating a vulnerable “open stance” in dialogue, understanding interfaith teaching as active resistance that contributes to spiritual transformation, and placing ourselves as instructors as the “guide within the group.” Interfaith learning calls us to risk and courage, believing that spiritual transformation happens as we encounter difference with openness and humility. As teachers, we model for our students how to engage with one another to build peace in response to individual and societal trauma and discord.

The familiar places we dream about: Pokémon GO and nostalgia during a global pandemic

This article explores the impact of COVID-19 on the developers and players of Pokémon GO through the lens of nostalgia. Focusing on the game as a nostalgic text that works to remediate physical and social spaces, we examine how gameplay has changed in response to players’ restricted mobility and isolation during the 2020 global pandemic. The release of Pokémon GO in 2016 was a watershed moment in the development of mobile augmented reality games. Building on a popular culture franchise familiar to many, it fused cutting-edge technology with memories of the past. Previous studies suggest playing Pokémon GO is associated with dreamlike nostalgia for childhood adventures. But these experiences were intimately linked with physical movement, proximity to others, and the exploration of outdoor spaces. Confined to their homes during the COVID-19 pandemic, once free-roaming players are now being encouraged to embrace isolated, sedentary play. There is an additional layer of nostalgia in operation as players and developers alike reminisce about socializing and playing in the world outside the home. This article therefore explores how Pokémon GO mediates player experiences and unpacks its role in negotiating both memory and contemporary societal trauma.

Navigating complexity and uncertainty after the Belfast–Good Friday Agreement : the role of societal trauma?

A central challenge of the Belfast–Good Friday Agreement is the radical contingency or uncertainty that underpins the current democratic legal order in Northern Ireland. It is a dimension of the Agreement that will come to the fore with growing demands for preparations and planning ahead of any referendum on the constitutional future of the region. Using a combination of perspectives from the literature on societal trauma and agonism, this article asks if we need to pay more attention to this affective dimension of the Belfast–Good Friday Agreement and the journey from outright antagonism to an agonism that envisages a society capable of addressing conflict while respecting the ‘other’s’ entitlement to hold a radically different position.

Navigating complexity and uncertainty after the Belfast–Good Friday Agreement: the role of societal trauma?

A central challenge of the Belfast–Good Friday Agreement is the radical contingency or uncertainty that underpins the current democratic legal order in Northern Ireland. It is a dimension of the Agreement that will come to the fore with growing demands for preparations and planning ahead of any referendum on the constitutional future of the region. Using a combination of perspectives from the literature on societal trauma and agonism, this article asks if we need to pay more attention to this affective dimension of the Belfast–Good Friday Agreement and the journey from outright antagonism to an agonism that envisages a society capable of addressing conflict while respecting the ‘other’s’ entitlement to hold a radically different position.

The familiar places we dream about: Pokémon GO and nostalgia during a global pandemic

This article explores the impact of COVID-19 on the developers and players of Pokémon GO through the lens of nostalgia. Focusing on the game as a nostalgic text that works to remediate physical and social spaces, we examine how gameplay has changed in response to players’ restricted mobility and isolation during the 2020 global pandemic. The release of Pokémon GO in 2016 was a watershed moment in the development of mobile augmented reality games. Building on a popular culture franchise familiar to many, it fused cutting-edge technology with memories of the past. Previous studies suggest playing Pokémon GO is associated with dreamlike nostalgia for childhood adventures. But these experiences were intimately linked with physical movement, proximity to others, and the exploration of outdoor spaces. Confined to their homes during the COVID-19 pandemic, once free-roaming players are now being encouraged to embrace isolated, sedentary play. There is an additional layer of nostalgia in operation as players and developers alike reminisce about socializing and playing in the world outside the home. This article therefore explores how Pokémon GO mediates player experiences and unpacks its role in negotiating both memory and contemporary societal trauma.

Traumatic rift: How conspiracy beliefs undermine cohesion after societal trauma?

Collective traumas may often lead to deep societal divides and internal conflicts. In this article, we propose that conspiracy theories emerging in response to victimizing events may play a key role in the breakdown of social cohesion. We performed a nationally representative survey in Poland (N = 965) two years after the Smoleńsk airplane crash in which the Polish president was killed, together with 95 political officials and high-ranking military officers. The survey found that people endorsing conspiratorial accounts of the Smoleńsk catastrophe preferred to distance themselves from conspiracy non-believers, while skeptics preferred greater distance to conspiracy believers. We also examined the role of people’s belief in the uniqueness of in-group historical suffering as an important antecedent of both conspiracy thinking and hostility towards outgroups (conspiracy believers and non-believers).