Paper short abstract:

In warscapes in the north and east of Sri Lanka, Catholic Priests have taken on exceptional roles of brokerage, crossing and reconfiguring physical and discursive borders.

Paper long abstract:

Although in the 1990s Stirrat described the Sri Lankan Catholic Church as 'politically defeated', in the north and east of the island a paradox has emerged. Somehow, the protracted experience of everyday violence and uncertainty has promoted an invigorated Church which has held the power to act in sometimes exceptional manners to protect, negotiate and facilitate small and large moments and spaces of 'peace'. Amidst the shifting and dangerous borders (discursive, political and physical), Catholic priests have been able to act as brokers, at times navigating and negotiating borders in order to cross over, and at other times reinforcing and hardening them. This research considers the agencies through which Catholic priests have been able to perform such complex and dangerous maneuvers, as well as the ways in which these have reconfigured warscapes and the everyday lives of those living within them. Not only does the project speak to the study of religion, violence and conflict but to the importance of the role of brokerage in marginal spaces, as people and communities forge methods for and spaces of survival in harsh and fluctuating circumstances.