About

Garrett FitzGerald (political science & peace studies) holds an M.T.S. degree from Harvard Divinity School (religion, ethics, and politics) and a B.A. degree in peace & conflict studies and religious studies from Guilford College. Before coming to Notre Dame he served for five years as the head of development for the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War, a Nobel Peace Prize-winning non-governmental organization dedicated to nuclear abolition and armed violence reduction.

Garrett's research applies a decolonial critique to theories and practices of democracy in peacebuilding. His dissertation examines the impacts of overly narrow accounts of democracy and peace that drive international peacebuilding efforts, as well as potential lessons from decolonial theory for amplifying increasingly diverse international articulations of democratic practice and similarly decolonized accounts of peace.

PhD Year
2020
Thematic Interests

More broadly, I am interested in integrating the insights and resources of the three fields of study in which I have been trained--political theory (and democratic theory in particular), peace studies, and religious studies--into a more comprehensive understanding of the interactions between religion and democratic politics in situations of conflict. This research program also brings me into frequent contact with other related research topics, such as questions around human rights, identity formation and forms of nationalism, and questions of gender and development.

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