Patrick Tom's Page

What motivated you to become involved in peace and conflict resolution?

An interest in peacbuilding

Please feel free to provide a short bio about yourself (no more than 3 paragraphs)

BA in philosophy and Shona (1994), BA Honors in Philosophy (1995) and MA in philosophy (1997), University of Zimbabwe; MA in Conflict, Development and Security (2005), University of Leeds (United Kingdom); MA in International Peace Studies (2007), Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies, University of Notre Dame (USA). I have attended a Victim-offender Mediation (2007) Training held at the Centre for Community Justice, ElKhart, USA. Currently a PhD candidate in International Relations at St. Andrews University, Scotland. My research focuses on liberal peace and post-conflict peacebuilding in Africa focusing on Sierra Leone and Namibia.

I have been a teaching assistant and lecturer in philosophy at the University of Zimbabwe where I taught applied ethics and philosophy of religion. I have also held lectureships at the Arrupe Jesuit College of Philosophy and Humanities, United Theological College, and Christian College of Southern Africa. I have received research grants from the University of Zimbabwe for a study of language and politics, with a focus on hate speech in Zimbabwean politics, and have attended a peacebuilding workshop conducted by the Silveira House Peacebuilding Team (A Catholic NGO in Zimbabwe). I have interned (six months) for the Foundation for Human Rights Initiative (FHRI), a local human rights NGO in Uganda. While at FHRI, I developed a human rights education pack for the organisation's schools outreach project. I have done research on humanitarian intervention and the crisis in Darfur, Sudan and The search for justice in northern Uganda. In 2006 I received the John Joyce award at Notre Dame for my paper on Transnational Organizing and the Labor Movement in Zimbabwe (see www.nd.edu/~hlrc/awards/documents/Tompaper06.doc)

Please list the countries and/or regions in which you have direct and significant expertise

Zimbabwe
Uganda
Africa

What is your current country of residence?

United Kingdom

What is your current job (and organization) and/or where and what field are you studying?

PhD candidate - International Relations

What is one of your favorite websites in the field? (please provide one answer per box)

http://www.fhri.or.ug

What is one of your favorite websites in the field? (please provide one answer per box)

http://kroc.nd.edu

Which are your primary sectoral areas of expertise?

Peacebuilding, Conflict Resolution, Democratization, Development, Humanitarian Relief, Youth, Education

Which are your primary skills areas?

Training, Evaluation, Program Design, Advocacy, Research

What are some of your current areas of research (if any)?

Child Soldiers, Social Movements, Disporas and peacebuilding (focusing on Zimbabwe), Strategic peacebuilding, Human Rights, HIV and AIDS, Politics of famine causation and relief in Zimbabwe, nonviolent action, liberal peace and post-conflict peacebuilding in Africa and Applied Ethics

If appropriate feel free to list several of your publications

1) The Acholi Traditional Approach to Justice and the war in Northern Uganda (August 2006) available: http://www.beyondintractability.org/case_studies/acholi_traditional_approach.jsp?nid=6792

2) "The debate over elephant culling: Is it morally justified to cull elephants?", Journal Zambezia, 29, no.1, 2002

3) "Naming the pandemic: the pragmatic functions and the ethical foundations of the Shona HIV/AIDS vocabulary", Journal Zambezia 29, no. 2, 2002 (coauthored with P. Mashiri and K. Mawomo)