معرفی
Jason A. Springs is Professor of Religion, Ethics, and Peace Studies at the University of Notre Dame's Keough School of Global Affairs, where he serves as a core faculty member of the Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies. His office is located in the Hesburgh Center for International Studies.
Dr. Springs earned his Ph.D. in Religion, Ethics, and Politics from Harvard University's Committee on the Study of Religion. Prior to joining Notre Dame in 2008, he held appointments as Fellow in Christian Thought and Practice at Princeton University's Center for the Study of Religion and as Visiting Assistant Professor of Philosophy and Religion at American University, Washington DC. He is also a faculty fellow of Notre Dame's Center for the Study of Religion and Society.
Professor Springs' research integrates religious ethics with moral philosophy and political and social theories, with specific attention to modern European and North American contexts. His scholarship focuses on ethical, philosophical and theological dimensions of restorative justice, particularly examining its potential to intervene in racialized and class dimensions of the U.S. prison-industrial complex. He investigates structural and cultural violence, conceptions of religious toleration, and the challenges posed by religious pluralism for transforming conflict. These concerns are oriented by his broader research interests in American Pragmatist thought and postliberal theology, with particular attention to Islamophobia in Europe and North America and democratic theories as frameworks for peacebuilding.
His publication record spans religious ethics, political theology, and philosophical analysis of contemporary social issues. His most recent book Restorative Justice and Lived Religion: Transforming Mass Incarceration in Chicago (2024) examines how restorative justice initiatives respond to structural racism and injustice, studying Chicago's restorative justice network as a model for sustainable social change. This follows his 2020 work Healthy Conflict in Contemporary American Society: From Enemy to Adversary, which develops conceptions of healthy conflict in religiously plural societies, and his 2010 book Toward a Generous Orthodoxy. His work has been featured in prominent journals including the Journal of Religion, Journal of Religious Ethics, and Journal of the American Academy of Religion.
Professor Springs teaches undergraduate courses including Structural and Cultural Violence, Black Lives Matter: Violence vs. Nonviolence, Social Science University Seminar, Introduction to Peace Studies, and Love and Violence: Religion, Civil Disobedience and Nonviolent Resistance. His teaching reflects his commitment to connecting theoretical frameworks with contemporary social justice issues.
His field research in Chicago's Back of the Yards neighborhood with the Precious Blood Ministry of Reconciliation demonstrates his commitment to community-engaged scholarship, examining how restorative justice practices like peacemaking circles transform communities affected by violence and systemic injustice through five to six years of participant observation.
