I am academically trained as a historian, linguist, lawyer and political scientist. Beside that I travelled through theories, methods and applications of more disciplines until I realised that the topic that unites them all for me is peace and conflict. So why should the perennial migrant not settle down in the per definition transdisciplinary fields of Peace and Conflict Studies and root there? This is what I have done decades ago. The wide field of Peace and Conflict Studies is my vocation and my academic home.

Since the Millennium Peace Studies have developed enormously at The University of Innsbruck. I am happy and proud about the achievements of The Master Program and the UNESCO Chair. And I am very grateful for the team of rectors' support for the Unit for Peace and Conflict. This gave the discipline a lot of stability and made the University of Innsbruck stand in a unique way for solid peace research far beyond Austria or the German speaking world. These achievements made it logic and necessary to broaden and enlarge the project as a research centre by inviting the interested colleagues from all the disciplines that contribute and comprise Peace Studies. I am happy that this found so much resonance. It is great to be part of this wonderful circle of distinguished colleagues who approach our common topic from so many angles.

While growing up in war-torn Colombia, I asked myself about the conditions that would break the cycles of violence. I realized that asking questions about peace, nonviolence and ethics could not be satisfactorily answered by searching in disciplines that would predominantly look at violence, its causes and implications. To find out about possibilities for peace, we need to understand peace in and upon itself, as a value, a way of being in the world, and a quality of relations.

I am part of this transdisciplinary research centre because it moves me, it inspires me to continue looking at university research, projects and events beyond safe-guarded disciplinary boundaries. Hence, I want to venture into new challenges, innovative approaches that take the risk of not-knowing seriously, that produce research that benefits individuals, communities and societies.

My field of study is existential psychology, with a special focus on life meaning. What people see as meaningful is highly subjective. For some, engagement for peace, tolerance, and equality are obviously meaningful. Others see radical action – and even violence – as the only viable way towards what they find meaningful. When trying to gain insight into people’s life worlds, it is crucially important to understand what they value as meaningful, and if they fear that this might be desecrated by others.

The team of InnPeace advocates for a balanced and empirically grounded concept of peace. It takes into account individual and group goals, attitudes and values, but also acknowledges transrational factors that influence personal and organisational mood and action. Accordingly, the concept is non-normative, but open to subjective understandings of peace and to their cultural embeddedness. It is here that research on meaning and peace can cross-fertilise: to support a worldview that gives credit to the plurality of viewpoints, the necessity to understand what people actually mean by their actions and words, and to thus strengthen the visibility of our common humanity.