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Reinhold Niebuhr Award
2009 Recipient: Paul Lederach
The Reinhold Niebuhr Award honors a person whose life and writings promote or exemplify the area of social justice.
This year’s recipient has spent his life advancing the cause of peace. From Nicaragua to Nepal, the Philippines to Colombia, he has served as mediator, strategist, and catalyst for peacebuilding. As the leading theorist of the concept of conflict transformation, he advises governments, religious organizations, universities, and community groups striving to reconcile societies torn apart by violence.
As a practitioner of peace, he accompanies the poor, the refugees, and the victims of war—eliciting from them alternatives to violence. His wide-ranging experiences, profound analyses, and deep moral imagination have formed the basis for a corpus of writing that has enlightened peace studies scholars and peacebuilders around the globe. He is, in the words of St. Francis of Assisi, ‘an instrument of peace.’
We are proud to present the Reinhold Nieburhr Award to
Professor of International Peacebuilding, Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies
Rev. Theodore M. Hesburgh, C.S.C., and Chancellor Willy Brandt of West Germany were the first recipients of Reinhold Niebuhr awards sponsored by friends of the Protestant theologian and author. Receiving this award in September 1972, at ceremonies at Union Theological Seminary in New York City, Father Hesburgh announced the establishment of a Reinhold Niebuhr Award at the University of Notre Dame. This award is made annually to a student, faculty member, or administrator whose life and writings promote or exemplify the area of social justice in modern life.
The initial award to Father Hesburgh was $5,000. This he turned over to the Notre Dame endowment to underwrite an annual cash award of $250 for the winner of this campus honor. The selection committee includes representatives from the colleges and the Law School, Campus Ministry, Center for Social Concerns, rectors, Ladies of Notre Dame, and the student body.
Past Recipients
| 1973 | Msgr. John J. Egan |
| 1974 | CILA (Community for the International Lay Apostolate) |
| 1975 | George N. Shuster |
| 1976 | Rev. Louis Putz, C.S.C. |
| 1977 | Mr. and Mrs. Arthur Quigley |
| 1978 | Thomas F. Broden |
| 1979 | Rev. William Toohey, C.S.C. |
| 1980 | Rev. Don McNeill, C.S.C. |
| 1981 | Charles K. Wilber |
| 1982 | Kenneth and Penny Jameson |
| 1983 | Julian Peasants |
| 1984 | John W. Houck and |
| Oliver F. Williams, C.S.C. | |
| 1985 | James Sterba |
| 1986 | John H. Yoder |
| 1987 | Stephen Worland |
| 1988 | Denis Goulet |
| 1989 | Sharon Lynn O’Brien |
| 1990 | John J. Gilligan |
| 1991 | Thomas and Nancy Shaffer |
| 1992 | Patrick E. Murphy |
| 1993 | John Borkowski |
| 1994 | Bernard Doering |
| 1995 | Rev. Richard McCormick, S.J. |
| 1996 | Rev. William M. Lewers, C.S.C. |
| 1997 | Rev. Joseph D. Ross, C.S.C. |
| 1998 | Lee Tavis |
| 1999 | Robert E. and Jeanne Rodes |
| 2000 | Kathleen Maas Weigert |
| 2001 | R. Scott Appleby |
| Dinah Shelton | |
| 2002 | Rev. Patrick D. Gaffney, C.S.C. |
| 2003 | George Lopez |
| 2004 | Teresa Ghilarducci |
| 2005 | Rev. Gustavo A. Gutiérrez, OP |
| 2006 | Todd Whitmore |
| 2007 | Georges Enderle |
| 2008 | F. Clark Power |
