Vocation for Travel: Catholic Seminary Formation in Sri Lanka

2019 Fiscal Year Research-status Report

• Project/Area Number: 19K12959
• Research Institution: International Christian University
• Principal Investigator: BROWN Bernardo 国際基督教大学, 教養学部, 准教授 (30814123)
• Project Period (FY): 2019-04-01 – 2022-03-31
• Keywords: Ethnography / Christianity / Priests / South Asia / Sri Lanka / morality / religious education

Outline of Annual Research Achievements

- During FY2019 I presented my work 3 times: at an international conference in Taipei (SEASIA), an invited speaker at the South Asia Program at Cornell University in the US and at TUFS in Japan. I completed 16 days of fieldwork in Sri Lanka.
- An article based on this research was sent for review to the peer-reviewed journal Religion, currently preparing new version with minor revisions.
- I have worked on a preliminary draft of the book manuscript

Current Status of Research Progress

3: Progress in research has been slightly delayed.

Reason

The research project was slightly delayed after the terrorist attacks against Catholic churches in April 2019. Given that my research is with this community, I could not complete the planned fieldwork in July 2019. However, I was able to conduct more than 2 weeks of fieldwork in late December and early January. This allowed me to conduct interviews and renew some contacts with old informants and plan a longer fieldwork period for the summer of 2020.

Strategy for Future Research Activity

Due to the current Covid-19 situation, I will not be able to conduct fieldwork in summer 2020. I have planned a fieldwork trip of 2 weeks for November 2020.

Causes of Carryover

Funds not used in AY2019 -- due to fieldwork that was shorter than planned -- will be used for fieldwork as soon as travel to Sri Lanka is considered safe again.