Wolfgang Palaver, born in Zell am Ziller (Austria), is Professor of Catholic Social Thought at the University of Innsbruck, Austria (where he was also Dean of the Faculty of Catholic Theology from 2013 until 2017). From 2007 to 2011, he was president of the Colloquium on Violence and Religion, and in 2016 he became an honorary member of its board. He has published books and articles on violence and religion, Thomas Hobbes, Carl Schmitt, Simone Weil, Mahatma Gandhi and René Girard. In 1991/1992 he was a Visiting Fellow at the Center for International Security and Arms Control (Stanford University, USA) working on the research project: 'Collective Security in Europe and Austrian Neutrality: An Ethical Reflection from the Point of View of Catholic Social Teaching'. In fall 2018, he was a member of the research workshop on religion and violence at the Center of Theological Inquiry (CTI) in Princeton, working on his forthcoming book 'Transforming the Sacred into Saintliness: Reflecting on Violence and Religion with René Girard' (Cambridge University Press, 2020). From January until June 2021, he conducted a research project on Gandhi’s concept of nonviolence at The Stellenbosch Institute for Advanced Study in South Africa.