Helen Nambalirwa Nkabala

Principal College of Humanities and Social Sciences & Director, Rotary Peace Center/Associate Professor, Department of Religion and Peace Studies, at Makerere University

Associate Professor Helen Nambalirwa Nkabala is a distinguished academic and administrator at Makerere University, serving as the Principal of the College of Humanities and Social Sciences (CHUSS). She holds a Ph.D. from a collaborative program between the University of Stavanger and Makerere University, an M.Phil. in Theology from the University of Bergen, a Master of Arts in Peace and Reconciliation Studies from Coventry University, a Postgraduate Diploma in Educational Technologies from the University of Cape Town, and a Bachelor of Arts from Makerere University. Her extensive academic background underscores her commitment to interdisciplinary scholarship in theology, peace studies, and education.

In addition to her roles at Makerere University, Professor Nkabala is the inaugural Director of the first Rotary Peace Center in Africa, hosted at the same institution. She has provided training in conflict transformation and social cohesion to personnel at the Auschwitz Institute for the Prevention of Genocide and the United Nations Mission in South Sudan, as well as peacebuilding and conflict transformation training to the Uganda Police. Her research interests include the intersection of religion and conflict, with notable publications such as “Kony as Moses,” which examines the use of violent biblical texts by the Lord’s Resistance Army in Northern Uganda.