Alumni, staff, faculty, graduate students, and visiting and faculty fellows from the Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies and Keough School of Global Affairs made a significant footprint at the 2024 International Studies Association Conference, which took place the first week of April in San Francisco.
More than 30 Kroc Institute and Keough School-affiliated conference-goers participated in sessions throughout the four-day event. A sample of their panels and activities included an April 2 pre-conference workshop led by Anne Hayner, associate director of alumni relations for the Kroc Institute, “Leveraging LinkedIn for Research and Professional Connections.”
The following day Caroline Hughes, Rev. Theodore M. Hesburgh, C.S.C., chair in peace studies and director of the Kroc Institute’s doctoral studies program, and Ali Altiok, a Ph.D. student in peace studies and political science, participated in the panel, “Violence, Social Dislocation and the Sanitization of Development: the World Bank’s FCV Agenda.” Meanwhile, Garrett FitzGerald (Ph.D. '20), assistant professor of Peace and Justice Studies at Pace University, was a participant in a forum on the book, “Feel the Grass Grow: Ecologies of Slow Peace in Colombia,” written by Angela Lederach (B.A. ‘07, Ph.D. ‘20), associate professor in the Peace Studies department at Chapman University.
Each year the Kroc Institute hosts a reception for conference attendees, organized in great part by Hayner who has been with the Institute since close to its beginning more than 35 years ago. The reception serves as a reunion of sorts and a networking opportunity for alumni, allies and collaborators; this year’s attracted approximately 125 attendees from throughout the United States and around the world. The Keough School will host the reception at next year’s ISA Conference, to be held in Chicago, March 2-5, 2025.
“Visiting with our alumni and former fellows, and learning about the incredible and varied peacebuilding work they’ve accomplished since their time at the Kroc Institute, really makes me proud,” said Hayner. “The ISA conference is a wonderful way to stay connected, and together with the Keough School, we will celebrate the impact we’re having in academia in the years ahead.”