Previous Visiting Research Fellows
2025-26
Prakash Bhattarai (M.A. '10) (spring 2026) was the alumni visiting research fellow representative, having earned his master’s in Peace Studies in 2010. A social scientist by training and education, Bhattarai has 20 years of leadership and professional experience working in social policy, conflict resolution, human rights, and governance in Nepal and the Asia Pacific region. He is the executive director and founder of the Centre for Social Change in Kathmandu, Nepal, a leading non-profit research and advocacy institute working on issues around governance, peacebuilding, labor, migration, climate change, and civic engagement. While at the Kroc Institute, Bhattarai's research examined how post-conflict governance arrangements in Nepal (2006-2024) have contributed to preventing the resurgence of large-scale armed violence and maintaining peace since the country’s Comprehensive Peace Accord in November 2006. Bhattarai earned his Ph.D. in Peace and Conflict Studies at the University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand in 2014.
Vera Brandner (academic year 2025-26) is a scholar-artist trained in photography who combines her skills with social engagement to explore how the arts—spanning visual, music, and performance—can be transformative in peace processes. Specific to her time at the Kroc Institute, Brandner sought to apply her creative and scholarly approach to the intersectionality of identity, power, and structural violence, providing innovative insights into how the arts and visual culture can contribute to social change and reconciliation. Brandner earned her Ph.D. in transdisciplinary methods development, with a focus on visual culture, conflict transformation, and social inequality from the Leuphana University of Lüneburg and her M.A. from the University of Vienna.
Katie Conlon (M.A. '14) (academic year 2025-26) has nearly 20 years of international experience applied to peacebuilding, the environment and climate change. For the past nearly eight years, Conlon has lived in South Asia, conducting extensive fieldwork in the Himalayas. Conlon's fellowship at the Kroc Institute enabled her to write about her environmental research and its connection to climate change policy and human rights in South Asia within the context of the Third Pole, the Himalayas. Conlon earned her Ph.D. from Portland State University after graduating from the University of Notre Dame with a master's degree in Peace Studies in 2014. She is the founder and director of Ecoseva Institute, a nonprofit based in Portland, Ore., that proactively engages in environmental education and research through the spirit of revitalization, regeneration and interconnection. Conlon is also an affiliate researcher with Portland State University, a fellow of the Royal Geographic Society, has been a National Geographic Explorer since 2019, and is a WINGS Women of Discovery Flag Carrier.
Doğukan Cansin Karakuş (spring 2026) is a postdoctoral researcher specializing in mediation, ceasefires, and peace agreements in civil wars. He holds a postdoctoral position at Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel (Germany), is an affiliated visiting researcher at the Department of Peace and Conflict Research at Uppsala University (Sweden), collaborates with Professor Peter Wallensteen in Working Group on International Measures for Compliance with Nuclear Disarmament Regimes, and serves as a lecturer at the Institute of Political Science at Heidelberg University (Germany). During his doctoral research, Karakuş examined the role of long-term third-party mediators in the implementation of peace agreements, with comparative analyses of Northern Ireland, El Salvador, Lebanon, and Mindanao.
Karakuş has extensive experience in large-scale fieldwork and data collection and has led, coordinated, and conducted document-based, social media–based, and survey research—including experimental studies—in conflict-affected regions such as Syria, Mosul (Iraq), and Turkey, with participant samples exceeding 11,000 respondents. He also compiled a unique dataset of more than 140 local ceasefire agreements and mediation initiatives from the Syrian civil war and is currently developing additional survey research on public acceptance of potential peace proposals and local third-party mediation among communities in Yemen.
Karakuş sought to advance a comprehensive mediation framework during his time at the Kroc Institute by addressing the central question: Under what conditions can third-party mediation effectively facilitate the transition from ceasefires to comprehensive peace agreements in armed civil conflicts? Karakuş received his Ph.D. in Political Science from Georg-August-Universität Göttingen in 2021, including research stays at Uppsala University’s Department of Peace and Conflict Research and the Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO).
Siobhán McEvoy-Levy (spring 2026) is a professor of Political Science and Peace and Conflict Studies at Butler University in Indianapolis, as well as the director of the University’s Desmond Tutu Peace Lab. She is also a member of the Folke Bernadotte Academy International Research Working Group on Youth, Peace and Security. Through her work over the last 25 years, McEvoy-Levy has sought to make the case for young people’s active inclusion in peace processes, highlighting their roles in knowledge production about peace and peacebuilding. Her scholarship focuses on how young people conceptualize, narrate and enact conflict, violence and peace and how they participate in (everyday) peace work. Other interests include youth participatory research methods and critical peacebuilding through the arts, museums, and pop culture.
McEvoy-Levy is currently working on a monograph exploring the role of artists and art activists in peacebuilding. Other projects underway include co-leading a photography, street art, and youth-led peacebuilding effort; co-editing a special issue on the methods and approaches to studying youth-led futures of peace and security; co-editing a volume on youth, peace, and world-building; and working with youth peacebuilders to develop an Engaged Mindfulness and Meditation curriculum specifically for young activists and peacebuilding practitioners.
As the director of the Desmond Tutu Peace Lab for the past seven years, McEvoy-Levy has organized a variety of campus dialogues, speakers, study tours, and community partnerships to mentor and develop the next generation of researchers, educators and activists focused on peacebuilding. While at the Kroc Institute, she focused on how certain methods/mediums of art used in activism have ideological, ethical and material effects, and how these support or detract from movements, campaigns, and the practice of peace. McEvoy-Levy is originally from the North of Ireland and splits her time between Indiana and Ireland. She earned her Ph.D. in History and International Relations from the University of Cambridge in 1999.
Mujahid Osman (MGA '19) (fall 2025) earned his Ph.D. in Asian, African, and Middle Eastern Religions from Emory University after having earned his Master of Global Affairs degree in International Peace Studies from the Keough School of Global Affairs. While at the Kroc Institute, Osman focused on his book project, "Witnessing for God: Living Out Islamic Ethics in Cape Town," which analyzes the multiple ways in which a Muslim community struggles to be a "witness for God," as the Qurān encourages its members to promote a version of justpeace in post-apartheid South Africa.
2024-25
Liridona Veliu Ashiku (fall 2024) was a faculty member in the Department of Political Science at Loyola University Chicago while a visiting research fellow with the Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies. She now serves as the program manager for research and pollicy with the Keough-Naughton Institute for Irish Studies, part of the Keough School of Global Affairs. Veliu Ashiku holds a Ph.D. in Politics and International Relations from Dublin City University. She specializes in 'balkanization,' democratic transitions in post-socialist societies, and socio-spatial segregation, and is fluent in Albanian, Macedonian, Serbian, and English.
Jessica Doe (née Mehta, Tyner) (academic year 2024-25) is an Aniyunwiya inter/multi/anti-disciplinary poet, artist, and scholar born on the northwest region of Turtle Island, a term used by some American indigenous people for North America (also known as Oregon in the United States). As a citizen of the Cherokee Nation, space, place, and Indigenization are driving forces in her work, which has been described as avant-garde conceptualism.
Banafsheh Keynoush (academic year 2024-25) is a scholar of international relations and Middle East studies, and the author, co-author and editor of several recently published books including Saudi Arabia and Iran: Friends or Foes? (2016) and The Abraham Accords: National Security, Regional Order and Popular Representation (2024). During her fellowship, she wove methodologies in peace studies and mediation into topics at the forefront of policy and security issues to explore how regional initiatives -- especially the complementarities of Iranian and Saudi power and influence, working in tandem with international initiatives -- will result in peace in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Anselm Nwoke (spring 2025) is a Kroc-Catholic Relief Services (CRS) Fellow. Nwoke received a B.A. in history from the University of Ilorin, an M.A. in humanitarian and refugee studies from the University of Lagos, Nigeria, and an M.A. in health management from Benue State University. While at the Kroc Institute, he furthered his research to understand the causes of conflict between farmers and herders in Agatu, the local government area of Benue State.
Fatima Shabodien (M.A. '94) (spring 2025) is an Alumni Visiting Research Fellow. Shabodien is a South African social justice activist, feminist leader, and all-around changemaker who has fought for a just and transformed world since the 1980s anti-apartheid movement.
2023-2024
Seyedbabak (Babak) RezaeeDaryakenari (fall 2023) is a senior assistant professor of international relations at the Institute of Political Science at Leiden University in the Netherlands. His research broadly focuses on the dynamics of political conflict and violence in the Global South.
During his fellowship at the Kroc Institute, he conducted research on his project, “Gendered-Based Digital Repression During Anti-Government Protests,” which examines how and why female activists are repressed by state actors.
Ana Velitchkova (Ph.D. ‘14) (fall 2023) is the Croft associate professor of sociology and international studies at the University of Mississippi. Her research interests lie in three substantive areas crossing disciplinary lines: transnational social movements, civil society, and community; violence; and citizenship, global inequality, and migration.
While at the Kroc Institute, Velitchkova conducted research on her project, “Pathways to Violent and Nonviolent Extremism: Creating a Dataset of Biographies of U.S. Extremists, 2015-2021.”
Qasim Wafayezada (fall 2023) is a journalist and the Specially Appointed Professor of Peace and Conflict Studies and Peace Diplomacy at the University of Kanazawa in Japan. Prior to this, he was the Minister of Information and Culture of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan.
In addition to working on two articles for publication during his fellowship—on information and communication technology, and the interaction of online and offline domains in the formation of a gender-sensitive, peace-oriented political process in post-U.S. Afghanistan—he worked with two research programs at the Kroc Institute, the Afghanistan Program and Peace and Development (AfPAD) and the PeaceTech and Polarization Lab (PTAP).
Jenna Sapiano (academic year 2023-24) was previously a researcher for the Centre for Gender, Peace and Security at Monash University. Her research focuses on mediation; the women, peace and security agenda; and post-conflict constitutions.
While at the Kroc Institute, Sapiano worked on her monograph on women’s rights in post-conflict constitutions, which is under contract with Bristol University Press.
Maria Paula Prada Ramírez (academic year 2023-24) has been engaged in dialogue, peacebuilding and transitional justice work for more than 17 years, focusing on policy and project design and implementation, facilitation and creating strategic multilevel networks for political engagement and social ownership in Colombia. Recently, she was a permanent advisor to the President of the Colombian Truth, Reconciliation, and Non-Repetition Commission and coordinated the design and implementation of an out-facing and sustainability strategy for the Truth Commission.
This fellowship enabled Maria to work on an article for publication on the role and value of strategic alliances—national and international—during transitional processes; the case of the Colombian Truth Commission. She also contributed to the Legacy Project of the Peace Accords Matrix (PAM).
Maria Micaela Anna Garrido (M.A. ‘06) (spring 2024) is this year’s Alumni Visiting Fellow. She is a part-time professor with DePaul University’s Peace, Justice, and Conflict Studies program.
This fellowship enabled Garrido to develop her research on the impact of COVID-19 to the experience of migrant workers in Southeast Asia, for potential publication. Additionally, she developed course offerings at DePaul University covering genocide, violence and trauma, and human trafficking, which are subtopics in her current course offering, “International Conflict and Peacebuilding.”
Henri Muhiya (spring 2024) is a Kroc-Catholic Relief Services (CRS) Fellow and the executive secretary of the Episcopal Commission for Natural Resources of the National Episcopal Conference of Congo. In November 2020, Muhiya was given a five-year appointment by Pope Francis, as a member of the Dicastery for the Service of Integral Human Development. Muhiya is also a doctoral student in literature at Université d’Angers in France.
At Kroc, he conducted research on his project, “The Roots of War and Violent Conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo, 1960 to 2021.”
Ivonne Solarzano (spring 2024) is a Kroc-CRS Fellow and technical advisor for monitoring, evaluation, accountability and learning for the peacebuilding platform and youth program at CRS-LACRO in Guatemala.
While at the Kroc Institute, Solarzano worked on the promotion and defense of human dignity for the construction of peace, and the role of the Catholic Church in promoting and safeguarding that dignity.
Tecla Namachanja Wanjala (calendar year 2023) is a globally-recognized peacebuilder, trauma healing and transitional justice specialist.
She spent her fellowship reflecting on her work as acting chairperson of the Truth, Justice and Reconciliation Commission of Kenya and writing a journal article giving insights into Kenya’s turbulent Truth-Seeking process.
2022-2023
Roddy Brett (academic year 2022-23) is an associate professor of peace and conflict studies at the University of Bristol. His research focuses on the causes, consequences, and legacies of political violence (particularly mass collective violence), and how states, societies, and international actors move on from protracted episodes of egregious violence.
While at the Kroc Institute, he worked on two projects: conducting original research with the Peace Accords Matrix (PAM) on the place of reconciliation in peace agreements, and completing his monograph, The Path Towards Reconciliation after Colombia's War: Understanding the Roles of Victims and Perpetrators, based on an investigation he led for the United Nations in 2015 on the role of the so-called victims' delegations in the Santos-FARC-EP peace talks in Colombia.
Erica Dávila (academic year 2022-23) is professor of educational leadership at Lewis University. She has been teaching and writing curriculum for over 20 years in Chicago and Urbana, Illinois, and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
During her time at Kroc, Dávila aimed to amplify the work of women of color activists within the Chicago Young Lords and other activist groups who held educational justice at the forefront. This book project is an interdisciplinary work of critical educational scholarship that resides at the nexus of critical race feminism, historical memory, and political education.
Jenna Knapp (fall 2022) is the 2022 Alumni Visiting Research Fellow. She is a peacebuilding practitioner who has been working in El Salvador for the past decade on various trauma healing and community organizing initiatives. She graduated from the Kroc Institute's Master's in International Peace Studies in 2016.
She spent her time at the Kroc Institute writing a narrative storytelling book designed to translate her 12 years of experience in close proximity to ongoing violence in El Salvador into a tool that will serve peacebuilding pedagogy and practice.
Norbert Koppensteiner (academic year 2022-23) is a peace researcher and freelance facilitator. His facilitation especially focuses on breath, voice, and movement.
As a visiting research fellow, Koppensteiner advanced two lines of research: he explored the art of facilitation for peace and transforming conflicts, with a special focus on embodied approaches, and combined this with methodological and epistemological research into comprehensive ways of knowing.
Mimmi Söderberg Kovacs (spring 2023) is senior specialist on armed groups and peace processes at the Folke Bernadotte Academy (FBA) in Sweden, a governmental agency working in the field of peace, security and development. She is also an affiliated associate professor in peace and conflict research at Uppsala University.
While at the Kroc Institute, she worked on a monograph on the transformation of armed actors into political parties, drawing on descriptive data from a newly completed database of rebel-to-party transformations, 1975-2020, her previous work on this topic, and field work material from the Philippines.
Isis Nusair (fall 2022) is associate professor of women's and gender studies and international studies at Denison University.
During her time at the Kroc Institute, Nusair focused on completing her upcoming book, Permanent Transients: Iraqi Women Refugees in Jordan and the USA.
Nilofar Sakhi (fall 2022) is a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council and has been teaching courses as a professional lecturer of international affairs at the Elliott School of International Affairs at George Washington University.
As a visiting research fellow, Sakhi advanced two research areas: focusing on regional security with a case study of Afghanistan and the South and Central Asia region, and exploring the domestic and external incongruencies that impact regional peace diplomacy.
2021-2022
Rahaf Aldoughli (fall 2021) is a lecturer in Middle East politics at Lancaster University.
Her areas of research expertise include identifying the ideological borrowings between European and Arab nationalism, the rise of the nation-state in the Middle East, the Syria crisis, militarism, and the construction of masculinity in the Arab world.
While at the Kroc Institute, she worked on two research projects investigating state Islamism in Syria, and the relationship between authoritarianism, religion, sectarianism, and nationalism.
Tahir Aziz (M.A. ’03) (fall 2021) was the 2021 Alumni Visiting Research Fellow. He currently works as the South Asia Programme Director for Conciliation Resources in London, and has over 15 years of experience in the fields of mediation and conflict transformation. He currently leads the only international peacebuilding program that operates in both the Indian and Pakistani administered territories of Kashmir.
Tahir holds a B.A. in Political Science and Islamic History from Azad Jammu and Kashmir University, a M.Sc. in Anthropology from the Institute for Multi-Track Diplomacy in Washington, D.C., and an M.A. in International Peace Studies from the Kroc Institute.
César Estrada (fall 2021) received his Ph.D. in 2020 from the Carter School for Peace and Conflict Resolution at George Mason University. His research specializes in the study of violent conflict in the context of organized crime and human rights violations in Mexico.
Before coming to Notre Dame, he served as a Director within the Unit of Policies and Strategies for Peacebuilding at the Secretary for Security and Citizen Protection in Mexico. Estrada is a lecturer at the Department of Sociopolitical and Legal Studies at the Western Institute of Higher Education (ITESO, Guadalajara’s Jesuit University), and has taught upper-level courses on criminal violence at George Mason University and at El Colegio de San Luis.
While at Notre Dame, Estrada worked on turning his doctoral dissertation into a book-length monograph that examines how the so-called war on drugs in Mexico strongly relies on the construction of social groups deemed as disposable and killable subjects. The book will be titled Genocidal Violence amid Mexico’s War on Drugs: A Critical Lens on Police and Criminal Brutality.
Luis Peña Reyes (Spring 2022) is a lecturer and researcher on the spatiality of peace and reconciliation at the Jena Center for Reconciliation Studies at the Friedrich Schiller University in Jena, Germany. While at the Kroc Institute, Luis will explore the uneven socio-spatial process of building sustainable peace. He will conduct an intersectional spacial analysis of the patterns and trends of implementing the Final Agreement to End the Armed Conflict and Build a Stable and Lasting Peace signed by the Colombian government and the FARC-EP.
Felipe Roa-Clavijo (fall 2021) is a Researcher and Global Policy Lead for the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI) at the University of Oxford, United Kingdom, and a Specialist in Rural Reform at the Barometer Initiative in Colombia, part of the Kroc Institute’s Peace Accords Matrix Program.
In 2019, his doctoral thesis won the prestigious Colombian National Prize in the Social Sciences and Humanities category from the Alejandro Angel Escobar Foundation. He has a Ph.D. in International Development from the University of Oxford, a Master’s degree in Public Administration from Seattle University, and a B.A. in Ecology from Pontificia Universidad Javeriana.
Felipe’s first book, The Politics of Food Provisioning in Colombia: Agrarian Movements and Negotiations with the State, was published by Routledge in October 2021.
Lydia Schoeppner (Spring 2022) is a teaching assistant professor in conflict resolution studies at Menno Simons College, a college of Canadian Mennonite University at the University of Winnipeg. During her time as a Visiting Research Fellow at the Kroc Institute, she will edit and expand her research to further explore the effects of contemporary conflicts in the Arctic on Inuit as well as Inuit local and institutional responses. She especially focuses on the history and work of the Inuit Circumpolar Council and the implications of culturally-relevant metaphors for learning about Inuit peacemaking past and present.
Benjamin J. Spatz (Spring 2022) is a scholar-practitioner focused on conflict and conflict management and serves as a research fellow at the World Peace Foundation at Tufts University’s Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy. As a Visiting Fellow, Spatz will continue his research on elite bargaining in fragile states and the implications that various intra-elite bargaining tactics and strategies have for war, peace, and institutional development.
Alexandra Tañada Medina is the Program Manager of Catholic Relief Services’ Peacebuilding and Governance Program. While at the Kroc Institute, Medina engaged with the Peace Accords Matrix to support the development of a civil society-led peace accord monitoring system for Mindanao.
2020-2021
Daniel Castillo is associate professor of theology at Loyola University Maryland in Baltimore. While at the Kroc Institute, Castillo worked on his manuscript, "I Have Seen: God-Talk and Christian Praxis in the 'Anthropocene'."
Alisher Khamidov (M.A. '02) is a researcher and consultant on peacebuilding and governance advising a number of international public organizations, including the World Bank and the United Nations. While at the Kroc Institute, Khamidov worked on a manuscript entitled, "The Promise of Peaceful Towns: Examining Geographic Variation in Interethnic Conflict in Kyrgyzstan."
Lisa McLean received her Ph.D. (2020) from the Carter School for Peace and Conflict Resolution at George Mason University. While at the Kroc Institute, McLean worked on transforming her dissertation into a scholarly monograph that explores the use of the “caravan” as a method of intersectional strategic peacebuilding.
Andrew Owsiak is currently Josiah Meigs Distinguished Teaching Professor and Associate Professor of International Affairs at the University of Georgia. While at the Kroc Institute, Owsiak worked on a co-authored book manuscript, "Diplomacy and War: Lessons for World Politics."
2019-2020
Justin de Leon was previously a Lecturer at the University of California, San Diego. While at the Kroc Institute, de Leon was writing a book manuscript entitled Resurgent Visual Sovereignty: Indigenous Representation and Praxis, that explored Indigenous traditional and creative approaches to sovereignty.
Josefina Echavarría Alvarez was Director of the Research Center for Peace and Conflict (InnPeace) and Senior Lecturer at the Unit for Peace and Conflict Studies at the University of Innsbruck (Austria). While at Kroc, she wrote on the Colombian Peace Agreement (Palgrave Encyclopedia of Peace and Conflict Studies, eds. Oliver Richmond and Gëzim Visoka) and transitioned into her role as Director of the PAM (Peace Accords Matrix) at the Kroc Institute/ Keough School of Global Affairs at the University of Notre Dame.
Nicole Gerring earned a Master of Arts and a Ph.D. in Political Science from Wayne State University. At the Kroc Institute, conducted research for a book, Women’s Civil Society in Peacebuilding, analyzing the work and impact of women’s civil society organizations in implementing peace agreements.
Scott Moeschberger is Professor of Psychology at Taylor University. While at the Kroc Institute, his work focused on preventing violence against children.
Catriona Standfield earned her Ph.D. in Political Science from Syracuse University in August, 2019. While at the Kroc Institute, Standfield worked on a book project examining the implementation of gender equality reforms in United Nations-brokered peace processes.
Tobias Winright is the Hubert Mäder Endowed Chair of Health Care Ethics and Associate Professor in both the Department of Theological Studies and the Albert Gnaegi Center for Health Care Ethics at Saint Louis University. While at the Kroc Institute, Winright worked on a book project that integrated recent Catholic thought and teaching on integral development, integral ecology, and integral nuclear disarmament through the lens of integral peacebuilding.
2018-2019
Bahar Baser is Associate Professor at the Centre for Trust, Peace, and Social Relations at Coventry University in the United Kingdom and Associate Research Fellow at the Security Institute for Governance and Leadership in Africa at Stellenbosch University in South Africa. While at the Kroc Institute, Baser worked on a book about the participation of diasporas in peacebuilding and development using the Kurdish diaspora as a key case study.
Shivaji Mukherjee is Assistant Professor in Political Science at the University of Toronto. While at the Kroc Institute, he collaborated with the Peace Accords Matrix Project to analyze why the Maoist insurgency in Nepal ended through peace negotiations while the Maoist insurgency in India persists.
Kate Paarlberg-Kvam holds a doctorate in Latin American Studies from the University at Albany (SUNY), and teaches courses in Latin American history, gender studies, and international affairs at Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs, New York. While at the Kroc Institute she worked on a book project based on her 2016 dissertation about the contributions of feminist activism to the construction of peace in Colombia.
Marcos S. Scauso holds a Ph.D. in Political Science, with a primary focus on International Relations and secondary interests in Political Theory, from the University of California, Irvine. He researched the intersection of International Relations and identity politics, with a focus on indigenous voices in post-colonial Latin America.
Elena B. Stavrevska holds a Ph.D. in Political Science with an International Relations concentration from Central European University. While at the Kroc Institute, she worked on a book manuscript, partially based on her doctoral dissertation, that examines intersectional justice in the aftermath of peace agreements in general and the political economy of gender in post-conflict societies in particular.
2017-2018
Paula Ditzel Facci holds a Ph.D. in Peace, Conflict and Development from the Universitat Jaume I, Spain, and an M.A. from the UNESCO Chair for Peace Studies, University of Innsbruck, Austria. While at the Kroc Institute, Paula continued her research on dance as a method to elicit conflict transformation and unfold the characteristics of peace, with a special focus on embodiment and transformation in dialogue with gender and feminist theories.
Nisa Göksel recently earned a Ph.D. in sociology from Northwestern University, Evanston. While at the Kroc Institute, she worked on two projects. The first was a book project based on her dissertation about the political mobilization of Kurdish women around peace, democracy, and women’s freedom. In the second project, she examined the participation of women in armed struggles in the Middle East.
Maria Koinova is a Reader in International Relations at the Politics and International Studies Department, University of Warwick, UK. She recently completed a large-scale European Research Council Starting Grant Project ‘Diasporas and Contested Sovereignty’. She has authored numerous articles on diasporas and contested sovereignty, and of Ethnonationalist Conflict in Postcommunist States.
Benjamin N. Lawrance is a professor of history at the University of Arizona. While at the Kroc Institute, he worked on a book entitled, Nations Inside Out: An African Refugee Grammar.
Laurie Nathan is a professor and outgoing director of the Centre for Mediation in Africa at the University of Pretoria in South Africa. While at the Kroc Institute he assisted with the development of a mediation program and worked with the Peace Accords Matrix (PAM) on the topic of 'the post-conflict constitution as a peace agreement'.
2016 - 2017
Robert W. Hefner is director of the Institute on Culture, Religion, and World Affairs (CURA) and Professor of Cultural Anthropology at Boston University. While at the Kroc Institute, his research centered on two broad issues: Islamic ethics, law, and subjectivity in a pluralist age; and the challenge of religious diversity and pluralist coexistence in the global south and late-modern West.
Scott Hibbard is an associate professor in the department of political science at DePaul University, where he teaches courses on American foreign policy, international relations, Middle East politics, and religion and politics. While at the Kroc Institute, he worked on a book that examines American foreign policy towards Islamist militancy over the course of several decades.
Peter Kankonde Bukasa coordinates the Religion and Migration Research Initiative at the African Centre for Migration and Society, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. While at the Kroc Institute, he conducted research and worked towards finalizing a book entitled: “Authoritarian Democratisation, Youth Insurgent Waithood, and the Dynamics of Violent Transnational Mobilisation in African Diaspora Communities: the Case of the Congolese Combattant Movement.”
Rosemary Kellison is Assistant Professor of Philosophy and Religion at the University of West Georgia in Carrollton, Georgia. As a Kroc Institute visiting fellow, she worked on her book on feminist moral philosophy and the just war tradition.
Laurie Nathan is a professor and director of the Center for Mediation in Africa at the University of Pretoria in South Africa. While at the Kroc Institute, he worked with the Peace Accords Matrix (PAM) on the topic of 'the post-conflict constitution as a peace agreement'.
Tanya B. Schwarz holds a Ph.D. in political science from the University of California, Irvine. While at the Kroc Institute she worked on a book based on her dissertation, Instruments of the Divine? Faith-Based Organizations in International Politics. She also worked on a project that examines the ways that NGOs, governments, and intergovernmental agencies frame so-called "Islamic extremist" groups and their relationship to "authentic" Islam, and how such framings shape possibilities for strategic peacebuilding and the securitization of religion.
2015 - 2016
Selina Gallo-Cruz is assistant professor of sociology at the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Mass. While at the Kroc Institute, Gallo-Cruz researched women’s roles in nonviolent social movements and post-conflict peacebuilding, focusing on women in Argentina, Serbia and Liberia.
Slavica Jakelić, assistant professor of humanities and social thought at Christ College, the honors college of Valparaiso University, worked on her forthcoming book, The Practice of Religious and Secular Humanisms.
Barbara Koremenos, associate professor of political science at the University of Michigan, study the relationship between Islamic States and international law, examining how this relationship affects Islamic States’ participation in international agreements.
Cecelia Lynch, professor of political science and international studies at the University of California, Irvine, worked on a manuscript that focuses on the ethics of Islamic and Christian nongovernmental organizations engaged in humanitarian work in Africa, the Middle East, and organizational centers of power.
Emily Rosser, who holds a Ph.D. in gender, feminist and women’s studies from York University in Toronto, studied grassroots approaches to gender and genocide in Guatemala, focusing on how these approaches affect transitional justice measures.
2014 - 2015
Malin Åkebo, who holds a Ph.D. in political science from Umeå University in Sweden, studied war-to-peace transitions, analyzing ceasefire agreements and how they relate to peace processes and comprehensive peace accords.
Gideon Aran, professor of sociology and anthropology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, analyzed an extensive field study of terrorism in Israel/Palestine.
Robert J. Carroll, assistant professor of political science at Florida State University, developed his doctoral dissertation, "War and Peace in the Marketplace," into a book manuscript.
Jaroslav Tir, professor of political science at the University of Colorado Boulder, researched civil war prevention, focusing on the role of highly structured intergovernmental organizations in managing low-level domestic conflicts.
Reed M. Wood, assistant professor of political science at Arizona State University, researched how women’s roles in conflict affect their roles in peace processes and the post-conflict state.
2013 - 2014
Alexander Arifianto, who recently earned a Ph.D. in political science from Arizona State University, prepared his dissertation manuscript for publication and conducted research on inter-religious dialogue and conflict prevention activities conducted by Islamic social movements in Turkey.
Dinka Corkalo Biruski, a professor of social psychology at the University of Zagreb in Croatia, researched the factors that contribute either to social distancing or social rapprochement in post-conflict communities, using Vukovar, Croatia as a case study.
Shannon Golden, developed her dissertation research into a book manuscript and conducted research on the development and social effects of land disputes during post-war resettlement.
Megan Shannon, assistant professor of political science at Florida State University, will work on a book about how UN peacekeeping influences violence during civil wars, and a second book exploring conditions in countries that follow international law.
Sumanto Al Qurtuby, a cultural anthropologist, interfaith activist, and scholar of Islam, developed a book manuscript titled “Scapegoating Politics: Religion, Violence, and Conciliation in the Moluccas, Eastern Indonesia.”
2012 - 2013
Andrew Bacevich, a leading analyst of U.S. foreign policy and military policy and professor of international relations and history at Boston University, taught the seminar “Ideas and American Foreign Policy” to students in history, peace studies, and political science.
Kristen Harkness, who earned a Ph.D. in politics from Princeton University, wrote a series of articles exploring how military integration during ethnic insurgency or civil war can both advance and hinder peace processes.
Laura Heideman, who holds a Ph.D. in sociology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, taught a new graduate class, "Gender and Peace Studies" and worked on developing her dissertation research into a book manuscript and a series of articles.
Jennifer M. Keister, who earned a Ph.D. in political science from the University of California, San Diego, worked on developing her dissertation into a book manuscript, studying the relationship between rebels, foreign sponsors, and civilian populations.
Sumanto Al Qurtuby, a cultural anthropologist, interfaith activist, and scholar of Islam who holds a Ph.D. from Boston University, worked on a book manuscript entitled "Scapegoating Politics: Religion, Violence, and Conciliation in the Moluccas, Eastern Indonesia."
2011 - 2012
Aysegul Aydin, an assistant professor in the department of political science at the University of Colorado-Boulder, researched a book manuscript focused on Kurdish insurgency in Turkey.
Zana Çitak, assistant professor of international relations at the Middle East Technical University in Ankara, Turkey, studied Turkish Islam in Europe.
Emmanuel Katongole, associate professor of theology and world Christianity at Duke University, conducted research on reconciliation in Africa.
Roger Mac Ginty, a faculty member in the School of International Studies at St. Andrews University in Scotland, researched peacebuilding indicators.
Will Moore, a professor of political science at Florida State University, explored the impact of institutions on state torture practices.
Elton Skendaj, who holds a Ph.D. in comparative politics and international relations from Cornell University, examined the role of international actors in building effective state bureaucracies and democratic institutions in post-war societies.
Fanie Du Toit, the executive director of the Institute for Justice and Reconciliation in Cape Town, South Africa, conducted research on political transition in Africa.
2010 - 2011
M. Christian Green, the Alonzo L. McDonald Family Senior Lecturer and senior research fellow at the Center for the Study of Law and Religion at Emory University School of Law, focused on law and religion, feminism and the family, human rights, comparative religious ethics, and religion and international affairs.
Phillip Hammack, assistant professor of psychology at the University of California, Santa Cruz, explored identity development and intergroup relations in political conflict settings, especially among Israeli and Palestinian youth.
Ragnhild Nordås, a senior researcher at the Centre for the Study of Civil War at the Peace Research Institute in Oslo, studied political violence, repression, civil war, religious conflicts, the mobilization and organization of rebel groups, and the security implications of climate change.
Patrick Regan, a professor of political science at Binghamtom University, researched issues of violent conflict and its resolution, particularly in the context of civil war. His work covered a range of issues such as the militarization of societies, determinants of human rights violations, negotiations in international conflict resolution, the onset of civil war, and interventions in civil wars.
Kristine Eck, assistant professor in the Department of Peace and Conflict Research, Uppsala University, Sweden, and an affiliated researcher with the Uppsala Conflict Data Program (UCDP), focused on violence against civilians, conflict dynamics, and rebel recruitment.
2009 - 2010
David Backer, an assistant professor of government at the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia, focused on transitional justice in West Africa, South Africa, and Latin America. Specifically, he assessed how victims of human rights violations responded to post-conflict measures.
Claudia Baumgart-Ochse, a research fellow at the Peace Research Institute in Frankfurt, Germany, focused on the Democratic Peace theory, religious actors’ ambivalent role in armed conflict, and the Israeli-Palestinian peace process.
Thomas Burkman, a research professor of Asian Studies at the State University of New York at Buffalo, explored new methods for establishing social harmony among Korea, China, and Japan. His project addressed multicultural approaches to peace processes and examined the role of religion.
Devashree Gupta, an assistant professor of political science at Carleton College, received her Ph.D. in government from Cornell University. Her research focused on social movements and political extremism, and she was especially interested in the politics of Northern Ireland and South Africa.
George Wachira, a Ph.D. candidate in peace studies at the University of Bradford in the United Kingdom, examined emerging transitional justice practices in Africa, focusing on the use of truth and reconciliation commissions.
2008-2009
Scott Byrd, a Ph.D. candidate in sociology at the University of California, Irvine, examined the relationships between the multi-level organizational dynamics of transnational coalitions and networks and the conflict articulation strategies they employ.
Sharon Erickson Nepstad, professor of sociology and director of religious studies at the University of New Mexico, explored nonviolent citizen movements of the late 20th century, focusing on why some facilitated a transition to democracy while others failed.
Desirée Nilsson, an assistant professor in the department of peace and conflict research at Uppsala University in Uppsala, Sweden, researched how the presence of multiple actors in civil wars affects the prospects of reaching negotiated settlements and durable peace. Nilsson used unique data on peace agreements in the post-Cold War period and a study of the Liberian peace process.
Naveed S. Sheikh, a faculty member in international relations at Keele University in the United Kingdom, worked on a book-length project titled “After Islamism? The Post-Islamist Turn in Muslim Politics,” which examines the emerging trend of counter-radical “post-Islamism” across the Muslim world and its ramifications for Muslim discourse on conflict and conflict resolution.
Manish Thapa, a faculty member in the Department of Conflict, Peace and Development Studies at Tribhuvan University in Nepal and a doctoral research candidate in International Studies at the University of Tokyo, focused on his doctoral research project, From Bullet to Ballot: The Politics of Peacemaking in Nepal. His research also supported the Nepal-based work of John Paul Lederach, professor of international peacebuilding at Kroc.
2007-2008
Anuradha Chakravarty, a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Government at Cornell University, worked on a comparative study to explore if the choice of truth commissions or trials in transition countries has a causal effect on different democratization trajectories.
Francesco Giumelli, a Ph.D. candidate in political science at the Italian Institute of Humanistic Sciences in Florence, Italy, researched the goals of the European Union's and the United Nations' sanctioning policies.
Reina C. Neufeldt, a scholar-practitioner working at the intersection of religious and ethnic identity in conflict, as well as peacebuilding and development, explored the relationship between religious and ethnic identity in inter-group conflict and peacebuilding.
Ernesto Verdeja, a postdoctoral scholar teaching political theory in the Department of Government at Wesleyan University in Connecticut, completed a book manuscript on political reconciliation and began a project on comparative genocide (Armenia, the Holocaust, Cambodia, and Rwanda).
2006-2007
Joseph Adeboye Bamidele, a Ph.D. candidate in economics at Royal Holloway, University of London, wrote a comparative analysis of the experiences of sub-Saharan African countries where resource conflicts have occurred.
John Heathershaw, a Ph.D. candidate in international relations at the London School of Economics, addressed Tajikistan’s peacebuilding process, examining the role of political Islam in peace and conflict dynamics in central Asia.
Linda Kirschke, a Ph.D. candidate in politics at Princeton University, wrote “Why Ruling Elites Play the ‘Ethnic Card’: State Violence and Multi-party Transitions.”
Polikarpus Meo Teku, a peacebuilding program officer with Catholic Relief Services in Kupang, Indonesia, explored the nexus of peacebuilding and agriculture for his project “Cultivating Peace through Sustainable Agriculture.”
2005-2006
Myla Leguro, peace and reconciliation program manager for Catholic Relief Services in Davao City, the Philippines, documented the peacebuilding experiences of Mindanao in peace education, interreligious dialogue, zones of peace/spaces for peace, and civil society advocacy.
Ana Garcia Rodicio, a researcher in the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and a doctoral candidate at the University Institute of International Relations “Ortega y Gasset” in Madrid, Spain, worked on “A Comprehensive Theory of Restorative Justice in Three Post-Genocide Societies: Cambodia, Rwanda, and Bosnia-Herzegovina.”
Michael McGinnis, professor of political science at Indiana University, worked on his project “Faith, Conflict, and Reconciliation: Religion’s Contributions to Political Violence and Its Resolution,” completed a book manuscript on conflict in the Horn of Africa, and conducted research on the interplay among religious and political organizations in peace and reconciliation.