Visiting Research Fellows
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 will enable 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 will develop 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.” The Alumni Visiting Research Fellowship is intended for Kroc Institute alumni who have pursued careers as peacebuilding practitioners and who seek time to reflect on and write about their work while in residence at the Institute.
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 plans to conduct research on his project, “The Roots of War and Violent Conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo, 1960 to 2021.” The Kroc-CRS fellowship supports a rising mid-career or senior CRS staff person, or a member of a partner organization engaged in peacebuilding for a short-term research and writing post at the Kroc Institute.
Maria Paula Prada Ramírez (Academic Year 2023-24) has been engaged in dialogue, peacebuilding and transitional justice work for over 17 years, focusing on policy and project design and implementation, facilitation and creating strategic multilevel networks for political engagement and social ownership in Colombia. Maria has been a consultant and trainer with several international organizations in Colombia, Germany, Sri Lanka and the United States of America. 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 will enable 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, as well as to contribute to the Legacy Project of the Peace Accords Matrix (PAM). Maria is an accomplished economist with graduate education in international cooperation and humanitarian assistance, and mother of two daughters.
Seyedbabak (Babak) RezaeeDaryakenari (Fall 2023) is the 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 plans to conduct research on his project, “Gendered-Based Digital Repression During Anti-Government Protests,” which will examine how and why female activists are repressed by state actors.
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 will work on her monograph on women’s rights in post-conflict constitutions, which is under contract with Bristol University Press.
Ivonne Solorzano (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. She received her Ph.D. in research for social sciences at FLASCO Mexico. While at the Kroc Institute, Solarzano will work on the promotion and defense of human dignity as the center for the construction of peace, and the role of the Catholic Church in promoting and safeguarding that dignity.
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 will conduct 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--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 will work with two research programs at the Kroc Institute, the Afghanistan Program and Peace and Development (AfPAD) and the PeaceTech and Polarization Lab (PTAP).
Tecla Namachanja Wanjala (Spring - Fall 2023) is a team lead for the Shalom Centre for Counselling and Development (SCCODEV), a local NGO in Kenya supporting social healing among communities affected by violent conflicts. She is also one of the eminent members of Kenya's National Peace and Mediation Team (NPMT).
Wanjala is a globally-recognized peacebuilder, trauma healing, and transitional justice specialist. A nominee for the 1,000 Women for the 2005 Nobel Peace Prize, she is also a recipient of the 2019 Peace Builder of the Year Award offered by the Center for Justice and Peace of Eastern Mennonite University.
In her most recent engagement, she was contracted as an expert and advisor to USAID/KEA's Democracy, Governance, Peace, and Security (DGPS) office, advising on election conflict, electoral violence, conflict prevention and mitigation, and early warning mechanisms during the 2022 Kenya general elections.
During her research fellowship, she will spend time to reflect on her work as Acting Chairperson of TJRC and write a journal article giving insights into Kenya's turbulent Truth-Seeking process as the country tried to confront her painful past so as to heal and reconcile her people.
More information on visiting research fellowships »