Philip Abbot retired from the U.S. Army with nearly 33 years as a Latin American Foreign Area Officer, to come to George Mason University’s School for Conflict Analysis and Resolution with the intent to explore alternative peacebuilding paradigms. He is planning on exploring the complementary relationship between the various peacebuilding frameworks, and aims to break rigid attachments to particular peacebuilding knowledge or dominant security narratives as being absolute and complete. As such, his general interest is on applying Theravada Buddhism’s approach to peacebuilding in postconflict Cambodia. His post-degree interests are in research, working in academia and in government formulating national policy.
Joel Amegboh, originally from Togo, graduated with an M.A. in Global Development and Peace from the University of Bridgeport in Connecticut, with distinction. His M.A. thesis, “Understanding the Scopes, Challenges and Limitations of Two Different Models of Peacekeeping Missions in Africa: An Assessment of UNOSOM and AMISOM”, was a conscious attempt to interrogate the challenges, and limitations of African Union peacekeeping initiatives in Africa under the auspices of the United Nations peacekeeping and peacebuilding missions. He has worked at the United Nations, at the Education Outreach Division, Department of Public Information (DPI), where he conducted research on thematic issues; wrote initial drafts of speeches, correspondence, and other communication. He also worked at the Mali Integrated Operational Team of the Africa Division II in the United Nations Department of Peacekeeping Operations (DPKO), where he worked closely with the political Affairs officers responsible for providing strategic political and operational support to the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA). He comes to S-CAR to explore the role of National and International NGOs during peacekeeping and peace-building and in post-war peacebuilding; the roles and rights of children, girls and women in conflict and the causes and implications of post-electoral violence in Africa.
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Hannah K. Brown received her BA at the University of California, Davis in International Relations and Sociology, with a concentration on human rights, and an MA at the University of California, Santa Barbara in Global & International Studies focused on conflict prevention in sub-Saharan Africa. After conducting primary research in Uganda in a former internally displaced persons (IDP) camp and working for the Political and Economic Affairs Division of the U.S. Embassy in Kampala, Hannah finished her MA thesis titled “How Mitigating Conflict and Building Lasting Peace Prevents Genocide and Mass Atrocity: A Ugandan Case Study for Central Africa Today.” Following the completion of her MA, she worked for the International Rescue Committee (IRC) in the Nyarugusu Refugee Camp, Tanzania where she worked with Congolese and Burundian refugees. Before coming to S-CAR Hannah also studied French as a Kathryn Davis Fellow for Peace at Middlebury College’s intensive immersion program. At S-CAR Hannah’s research focuses on refugee protection and atrocity prevention, and she is a member of the Genocide Prevention Program (GPP) at the School. At GPP, Hannah works on the Violence Prevention Initiative as the Refugees and Displaced Persons Policy and Programs Analyst.
Merri Davis retired from a career in government contracting in the D.C. area, when she made a turn away from financial pursuits to the exploration of spirituality and advocacy. She began studying theology and received an M.A. in Pastoral Ministry in 2010. For four years she was the pastor of a small church in a city in Southside, VA, fraught with poverty and structural violence and racial, class, and gender conflict emanating from historical legacies of slavery, segregation and discrimination. After meeting a number of people who had experienced childhood trauma and as a resulted suffered from addiction and cyclic patterns of incarceration she formed a nonprofit to support the efforts of such individuals to heal, developing resiliency and a new sense of identity and wholeness. Through her graduate studies at S-CAR, she hopes to focus on community healing following armed conflict and structural violence, including community-based efforts at mediation and conflict resolution. Her research will focus on how the dominant meaning of Southern white identity contributes to racial violence in postracial America, particularly violence against young African American males.
Suha Hassen is an Iraqi-American writer, poet and anti-war activist. She recently received a master’s degree in Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies from Oregon State University with additional Graduate Certificate in College and University Teaching (GCUT). She also has a PhD in biochemistry from a Medical School in Iraq. She is passionate about analyzing the roots of terrorism and fundamentalist groups’ ideology and their behaviors in Iraq and Syria. She has an interest in studying gender issues in conflict and post-conflict zones, and applying a gender lens on the intersection of sexuality, religion and ethnicity in the sectarian armed conflicts by state and non-state militias. Her area of research also includes theorizing the use of sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) as weapon of war and a tool of genocide. Her master’s thesis was about “investigating the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria's (ISIS) crimes as an act of genocide against non-Muslim minorities in Iraq.” To achieve this purpose, she traveled to Iraq in 2015 and worked directly with women and children who survived ISIS captivity to investigate ISIS’ crimes. Her passion in this discipline stems from her personal experience of terror, violence, a kidnapping attempt by Al- Qaeda in 2007, and subsequent displacement, diaspora and immigration to the US.
Doug Hernandez was born and raised in the Florida panhandle. He is an Early Childhood Special Educator with experience as a teacher and caregiver in K-12 and special education contexts. His training began in early childhood education with an emphasis on developmentally appropriate practices and anti-bias education from infancy to eight years of age. He has directed community-based school-age programs for the YMCA, United Way, and Boys & Girls Club of America with an emphasis on building partnerships with families, social-emotional development, and guidance methods that were non-punitive. These early experiences were foundational and informed his practices in gang prevention and youth violence prevention where he was awarded the United Boys & Girls Club Pat Wargo Memorial Award. In 2010, his pedagogical knowledge in educating culturally and ability-diverse learners was recognized with a Special Educators Entering a Diverse Society (SEEDS) fellowship at George Mason University. In 2011 he was awarded the Shinnyo Fellowship for Peace Building Through Intercultural Dialogue through the development and implementation of KAAN (Kinetics, Art, Audio & Narratives), a community-based art and narrative project that worked to foster inter-group dialogue and counter storytelling.
Doug is currently the Associate Director of George Mason University’s Early Identification Program (EIP), where he develops and implements holistic support systems for first generation college-bound 8th to 12th grade students. His research is focused on inclusive learning environments, discipline and punishment, project-based learning, and the socio-emotional experience and expression in youth.
Christie Jones is a proud Foreign Service "brat" who comes to the School for Conflict Analysis and Resolution after earning her Masters' degree in Peace Operations Policy in 2013. An "internationalist" for most of her life, she plan on turning the lens of conflict analysis to race relations in the United States. Her research interests include concepts of Blackness, the body as an area of conflict, and the impact of historical trauma and trauma narratives on American race relations. Previously, she served as the Education Program Manager for the Center for Infrastructure Protection in George Mason's School of Business. Prior to joining the Center in 2014, she served as a research analyst with the National Commission on the Structure of the Air Force and as a researcher with the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction.
Lauren Kinney undergraduate studies in Communication Science at Wake Forest University shaped her interest in exploring the relational factors that drive and perpetuate violence within specific contexts. While working on her Master's degree at the School for Conflict Analysis and Resolution, she continued to examine the dynamics of conflict that unfold within the space "between" individuals rather than "within" them. As she begins the doctoral program at S-CAR, she hopes to apply this communication-based lens to studying terrorism, drawing upon dialogue and narrative work as both a means to study the relationship dynamics of conflicts involving ascribed terrorist groups, and as a source of engaging the "terrorist Others" in conflict transformation processes. Upon graduation, she hopes to continue working on research, in an effort to reshape and enhance U.S. counterterrorism strategies.
Cynthia Nassif is a lawyer and a former Fulbright Scholar, fluent in English, French, and a native Arabic speaker. She developed a deep understanding of conflict and context of the Syria crisis and the MENA region while working in Beirut, Lebanon. As a practitioner in conflict resolution, she has focused on youth development and their contribution to civil society through nongovernmental organizations and/or faith-based institutions. She has worked with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) global support programs in the fields of conflict prevention, infrastructures of peace, and crisis recovery. As part of this program, they launched a Global consultation on radicalization with the rise of groups like Al Shabab, Boko Haram, and the Islamic State to inform policy makers and guide development programming. Through the School for Conflict Analysis and Resolution, she would like to explore the integration of policy recommendations towards violence extremism and in the development of programming to contribute to the sustainability and peace elasticity of those programs amidst ongoing conflict. She hopes to contribute to the literature that aims to support government and nongovernmental organizations in their programs andpolicies towards peace and sustainability.
Kuldeep Niraula wants to learn more about how story telling have been used and can be used as a tool of peacebuilding. Although he does not have formal training related to the School, most of his previous work experiences required him to engage in extensive conversation about conflict and peace with people at the local community in Nepal (and occasionally in Thailand) whose lives were impacted by the political process adopted at the national level. In many occasions, stories from the local level were unheard or presented in a distorted form. At the School for Conflict Analysis and Resolution, he wants to conduct research on peacebuilding organizations based in Nepal who have used storytelling as one of their tools of peacebuilding work. He hopes to explore which kinds of peace narratives are those organizations producing while using storytelling for their work. At S-CAR, he plans to form a student group that will make documentaries on the issue of conflict and peace. After the conclusion of his PhD program, he wants to lead a Center that uses storytelling for peacebuilding and reconciliation, ideally based in an academic institution.
Umed Partov holds a BA in Business Administration and a Master’s degree in Public Administration from the University of Montana. Umed has advanced his career in a number of academic and multilateral institutions such as the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), Center for Central and Southeast Asian Studies at the University of Montana, and the World Bank Group’s Global Partnership for Education. Umed is a freelance analyst on security and politics of Central Asia with the Jamestown Foundation. His primary focus areas include conflict early warning and prevention, de-radicalization, counter-terrorism, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), NATO, and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).
During his PhD studies at S-CAR, Umed aims to study the role of non-violent religious identity in countering violent extremism and its impact on political-economy of terrorism. He believes that academic research on counter terrorism is in its infancy stage; perhaps this is why the international community has failed to address and fully understand this phenomenon. In his opinion, S-CAR has prominent scholars and the largest network of professionals in peacebuilding field, which is an invaluable asset for his academic development and research.
Yerevan Saeed previously served as White House Correspondent for Kurdish Rudaw TV, and has worked for news agencies including the New York Times, NPR, the Wall Street Journal, the Boston Globe, the BBC, and the Guardian as a journalist and translator. He grew up in a conflict zone in Iraqi Kurdistan. He found the School for Conflict Analysis and Resolution’s interdisciplinary program and faculty to be a perfect match for what he would like to study and do in the future. He hopes to be able to establish a Peace Center in Iraqi Kurdistan, where conflict resolution studies should be the core of the program. He strongly believe his future degree at S-CAR will help him in fulfilling these goals.
Singmila Shimrah has been engaging in the field of practice for ten years in India and Burma. Her specialization is on the peace process between the Burmese Government and the armed groups and Naga community. She is interested in researching peace processes of armed conflicts and the community's participation. Apart from the peace process, she is an ethnic observer to the National Advisory Committee of UNFPA and Myanmar Ministry of Population. She has been recipient of the 'Peace Changemakers Fellow' granted by the Peace Appeal Foundation. She has directed UNFPA's program in Participatory Research in India where they focused on stopping female foeticide, and engaged in women's political empowerment and leadership and inclusion in local governance. She has also taught in the Delhi School of Social Work, at Delhi University. She helped launch the Northeast Helpline in India to assist women and students living in cities that face racial and sexual assault. She more recently has been a consultant to FELM-Finland on peace and dialogue process of Myanmar. During her Fulbright she worked with United States Institute of Peace, Gender and Peace building team. She has also been the recipient of the International Peace Scholarship for women and disability rights.
Keith Singleton has an interests in studying genocide prevention and social stratification as these two areas seem to influence each other. In particular, he wants to explore the interaction between social classes and how class can be the cause of conflict. He hopes to have an opportunity to work and conduct research with the Genocide Prevention Program. Following graduation, he would like to start an organization that focuses on advancing research in conflict prevention, finding viable solutions, and assisting in the implementationof those solutions.
Sandra Tombe Being South Sudanese and experiencing life as such has nurtured her interest in trying to understand how and why conflicts arise. Her hope to contribute to resolving some of those conflicts is what brings her to the School for Conflict Analysis and Resolution. She is interested in exploring conflict in Central/East Africa on the domestic and regional level, focusing on how identity and perceived identity affect how people engage with conflict. After graduation, she would like to use her degree doing policy research on the area as well as gender/age and conflict, identity and conflict in Central/East Africa, and the Syrian Refugee Crisis.