Menu

United States Institute of Peace

Current Peace Scholars

Share This
Print the Page

This year’s Peace Scholar cohort is composed of 21 Peace Scholars who are conducting their dissertation research across the globe. To learn more, read their biographies below.

Current Peace Scholars

Alana S. Ackerman

Alana S. Ackerman

Dissertation Summary

Alana S. Ackerman’s dissertation engages the question: How do refugees experience violence and displacement in spaces and at times that are commonly considered “peaceful”? This project documents the widespread persecution that Colombian refugees experience in both Colombia and Ecuador in the wake of the 2016 Peace Accords. Based on 16 months of ethnographic research including participant observation and interviews, this project demonstrates how the “Colombian armed conflict” manifests across borders through intimate encounters between perpetrators and their victims in spaces of supposed refuge and in “post-war” times. This dissertation contributes to a feminist peace and security studies by challenging binary understandings of armed conflict and its resolution.

Biography 

Alana S. Ackerman is a Ph.D. candidate in Anthropology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Her research examines armed conflict, violence, and displacement across borders in the global South. Her dissertation project ethnographically documents Colombian refugees’ experiences of ongoing persecution and displacement in Ecuador, a place of supposed peace and refuge. Ackerman's research has been supported by the Fulbright-Hays Program and the Social Science Research Council, among others. She holds an M.A. in Anthropology from the Facultad Latinoamericana de Ciencias Sociales (FLACSO), Ecuador, and a B.A. in Spanish from Tufts University. 

USIP Peace Scholar Fellow

  • Ph.D. Candidate
  • University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign 
  • “Refugees Without Refuge: Persecution and Displacement Across Borders in South America.” 
Shahab ud Din Ahmad

Shahab ud Din Ahmad

Dissertation Summary

Ahmad studies the processes of late state formation and political mobilization in postcolonial peripheries following periods of colonial indirect rule. The project asks why the postcolonial state of Pakistan retained and how it altered the application of colonially sanctioned exceptional legal-administrative frameworks such as the Frontier Crimes Regulation Act, dispute resolution institutions such as the Jirga and the system for patronage of native leaders. It inquires as to what might explain the subnational spatial and temporal variation in the state’s decisions to later incorporate such areas into ‘regular’ forms of governance, and what relation might variation in practices of postcolonial indirect rule have with patterns of political mobilization and resistance in the region. 

Biography 

Shahab ud Din Ahmad is a PhD Candidate with Political Science at the Kreiger School, Johns Hopkins University. His research combines historical and ethnographic approaches to better understand processes of colonial and postcolonial state formation, and resistance, in light of colonial practices of "indirect rule". He is particularly interested in colonial and postcolonial politics in South Asia's 'frontiers', 'peripheries' and 'borderlands' through the mid-19th and the 20th century. Ahmad completed his bachelor’s in political science at Lahore University of Management Studies (LUMS) and his master’s in political science and international Relations at the University of Amsterdam. Previously he was a Teaching Fellow at LUMS.

USIP Peace Scholar Fellow

  • Ph.D. Candidate
  • Johns Hopkins University
  • “Conflict and Postcolonial State Building: Changing Modalities of Colonial Indirect Rule on Pakistan’s Western Borderlands.”
Haley Allen DeMarco

Haley Allen DeMarco

Dissertation Summary

How do states configure their coercive institutions to address threats to internal security, ranging from mass protests to armed insurgencies? In contrast to works that take a monolithic view of the state’s coercive apparatus, this dissertation analyzes how and why states rely on different repressive actors – including branches of the national armed forces, local police forces, and parastatal groups – to carry out intelligence functions and repressive activities designed to address varied threats. In addition, the project analyzes the consequences of various configurations of coercive institutions on regime stability and patterns of violence. Allen DeMarco examines these dynamics in Argentina between 1966 and 1983, through a careful comparison of waves of repression in several provinces. 

Biography 

Haley Allen DeMarco is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Political Science at Yale University. Haley’s research focuses broadly on authoritarian regimes, coercive institutions, political violence, and transitional justice. Allen DeMarco earned a B.A. in Political Science and Latin American Studies from Colgate University. She is currently an Affiliate of Yale’s Council on Latin American and Iberian Studies and serves as Coordinator for Yale’s workshop on political violence and its legacies.

Minerva Peace and Security Scholar

  • Ph.D. Candidate
  • Yale University
  • “Crafting Coercion: Internal Security and State Repression in Argentina (1966-1983).”
Salah Ben Hammou

Salah Ben Hammou

Dissertation Summary

Ben Hammou's dissertation explains the dynamics and development of military coup politics by critically examining the role of civilian actors. Specifically, this project argues that civilians play a far more active role in fomenting and consolidating military coups - based on their sources of power - than existing scholarship acknowledges. Not only do civilian sources of power shape their conduct in coup politics, but they also have a profound effect on a state’s post-coup political development. By shedding light on these understudied dynamics, this project makes valuable contributions to the study of democratization, political instability and military coups, and authoritarian politics.  

Biography 

Salah Ben Hammou is a Ph.D. Candidate in Security Studies at the University of Central Florida. His research focuses on civil-military relations, military coups, democratization, and authoritarian politics. Ben Hammou’s research has been published in peer-reviewed outlets such as Armed Forces & Society, Africa Spectrum, International Studies Review, and Journal of Global Security Studies. His public-facing scholarship has been published in outlets including The Washington Post, Just Security, Political Violence at a Glance, The Cairo Review, and The Loop. He holds an M.A. and a B.A., both in political science, from the University of Central Florida.

Minerva Peace and Security Scholar

  • Ph.D. Candidate
  • University of Central Florida
  • “The Varieties of Civilian Praetorianism and the Politics of Post-Coup Trajectories.”
Amanda Blewitt

Amanda Blewitt

Dissertation Summary

What is the nature of peace when violence is ongoing? Blewitt’s dissertation explores how citizens in Honduras view peace and their role in cultivating it — amidst chronic violence whose complexity and pervasiveness create the sense of living in an undeclared war. Using interviews, focus groups, and observations, she analyzes formal and everyday approaches to peacebuilding as well as perspectives on how to address the root causes of instability and injustice. Through in-depth analysis of local voices and actions, her findings complicate the bifurcation of “peace” and “security” frameworks and suggest that the two should be better aligned. Her work highlights models of community-based peacebuilding while also raising questions about who is responsible for safety in the Honduran context. 

Biography 

Amanda Blewitt is a Ph.D. Candidate in the Department of Applied Statistics, Social Science, and Humanities at New York University. Her research interests include civil-society, educational, and arts-based approaches to reducing violence and promoting peace in Latin and North America. She challenges conventional notions of where and for whom peacebuilding matters, seeking local insights into ways of disrupting violence in contexts not typically included in the peace and conflict studies field. In addition to the U.S. Institute of Peace, her dissertation work is supported by the American Association of University Women and the Tinker Foundation. Blewitt holds an M.Ed. in International Education from Vanderbilt University and a B.A. in English Literature from Franklin & Marshall College. 

USIP Peace Scholar Fellow

  • Ph.D. Candidate
  • New York University
  • "'Living Peace' amidst Chronic Violence: How Citizens Build Peace and Seek Security in Honduras.”
Frieder Dengler

Frieder Dengler

Dissertation Summary

Dengler's dissertation asks how China and European polities managed their differences during early modern diplomatic encounters and what explains variation in outcomes across cases. Challenging existing approaches, his dissertation analyzes encounters between polities embedded in different sets of diplomatic rules and practices not about their potential for conflict, but their potential for mutual change and innovation. Building on relational and practice-oriented approaches to international relations, he combines practice-tracing and case study methods to develop a theory of system encounters as potential sites for systemic change. Frieder seeks to leverage insights from historical cases to bear on contemporary issues of US-China competition over shaping global rules.

Biography 

Frieder Dengler is a doctoral candidate in International Relations at the American University’s School of International Service. His research interests include historical international relations, international order, and global governance. He received his MPhil in International Relations and M.A.in International Affairs from American University, and his B.A. in Political Science from the Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen in Germany. 

USIP Peace Scholar Fellow

  • Ph.D. Candidate
  • American University
  • “System Encounters: Rules of Inter‐State Conduct in Early Modern Sino‐European Relations.”
Tessa Devereaux Evans

Tessa Devereaux Evans

Dissertation Summary

Under what conditions do insurgents challenge gender norms during conflict? What do they gain by doing so?  Using an original dataset of 137 armed groups, this project demonstrates that 40% of rebel groups challenge civilian gender norms during war. From punishing domestic violence (9%) to banning dowries (15%), Devereaux Evans argues that armed groups challenge gender customs to undermine civilian elites and empower targeted sub-sections of the community. This allows them to increase local control, reducing the likelihood of population-wide resistance. Combining cross-national analysis with case studies of armed groups in South Sudan, Eritrea and the Sahel, this project enhances our understanding of how gender dynamics drive conflict by highlighting the role of insurgent legitimacy. 

Biography 

Tessa Devereaux Evans is a Ph.D. candidate in the Government Department at Cornell University. Her research interests include conflict, gender, and the politics of insurgency. In addition to her dissertation research, she is working on a project examining the impact of conflict on minority rights protections. Devereaux Evans received a B.A. in Politics from the University of Cambridge and an M.Sc. in African Studies from the University of Oxford. She is also the recipient of an H.F. Guggenheim Emerging Scholar Award.

Minerva Peace and Security Scholar

  • Ph.D. Candidate
  • Cornell University
  • “To Have and to Hold: The Determinants of Insurgent Gender Governance.”
Myung Jung Kim

Myung Jung Kim

Dissertation Summary

What is the impact of prospective international criminal prosecutions on civil war dynamics? Myung Jung Kim's dissertation investigates this with two key questions: First, under which conditions do rebel fighters face or evade war crime prosecutions? Second, what effect does international criminal justice have on conflict actors' strategies, sponsorship, and war outcomes? Using quantitative analysis and a South Sudan case study, this research reveals that international criminal justice presents varying prosecution risks to culpable rebels and effects on war dynamics, contingent on rebel vulnerability in foreign host states. This study enhances our understanding of rebel behaviors and civil war dynamics in the era of accountability. 

Biography 

Myung Jung Kim is a Ph.D. Candidate in the Department of Political Science at University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign. She specializes in International Relations with a focus on justice during armed conflicts. In her research, she aims to understand: (1) Under what conditions are political leaders more likely to commit war crimes? (2) When and how do leaders confront or evade punishment for these? (3) How do war crimes affect the strategies of warring actors, external sponsorship, and the war outcome? Her broader research interests include external sponsorship, leader accountability, and transitional justice. She was previously a researcher at the Korea Institute of National Unification and holds an M.A. in International Relations from the Johns Hopkins SAIS, and a B.S. in Economics from Purdue University. 

Minerva Peace and Security Scholar

  • Ph.D. Candidate
  • University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign
  • “Negotiating Justice, Rebel Sponsorship, and War Outcomes in the Era of Accountability.”
Sky Kunkel

Sky Kunkel

Dissertation Summary

What are the effects of UN Peacekeepers? Existing research concludes that more peacekeepers lead to less violence. However, primarily conducted at the cross-national level, whether these findings transfer to the subnational or local level remains to be determined. Applying a novel theoretical framework, Kunkel emphasizes local features of peacekeepers that may impact their effectiveness at decreasing violence, specifically temporal, geospatial, and gender. Using quantitative methods, they find that women peacekeepers are vital in decreasing violence, but timing and location condition this relationship. Kunkel's research adds nuance to the peacekeeping effectiveness literature. It has implications for how, when, and where to move peacekeepers and their demographic composition. 

Biography 

Sky Kunkel is a Ph.D. Candidate in International Relations at Purdue University and a Predoctoral Research Fellow at the Gender and Security Studies Lab at Cornell University. Their research focuses on armed nonstate actors, including peacekeepers and private military contractors. Kunkel's research focuses on the conditions under which peacekeepers may be more effective at preventing violence. Additionally, they examine the causes and consequences of quasi-private military contractors (QPMC, e.g., Wagner Group) and their relations with armed actors including states. In 2019, they earned their B.A. in political science from Purdue University. 

USIP Peace Scholar Fellow

  • Ph.D. Candidate
  • Purdue University
  • “The Local Effects of UN Peacekeeping.”
Enrico Antonio B. La Viña

Enrico Antonio B. La Viña

Dissertation Summary

Despite safeguards like civil society, professional bureaucracies, international organizations, and elections, why might democratic governments evade repercussions and even profit from state repression? La Viña's dissertation argues that in situations of democratic backsliding, democratic processes and institutions could, paradoxically, fuel rather than curb state repression. Combining micro-level quantitative data on security agents and local governments with interviews of policymakers, the study analyzes the ‘war on drugs’ in the Philippines to shed light on how, why, and when democratic governments use repression for political ends. The project explains the complex policymaking dynamics underpinning state repression in a backsliding democracy. 

Biography 

Enrico Antonio B. La Viña is a Ph.D candidate in Political Science at the University of California, Davis. His research interests include migration, public policy, elections, and political polarization. Rico has a B.A. in Philosophy from Ateneo de Manila University (the Philippines) and an M.A. in International Political Economy and Development from Fordham University where he was awarded a Presidential Fellowship. He has served as a consultant to the United Nations Development Program and the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project. 

Minerva Peace and Security Scholar

  • Ph.D. Candidate
  • University of California, Davis
  • “Vigilantism From Above: The Causes and Consequences of the 'War on Drugs' in the Philippines.”
Laura Marcela Mendez Carvajal

Laura Marcela Mendez Carvajal

Dissertation Summary

What is the relationship between foreign aid's "self-help" discourse and the aid recipient's individual sense of agency? Mendez Carvajal's dissertation studies the relationship between foreign aid and structural violence in rural Colombia by examining local expressions of "self-help" discourse embedded into U.S. aid policies and the effect of that discourse on the beneficiary's sense of agency. Using interview and archival data, Mendez Carvajal sheds light on how foreign aid's "self-help" discourse prompts beneficiaries to believe that their opportunities for development are constrained by their own capabilities and land, which are limited in the subsistence peasant economy. 

Biography 

Laura Mendez Carvajal is a Ph.D. Candidate in Political Science at Kent State University. She is a scholar of the political economy of development, with a focus on Latin America. She investigates how the rhetoric of development (such as self-help) shapes systems of beliefs and behavior in recipient communities. Mendez Carvajal has a B.Sc. in Economics from Universidad de La Salle, Colombia, and an M.P.A. from New Mexico State University. 

USIP Peace Scholar Fellow

  • Ph.D. Candidate
  • Kent State University
  • “Phantom Bootstraps: 'Self-Help' Discourse in Development Aid.”
Emily Myers

Emily Myers

Dissertation Summary

What strategies do armed groups use to build social ties to civilian communities? Existing work recognizes the value of strong social links between armed groups and communities, but the range of ways that armed groups seek to build these links during war remain poorly understood. Emily Myer's dissertation explores armed group tactics to mobilize, infiltrate, and transform social ties in war and the implications of these strategies for wartime and post-war political and social order. She has a particular focus on the gendered dimensions of rebel-civilian ties. Myers uses mixed methods and both cross-national analysis and subnational analysis of the dynamics in Nepal’s civil war to probe these dynamics. 

Biography 

Emily Myers is a PhD Candidate in Political Science at Duke University. Her research explores how armed groups build social ties to civilians and how these strategies influence local order during and after war. She has a regional focus on Nepal. Myers is also involved in projects focused on gender-based violence, sexual violence in armed conflict, and desertion during civil war. Prior to beginning her graduate degree, she was a Research Associate at the National Endowment for Democracy and a Herbert Scoville Jr. Peace Fellow at the Alliance for Peacebuilding. Myers earned a B.A. from Union College and an M.A. from Duke University, both in Political Science. 

Minerva Peace and Security Scholar

  • Ph.D. Candidate
  • Duke University
  • “Three Essays on the Mobilization and Transformation of Social Ties During Civil War.”
Miryam Nacimento

Miryam Nacimento

Dissertation Summary

Nacimento’s dissertation asks how anti-drug policies shape farmers’ mestizo identities in Colombia, the world’s largest cocaine producer. For 15 months, she conducted ethnographic fieldwork in the department of Cauca, where she followed mestizo peasant farmers that grow illicit coca, the raw material for cocaine. Criminalized by a plant-centered anti-drug policy focused on coca eradication, the peasants demand the protection of campesino territories, a prerogative exclusive to indigenous communities. Nacimento argues that coca growers' identity demands constitute an “ethnicized” cultural formation grounded on their relationships with coca, peripherical territories, and Colombia’s drug war state.

Biography 

Miryam Nacimento is a Peruvian P.h.D. candidate in Cultural Anthropology at the City University of New York, The Graduate Center Her research interests include the history of coca in the Andes (Colombia, Peru, and Bolivia), posthuman anthropology, and critical agrarian studies.  Her research has been supported by Instituto Francés de Estudios Andinos (IFEA), the Center for Latin American, Caribbean, and Latino Studies at CUNY. Nacimento holds a B.A. in Political Science from Universidad Católica del Perú and a master’s in Public Policy and Development from the International Institute of Social Studies in the Netherlands and the Institut Barcelona d’Estudis Internationals in Spain. 

Minerva Peace and Security Scholar

  • Ph.D. Candidate
  • City University of New York – The Graduate Center
  • “Coca Growers and Peasant Cultures: Explaining the Impact of Coca Prohibition on Peasant Identities in Colombia.”
Ilayda B. Onder

Ilayda B. Onder

Dissertation Summary

Ilayda B. Onder’s dissertation project investigates relations among militant groups in multiparty conflict systems. Across three chapters, she studies how competition over recruits influences inter-group cooperation and infighting, how groups design their cooperative arrangements, and how allies learn from each other. As a part of her dissertation project, she collected an original time-series directed network dataset of cooperative and adversarial relations between 53 Northeast Indian militant groups between 1981-2021. The major empirical contribution of the dataset is disaggregated data on different types of cooperative arrangements, different facets of militant infighting, and time-variant information on rank-and-file soldier defections between groups. 

Biography 

Ilayda B. Onder is a Ph.D. Candidate in Political Science at Penn State University. She studies political violence, rebellion, and terrorism. Her research focuses on three key themes: inter-group relations in multiparty conflicts, armed groups’ interactions with civilians, and their non-violent communication strategies. She uses a variety of quantitative methods in her research, including social network analysis (Exponential Family Random Graph Models), text-as-data (Structural Topic Modeling), time-series analysis (Vector Autoregression), quasi-experiments (Regression Discontinuity Design), and survey experiments. Her work has been published in International Interactions. She holds an M.A. and B.A. in international relations from Koc University in Istanbul, Turkey as well as an M.A. in Political Science from Penn State University. 

Minerva Peace and Security Scholar

  • Ph.D. Candidate
  • The Pennsylvania State University
  • “Cooperation, Rivalry, and Tactical Diffusion in Militant Networks.”
Ana Paula Pellegrino

Ana Paula Pellegrino

Dissertation Summary

Why do state agents form armed criminal groups? Pellegrino's dissertation project compares the political and public security landscapes and dynamics from the 1990s to 2000s of two Brazilian subnational units to answer this question. While in one state, groups led by rogue state agents control large parts of the metropolitan region's territory and its population, in a neighboring state, such groups were not formed. She uses mixed methods to test theories and observable implications about institutional and community-based factors that contribute to or impede the formation of such groups. 

Biography

Ana Paula Pellegrino is a PhD Candidate in the Department of Government at Georgetown University. She uses quantitative and qualitative data and methods to study crime and violence, with a particular interest in Latin America. In addition to support from Georgetown and from the U.S. Institute of Peace, her research is supported by Fundação Estudar's Leaders program and the Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation's Emerging Scholars initiative. A Brazilian national, she holds a B.A. and an M.A. in International Relations from Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro. Pellegrino has also worked in Brazilian civil society organizations conducting research and advocacy, developing technology, and spearheading philanthropic strategies. 

Minerva Peace and Security Scholar

  • Ph.D. Candidate
  • Georgetown University
  • “The State that Forges Armed Criminal Groups: The Formation of Parapolice Groups.”
Beenish Pervaiz

Beenish Pervaiz

Dissertation Summary

Since becoming overt nuclear weapon states, India and Pakistan have acquired and developed a variety of platforms, weapon systems, and capabilities to maintain and strengthen their nuclear deterrence. This research project examines why and how Pakistan and India have adopted various strategies of vertical proliferation to diversify their nuclear portfolios (specifically delivery systems). It seeks to investigate how international-level constraints (determined by alliance politics, strategic partnerships, and technology denial regimes) interact with the domestic-level governance of nuclear programs to influence how resource-constrained nuclear states expand their arsenals. This study uses a mix of qualitative methods to examine strategic decision-making from the 1980s to the early 2000s.

Biography

Beenish Pervaiz is a Ph.D. candidate in the political science department at Brown University. Her research interests include nuclear proliferation and strategy, military innovation, and national security decision-making. She focuses on the nuclear programs in Southern Asia and examines how the theory of deterrence, strategic stability, and alliance politics impact regional security competition. She has previously worked as a program associate for Nuclear Threat Initiative, as a PONI nuclear scholar in 2021, and has been an organizing member for CTBTO. She has also attended and presented her research insights at the Carnegie International Nuclear Policy Conference and NPIHP’s nuclear history boot camp. She holds a Master's degree from Stanford University in International Policy Studies.

Minerva Peace and Security Scholar

  • Ph.D. Candidate
  • Brown University
  • “Old Wars, New Tools: Understanding Nuclear Decision Making and Strategies of Vertical Proliferation in Pakistan and India.”
Erika Ricci

Erika Ricci

Dissertation Summary

Ricci's dissertation investigates three critical aspects of political violence by extremists, centering on individuals' agency and judicial response to their actions. The empirical elements of her research come from the Red Brigades and other Italian violent groups.  The first essay investigates the difference between people who join violent groups and people with similar political beliefs who choose not to do so. The second essay focuses on members' behavior once they join a violent group and investigates their choices regarding violence. The third essay analyzes the judiciary response to political violence. The literature focuses on the State’s response to terrorism, yet it disregards the judiciary system. The research is based on interviews, archival research, and large-N analysis.

Biography 

Erika Ricci is a Ph.D. Candidate in Security Studies at the University of Central Florida’s School of Politics, Security, and International Affairs. Ricci's research interests focus on political violence and terrorism, as well as the political psychology of organizational dynamics and gender roles. Ricci was awarded an APSA Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement Grant. She also interned at NATO ACT, in the Strategic Plans and Policy Branch where she collaborated with the counter-terrorism team. She holds both an M.A. and a B.A. from Università Cattolica del Sacro in Milan, Italy.

Minerva Peace and Security Scholar

  • Ph.D. Candidate
  • University of Central Florida
  • “The Militancy Cycle: Exploring Violent Extremism through the Italian Red Brigades Case Study.”
Natan Skigin

Natan Skigin

Dissertation Summary

How can human rights movements foster solidarity with stigmatized victims? And how do these strategies affect demands for accountability? In his dissertation, Skigin argues that media messages can destigmatize victims and elicit citizen solidarity, yet in so doing they magnify moral outrage and punitiveness—iron-fist solutions and harsh punishments, often at the expense of the rule of law. This suggests a conundrum: rather than simply beget pleas for accountability, human rights campaigns undertaken in settings where a weak rule of law prevails may unintentionally elicit support for tough-on-crime and extralegal measures to retaliate against perpetrators. The dissertation probes these claims with novel experimental, survey, and qualitative data from Mexico’s War on Drugs. 

Biography

Natán Skigin is a Ph.D. candidate in Political Science at the University of Notre Dame. His core research interest centers around the political psychology of conflict and intergroup relations, particularly in Latin America. Focusing on violent democracies, his multi-method research examines interventions that foster demands for justice in the face of human rights violations and elicit solidarity with stigmatized outgroups such as conflict victims and undocumented immigrants. In addition to the U.S. Institute of Peace, his work has been externally funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF), the American Political Science Association (APSA), Evidence in Governance and Politics (EGAP), Innovations for Poverty Action (IPA), and the Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation. Skigin holds an M.A. in Political Science from Universidad Torcuato Di Tella and a B.A. in Political Science from the Universidad de Buenos Aires. 

Minerva Peace and Security Scholar

  • Ph.D. Candidate
  • University of Notre Dame
  • “Punitive Solidarity in Drug Wars: How Human Rights Movements Shape Prosocial Behavior and Demands for Justice.”
Madeleine Stevens

Madeleine Stevens

Dissertation Summary

Armed actors’ use of enforced disappearance is often considered a way to avoid condemnation from domestic and international observers. However, perpetrators frequently use some show of hand to terrorize and coerce even as they conceal, and condemnation often comes for those who perpetrate disappearances regardless of their effort to be covert. Stevens conducts original archival research to explore how actor type and goal influence the many ways disappearances can be perpetrated and to what consequences. In her dissertation she compares periods of state-perpetrated disappearances in Argentina, Mexico, and Colombia in the 1970s with nonstate actor-perpetrated disappearances in Cold War and post-Cold War Colombia, drawing implications for understanding disappearances today. 

Biography

Madeleine Stevens is a PhD candidate in Political Science at the University of Chicago with concentrations in Comparative Politics and International Relations. Her research interests include political violence and its legacies, covert action, and human rights, with a focus on Latin America and qualitative methods. Stevens has a master’s degree in Political Science from the University of Chicago and a bachelor’s degree in Communication from the University of Pennsylvania.

Minerva Peace and Security Scholar

  • Ph.D. Candidate
  • University of Chicago
  • "'Subversives' and 'Delinquents': The Politics of Enforced Disappearance in Argentina, Colombia and Mexico.”
Angie Torres-Beltran

Angie Torres-Beltran

Dissertation Summary

What are the political causes and consequences of gender-based violence? In her dissertation, Torres-Beltran demonstrates how gender-based violence impacts women’s political participation, examines the role of state institutions in perpetrating violence, and explores gendered notions of justice following gender-based violence. She conducts a subnational analysis of Mexico, where she leverages administrative datasets, survey experiments, interviews, archival data, and ethnographic observations to demonstrate that gender-based violence impacts women’s formal and informal political participation and justice preferences. This project contributes to our understanding of gender and the state by identifying the political consequences of gender-based violence on democratic participation amidst insecurity.

Biography

Angie Torres-Beltran is a PhD Candidate in the Department of Government at Cornell University and a Research Affiliate at the Gender and Security Sector Lab. Angie is also a Research Fellow with the Women and Public Policy Program at Harvard Kennedy School and a Predoctoral Fellow at the Center for US-Mexican Studies at the University of California-San Diego and at the University of Arkansas-Fayetteville. Her research explores the ways in which women politically respond to gender-based violence. Her work has been supported by the American Political Science Association, the National Science Foundation, and the Empirical Study of Gender Research Network. Angie holds an M.A. in Government from Cornell University and B.A. in International and Global Studies from the University of Central Florida.

Minerva Peace and Security Scholar

  • Ph.D. Candidate
  • Cornell University
  • “Three Essays on Gender, Violence and the State.”
Rebecca Wai

Rebecca Wai

Dissertation Summary

How does cooperation foster peace and prosperity among hosts and refugees? Wai argues that strong economic community institutions are key to peacebuilding as they provide a space for social capital and cooperation to develop between refugees and host communities. She explores these dynamics in the context of cooperation between host communities and refugees in farmer groups in Uganda. Wai argues that refugees and hosts in mixed groups have more positive attitudes towards each other due to prolonged and consistent interactions, as well as improvements in their livelihoods through cooperation. She tests this theory using original survey data of villages and refugee settlements with NGO-supported farmer groups. 

Biography 

Wai is a Ph.D. candidate in Political Science at the University of Michigan - Ann Arbor. Wai's research focuses on how migrants and refugees can gain equitable access to resources when they settle in host communities, especially in the age of growing natural resource scarcity. She is particularly interested in how local community institutions can help integrate migrants into host communities. She holds a B.A. in Policy Studies and Economics from Lafayette College.

USIP Peace Scholar Fellow

  • Ph.D. Candidate
  • University of Michigan – Ann Arbor
  • “Maybe in My Backyard: How Refugee-Host Cooperation Promotes Peace and Prosperity.”