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United States Institute of Peace

Julia Schiwal

Senior Program Specialist, Religion and Inclusive Societies

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Julia Schiwal is a senior program specialist with the religion and inclusive societies program at USIP.

Before joining USIP in 2019, she worked at George Washington University, volunteered with local transgender organizations and supported the Xinjiang Victims Database.

Schiwal is a historian, researcher and writer. Her writing has touched on peace and conflict, the complicated legacies of colonialism, the idea of winning “hearts and minds,” transgender and gay history, and Afghanistan’s rich legal and Islamic past.

She is leading USIP’s Religious Women Negotiating on the Frontlines project and building a pragmatic approach to gender and sexual minority advocacy in collaboration with partners and friends around Washington.

She has a bachelor’s in humanities and religion from the University of Montana and a master’s in Central Asian studies from George Washington University. She was awarded a 2021 John. F Richards Research Fellowship by the American Institute of Afghanistan Studies to study gender and sexual minorities in Afghan history.

Publications By Julia

Indigenous Pathways to Peace

Indigenous Pathways to Peace

Wednesday, April 3, 2024

By: Binalakshmi Nepram ;   Julia Schiwal

Many of the world’s Indigenous peoples live in unstable areas, struggling to survive as conflicts, transnational organized criminal networks and extractive projects upend their lives and livelihoods. Unfortunately, peace processes in these contexts are often negotiated at high political levels without the inclusion of Indigenous peoples. This can undermine the chances for success, as Indigenous peoples are a crucial population in some of the world's longest-running conflicts. But even further, excluding Indigenous people means overlooking how Indigenous traditions, rituals, and religious and political practices can help advance peace and resolve deadly conflict.

Type: Analysis

Peace Processes

The U.S. Strategy for International Religious Engagement: 10 Years On

The U.S. Strategy for International Religious Engagement: 10 Years On

Tuesday, May 23, 2023

By: Peter Mandaville, Ph.D. ;   Julia Schiwal

In 2013, the United States adopted its first ever “National Strategy on Integrating Religious Leader and Faith Community Engagement into U.S. Foreign Policy.” This White House strategy acknowledged the significant contributions of religious leaders and faith communities to human rights, global health and development, and conflict mitigation; and provided an interagency blueprint for integrating more robust engagement with religious actors across a broad range of foreign policy and national security issues. A decade later religious engagement remains a vital but underdeveloped capacity in U.S. foreign policy, and the strategy’s 10th anniversary offers a natural opportunity to revitalize strategic thinking and spur new action on this agenda.

Type: Analysis

Religion

A New Approach for Digital Media, Peace and Conflict

A New Approach for Digital Media, Peace and Conflict

Wednesday, February 15, 2023

By: Peter Mandaville, Ph.D. ;   Julia Schiwal

Discussions about the negative effects of online communication on society — including its potential to contribute to violent conflict — tend to focus primarily on misinformation and disinformation. The former refers to factually incorrect information that manages to reach audiences at scale, whereas the latter refers to inaccurate information that is spread deliberately and malignantly by some actor or agent in order to produce specific perceptions and outcomes in physical or digital space.

Type: Analysis

Conflict Analysis & Prevention

A Democratic Ukraine Must Include All LGBTQ+ People

A Democratic Ukraine Must Include All LGBTQ+ People

Monday, July 18, 2022

By: ;   Julia Schiwal

As Ukraine fights for survival, it has relaxed some barriers to the social inclusion of gay, lesbian and other gender and sexual minorities—for example, welcoming some gay people into its armed forces. Yet this change should be expanded and made permanent. Often countries recruit marginalized minorities during wartime emergencies only to revive old practices of exclusion in peacetime. The more inclusive democracy that Ukraine aspires to, and that its transatlantic allies support bringing into full membership of Europe, will require transformations in laws, institutions and social norms for the equal inclusion of Ukrainian gender and sexual minorities.

Type: Analysis

Gender;  Human Rights

Exploring the Nexus of Religion and Gender and Sexual Minorities

Exploring the Nexus of Religion and Gender and Sexual Minorities

Monday, February 28, 2022

By: Jason Klocek, Ph.D. ;   Julia Schiwal

Peacebuilders and practitioners have long recognized that knowledge of local contexts leads to more practical and effective programming. However, knowledge of unique gender and sexual identities, as well as cultural practices, has been mostly absent from the long list of cultural dynamics that are assessed when looking at local peacebuilding contexts — despite often holding deeply important symbolic, religious and political meanings. 

Type: Analysis

Religion;  Gender

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