Over the 2023-24 academic year and following summer, graduate and undergraduate students pursuing peace studies engaged in impactful research and received notable awards, underscoring their commitment to the field of peace studies. Several students have been recognized at the University of Notre Dame and beyond for their outstanding contributions to peace and social justice by way of awards, publications and fellowship opportunities. Their experiences continue to enrich student programs at the Kroc Institute for International Studies and set a dynamic tone for the academic year.

Undergraduate Students

Linnea Barron (Class of 2026) won first prize for the 2024 West Suburban Peace Coalition Peace Essay Competition. This contest is part of the organization’s mission to promote peace in Chicago’s western suburbs and beyond and comes with a top cash prize of $1,000. In her paper, Barron addressed the need for colleges and universities to divest from weapons makers that promote war instead of peace through funding and lobbying Congresspersons who support belligerent foreign wars. In doing so, Barron posits, institutions of higher education would be more consistent with the values they are charged with instilling in future American leaders.

Sydney Park (Class of 2027) participated in immersive summer programming through the Institute for Social Concerns. Working with Alliance for Positive Change in New York City through the financial support of NDBridge, Park assisted at free testing pop-ups for HIV and Hepatitis C, syringe exchanges, and outreach offices around the city. Her experience advanced her research project focused on how inequitable policies in healthcare spaces affect low-income patients’ advocacy and contribute to increased rates of undiagnosed HIV and Hepatitis C.

Master of Global Affairs, International Peace Studies Concentration

Rida Ejaz (Class of 2026) received the Emerging Scholar Research Award in 2024, funded by the United Nations Refugee Agency and awarded by the International Centre for Refugee and Migration Studies. Ejaz is using the award to continue her research project, “Assessing the Long-Term Viability of NGO-Led Female Entrepreneurship in Balochistan: A Case Study of Refugee Women Post-Forced Repatriation of 2023.” It covers the theme of refugee livelihoods and inclusivity and focuses on projects established by non-governmental organizations, concentrating mainly on small-scale businesses run by refugee women. The project also examines the long-term viability of the contributions made by NGO livelihood and entrepreneurship projects that spur economic growth for refugee women, and how those contributions are affected following the forced restitution of unregistered refugees in 2023. Finally, Ejaz’s study looks into the activities provided by NGOs that enable refugee women to develop skills relevant to the local job market, boosting their employability in Balochistan. Add photo

Ph.D. Students

Elsa Barron (peace studies and political science) published research she conducted during her time as a peace studies undergraduate student, with "On Dialogue and Beyond: Positive Environmental Peacebuilding in Palestine" running in the Journal of Social Encounters in spring 2024. Her article uses a series of interviews with environmental researchers and advocates in Israel and Palestine representing seven organizations or interest groups to assess existing approaches to environmental peacebuilding. Barron’s research suggests that addressing the roots of violence and injustice is critical to creating durable and long-term peacebuilding programs, and that fruitful opportunities exist at the local level to do this.

Razan Bayan (peace studies and history) published her first paper for an academic journal. "Muslim Youth Collective Amnesia of US Government-Inflicted Violence Against Muslims in the War on Terror" appeared in the Oct. 1 issue of Ethnicities, a cross-disciplinary journal that provides a critical dialogue among questions of ethnicity, nationalism, identity politics and minority rights through the lens of sociology, politics, and related disciplines.

Benjamin Francis (peace studies and political science) was a Graduate Justice Fellow at the Center for Social Concerns (now the Institute for Social Concerns) during the 2023-24 academic year. This year, Raege Omar (peace studies and political science) received a fellowship there, as well. The Graduate Justice Fellowship program provides year-long opportunities for graduate students to work with faculty and a community of other students on broadly conceived questions of justice. Fellows work with invited scholars and leaders from the University and beyond to sharpen research plans through interdisciplinary dialogue and workshops. Francis also received a $3,000 graduate research grant from the Nanovic Institute of European Studies to support one of his research foci, a survey project that considers elite-driven climate attitudes in the United Kingdom.

Francesca Freeman (peace studies and history) will spend time as a Teaching Apprentice with the College of Arts and Letters’ Gender Studies Program during the 2024-25 academic year. Through this opportunity, teaching apprentices obtain real-time teaching experience in the classroom, thereby strengthening their knowledge and pedagogical skills.

Maria (Cat) Gargano (peace studies and psychology) has been selected as a Fulbright-John Lewis Civil Rights Fellow for the 2024-25 academic year. The fellowship honors the legacy of civil rights leader and former member of the U.S. House of Representatives, John Lewis, by promoting a greater understanding of the history and tenets of nonviolent civil rights movements. This award--with a goal of promoting studies, research and international exchange on nonviolent movements that establish and protect civil rights around the world--supports Gargano’s research work with migrant communities in Mexico. Read more about her award here.

Isabel Güiza-Gómez (peace studies and political science) co-authored (with Laura García-Montoya, assistant professor at the Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy) the paper, "Land Dispossession Trial: Claim-Making and Judicial Behavior in the Colombian Land Restitution Program." She presented the paper at the Red para el Estudio de la Economia Politica de America Latina (REPAL) conference, where it won top honors as Best Paper. REPAL is a network of researchers institutionally affiliated with universities in Latin America, North America and Europe and interested in giving greater visibility to issues facing the political economy of Latin America. This includes the study of developmental models, the socio-political institutions that sustain them, and the practical problems they face. Over the summer, Güiza-Gomez also traveled to El Salvador and Guatemala to conduct archival work and in-depth interviews for her project, “Landing Peace: Rural-Poor Mobilization and Land Redistribution in Civil War Peace Processes,” through a Kellogg Institute Graduate Research Grant. Read more about her travel and project here.

Julie Hawke (peace studies and sociology) co-authored a commentary piece about data science that has been accepted for publication in the journal Data and Policy, a Cambridge University Press journal.

In April 2024, Joryán Hernández (peace studies and theology) was awarded the Institute for Scholarship in the American Dream Grant offered by the College of Arts and Letters’ Institute for Scholarship in the Liberal Arts. The grant, which supports research or creative projects on topics exploring the American Dream, provided funding for Hernández’s summer travel to Miami, Fla., where he conducted ethnographic research for his project, "Theological Dynamics of the Cuban Diaspora in Miami through Ethnographic Inquiry."

Alyssa Paylor (peace studies and anthropology) received the 2024 G. Margaret Porter Gender Studies Graduate Writing Award offered by the Gender Studies Program. This award honors the best graduate student essay written for a course or conference, and the best thesis chapter, dissertation chapter, journal article, or book chapter. The recognition comes with a cash award of $150. Paylor also organized and chaired the first in a series of research seminars sponsored by the Kroc Institute and Liu Institute for Asia and Asian Studies tackling the topic of U.S. Imperialism in the Middle East. “Elastic Empire: Refashioning War through Aid in Palestine” took place Sept. 19 and featured Lisa Bhungalia from the University of Madison-Wisconsin, who provided insight to the way that U.S. aid processes impose new strategies of surveillance on Palestinian communities.

Sean Raming (peace studies and history) co-authored an article with registered dietician Aviva Keynton, “Peace from Food: Refugee Kitchens in U.S. Communities,” published in Peace Chronicle. An example of the link between activism and scholarship, the article discusses the contribution of "refugee kitchens" to peace in the United States, and emerged from the time Raming spent volunteering in a refugee kitchen.

Debora Rogo (peace studies and history) organized and moderated a virtual panel on the current social movement in Kenya, which brought together three Notre Dame students and alumni from Kenya--Sr. Dr. Edelquine Shivachi, and Keough School graduates Nancy Obonyo (MGA ‘22) and Halkano Boru (MGA ‘24). The event offered partnership opportunities with a variety of campus groups including Pamoja ND Africa Initiative, Notre Dame Global, Notre Dame Club of East Africa, and the Africa Graduate Club.

Originally published by Lisa Gallagher at kroc.nd.edu on October 23, 2024.