“Global Affairs & Human Security” Workshop Incubates Emerging Work by Five Colleges Scholars and Early Career Researchers
Professor Kelebogile Zvogbo, Director of the International Justice Lab at College of William and Mary’s Global Research Institute presented new research on international justice at Human Security Lab this year with generous support from the Political Science Department and its various divisions, the School of Social and Behavioral Sciences, and the Center for Law, Justice and Societies at UMass. Zvobgo presented her new book manuscript on transitional justice mechanisms, and a paper in progress on public attitudes toward international organizations at Human Security Lab’s “Global Affairs and Human Security Workshop.”
The workshop is open to Five Colleges International Relations faculty from UMass Amherst, Smith College, Mt. Holyoke, Amherst College and Hampshire College as well as UMass faculty and graduate students working on human security, broadly defined, or on topics related to the global public good and / or contemporary and emerging challenges in global governance and global affairs.
The workshop also invites occasional featured speakers, focusing on work by early career scholars. In addition to Professor Zvobgo, this past year’s workshop featured new experimental survey research by University of Oslo’s Anne-Kathrin Kreft on how gender stereotypes inform humanitarian aid toward civilian men in conflict zones; previously the workshop included new work by Zoltan Buzas on race and nuclear security. Five Colleges faculty presenting this year included Mlada Bukovansky, Greg White and Eleonora Mattiaci. Advanced graduate student Jenna Norosky subsequently had a paper accepted for publication after presenting at the workshop.
The workshop and its conversations are informed by a wide variety of theoretical and methodological perspectives across the disciplines of political science, legal studies, economics and psychology. In addition to large-N studies that included survey experiments of global elites and citizens in places as difficult to reach as Taliban-controlled Afghanistan this year, other papers featured ethnographic, political theoretical or qualitative approaches to the study of global affairs and human security on topics such as corruption, climate change, transitional justice and conflict-related sexual violence.
The workshop convenes on Zoom on second Thursdays during the academic term at 1:00 and features book chapters or grant proposals as well as research paper drafts, with an emphasis on work in progress. To suggest a project to present, faculty and graduate students from the Five Colleges should send an email to charli.carpenter@gmail.com.
