Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter School for Peace and Conflict Resolution

The Carter School named a United Nations Academic Impact Sustainable Development Goal Hub Chair

Katarina Benson — Wed, 15 Jan 2025 17:51:09 +0000

The Carter School named a United Nations Academic Impact Sustainable Development Goal Hub Chair Katarina Benson Wed, 01/15/2025 - 12:51

The Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter School for Peace and Conflict Resolution was named a United Nations Academic Impact Sustainable Development Goal Hub Chair for (SDG) 16: Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions.

There are 17 SDGs, including “No Poverty,” “Clean Water and Sanitation,” and “Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure.” Currently, George Mason is one of only two universities in the United States to chair a Sustainable Development Goal Hub.

Out of more than 330 applications, George Mason was selected to chair SDG 16 Hub, a position it will hold for the next three years. In a letter from the United Nations, it says George Mason “was selected based on its pioneering research and programs focused on promoting peace and conflict resolution” as well as the university’s educational policies.

As Hub Chair, the Carter School will be responsible for education and training, research, community engagement, developing partnerships, and working with other SDG hubs to strengthen and further the United Nations’ mission of peace and justice.

“This prestigious recognition highlights our school’s longstanding commitment and impactful contributions to the field of peace and conflict resolution,” said Carter School dean Alpaslan Özerdem. “As chair for SDG16, we will have the privilege and responsibility of generating, coordinating, and amplifying SDG16-related programs and activities on a global scale. This role represents not only a significant milestone for the Carter School but also an exciting new chapter in our journey toward advancing global peace, justice, and institutional resilience. It positions us to foster meaningful partnerships, drive innovative initiatives, and contribute thought leadership on critical global issues.”

Andre Marshall, George Mason’s vice president for research, innovation, and economic impact, highlighted that this new role aligns perfectly with Mason’s global challenges agenda, offering opportunities to amplify the university’s contributions to global peace and justice. “The Carter School’s successful bid to lead the United Nations Academic Impact SDG16 Hub not only elevates George Mason’s profile in the international community for sustainable development, it is also a well-deserved recognition of the Carter School and George Mason’s leadership in and commitment to producing research, scholarship, and impact that moves the needle on the world’s grand challenges,” Marshall said.

In the coming months, Özerdem will engage with academic and research units across George Mason to identify collaboration opportunities, ensuring a transformative Mason stamp on all aspects of the SDG16 agenda over the next three years.

Learn more about the Carter School

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Andre Marshall, PhD

Alpaslan Özerdem

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Susan Allen joined WTOP’s Sarah Jacobs to discuss Jimmy Carter’s achievements, including being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002.

Paul Snodgrass — Tue, 31 Dec 2024 05:21:26 +0000

Susan Allen joined WTOP’s Sarah Jacobs to discuss Jimmy Carter’s achievements, including being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002. Paul Snodgrass Tue, 12/31/2024 - 00:21

Susan Allen, director of the Center for Peacemaking Practice at ��AV’s Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter School for Peace and Conflict Resolution joined WTOP’s Sarah Jacobs to discuss Jimmy Carter’s achievements, including being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002.

Listen to the interview with WTOP News.

Dr. Allen's interview appeared as part of a special segment entitle "LISTEN: WTOP hears from historians, political reporters and those who personally knew Jimmy Carter"

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Susan Allen

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In the Media

The Anti-Defamation League honors George Mason’s Charles Chavis Jr. for his work in civil rights education

Paul Snodgrass — Wed, 06 Nov 2024 19:32:34 +0000

The Anti-Defamation League honors George Mason’s Charles Chavis Jr. for his work in civil rights education Paul Snodgrass Wed, 11/06/2024 - 14:32

Charles Chavis Jr., a professor at ��AV’s Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter School for Peace and Conflict Resolution and the College of Humanities and Social Sciences, as well as the founder and director of the John Mitchell, Jr. Program for History, Justice, and Race, will be honored at the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) In Concert Against Hate, which celebrates everyday heroes who speak out against hate and make a difference in their communities.

Founded in 1913, the Anti-Defamation League is one of the country’s largest and most influential anti-hate organizations with a long history of addressing bigotry, antisemitism, and injustice.

Charles Chavis. Photo by Ron Aira/Office of University Branding

Chavis is a historian and prolific author whose work focuses on the history of racial violence and civil rights activism as well as Black-Jewish relations in the American South. Recently, Chavis and the Mitchell Program expanded the experiential learning initiative and began a partnership with Operation Understanding, DC (OUDC), to expand upon shared goals to build community among high schoolers and advance peacebuilding and social justice.

“I am deeply honored and humbled by this recognition,” Chavis said. “The work of building community never ends; we have a responsibility to plant, nurture, and grow partnerships that advance our common ideal for a better world, beginning in the communities where we live.”

Chavis will receive the Kay Family Award from the ADL for his scholarship and work in the field of civil rights, activism, and Black and Jewish relations, as well as his work on bridgebuilding and conflict de-escalation.

Alpaslan Özerdem, dean of the Carter School, praised Chavis for his groundbreaking and transformational work in the field of race relations. “His dedication and commitment to fostering understanding and reconciliation among diverse communities has made a significant impact. This prestigious award highlights why his work is crucial in our ongoing journey towards creating more just, equitable, and peaceful societies. Dr. Chavis’ contributions not only inspire us but also pave the way for a future where peace and justice prevail.”

Ann Ardis, dean of the College of Humanities and Social Sciences, highlighted Chavis’ work: “Dr. Chavis' commitment to civil rights education and advocacy, his place-based research uncovering untold local histories of both trauma and community-building in the U.S., and his leadership in fostering relationships among Black and Jewish youth enriches our academic community and exemplifies values we hold dear as a college.”

“Each year, at this powerful event for our organization, we relish the opportunity to shine a light on heroes who should be celebrated,” said Meredith R. Weisel, ADL Washington, D.C. Regional Director. “At a time when our world is so rife with conflict and division, Dr. Chavis is an embodiment of a light we all need. We are thrilled to highlight him and his crucial work.”

Also receiving Kay Family Awards at this year’s event are Mehnaz Afridi, director of Manhattan University’s Holocaust, Genocide, and Interfaith Education Center; and Holocaust survivor Rosette Goldstein. Previous honorees have included Ruby Bridges, the first African American student to integrate into a southern elementary school; Holocaust survivor Tova Friedman and her grandson, Aron Goodman, who create TikTok videos to educate people about the Holocaust; and Susan Bro, the mother of Heather Heyer who was killed in Charlottesville, Virginia, and the founder of the Heather Heyer Foundation.

About the Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter School for Peace and Conflict Resolution

��AV’s Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter School for Peace and Conflict Resolution is a community of faculty, students, staff, alumni, and partners with a fundamental commitment to building peace. Through the development of cutting-edge theory, research, education, and practical work, we seek to identify and address the underlying causes of conflict and provide tools for ethical and just peacebuilding on the local, national, and global stages. Learn more at carterschool.gmu.edu.

About the College of Humanities and Social Sciences

The College of Humanities and Social Science is one of the largest colleges at George Mason, employing more than 800 faculty and staff, delivering critical courses for the university community, and offering an expansive range of disciplinary and interdisciplinary degree programs (23 undergraduate majors, 14 graduate certificates, 18 master’s degrees, 9 doctoral degrees, and 22 accelerated master’s degree pathways). Learn more at chss.gmu.edu.

About ��AV

��AV is Virginia’s largest public research university. Located near Washington, D.C., George Mason enrolls more than 40,000 students from 130 countries and all 50 states. George Mason has grown rapidly over the past half-century and is recognized for its innovation and entrepreneurship, remarkable diversity, and commitment to accessibility. In 2023, the university launched Mason Now: Power the Possible, a one-billion-dollar comprehensive campaign to support student success, research, innovation, community, and stewardship. Learn more at gmu.edu.

About The Anti-Defamation League

ADL is the leading anti-hate organization in the world. Founded in 1913, its timeless mission is “to stop the defamation of the Jewish people and to secure justice and fair treatment to all.” Today, ADL continues to fight all forms of antisemitism and bias, using innovation and partnerships to drive impact. A global leader in combating antisemitism, countering extremism and battling bigotry wherever and whenever it happens, ADL works to protect democracy and ensure a just and inclusive society for all. More at www.adl.org.

In This Story

Charles Chavis

Alpaslan Özerdem

Listen to Podcast - EP36: Charles Chavis: The truth will set you free

More News

The Carter School named a United Nations Academic Impact Sustainable Development Goal Hub Chair
January 15, 2025
Susan Allen joined WTOP’s Sarah Jacobs to discuss Jimmy Carter’s achievements, including being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002.
December 31, 2024
The Anti-Defamation League honors George Mason’s Charles Chavis Jr. for his work in civil rights education
November 11, 2024
Solon Simmons looks for win-win opportunities in his role as Faculty Senate president
September 4, 2024
Carter School student knocks the socks off year-long internship
August 26, 2024

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Strategic Direction

Solon Simmons looks for win-win opportunities in his role as Faculty Senate president

Melanie Balog — Wed, 04 Sep 2024 16:17:28 +0000

Solon Simmons looks for win-win opportunities in his role as Faculty Senate president Melanie Balog Wed, 09/04/2024 - 12:17

Solon Simmons, professor of conflict and analysis in the Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter School for Peace and Conflict Resolution, enters his first year as the ��AV Faculty Senate president. At George Mason since 2006, Simmons has been a member of the senate for eight years. He also has served, among other roles, as interim dean for the Carter School and the university’s vice president for global strategy during the pivotal start-up years of Mason Korea.

The George caught up with Simmons to discuss the senate’s recent achievements, issues the group will be tackling this year, and how his academic expertise might serve him as Faculty Senate president.

Simmons

What do you consider some of the Faculty Senate’s major achievements in recent years, and what issues do you envision being focal points for the senate in 2024-25?

One thing that becomes immediately clear when you look at the history of the Faculty Senate here at Mason is the strong legacy of independent leaders who have served there. In just the past decade, we have seen significant growth in collaboration between faculty and administrative leaders. What stands out to me are the roles that senate leaders played in co-chairing the last presidential search, chairing the recent provost search, and in establishing new norms for the acceptance of financial support [of the university]. Faculty representatives have served on every major initiative in the university from promoting the rights of term faculty, to supporting Mason’s COVID-19 response, to developing the conversation about how to have difficult conversations across lines of difference.

This coming year will bring many challenges, but my hope is that we focus on our people, using evidence to center employee engagement and placing proper value on the contributions of both faculty and staff and helping to modernize and update our concept of what a university is for. We are here to pursue both excellence in knowledge and access to wisdom, and all of us—staff, student workers, tenured faculty, term faculty, and administrative/professional faculty—have an important role to play. The faculty job is changing, but in an era of automatic thinking and information overload, it is more important than ever.

How do think your expertise in peace and conflict resolution will serve you both within the Faculty Senate and as the faculty representative on the Board of Visitors?

I direct what’s called the Narrative Transformation Lab. Our baseline assumptions are that emotions matter as much as arguments do and that facts are only intelligible when situated in relation to values. From what I have seen of our new board members, they are very principled people who want the best for the university as articulated from their own point of view. Assuming that everyone brings the best intentions to the case makes it easier to look for those win-win opportunities that are almost always available if you search for them, and no one should forget that win-win is a peace and conflict resolution concept if not THE concept that defines the field.

From a global perspective, American universities have a real advantage over most other countries. Our decentralized structure allows and even forces each of our institutions to serve as global laboratories for the organization of knowledge, producing an intellectual ecology in which we have developed and sustained most of the best universities in the world. Look at the data. Whether it’s Nobel Prizes or global university rankings, the world still looks to the U.S., and increasingly the U.S. looks to Mason. The board members know what a great value proposition Mason is and they have no intention to compromise that. Our job is to make sure intentions match the available opportunities and to keep faculty centered in that conversation.

How significant of an issue is AI for Mason faculty? What sort of discussion is the Faculty Senate having about the implications of AI?

I’m really excited about AI, especially that part that works with language and writing. I like the metaphor of the old Texas Instruments calculator that people often use about the 1970s. We used to think of using a calculator as “cheating” just like we think of writing with the aid of a language model today. I use AI almost every day now, and I find it makes me that much smarter. It feels like what it was like in the ‘90s to start using Google and the other search engines that we had back then. You can just do so much more. Over the summer, the leadership team had a great presentation from a colleague at the University of Michigan who made a point that stuck with me: all good uses of AI require a human-in-the-loop. Maybe someday machines will tap into some form of universal consciousness and discover how to do without us, but so far, it looks like only the human being has the wisdom, contextual awareness, and moral judgment that is necessary to apply knowledge to meaningful problem solving.

If AI is not something to be afraid of but something to use, nevertheless, it really is time to wake up. What we mean by knowledge is changing and our modes of assessment will have to change along with that. It seems to me that AI places emphasis on lived experience and the present moment that will challenge all of us to grow in ways that will be both painful and exhilarating.

Since the pandemic, Faculty Senate meetings have taken place entirely on Zoom. Will that continue? Do you find that meeting virtually leads to greater engagement from senators and from faculty around the university?

There is nothing like face-to-face interaction, but we will continue to use Zoom for the actual Faculty Senate meetings. I think it’s just part of the new normal of higher education. Not only can a senator access the meeting from any one of our many campuses and locations (including Mason Korea), but this format allows for a much larger array of visitors to attend as well. I think the format expands the value of the senate to the university community and makes it easier and more efficient for us to manage our deliberations.

You’re coming up on two decades at the university. What are the major differences between the George Mason you came to in 2006 and the George Mason of today?

I will admit that the first I heard of ��AV was its famous Cinderella Final Four run in 2006, the year I arrived. Back then it was described almost like a commuter college with peaks or pillars of excellence. Now the university feels like a major player. In 2006, we were known for a variety of innovative and special programs like the old multidisciplinary Institute for Conflict Analysis and Resolution (now the Carter School) that I joined. Now, we are good at almost everything we do, and getting better each year. I like President Washington’s line that this is the most competitive university environment in the country, and still we excel and grow. This is a great place to work and a great place to be a professor. My goal is to make the job even better.

Editor's note: Earlier versions of this story gave Simmons' rank as associate professor. We regret the error.

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Carter School student knocks the socks off year-long internship

Shayla Brown — Fri, 23 Aug 2024 17:53:35 +0000

Carter School student knocks the socks off year-long internship Shayla Brown Fri, 08/23/2024 - 13:53

��AV senior Nathaniel Socks has had two internships in his field, and he credits a course he took his sophomore year with his advisor Jane Walker for helping him get them.

“I took Jane [Walker]’s course CONF 314 Career Development Seminar, which was so helpful because we created resumes and [practiced] interviews,” said Socks, who is majoring in conflict analysis and resolution in the Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter School for Peace and Conflict Resolution.

Nathaniel Socks. Photo provided

“I was able to get an internship with the Department of State that spring, and then also got accepted to do this Pathways internship, which could turn into a full-time job, so I’d say her class worked exactly how it was supposed to for me,” he said.

The Pathways Internship program is designed to provide students with opportunities to explore federal careers while being paid for the work performed. Socks is interning with the General Services Administration (GSA), a federal agency that works on procurement and acquisition services, and after completing a year-long internship, he’s eligible to convert to a full-time position through competitive hiring.

“As an intern here, I've been providing overall general support for different projects, as well as creating a newsletter for the team on travel industry updates. A big part of what my office does is work with travel management companies to get them contracted with different agencies,” said Socks.

Rather than zeroing in on one optimal career path, Walker, director of Undergraduate Student Services for the Carter School, said she uses the Career Development Seminar to help students expand their career focus and consider a minimum of three options.

“Conflict is everywhere, our students can apply their degrees to many different career paths—we want them to fully explore those opportunities within the class,” said Walker.

“Nathaniel is an excellent student, but more importantly, he is a hard worker that approaches life with humility—these are traits that will take him far in his career as they are valued and important for advancement and success,” she said.

For his previous internship at the Department of State, Socks was a staffer for the front office at the Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs.

“As a staffer, we did everything from drafting department documents to pushing papers to get cleared by heads of leadership. I would say that, because of everything going on in the Middle East, that position was a little bit more hectic and versatile, [whereas] this job with GSA and my responsibilities are more consistent,” said Socks.

Socks, who is working on a minor in intelligence studies, said it was originally his goal to work in international relations, but his internship at GSA has opened up the possibility of working in the travel industry.

“The GSA also contracts to the Department of State, so there’s still possibilities of me being able to get more experience with international affairs there,” he said.

Socks is set to graduate from George Mason in December and hopes to continue his journey at GSA.

“I didn't always feel confident in these different positions, especially with them being federal agencies, but the biggest lesson I’ve learned is to just be confident in your abilities,” said Socks.

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Jane Walker

Find your own internship with the help of Career Services

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Satellite imagery could aid in seeking justice for human rights violations in Sudan

Sarah Holland — Wed, 21 Aug 2024 13:26:43 +0000

Satellite imagery could aid in seeking justice for human rights violations in Sudan Sarah Holland Wed, 08/21/2024 - 09:26

On April 15, 2023, intense violence erupted in Sudan’s capital city of Khartoum between the state-run military and a non-state militia group. Over the past 16 months, the conflict has continued to expand in scale. Peace negotiations have collapsed. Civilians have experienced catastrophic humanitarian conditions.

��AV’s Daniel Rothbart has for many years investigated the plight of civilians in war globally. He believes that out of the 59 protracted violent conflicts around the world, the civil war in Sudan is among the most horrific.

“This conflict has had catastrophic humanitarian implications,” explained Rothbart, the Druscilla French Chair in Conflict Analysis and Resolution in the Jimmy and Rosalyn Carter School of Conflict Analysis and Resolution. “There have been an estimated 16,000 fatalities and numerous cities destroyed. Right now, Sudan has the largest number of internally displaced persons in the world at 10.7 million people.”

As peace talks failed and conflict escalated, the Conflict Observatory, managed by the MITRE Corp and funded by the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Conflict and Stabilization operations, approached Rothbart and the Carter School to support an investigation into the human rights violations associated with the civil war.

In areas of violent conflict, scholars like Rothbart must find remote methods of data collection. One such method is through Open Source Investigations (OSINT), where publicly and commercially available information, such as satellite imagery, social media posts, and news reports, are collected and analyzed.

Because the Conflict Observatory specifically requested satellite imagery evidence, Rothbart enlisted a team of researchers from the College of Science’s Department of Geography and Geoinformation Science, including department chair Dieter Pfoser, to gather and analyze the images. Through this method, they can show side-by-side images of the large-scale destruction of civilian areas over the course of the conflict, such as markets, neighborhoods, and health care facilities.

Comparison photos of an area of El Fasher, North Darfur, Sudan showcasing the destruction of civilian property as a result of the ongoing civil war, as featured in the Sudan Conflict Observatory Situation Report "Impact on Civilians from Fighting in El Fasher, North Darfur, May 9-27, 2024"

This is a valuable kind of data for understanding the impact and trend of protracted violence, Rothbart said. “It captures the evolution of events over time in a particular region, and the amount of detail these experts are able to gleam from these images has been used to great effect.” As detailed in the report, the experts can distinguish between a building burned and a building bombed: important evidence for building a future case in prosecuting human rights violations.

But satellite imaging only tells part of the story of the destruction and devastation. Other information comes from witness testimonies, which Rothbart and his team gather with the help of the Sudan Human Rights Hub. By combining these two methods of data collection, they can paint a more robust picture of the breadth and depth of violence.

“For example, with both testimonies and open-source intelligence, we have documented that some militant forces have systematically killed civilians, bombed hospitals, and engaged in large-scale gender-based violence, ” Rothbart said.

Through these reports, Rothbart and his team are the primary source of evidence of civilian devastation in the war in Sudan. And while the evidence submitted by the team is under the discretion of the State Department, it could be used to prosecute the perpetrators of the described human rights violations.

The project is also an opportunity for students to gain valuable experience. Current conflict analysis and resolution PhD student Beltina Gjeloshi, and alumnus Mathieu Bere, PhD Conflict Analysis and Resolution ‘22, are both supporting members of Rothbart’s team.

“I’ve learned best practices in open-source investigations, a myriad of new digital tools, and how to capture evidence via different channels, such as satellite images and social media,” said Gjeloshi. “Coupling the training with my human rights and conflict resolution background has allowed me to formulate unique insights and use tools transdisciplinarily.”

“This deliberate violence against civilians requires that the international community takes measures to enforce international humanitarian law, protect civilians, and hold perpetrators accountable. The work that we have been doing in this project contributes to the fulfillment of that moral and legal requirement,” said Bere.

Daniel Rothbart. Photo by Creative Services/Office of University Branding

"On a purely academic and scientific side, we have been using, and hope to contribute to improve, some innovative technological tools, especially OSINT and GIS tools, for remotely monitoring and documenting what is happening in conflict zones, and for conducting real-time conflict research,” said Bere. “For example, we are exploring the possibility of developing an AI model that will facilitate some of the steps of the data-gathering process that may be automated. The project is an interdisciplinary work, which requires collaboration between experts from various disciplines."

Every conflict is unique, but there are repeated patterns in motivations, actions, and strategies. Rothbart hopes that the global peace community can learn from why and how peace talks have been unsuccessful in Sudan to improve their approaches to other protracted conflicts.

“We must be prepared to recognize that under certain conditions human beings can commit horrific acts,” Rothbart explained. “But in every case of protracted violent conflict, we find human beings who show an enormous degree of courageous compassion in the face of horrific violence. And that’s important to keep in mind.”

Find pathways to peace at the Carter School

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Daniel Rothbart

Dieter Pfoser

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High school students learn conflict resolution skills at annual Conflict Resolution Youth Summit

Colleen Rich — Tue, 20 Aug 2024 19:42:17 +0000

High school students learn conflict resolution skills at annual Conflict Resolution Youth Summit Colleen Rich Tue, 08/20/2024 - 15:42

��AV’s Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter School for Peace and Conflict Resolution hosted its largest group of high schoolers to date, 46, for its ninth annual Conflict Resolution Youth Summit in July.

The ninth annual Conflict Resolution Youth Summit included a trip to Washington, D.C. Photo provided

Students came to George Mason’s Fairfax Campus from as far as Massachusetts, Texas, and China to participate in the four-day summit, which included a day trip to Washington, D.C., and 15 skill-building workshops designed to explore and address the various dimensions of conflict through mediation, negotiation, and collaboration.

The summit began with a workshop by James Coan from “More Like Us,” an organization dedicated to spreading the message that that Americans are more similar across the political spectrum than people realize. This workshop, titled “Defining the Perception Gap,” was aimed at fostering political depolarization and focused on engaging participants in meaningful dialogue about the misperceptions surrounding different political ideologies.

Following this, participants moved into the Carter School's bridge-building activities, which further challenged their perceptions, teamwork, and communication skills. These activities were instrumental in strengthening the group dynamics and enhancing their effectiveness throughout the summit.

The first simulation, known as the Portlandia Project, was conducted by Ryen Middleton, a graduate student from ��AV’s College of Public Health. In this simulation, participants took on roles in a multi-stakeholder scenario addressing an environmental crisis affecting working-class communities, applying negotiation skills to meet diverse needs.

The Conflict Resolution Youth Summit saw its highest attendance ever this year. Photo provided

The simulation had a big impact on Olivia Ossa, a student at Thomas Worthington High School in Worthington, Ohio. “I loved the simulations,” Ossa said. “[The Portlandia Project] gave me the opportunity to experience negotiating and compromising, as well as getting a chance to play a crucial role in community building and forming connections with my teammates. I really enjoyed the Model UN vibes it gave and learned a lot from it!”

To illustrate the broad spectrum of conflict, the Carter School hosted two community artists. Sol O'Neill worked with participants to create two, 5-foot-tall Indigenous figures, symbolizing place and home for Virginia tribes, with influences from South American culture. Renowned artist and Mason Artist in Residence Abi Naanseh introduced participants to the traditional techniques of Arabic calligraphy through his mural "Mahaba and Salaam."

“Abi was fantastic. I learned a lot, and he was clearly very passionate about his work,” said Owen Simmons, from Osbourn Park High School in Manassas, Virginia.

On the final day, participants tackled the issue of human trafficking in collaboration with Freedom Connections, a group of Carter School students who work on issues surround human trafficking. They focused on identifying signs of trafficking and exploring resources to support affected individuals.

The summit concluded with the conflict capstone event, where participants applied their newly acquired skills to address issues identified by their peers. Their findings and solutions were presented to their families during the closing ceremony.

New for the summit this year, students were able to stay overnight in George Mason residence halls. This was important for the soon-to-be college-bound students, such as Eli Wike from Potomac Falls High School in Sterling. “My favorite part was probably getting to get a taste of college life through the experience,” Wike said.

Additional support for the summit was provided by George Mason’s Student Success Coaching, Facilities, and Mason Exhibitions.

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State Department initiative brings Carter School students to the forefront of peacebuilding

Sarah Holland — Thu, 06 Jun 2024 20:13:07 +0000

State Department initiative brings Carter School students to the forefront of peacebuilding Sarah Holland Thu, 06/06/2024 - 16:13

Presentations aren't an uncommon final exam component. But few are as high stakes as presenting research to the U.S. Department of State in the hopes of paving the pathway to peace in fragile countries.

Photo provided

As part of the new Academic Centers of Conflict Anticipation and Prevention (ACCAP) initiative, ��AV students in the new Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter School for Peace and Conflict Resolution course Fragile States Policy had the opportunity to work with the U.S. Department of State on priority research.

ACCAP is a national academic partnership between American higher education institutions and the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Conflict and Stabilization Operations (CSO) to anticipate, respond to, and prevent conflict in the global system that impacts U.S. national security interests.

“No matter how great the expertise of our staff or contractors, there’s only so much capacity we have to address some very critical topics,” explained Keith E. Noble, CSO’s Chief Data Officer and Advanced Analytics Office Director, who served as the instructor for the course in Carter School. “The idea for ACCAP is that we can reach out to our university partners to get supplemental analysis, research, and data that can help us expand our priorities.”

The U.S. Department of State initiated a search for the inaugural cohort of institutions conducting research in the conflict and stabilization space. The Carter School was, according to Noble, one of their first picks.

“The Carter School, which is the largest school in the country focused on conflict and stabilization-related issues, is right in our backyard,” he said. “And there was unique alignment in CSO’s core mission and the Carter School’s expertise, values, and willingness to engage the department to help us make better data-driven decisions in this space.”

This first cohort includes eight institutions, with hopes for expansion.

Based on conversations with its office directors and other agencies, CSO compiled a list of research opportunities pertaining to countries represented in the Global Fragility Act (GFA). Each institution can then claim the opportunities through a database, based on whether they have faculty with expertise, or interest in teaching a course or capstone around a relevant topic. The Carter School took it one step further: what if Noble himself taught a course based on this consortium, and selected the topics for Carter School students to research?

Noble, who saw this as an opportunity to demonstrate how CSO wanted each institution to approach their selected research, agreed.

For the course, Noble selected topics that he thought would be achievable within the semester time frame as well as appropriately challenging for the students—Coastal West Africa: Social Network Analysis (Ghana and Togo); Women, Peace, and Security (Haiti); Women in Politics (Haiti); and Communal Impact Mining (Papua New Guinea).

Chad Cline, MS in Conflict Analysis and Resolution ‘24, was on the Women, Peace, and Security team. “I learned so much about each country in the GFA,” he said of his classroom experience. “It gave me a different perspective.”

With ACCAP’s goal being delivering valuable research to CSO, Noble wanted stakeholders involved in his students’ research from the start. “We wanted this to be an iterative process where department staff spent time investing in the students, providing mentorship and building relationships so the department could, first, get a better final product, and second, show these students that CSO could be a destination after they graduate,” Noble said. “It was mutually reinforcing incentives.”

At the end of the course, Carter School students presented their work at the U.S. Department of State; George Mason was the first institution to submit completed projects.

Chief Data Officer and Advanced Analytics Office Director Keith Noble. Photo provided.

“It was a mix of anticipation, preparation, and planning, as well as a deep sense of responsibility,” recalled Hamad Aldhlea, a PhD student in conflict analysis and resolution. His team worked on Coastal West Africa: Social Network Analysis. “I received invaluable feedback, and it was an excellent opportunity to build a network with State Department officials.”

The course is planned to run again in the fall.

“There are any number of internships and opportunities for students within this department and other USG agencies that offer great experience, but rarely reach the critical point where the work the students are doing is impacting policy,” Noble said. “This work, however, is filling critical gaps and will have real and practical impacts on our offices and the work we do. We’re looking to the Carter School to make substantive contributions to our global mission.”

Karina Valenzuela, a PhD student in conflict analysis and resolution, also worked on Women, Peace, and Security. “It’s one thing to write a paper for a grade and quite another to present research to a group of professionals working in these complex situations who tell you the work you’ve done is valuable,” she said.

Noble believes that the Carter School’s proximity to Washington, D.C. and the expertise and quality of its faculty and students will allow it to play a leading role in the developing ACCAP community.

“I think this will not only enhance the prestige of the university, but will help deliver real-time, value-added analyses that will help this government make better data-informed decisions,” Noble said, “and that’s something the Carter School should be very proud of.”

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Graduating Carter School student is trailblazing a new path to peace

Sarah Holland — Tue, 07 May 2024 19:31:22 +0000

Graduating Carter School student is trailblazing a new path to peace Sarah Holland Tue, 05/07/2024 - 15:31

Keil Eggers is the first to admit that his research methods are unique to the world of conflict analysis and resolution. But as he is hooded at the 2024 Commencement ceremony at George Mason, his unorthodox approach is becoming the standard for George Mason Peace Engineering Lab in the Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter School for Peace and Conflict Resolution.

Photo provided

Eggers, who is graduating from Mason with his PhD in Conflict Analysis and Resolution, has been a champion of complexity-informed conflict transformation, futures, and SenseMaker: a technology that applies a quantitative framework to narrative data submitted and interpreted by the subjects themselves.

“My professors have always been willing to let me experiment and have supported me in trying new things,” he said. “That’s one of the biggest strengths of the Carter School, how it allows people to explore unique combinations of scholarship, ideas, and disciplines.”

As a Kansas native with an interest in international politics, Eggers knew he wanted to be in the center of the action in the Washington, D.C., region when applying as an undergraduate. George Mason was the perfect fit. After a year in the international politics degree program, however, he took a course in the Carter School, and “it sealed the deal,” he said.

“I found it to be a much more helpful approach to problem-solving. It’s less about protecting one country’s interests and more about building international relationships based on dialogue, mutual learning, and mutual respect. It creates much more fulfilling relationships.”

After graduating with his BA in Conflict Analysis and Resolution from the Carter School and the Honors College in 2015, Eggers received his MA in International Peace Studies from the UN-Mandated University for Peace before returning to George Mason for his PhD.

Eggers’ approach to research using sensemaking technology is unique, particularly in academia, and very few programs could accommodate it. The Carter School, however, was interested in Eggers’ methodology and had a fellowship with that topic in mind. He was the first to receive the Peace Engineering Fellowship, one of the Provost PhD Awards designed to support the creation of the Peace Engineering Lab, where conflict analysis and resolution experts would work with engineers to create innovative technologies for peace building.

“More and more often, engineers are put on the front lines to solve social conflict through designing infrastructure or new technologies,” Eggers explained. “But their solutions also have social impact, which needs to be accounted for and considered during the design process. They need more tools to understand that impact and how it will affect peace, which we can provide. And, on the other side, we need support in developing and implementing new analytical technologies.”

Part of Eggers’ work with the lab included setting up internal and external partnerships, including with the Cynefin Centre for Applied Complexity: the creators behind the SenseMaker tool. The lab has used SenseMaker in local, national, and international research projects.

“I saw my role as creating a strong intellectual foundation for the lab, trying to figure out what our unique approach as the only conflict analysis and resolution school in the broader peace engineering field could be,” Eggers said. “We were building the plane as we were flying it, so to speak. We had a strong belief that this is an emerging field and a gap that needed to be filled. We keep showing up, putting in the work, and we’re cementing our role in the field as being at the forefront of this.”

Through the largest grant ever given to Carter School, the lab recieved funding to expand into one of the university's research centers. It plans to relaunch in fall 2024.

Meanwhile, Eggers simultaneously completed his dissertation, utilizing the same sensemaking technology he worked to implement in the lab. With the support of partnering organizations Horizon Project and Common Ground USA, “Us Against When: Futures and Complexity-Informed Conflict Transformation in the United States” looked at five states with higher risk of political violence, collecting data from 800 subjects. He presented his work at the Alliance for Peacebuilding’s PeaceCon2023, and used his research to build the syllabus for and teach Honors 360: "Us Against When: Exploring Peaceful Futures for the United States."

After graduation, Eggers hopes he can continue his work to develop complexity-informed approaches to research, sensemaking, and futures methodologies through a postdoc position. He also has a dream of putting together a music festival for peace at the Carter School's Point of View facility.

“Your destiny is in your hands when you enter a PhD program,” Eggers said, when asked what advice he would give to a first year PhD. “Explore what you like, craft the experience you want. Believe in your own power to be persistent and pave the path you want to see.”

Build peace in the Carter School

Recognizing George Mason's graduates

George Mason's 2024 winter graduation in pictures
December 20, 2024
Winter graduates encouraged to be kind, courageous and never stop learning
December 19, 2024
Commencement Speaker George Schindler’s remarks to George Mason’s winter 2024 graduates
December 19, 2024
At 15, Yevin Nikhel Goonatilake set to make history as George Mason’s youngest graduate with a 4.0 GPA
December 17, 2024
George Mason prepares to recognize more than 5,200 winter graduates
December 16, 2024

This content appears in the Fall 2024 print edition of the Mason Spirit Magazine with the title "Trailblazing a New Path to Peace."

Mason Korea senior discovers his passion for peacebuilding and opera

Colleen Rich — Wed, 10 Apr 2024 18:10:55 +0000

Mason Korea senior discovers his passion for peacebuilding and opera Colleen Rich Wed, 04/10/2024 - 14:10

After several leadership camps in the United States and the U.K. during junior high, Seung Gyo Kim felt that pursuing college abroad was the best way to express his unique identity and broaden his knowledge.

Seung Gyo Kim. Photo provided

“I wanted to break away from the fixed framework of Korean success and be at a place where I can freely chase my interests,” said the ��AV undergraduate. After being introduced to the extended campus of Mason Korea through an admissions event in 2015, he realized he could still stay near his family and develop his English skills by receiving the same quality instruction in Korea.

While he was considering taking over his parents’ business after college, he enrolled in management courses at Mason Korea. However, a turning point came when Kim enlisted in the Korean Air Force military band as a singer for his mandatory service.

“After thinking about how I could integrate different fields with my passion for opera singing, I realized my devotion to creating my artwork, which would only be possible through an interdisciplinary field,” Kim said. This thought was the beginning of Kim not only changing his major to conflict analysis and resolution, but also taking advantage of Mason Korea as a platform for his career aspirations.

After taking classes on interpersonal dynamics, speech communication, and international conflicts, he realized he was interested in public diplomacy. With help from the Career Development Center at Mason Korea, he was able to secure an internship with the United Nations Office of Sustainable Development (UNOSD) and in a policy advocacy program of the World Federation of United Nations Association (WFUNA).

“I would have never imagined being able to intern at these institutions,” said Kim. “These opportunities provided by Mason Korea showed me that I could do valuable work.”

Kim brought these experiences and ideas to Mason’s Fairfax Campus, where he has been preparing for a Korean Art Song event at the 2024 Peace Week hosted by the Carter School for Peace and Conflict Resolution in September. Through the event, he aims to share the stories and struggles of many Korean immigrants and international students by bringing Korean opera singers and the local community together. He hopes to bridge generations and share the diversity of the Korean diaspora through the event, ultimately reaching the goal of merging peacebuilding with opera singing.

“Seung Gyo epitomizes the caliber of young leaders who are indispensable in shaping our world for the better,” said Roland B. Wilson, program coordinator and term faculty member for the conflict and resolution program in Mason Korea. “Moreover, like countless other students who have graced our unique and highly sought-after program, Seung Gyo's journey underscores the importance of nurturing talent and fostering leadership among our youth."

Kim plans to graduate in December and hopes his story will inspire other students to forge their own pathways. “Mason Korea as an environment is a place for students who have not yet discovered their true passion, but have the will to pursue their unknown dreams, to be shaped by faculty, staff, and their peers,” he said.

“Mason Korea is people who were interested in who I was as an individual and were eager to give me a chance to see my worth in this world.”

Mason Korea opened its doors to in 2014. As part of Mason Korea’s 10th anniversary, Mason will host events in Korea and on the Fairfax Campus. This is the first in a series of stories highlighting Mason Korea students.
Learn more about Mason Korea's anniversary >>

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