The War in Syria: A View from the Ground Up
Monday 20 October, 2014
6 - 8pm, $0
Columbia University
International Affairs Building, Room 1501
Dipali Mukhopadhyay joined the SIPA faculty as an assistant professor in July 2012. She received her doctorate from Tufts University's Fletcher School in the fall of 2010 and spent 2011 as a post-doctoral fellow at Princeton University. She studies modern state formation in conflict and post-conflict settings. Her research interests lie, in particular, with the challenges weak political centers face as they attempt to grow their authority in the midst of formidable competitors. She is currently finishing a forthcoming book manuscript with Cambridge University Press entitled Warlords, Strongman Governors and State Building in Afghanistan. She has been conducting research in eastern and northern Afghanistan, as well as Kabul, since 2007 and made her first trip to the country for a project with the Aga Khan Development Network in 2004.
Mukhopadhyay teaches in the field of international security. This fall, she will teach a course on state formation, violence, and intervention in the modern world with a case study on Afghanistan. Next spring, she will teach a course on warlords, militiamen, and mafias and another on foreign intervention and conflict management.
Her research has been funded by the Carnegie Corporation, the Eisenhower Institute, the Smith Richardson Foundation, the US Institute of Peace, Harvard Law School, and the US Department of Education. Her writings have been published academically as well as by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and US News & World Report. She has worked in consultation with the US Department of Defense, the Canadian government, the US military, and the World Bank.
Adam Baczko is an Order, Conflict and Violence Fellow at Yale University and a PhD Candidate in Political Science at School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences (EHESS, Paris). He researches how armed groups establish judicial systems in the midst of civil war. Adam carried out fieldwork in Afghanistan, Syria, Democratic Republic of Congo and Irak. He is general editor at Noria, a Paris-based think tank (www.noria-research.com), and co-authored reports on Syria for the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and the New American Foundation. In collaboration with Gilles Dorronsoro and Arthur Quesnay, he is currently finishing a book on the Syrian Revolution and the ensuing Civil War. He holds an MA in Political Science from the EHESS and BA in War Studies from King's College London. His publications are available at https://ehess.academia.edu/AdamBaczko.
Dr. Nimmi Gowrinathan is an expert on gender and violence, and the creator of deviarchy.com. She is currently a Fellow at the Center for Conflict, Negotiation and Recovery, developing a new initiative on Sexual Violence in War and the Gender Expert for the United Nations Human Development Report on Afghanistan. She has recently been a policy consultant for the Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue and the International Crisis Group, researching and analyzing gender inclusion in peacebuilding and womens insecurities in conflict zones. She is also developing a special series on Women in/at War for Vice News. She was formerly the Director of South Asia Programs and UN Representative for Operation USA, and international disaster relief organization. In this capacity she has lived and worked in Sri Lanka, India, and Pakistan monitoring small grants to community-based organizations. Dr. Gowrinathan received her PhD in Political Science from the University of California, Los Angeles. She has published both academic articles and journalistic pieces on humanitarian intervention and gender and violence for Foreign Affairs, Huffington Post, Monkeycage.org, Humanitarian Practice Network, Oxfords STAIR Review, World Policy Institute, and Gawker.com among others. She has guest lectured and hosted student workshops at Vassar College, Barnard University, Columbia University, Yale University, and the University of Dar Es Salaam. Her most recent article in Foreign Affairs, "The Women of ISIS", examines the political identities of women in violent movements.
Michael Shaikh is an independent consultant based in Yangon, Myanmar. For the past year he led the UNs Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights human rights in humanitarian action programs in Myanmar. Prior to that, Michael was Director of Country Operations at the Center for Civilians in Conflict, a Washington DC-based NGO that works with warring parties to develop civilian protection strategies. While at the Center he managed the organizations field operations in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Libya, Mali and Syria. Between 2007 and 2012 Michael was based in Bangkok with International Crisis Group where he severed as Asia Senior Analyst, reporting on regional political issues such as East and South China Sea disputes; Indias regional foreign policy; Chinas relationship with Myanmar; Bangladesh and Thailands coups; and Sri Lankas civil war. Prior to Bangkok, Michael was based in Kabul where he severed first as International Crisis Groups Afghanistan Analyst and then as Human Rights Watchs Afghanistan Researcher.