This volume has built a community. One that crosses borders, ages, languages, nationalities, genders, experiences, and disciplines. The contributors met in person three times—in San Diego, Barcelona, and Mexico—and virtually countless others. Building this work together has been instrumental in its unique outcome.
We—the contributors, editors, and reference group members who created this volume—have learned from, critiqued, cried and laughed with, and supported one another over the past several years. Together, we have seen wars start and others end. We have held closely people forced to flee their homes, and poured hope into those with the opportunity to return. We have held one another’s trauma and celebrated one another’s joy. It has been an incredible privilege to work in such a collaborative.
Ammar Azzouz is a research fellow at the School of Geography and the Environment, University of Oxford. His research has appeared in the New York Times, Conversation, New Statesman, New Lines Magazine, Middle East Eye, and peer-reviewed journals. He studied architecture in his home country of Syria, and he is the author of Domicide: Architecture, War and the Destruction of Home in Syria (London: Bloomsbury, 2023).
Alejandra Medina Barragán is a graphic designer who has been honored several times for her work. In each of her projects, she seeks to capture the essence of the narrative and translate it into a visual language that inspires, moves, and transcends borders.
Mariana Medina Barragán is a human rights lawyer and specialist in public policies and gender justice. Her work includes serving as a researcher and adviser to civil society organizations, international cooperation agencies, and state entities. She has a law degree and MA in constitutional rights from the National University of Colombia and a postgraduate degree in human rights from the University of Chile.
Michal Braier is an architect and urban planner specializing in urban political geography. She holds a PhD from Ben Gurion University of the Negev. Braier is head of research and publications at Bimkom—Planning and Human Rights. She is also a teaching fellow at the Urban and Regional Planning Institute at Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
Friederike Bubenzer is an independent South African peacebuilding practitioner and holds an MPhil degree in development studies and social transformation from the University of Cape Town. She is coeditor with Pumla Gobodo Madikizela and Marietjie Oelofsen of These Are the Things That Sit With Us (Johannesburg: Jacana, 2019) and coeditor with Orly Stern of Hope, Pain and Patience: The Lives of Women in South Sudan (Johannesburg: Jacana, 2011).
Flavia Carbonari is an international development specialist with an MA in Latin American studies from Georgetown University. She is a senior consultant to the World Bank and has worked in over 20 countries in Latin America, Africa, and East Asia.
Efrat Cohen Bar is an architect and urban designer. She is co-executive director of the Israeli nongovernmental organization Bimkom—Planning and Human Rights, where she manages the East Jerusalem and the Urban Renewal Departments and has served as Deputy Director of Planning.
ElsaMarie D’Silva is the founder of Red Dot Foundation (India) and President of Red Dot Foundation Global (USA). She created the platform Safecity, which crowdsources personal experiences of sexual violence and abuse. Her work has been recognized by the UN secretary-general, UN Alliance of Civilizations, German Federal Foreign Office, and others.
Shukria Dellawar is founder and President of Lotus Anchor, a consulting firm specializing in conflict prevention and peacebuilding. She holds a BA and an MS in conflict analysis and resolution from George Mason University’s Carter School for Peace. She has testified before Congress and was instrumental in the passage of the Elie Wiesel Genocide and Atrocities Prevention Act and the Global Fragility Act.
Prince Charles Dickson is a peace-policy analyst based in Nigeria. He holds a PhD in psychology from Georgetown University and has decades of expertise in media, public policy, and development practice. In addition to his work in advocacy, peacebuilding, and psychology, he has been a reporter, editor, and syndicated columnist in Nigeria.
Andy Fearn is Co-Executive Director and head of learning and outreach for Protection Approaches. He holds an MA in human rights from Kingston University London and works to build community resilience and help individuals develop the practical skills, knowledge, and networks to confront prejudice and hate.
Kate Ferguson is Co-Executive Director of Protection Approaches. Her education includes a master’s degree from Oxford in Russian and East European studies and a PhD in the study of mass atrocities from the University of East Anglia. She is the author of Architectures of Violence: The Command Structures of Mass Atrocities from Yugoslavia to Serbia (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2020). She serves on the Board of Trustees of the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust.
Natalia Garcia Cervantes is a research professor at Tecnologico de Monterrey and holds a PhD from the University of Manchester. Her ethnographic work draws on adapting ecological frameworks to explore perceptions of violence and insecurity in Mexico in order to identify risk factors at differing social levels.
Jocelyn Getgen Kestenbaum is professor of law at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, where she directs the Benjamin B. Ferencz Human Rights and Atrocity Prevention Clinic and the Cardozo Law Institute in Holocaust and Human Rights. She holds a JD from Cornell Law School and an MPH from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
Antônio Jacinto Sampaio leads a research team on cities and illicit economies at the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime. He has worked at the International Institute for Strategic Studies and has advised NATO on urban warfare. He has published in peer-reviewed journals and news outlets on organized crime, urban conflicts, and Brazilian politics.
Luz Adriana López Medina is a nurse and former child victim of recruitment by the Colombian FARC-EP guerrilla group. Through her work and activism, she continues to search for children who are still considered missing after being recruited by armed groups.
Felipe Luna Espinosa is an independent photographer, reporter, and editor based in Mexico. His work has been featured in Bloomberg, El País, the Los Angeles Times, and the New York Times. He has worked with nongovernmental organizations, designers, videographers, and visual artists. He is an active member of Diversify Photo and Frontline Freelance Mexico.
Ariana Markowitz holds a PhD in development planning from University College London. She is a Community Safety Engagement Manager, London Borough of Lambeth. As a consultant on urban atrocities for the Stanley Center for Peace and Security, she has studied urban-based atrocities to better understand the role cities play in mass violence.
Juan Martínez D’Aubuisson is an anthropologist and journalist from El Salvador. His work has appeared in Gatopardo, El Faro, and the Washington Post. He has researched gangs and gang violence extensively in El Salvador since 2008.
Rose Mbone is a peace and justice advocate in Nairobi. She was among the first cohort of the Inspiring African Women Leaders in Peace and Security Program at the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Center in Ghana. She is currently coordinating trauma-awareness and resilience campaigns in Nairobi with support from the Daima Initiatives for Peace and Development.
Sara Meléndez has a degree in graphic design from the Universidad Tecnologica de El Salvador. She also studied in Madrid at the Istituto Europeo di Design, has collaborated on projects with the Studio GrandeGraphix and the Studio Franchise, and manages the graphic direction and communication of Melro y Asociados S.A. de C.V.
Gary Milante is the lead specialist on risk monitoring in the World Bank’s Fragility, Conflict and Violence Group. Before that he founded N.Path and was Director of Studies for Peace and Development at the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. He has a PhD in economics from the University of California at Irvine and has advised the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, the International Monetary Fund, UN agencies, and other organizations, as well as the governments of developing and developed countries.
Areli Palomo Contreras is an award-winning ethnographic journalist who has produced investigative chronicles focusing on violence associated with Central American migration. Her work has appeared in Somos el Medio, Contra Corriente, Avispa, and other outlets across Latin America.
José Luis Pardo Veiras is a freelance journalist whose work has appeared in the New York Times, El País, and other publications. He is the author of Narco América: From the Andes to Manhattan, 55,000 Kilometers on the Trail of Cocaine (Barcelona: Tusquets, 2015), and coauthor of The 12 Poorest Mexicans (Madrid: Planeta, 2016). His awards include Spain’s 2014 Ortega y Gasset Prize and 2013 National Journalism Prize.
Alberto Pereira is a Brazilian communicator and visual artist. His works have been presented in solo and collective exhibitions, digital and urban art festivals, and contemporary art salons in Argentina, Brazil, Egypt, France, Italy, and Lebanon. In 2016, he created the Lambes Brasil network, focused on publicizing, valuing, and producing events and opportunities for street artists who create posters across the country.
Alhakam Shaar is a research fellow with the Aleppo Project at the Central European University’s Shattuck Center on Conflict, Negotiation and Recovery in Vienna. He has been an active member of the Aleppo Citadel Friends Society and the al-Adiyat Archaeological Society, with which he worked on projects that included the digitizing of the Comparative Encyclopedia of Aleppo.
Barbara Sherrod is the Director of Programs for Restorative Response Baltimore. She received her EdD from Morgan State University, studying urban educational leadership. Her writing has been featured in Colorizing Restorative Justice: Voicing Our Realities (Saint Paul, MN: Living Justice Press, 2020) and in the online publication Juvenile Justice Information Exchange.
Alexander Turner is a freelance photographer and journalist working in Bristol, UK. His clients include the Guardian, the New York Times, the BBC, and many other outlets.
Kerry Whigham is Assistant Professor of Genocide and Mass Atrocity Prevention at Binghamton University and Director of Research and Online Education at the Auschwitz Institute for the Prevention of Genocide and Mass Atrocities. With a PhD in performative studies from New York University, specializing in postgenocidal studies, he is the author of Resonant Violence: Affect, Memory, and Activism in Post-Genocide Societies (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2022) and has published a broad range of peer-reviewed articles.
Serena Wiebe has, at just 19 years old, established herself as a successful sports coach for the charity Empire Fighting Chance. Of Jamaican heritage, she was raised in the racially and economically fractured city of Bristol, UK, where she confronts the many structural and social challenges of urban violence.
Rachel Locke is founder and Director of the Violence, Inequality and Power Lab (VIP Lab) at the University of San Diego’s Kroc Institute for Peace and Justice. At the VIP Lab, Locke oversees work that explores the way power inequalities shape the landscape of violence, including how the narratives and stories that are told about violence can create harmful policy responses. Locke founded Peace in Our Cities, a network of cities and organizations around the world working to reduce and prevent urban violence through knowledge production, policy influence, and peer exchange. In previous positions, Locke served as Head of Research and Program Director for violence prevention at the Pathfinders Program based at New York University’s Center on International Cooperation, and as International Director for the National Network for Safe Communities at John Jay College of Criminal Justice. Locke also served as Senior Policy Adviser with the US Agency for International Development (USAID), where she developed agencywide policies on issues concerning the prevention of conflict, violence, and fragility. Throughout her career, Locke has focused on building multidisciplinary, high-quality, goal-oriented collaborations to address harm and violence, while building a more peaceful world. Locke holds an MA in international affairs from Columbia University and has published widely on violence prevention, humanitarian aid, conflict, and transnational organized crime.
Kelsey Paul Shantz is Program Officer for mass violence and atrocities at the Stanley Center for Peace and Security and a co-facilitating partner of the Peace in Our Cities Network. At the Stanley Center, she works to prevent identity-based violence by developing evidence and global networks of policymakers, researchers, and practitioners. She primarily focuses on city-level approaches to address structural violence, including investigating how identity is weaponized through power and systems. Her work—both personal and professional—has informed city-level strategies for violence reduction and community resilience. Her prior research has spanned topics of defense and security, global economic governance, and microfinance for think tanks and research institutions in Canada, the United States, and the Netherlands. Paul Shantz has an MA in international relations from the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University and an MPP from the Hertie School of Governance in Berlin, Germany. She also has a BA in international studies from the University of Evansville.
Andrei Serbin Pont is the President of the Coordinadora Regional de Investigaciones Económicas y Sociales (Regional Coordinator for Social and Economic Research) known as CRIES. He is also CEO of InnovAcción Hub by Pensamiento Propio, Regional Representative for the Global Partnership for the Prevention of Armed Conflict (GPPAC), Adjunct Director of Pensamiento Propio, a Consulting Member of the Argentine Council for International Relations, and Senior Fellow at the Jack D. Gordon Institute for Public Policy. He holds a PhD in international relations from Universidad Complutense de Madrid, a master’s degree in international relations from the San Tiago Dantas Program in Sao Paulo, Brazil, and a BA in liberal arts with a specialization in public policy from Universidad Nacional de San Martín—Buenos Aires.
Jai-Ayla Sutherland is Program Officer for mass violence and atrocities at the Stanley Center for Peace and Security, where she supports efforts to prevent structural and acute violence by working with representatives from government and civil society. Her work focuses predominantly on the role of cities, locally and internationally, in implementing evidence-based prevention strategies. Her team is part of the secretariat of the Peace in Our Cities Network, a global network of cities and organizations working together to reduce violence at the municipal level. She has worked in North and South America, Europe, Africa, and Asia, and has experience conducting research on the roots of violent conflict in Africa and the Middle East and analyzing the structural needs and policy approaches to preventing mass atrocities worldwide. She has an MA in international security from the Josef Korbel School of International Studies at the University of Denver and a BA in international relations from the University of Southern California.
