Violence, Inequality and Power (VIP) Lab

VIP Lab Non Residential Fellow Dayanna Palmar Uriana's work was recently featured in Diario del Norte, a Colombian newspaper. Dayanna's research examines the multiple forms of discrimination Wayuu indigenous women living in Colombia and Venezuela experience. Discrimination related to identity, education, employment, participation in public and political life and access to human rights creates a landscape of violence, manifesting as poverty, gender-based, territorial and spiritual violence. In this investigation, Dayanna centers the collective voice of the Wayuu people and their traditional cosmological practices and beliefs. As a lawyer and activist, she centers solutions around human rights frameworks, with a specific focus on women's and indigenous rights. Dayanna's VIP Lab Fellowship research will be shared in the coming weeks! Read more about Dayanna's work in Diario del Norte's article, written in Spanish. #peacebuilding #research #womensrights #indigenousrights 🌎 🌎 🌎 El trabajo de VIP Lab Fellow Dayanna Palmar Uriana apareció en el Diario del Norte. La investigacion de Dayanna explora las experiencias de las mujeres indígenas wayuu que viven en Colombia y Venezuela y examina las múltiples formas de discriminación que sufren. La discriminación relacionada con la identidad, la educación, el empleo, la participación en la vida pública y política y el acceso a los derechos humanos crea un paisaje de violencia, que se manifiesta como pobreza, violencia de género, territorial y espiritual. En esta investigación, Dayanna centra la voz colectiva del pueblo wayuu, sus prácticas y creencias cosmológicas tradicionales. Como abogada y activista, centra las soluciones en marcos de derechos humanos, con atención especial a los derechos de las mujeres y grupos indígenas. La investigación de Dayanna apoyada por el VIP Lab se publicará en las próximas semanas! Lea más sobre el trabajo de Dayanna en el artículo del Diario del Norte.

VIP Lab Director, Rachel Locke, was in Washington, D.C., and New York last week to talk about Peace in Our Cities. Specifically, how the international community can reinforce frameworks for global peace and security oriented around safer cities for all inhabitants. Meetings were held in Washington with The World Bank and United States Institute of Peace, while in New York we were hosted by the Swiss Mission to the United Nations. Locke discussed how global trends such as migration and climate change are being managed at the city level in ways that either reinforce peace or build foundations for violence, while simultaneously offering reasons for hope and optimism by showcasing cities in the US, such as Columbus, OH, and Boston, MA, that have achieved significant reductions in violence in recent years. Peace in Our Cities is grateful to our partners, including the Secretary of Security for the City of Bogota and the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime for partnering in these events, alongside PiOC Secretariat partners, Stanley Center for Peace and Security and Pathfinders for Peaceful, Just and Inclusive Societies. #PeaceinOurCities #peacebuilding

Rachel Locke, Director of the Violence, Inequality and Power (VIP) Lab at the Kroc Institute for Peace and Justice, discusses the 2-year research project that examines the increased hostile environment within the local political sphere that has seen an increase in threats and harassment to local elected officials. ⚖️ Read the California Threats and Harassment Initiatives report at the link below ⤵ https://lnkd.in/geT3MNZY #LocalElectedOfficials #LocalPolitics #Threats #Harassment #KrocIPJ #VIPLab #AppliedResearch #Politics #Community

We've wrapped up this week's VIP Lab Fellows convening! Over the course of two days, we discussed how the Fellows' research might shift the way we think about drivers of violence and what new perspectives were introduced through the research. Seminar topics included: 🌎 Reclaiming Power: Group Identity Formation as Resistance to Economic and Political Change 🌎 Surviving Global Colonial Power: Legacies of Structural Violence in Indigenous and Artisanal Fishing Communities in South and Central America 🌎 How Men Mobilize: Maintaining Status, Retaining Power, Pursuing 'Peace' Comparative Studies of the US and Nigeria 🌎 Reimagining Futures through Memory, Narrative and the Stories Told: Power and Violence as a Reductionist Approach to Identity We are looking forward to sharing the VIP Lab Fellows' research papers in the coming weeks on our website: https://hubs.la/Q02T_W4N0 #Peacebuilding #SocialChange #Research

KPBS’s Amita Sharma cited our research when asking former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi about the rise of threats and harassment towards locally elected officials. For San Diego, Riverside and Imperial Counties, we found that 66% of all elected officials reported being on the receiving end of threats and harassment. Learn more about this research: https://hubs.la/Q02TTGcp0 #Democracy #Peacebuilding #ElectedOfficials

Congresswoman Sara Jacobs kicked off our two-day VIP Lab Fellows convening with opening remarks where she reinforced the importance of addressing power dynamics to prevent and resolve violence. Last year, Congresswoman Jacobs advocated to help secure the funding for the VIP Lab Fellowship through Congress' 2023 Omnibus Appropriations Bill. This funding enabled the VIP Lab to support the work of 8 Fellows doing cutting edge research on the intersection of power inequalities and violence. It was a full circle moment for Congresswoman Jacobs to welcome guests to hear from the Fellows on their research and where we can go from here. Final research papers will be available on the VIP Lab website in the coming weeks: https://lnkd.in/gA8sGE8q

Meet Mardiya, one of the 2024 VIP Lab Fellows researching how power inequalities impact violence. Mardiya is a digital sociologist, researcher, and community movement builder and works as a Global Community Manager, Team CommUNITY at Article 19. Working at the intersection of digital labour, gender and cybersecurity, surveillance, counterpublics and digital identities, Mardiya investigates the implications of technology-facilitated surveillance and datafied societies on minoritized communities in the global South. Her research, The Sexuality of Technology, retells stories of tech and socially facilitated violence in Ghana, exploring inequalities, the fears and anxieties of gender and sexual minorities. #Peacebuilding #Changemakers #Sociologist #Researcher #Technology

In July, VIP Lab Director, Rachel Locke, and Kroc IPJ Program Coordinator, Tori Luna, organized - together with our partners and co-editors from CRIES - Coordinadora Regional de Investigaciones Económicas y Sociales and the Stanley Center for Peace and Security - the third in a series of authors meetings for those contributing to an upcoming volume on Identity Based Mass Violence (IBMV). The gathering included authors, reference group members, co-editors, and even a film crew working to document the incredible collective work of the group. Among those attending were journalists from Central America and Mexico, human rights and atrocity prevention professors from South Africa and the US, restorative justice practitioners, data scientists, peacebuilders, architects, urban planners, boxing coaches, and more. The volume has invited authors that reflect on IBMV from along a spectrum that ranges from highly academic to more personal perspectives, inviting in personal and reflective styles. Approaching the volume in this way has offered a 360 degree world view of how and why IBMV occurs, what can be done about it, while also humanizing the felt reality of identity based violence. Read more: https://hubs.ly/Q02ThZmJ0 #Peacebuilding #Research #IBMV #Changemakers #Justice

Meet Cherrell Green, PhD, one of the 2024 VIP Lab Fellows researching how power inequalities impact violence. Cherrell's groundbreaking research delves into the lived experiences of Black men in the United States who have endured gunshot injuries due to community violence. Through in-depth interviews with Black men, this qualitative study examines how these individuals navigate life and critical systems following their injuries—including healthcare and the criminal legal system. The project aims to shed light on the unique challenges faced by victimized Black men, particularly those with criminal histories and seeks to inform the creation of targeted strategies, programs, and policies. By centering the voices of those directly impacted, Cherrell’s work strives to foster a deeper understanding and support the development of comprehensive solutions to better address and mitigate the effects of community gun violence. #Peacebuilding #Changemakers #GunViolence #Research

VIP Lab research on threats and harassment toward elected officials in San Diego, Riverside and Imperial Counties was featured on KPBS. We examined whether threats and harassment against local officials has worsened. A strong majority of our 2024 survey respondents (59 percent overall) believe that threatening or harassing behavior has become worse since they were first elected. To learn more, watch the KPBS feature: https://hubs.la/Q02SQML30 #electedofficials #sandiego #riverside #imperialcounty #publications