Leadership
Susanna P. Campbell is an Assistant Professor at the School of International Service and the Director of the Research on International Policy Implementation Lab (RIPIL) at American University. Her research covers topics related to civil wars, statebuilding, peacebuilding, peacekeeping, international aid, and global governance. Her work has been published or is forthcoming with Cambridge University Press, Columbia University Press, International Studies Review, International Peacekeeping, Journal of Global Security Studies, Journal of Politics, Oxford University Press, and Political Research Quarterly. She previously worked for the United Nations, International Crisis Group, and the Council on Foreign Relations; she also served as a senior advisor for the 2018 Task Force on Extremism in Fragile States, mandated by the US Congress. www.susannacampbell.com.
Christina Harris is currently a PhD candidate at American University’s School of International Service. Her research interests include transitional and transformative justice; multiculturalism, (mis)recognition, and the politics of difference; post-conflict peacebuilding; international human rights and humanitarian laws; and international norms and state behavior. Prior to pursuing her PhD, Christina worked for more than a decade with international organizations and NGOs, including UN agencies, USAID-funded projects, Amnesty International USA, and Ploughshares Fund. Christina passed her doctoral comprehensive exams in the fields of International Relations (2018) and International Peace and Conflict Resolution (2019). Her dissertation research uses qualitative and interpretive methods to explore how positive peace and structural justice processes are envisioned and enacted in the Western settler colonial state.
Ariana Schmidt is currently a PhD student at American University’s School of
International Service. Her research interests in forced migration and international aid
stem from five years of humanitarian aid work in Europe and the Middle East with forcibly
displaced populations. She spent the majority of her time in Iraq, arriving during the Mosul
Offensive and staying through the ensuing early years of recovery and rebuilding.
Working on an international NGO’s senior management team, she led program
development and implementation efforts including managing UN and U.S. government
funded projects. During her undergraduate studies at Wheaton College, she completed
two internships with the U.S. State Department in Washington, D.C. and Cambodia
working on economic policy and public affairs. Ariana grew up in Niger.
Dr. Joe Young is a Professor at American University with a joint appointment in the School of Public Affairs and the School of International Service. His research seeks to understand the cross-national causes and consequences of political violence. Dr. Young has published numerous peer-reviewed articles across academic disciplines, including political science, economics, criminology, and international studies and is also a contributor and former editor for the online magazine, Political Violence @ a Glance. His research has been supported by the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism and his current research is supported by NCITE.