Inequality is correlated with nearly all forms of violence, yet there remains a dearth of focused analysis or reflection on the ways in which unequal power relationships shape responses to violence. In 2024, we launched the Violence, Inequality and Power Lab (VIP Lab) Fellows Program with funding from the U.S. Department of Education with the goal of filling this void.
The goal of the fellowship is to support rigorous research and advance thought leadership on how power inequalities impact violence, both in driving violence dynamics and influencing responses to it.
The VIP Lab is thrilled to announce its inaugural eight fellows to include two residential fellows based at the University of San Diego and six non-residential fellows based in Ghana, Mexico, Colombia, the Netherlands, and the United States. During the 10 month fellowship, the eight fellows will complete individual research. The VIP Lab will compile a volume of work that draws on the fellows' research and explores intersecting elements of power, inequality and violence. This volume will provide a multisectoral perspective, grounded in theory and practice, that contributes to how we approach the role of power in violence dynamics.
Residential Fellows
Brandon "Biko" Koenig is Assistant Professor in the Government and Public Policy programs at Franklin & Marshall college in Lancaster, PA, and co-founder of Research|Action, a worker-owned research and organizing firm. Trained as an ethnographer and qualitative specialist, Biko’s research investigates questions of political behavior and mobilization that centers the experiences of everyday actors as they seek to challenge status-quo power relationships.
Research Proposal: My project explores the complex dynamics surrounding the rise of conspiracism, extremism, and political violence in the United States. It includes a particular focus on understanding the processes and mechanisms by which everyday Americans, notably young men, become involved in extremist political groups, and how mainstream politics feeds into the normalization of such groups in the polity. By examining both the tactics employed by extremist groups to attract new members and the motivations of potential recruits, I will explore the new and growing onramps and recruitment strategies that underpin the growth of extremism.
Mirna Wasef is a writer, educator, researcher, and human rights advocate who completed her PhD in History from the University of California, San Diego. Her work focuses on citizenship, humanitarianism, education, gender, and sectarianism in global contexts, especially the Middle East and North Africa. Her forthcoming book, “Educate a Girl, Educate a Nation” examines the role of girls’ schools in shaping gendered citizenship within colonial and postcolonial nations.
Research Proposal: This project, “Transnational Sectarianism,” centers on Coptic, Chaldean, and Assyrian diaspora communities in San Diego to examine how migrant experiences illuminate the intricacies of national belonging and the ways in which institutional failings of social equity influence expressions of sectarian violence. To challenge depictions of sectarian violence as an inherent feature of the Middle East’s religious difference, this project demonstrates how authoritarian state failures to establish equitable social systems fueled the minoritization of its citizens and generated environments of sectarian violence that have created global realities of unprecedented levels of displacement, inequality, and violence.
Non-Residential Fellows
Areli Palomo Contreras is a field researcher at Linea 84 Collective, Ethnographic Journalism and Community Action, Areli’s main commitment is pursuing activities, initiatives and actions occasioning a public critical understanding on how global political economy engenders migration flows.
Research Proposal: In the 1990s, farming and fishing communities in Honduras’ Golfo de Fonseca faced rapid expansion of the international shrimp farm industry. The communities' natural resources have long been at the center of the social, political, and economic conflict, as international shrimp companies have managed to appropriate vast portions of these wetlands given how coveted this ecosystem is for shrimp farming. To date, the dynamic of the global political economy, influencing power, and leading to multiple forms of violence translated to social tensions, conflict, and disruptions in communities from el Golfo de Fonseca is less known and understudied. This research will contribute to the understanding of these dynamics, and will add to the conversation of Veena Das’ research on “coming to terms with the fact that events of violence are woven into the fabric of everyday life.”
Cherrell Green earned her PhD in Criminology and Criminal Justice at the University of Missouri – St. Louis. A qualitative researcher by training, her scholarly work examines the intersections of community violence and trauma and its impact on the lives of Black Americans, with a particular focus on gun violence among Black males.
Research Proposal: Black men are at a disproportionate risk of experiencing direct and indirect exposure to community violence. This research will take a qualitative approach by conducting at least 30 semi-structured interviews with Black men ages 18-40 across the United States to provide an in-depth understanding as to how they experience community violence. The findings from this work can contribute to the development and implementation of culturally informed strategies, programs and policies aimed at addressing how Black men cope with exposure to gun violence.
Dayanna Gladys Palmar Uriana is an indigenous woman from the Wayuu ethnic group, a binational community spanning Venezuela and Colombia. She is a lawyer, journalist and human rights advocate. Her interests revolve around researching topics related to the territorial and environmental rights of indigenous peoples, as well as the rights of indigenous women.
Research Proposal: This research will focus on how violence against indigenous women contributes to the systematic discrimination against indigenous communities in Colombia and Venezuela. As guardians of biocultural heritage, indigenous women continue to experience different forms of intersectional violence and discrimination. Indigenous women encounter various obstacles in seeking justice for gender-based violence, often stemming from the judicial systems of individual countries and programs that address reporting, prevention, and punishment of gender-based violence without adopting an intersectional approach.
Mardiya Siba Yahaya is a digital sociologist, storytelling researcher and community movement builder whose work investigates the implications of technology-facilitated surveillance and datafied societies on minoritized communities in the global South. They have a masters in Sociology from the University of the Witwatersrand. Mardiya's mission is to design and facilitate sustainable and collaborative communities that work on improving challenges and issues at the intersection of technology, society and people.
Research Proposal: The proposed research details violence as a community and political practice within datafied societies by centreing “surveillance as a project of control, and gender as a product of surveillance.” While the proposed work assesses violence through state’s reproduction of ‘machine readable’ humans as a way to expand the bounds of human legibility, it focuses on providing detailed accounts of the anxieties, fears and threats queer people experience with increasing datafication of their lives, and the logic behind such fears and anxieties. The goal is to expand what the dynamics of violence in techno-societies entail, as the research weaves queer imaginaries of the future within the final output.
Nana Afua Yeboaa Brantuo is a mixed methods researcher who delves into the intersections of data within social, cultural, and political realms, focusing on social policy and civic engagement. She founded Diaspora Praxis, LLC, pursuing interdisciplinary research, and leads a project investigating Black migrants' experiences in US immigration courts for the Ohio Immigrant Alliance while consulting for the African Women Development Fund. Nana advises the Africa Data Governance Hub and supports African immigrant and refugee survivors of domestic and sexual violence through The Person Center’s advisory board in Washington DC.
Research Proposal: This research aims to comprehensively analyze transnational political violence against Black migrants seeking refuge across borders, particularly in the United States. By exploring violence experienced in home countries, transit nations, and host nations, the project illuminates challenges faced by these migrants throughout their migration journey. Research will provide a nuanced understanding of systemic oppression and anti-Blackness within the immigration system. Findings will deliver actionable recommendations for policymakers to improve conditions and policies affecting Black and all migrants seeking refuge.
Tarila Marclint Ebiede is Director of the Conflict Research Network West Africa, Abuja, Nigeria. He conducts research on political violence, (in)security and peacebuilding in Nigeria.
Research Proposal: The research sets out to explain how power inequalities inherent in peace processes make societies emerging from violent conflicts more vulnerable to the recurrence of political violence after the implementation of peacebuilding programmes. Focusing on the disarmament, demobilization and reintegration (DDR) of ex-militants in Nigeria's Niger Delta, the research seeks to explain how peace processes can create power inequalities between groups and why this can lead to conflict recurrence in post-conflict societies.
