Universities can be catalysts
for peacebuilding
PREP is the home for field-based peace research and action at NYU SPS & the Center for Global Affairs.
We support the activation of local networks of peacebuilders in Iraq, Colombia, Libya, Molodova and Kuwait.
We work at the intersection of higher education & peacebuilding
People are resilient and have the capacity to build more peaceful communities. PREP aims to give support to academic institutions and local actors that are in the process of rebuilding the social fabric of their communities in the wake of years of violent conflict through formal and informal education and joint research
Young peacebuilders in Sheikhan, Iraq wrote, produced, and directed this short film as part of a University of Duhok and PREP project aimed to strengthen youth capacity in in peacebuilding.
PREP creates opportunities for young people to build on their skills and passions to create more peaceful communities.
We connect master’s students with peacebuilding professionals and organizations throughout the world to gain international peacebuilding work and research experience through courses & events at the NYU Center for Global Affairs.
WINNER of 2023 PREP STUDENT PEACE RESEARCH AWARD ANNOUNCED
PREP is proud to announce that Matt Roman (MSGA 2024) has been named the winner of the 2023 PREP Student Peace Research Award. Matt's paper, entitled "The United Delhi Cricket League" was the unanimous choice of the contest's evaluators. One of them wrote that Matt's paper "was creative, easy to follow, read, and evidenced by a real understanding of peacebuilding approaches, methodologies, and outcomes." Congratulations on a job well-done, Matt, from all of us at PREP!
Recent Publications
POSSIBLE PEACE, UNENDING WAR?
Moreno Ojeda & Helmsing | 2021
PREP published the English-language version of this interdisciplinary exploration on the prospects for peacebuilding in Colombia’s post-Agreement context with recommendations, based on critical analysis of the process to date, offer clues to be considered in order to make the Peace Agreement’s results more effective. The Spanish-language version was published by the University of Externado.
MSGA Alumna Rosalie Fransen (‘16) and PREP’s Thomas Hill and Katerina Siira contributed a chapter on “The Role of Conflict Transformation Education in Building Community-led Peace: The Case of RESURPAZ.”
The Spanish-language version of the article can be accessed here.
Global and Local Efforts to Assess Peacebuilding Effectiveness
Hill, Siira & Stoumen | 2023
Understanding what is meant by peacebuilding effectiveness is both a complicated and straightforward endeavor. On one hand, it is clear that peacebuilding can only be considered effective if it benefits those who are most affected by or at risk of suffering from the consequences of violence. However, determining which people qualify as “most affected” can be a contentious process -- and forces us to prioritize some local voices over others.
Our work at New York University’s Peace Research and Education Program (PREP) suggests that the answer lies in a participatory approach that develops deep understandings of priorities and effects as they are experienced at the local level. Only by asking -- and carefully listening to -- members of particular communities can we hope to learn what types of interventions actually change people’s lived experiences for the better on a day-to-day basis.
FINDING PEACE IN COLOMBIA | ENCONTRANDO LA PAZ EN COLOMBIA VOL. I
Siira, Rincón, Hill & Palacios | 2020
The historic 2016 Peace Agreement between the Colombian government and the FARC-EP created a framework for the transformation of the country after more than 50 years of armed internal conflict; the transition to a more peaceful Colombia is, in part, to be catalyzed by the Comprehensive System for Truth, Justice, Reparation, and No Repetition. Two years on, a collaboration between master’s students from the Center for Global Affairs at New York University’s School of Professional Studies and researchers from RESURPAZ of the Escuela Superior de Administración Pública sought to capture perceptions of peace and and reparations among youth, ex-combatants of the FARC-EP and survivors of violence committed by the state and the FARC-EP in Algeciras, Huila, Colombia, a municipality highly effected by violence. Their insights documented in this bilingual collection of work offer an important reminder that the road to a more peaceful Algeciras and Colombia runs directly through the communities most effected by violence.