Brenna Marea Powell is a 7th year PhD candidate in the department of Government at Harvard University, and a doctoral fellow at the Multidisciplinary Program on Inequality and Social Policy at the Kennedy School of Government. She received her AB from Stanford in Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity. Her research interests include inequality, civil conflict and political violence in divided societies. Her three-article dissertation research explores the role of political institutions in redefining ethno-racial boundaries and social hierarchy. This includes work on post-conflict policing in Northern Ireland, racial policy in Brazil, and the politics of ethno-racial classification in the United States.

Film showing of "Shadow Work," a documentary from the Ivory Coast, about the grassroots origins of the violence currently tearing Ivory Coast apart.

A Discussion Session with

Joel Beinin is Donald J. McLachan Professor of History and Professor of Middle Eastern History at Stanford University. He received his M.A. from Harvard University and Ph.D. from the University of Michigan- Ann Arbor.  His research focuses on workers, peasants, and minorities in the modern Middle East and on Israel, Palestine, and the Arab-Israeli conflict. He has written or edited seven books, most recently Workers and Peasants in the Modern Middle East (Cambridge University Press, 2001) and The Struggle for Sovereignty: Palestine and Israel, 1993-2005 (with Rebecca Stein, Stanford University Press, 2006). In 2002, he served as President of the Middle East Studies Association of North America.

Lisa Blaydes is Assistant Professor of Political Science at Stanford University. She received her M.A. from Johns Hopkins University and Ph.D. from University of California-Los Angeles. Among her publications are Elections and Distributive Politics in Mubarak's Egypt (Cambridge University Press, 2011), "Women's Electoral Participation in Egypt: The Implications of Gender for Voter Recruitment and Mobilization" (with Safinaz El Tarouty , Middle East Journal, 2009), and "Spoiling the Peace?: Peace Process Exclusivity and Political Violence in North-central Africa" (with Jennifer De Maio, Civil Wars, 2010). Her research interests include comparative politics, Middle Eastern politics, and political economy.



Robert Crews is Associate Professor of History and Director of the Center for Russian, East European and Eurasian Studies at Stanford University. He received his M.A. from Columbia University and Ph.D. from Princeton University. He is the author of For Prophet and Tsar:  Islam and Empire in Russia and Central Asia (Harvard University Press, 2006) and co-editor of The Taliban and the Crisis of Afghanistan (with Amin Tarzi, Harvard University Press, 2008).  He was named by the Carnegie Corporation of New York as one of the 2009 Carnegie Scholars selected for influential ideas and enhancing public discourse about Islam.

Sponsored by the Abbasi Program in Islamic Studies

Patrick Meier is the Director of Crisis Mapping at Ushahidi and the co-founder of the International Network of Crisis Mappers. He serves on the boards of the Meta-Activism Project (MAP) and Digital Democracy. Patrick was previously the co-director of the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative's (HHI) Program on Crisis Mapping and Early Warning. He has consulted for several international organizations on numerous crisis mapping and early warning projects in Africa, Asia and Europe.

Patrick is completing his PhD at The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University. His dissertation focuses on the the impact of information and communication technologies on the balance of power between repressive regimes and popular movements. He has an MA in International Affairs from Columbia University and is an alum of the Sante Fe Institute's (SFI) Complex Systems Summer School.