Opportunity Title: Applications Open for the Women PeaceMakers Fellowship Program (Up to $15,000)

KEY INFORMATION

Applications will be accepted March 1 - April 8, 2024. 

For twenty years, the Kroc Institute for Peace and Justice (Kroc IPJ) at the University of San Diego’s Kroc School of Peace Studies has hosted the Women PeaceMakers Fellowship program. The Fellowship offers a unique opportunity for peacebuilders who focus on gender, peace and conflict to engage in a cycle of learning, practice, research and participation that strengthens peacebuilding partnerships. The Women PeaceMakers Fellowship facilitates impactful collaborations between peacebuilders from conflict-affected communities and international partner organizations. The Fellows also co-create research intended to shape the peacebuilding field and highlight good practices for peacebuilding design and implementation.

Anyone who considers themselves a peacebuilder working to reduce cycles of violence through a focus on gender, peace, and conflict is welcome to apply. People of all genders, including transgender and non-binary or gender-fluid people, are welcome to apply and are eligible for a fellowship. The Women PeaceMakers Fellowship program does not consider sex, gender, or any other protected status as part of the application and selection process. Applicants may come from any country, as long as they will be able to travel to the United States for the residency. Applicants must have at least five years of peacebuilding or violence reduction experience and must speak sufficient English to participate fully in Fellowship activities. 

Throughout the Fellowship with the Kroc IPJ, selected Fellows will:

• Learn from and with other Fellows and the Kroc School team;
  • Learn about the Fellowship and past Fellows
• Gain new skills, perspectives, and innovative approaches to peacebuilding
• Expand their professional peacebuilding networks
• Drive forward vital peacebuilding research that focuses on shaping practice and policy
  • Read past research from the Fellowship

Fellowship Dates: September 2024 - July 2025.

Date of Residency at the University of San Diego in the United States: November 9 - November 23, 2024.

The health of our partners and community is our top priority, and the dates and format of the Fellowship are subject to change as COVID-19 conditions change around the world. The intention is to welcome Fellows to San Diego as part of this Fellowship, but it is possible that the Fellowship will be conducted entirely online if it is not possible to travel and gather safely. We will communicate with the selected Fellows to assess health and safety risks.

Fellows will receive a stipend of USD $15,000, which will cover their time spent in the fellowship as well as any costs for conducting fellowship-related research. The Kroc Institute for Peace and Justice will cover costs for the residency period at the University of San Diego.

2024-2025 THEME

BUILDING PEACE WITHIN THE DIASPORA

For the 2024-2025 fellowship year, the Kroc IPJ will select three Fellows who live in a diaspora community and work to build peace within their country of residence using a gender-responsive approach. This work may be focused on ending cycles of violence that affect members of the diaspora community or on leveraging a diaspora-led movement to end cycles of violence in their country of residence more broadly. Fellows will conduct research using a gender lens on diaspora-led movements to make their countries of residence more peaceful.

For the previous 2023-2024 fellowship year, the Women PeaceMaker Fellows focused their research on peacebuilding from the diaspora, with an emphasis on peacebuilders who are living outside of their country of origin but sending support to their country of origin. For the 2024-2025 fellowship, the Kroc IPJ will expand the program’s research on the theme of diaspora peacebuilding and focus on how members of the diaspora work in a gender-responsive way to end cycles of violence in their country of residence. Across these two research projects, the Kroc IPJ hopes to show how peacebuilders can leverage their roles in the diaspora to end cycles of violence and to better understand the strategies and tools they use to do so.

The Kroc IPJ will recruit Fellows who are members of a diaspora community and who work to end cycles of violence in their countries of residence using a gender-responsive approach. This work could take many forms - potential Fellows may be working in any sector, including government, civil society, academia, or the private sector.

For the purpose of this Fellowship, the Kroc IPJ considers diasporas to be migrants or descendants of migrants, whose identity and sense of belonging have been shaped by their migration experience and background, maintaining a connection to their home country. People who are part of a diaspora may have experienced forced displacement or may have moved voluntarily. This fellowship is open to peacebuilders from around the world, including from the US. The Kroc IPJ welcomes applications from people who migrated themselves but also from descendants of migrants. In the US context, this could include people who view themselves as part of the African, Caribbean or Latin American diasporas. Ideal candidates will have the following experience:

- Working or have worked as a researcher, with a substantial track record of academic and/or practitioner-based experience.

- Research experience that is based on engagement with conflict-affected communities and/or with peacebuilding organizations.

- Experience of at least five years working in the peacebuilding or related field.

- Experience implementing gender-responsive approaches in peacebuilding work or substantial academic experience related to gender, peace and conflict.

- Ability to participate in all activities during the year-long Fellowship and apply what they learn after the residency program.

- Sufficient English language proficiency to relate personal experiences and engage in discussions with a multi-country cohort.