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FACULTY BIOGRAPHIES -- Susan Shepler

Susan Shepler
Clark Hall 203
Office: (202) 885-2454
E-mail: shepler@american.edu
Website
MA/PhD, University of California Berkeley
BA, University of California Santa Cruz
International Peace and Conflict Resolution

Biography

Susan Shepler is an assistant professor of international peace and conflict resolution. She received a PhD from the University of California at Berkeley from the department of Social and Cultural Studies in Education.

Her ethnographic research is on youth and conflict generally, with a focus on the reintegration of former child soldiers in Sierra Leone. Other interests include post-conflict reconstruction, education and development, NGOs and globalization, and the search for local solutions to conflict. She has conducted research for UNICEF on transnational fosterage of war-affected youth in West Africa. She is the recipient of fellowships from the Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation, The Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation, and the American Association of University Women. In addition to academic work, she has participated in evaluations of Talking Drum Studio in Sierra Leone for Search for Common Ground and of Defense of Children International programming in Sierra Leone. She is the author of several book chapters and journal articles in the fields of youth studies, human rights, and African politics.

Research Interests

• Youth and Conflict
• Migration Crises and Security
• Reintegration of Former Child Soldiers in Sierra Leone
• Post-Conflict Reconstruction
• Education and Economic Development
• NGOs and Globalization
• Search for Local Solutions to Conflict
• Youth and Childhood Studies
• Humanitarianism
• Anthropology of Violence
• Human Rights in Africa

Recent Courses Taught

• Peace Paradigms (SIS.607.002 Fall 2006)
• Youth and Conflict (SIS.619.008 Fall 2006)

Selected Publications

• “The Rites of the Child: Global Discourses of Youth and Reintegrating Child Soldiers in Sierra Leone” Journal of Human Rights 4(2). Nancy Scheper-Hughes, ed. June 2005.

• “Globalizing Child Soldiers in Sierra Leone” in Youthscapes: The Popular, The National, The Global. Sunaina Maira and Elisabeth Soep, Eds. University of Pennsylvania Press. December 2004.

• “Educated in War: The Rehabilitation of Child Soldiers in Sierra Leone” in Conflict Resolution and Peace Education in Africa. Ernest E. Uwazie, Ed. Lexington Books. August 2003.

• “Les Filles-Soldats: Trajectoires d’apres-guerre en Sierra Leone.” Politique Africaine 88: 49-62. December 2002.

• “Education as a Site of Political Struggle in Sierra Leone.” Antropológicas Vol. 2. 1998.

Professional Practice

• Lead Researcher, UNICEF, “Transnational Fosterage of War-affected Children in West Africa: Immediate Coping Capacities across Borders.” Designed and led survey and ethnographic research in South East Guinea with refugee children in informal fostering arrangements. 10/05 – 12/05.

• Expert Consultant, “Where are the Girls? Girls in Fighting Forces in Northern Uganda, Sierra Leone, and Mozambique: Their Lives During and After War” a CIDA sponsored study with Prof. Susan McKay, University of Wyoming. 1/03.

• Evaluation of Talking Drum Studio programming in Sierra Leone for Search for Common Ground. Working with a team of researchers, designed and implemented a nationwide listener survey, held interviews with key informants and wrote qualitative case studies of particular projects. 1/02

• Project Proposal Evaluation for Children at Risk, Holland. Traveled to sites of four proposed grass roots development projects around Sierra Leone and conducted interviews and observation to report on project feasibility. 2/01 - 4/01

• Ethnographic fieldwork throughout Sierra Leone for PhD dissertation. Participant observation with former child soldiers in Interim Care Centers and in communities post-reintegration. 10/99-11/01

PROFESSIONAL AFFILIATIONS

• American Anthropological Association
• African Studies Association
• Comparative and International Education Society

BOOK AND PEER REVIEWER

• Anthropology and Education Quarterly
• Ethnos
• Childhood
• Feminist Studies

Awards

• 2006 Outstanding Dissertation in Comparative Education – Gail P. Kelly Award from the Comparative and International Education Society (CIES).
• 2004 Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation dissertation year fellowship.
• 2003, 2004. Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation dissertation fellowship.
• 2003 American Association of University Women, American Dissertation Fellowship.
• 1999, 2000. Rocca Memorial Fellowship for doctoral research in African Studies, University of California Berkeley, Center for African Studies.
• 1996 Foreign Language and Area Studies (FLAS) grant for study of Mende language (a Sierra Leonean language.)

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