What is VIP?

The Violence, Instability, and Peace (VIP) Workshop is a virtual forum for scholars studying conflict, protest, crime, peace, and related topics to receive feedback on research-in-progress, including working papers and well-developed pre-analysis plans. The workshop is open to scholars from political science and related disciplines (e.g., sociology, economics, psychology, communication), and from across subfields.

Spring 2025 Workshop Lineup

Feb 20th, 2025 8am PST/11am EST/3pm GMT

• Betul Ozturan (Boston University), “Mapping Political Violence in Turkey: When Terrorism and Civil War Converge”

  Discussant: Killian Clarke (Georgetown University)

• Tosin Salau (Michigan State University), “Citizens’ Unrest: Understanding Civilian Cooperation with Militant Groups Amid Subsidy Reductions”

  Discussant: MP Broache (UNC Greensboro)

March 27th, 2025 8am PST/11am EST/3pm GMT, Click here for Zoom link

• Leonor Oliveira Toscano (University of Oslo), “No One Size Fits All: The Limits of Kenya’s Local Peace Infrastructure in Urban Settlements”

  Discussant: Blair Welsh (New York University — Abu Dhabi)

• Sobia Paracha (Syracuse University) “Entrenched or Abandoned: Domestic Politics and Nationalism in Territorial Disputes”

  Discussant: Andi Zhou (U.S. Naval Academy)

April 24, 2025 8am PST/11am EST/3pm GMT, Click here for Zoom link

• Jamie Shenk (University of Warwick), “State for Hire: Corporate-State Security Contracts in Extractive Zones”

  Discussant: Clara Voyvodic Casabo (University of Bradford)

• Daniel Rio Tinto (Fundação Getúlio Vargas), “When Public Goods Go Bad: Criminal Actors and Negative Security Externalities of Welfare Projects”

  Discussant: Lucia Tiscornia (University College Dublin)

Workshop Information

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We consider submissions of full papers (e.g., to be submitted for publication in a peer-reviewed journal, a chapter in an edited volume, or a job market paper) and well-developed research designs or pre-analysis plans. If accepted, you will provide a short presentation (about 5 minutes) and receive about 25 minutes of feedback from a discussant and attendants.

We are open to work from scholars at all career stages, although we particularly aim to provide opportunities for junior scholars and early career researchers, including pre-tenure and non-tenure track faculty, post-docs, and graduate students. We are also committed to promoting opportunities for scholars from historically excluded communities.

Do you want to discuss your peers’ work? Volunteer as a discussant here.

Scholars at varying stages of their careers (from advanced PhD candidates to tenured scholars) can serve as discussants, as long as they are willing to read research-in-progress and provide about 10 minutes of feedback. We will do our best to match you with a paper that fits your area of expertise.

Format

Our workshops are one-hour-long sessions dedicated to providing feedback on two featured papers; accordingly, authors will only provide a short 5-minute presentation to provide an overview of the paper. Each paper will then receive 25 minutes of dedicated feedback from both a chosen discussant and other participants. Manuscripts will be circulated at least one week in advance, and all participants are expected to read them.

Current Organizers

• Ana Paula Pellegrino (PhD Candidate, Georgetown University)
• Betul Ozturan (PhD Candidate, Boston College)
• Frank Wyer (Naval Postgraduate School)
• MP Broache (Assistant Professor, UNC-Greensboro)
• Merve Keskin (PhD Candidate, University of Pittsburgh)
• Taylor Vincent (PhD Candidate, University of Maryland)
• Sloan Landsdale (University of Maryland)

Alumni organizers: Isabel Laterzo, Amelie Godefroidt, Neeraj Prasad.

Past Workshops

Fall 2024 Workshop Lineup

September 26, 2024 8am PST/11am EST/3pm GMT

• Imrana Alhaji Buba (University of Oslo), “From Survival to Subjugation: Civilian Cooperation with Boko Haram in Nigeria” Discussant: Antonia Juelich (Harvard University)

• Amanda Rizkallah (Pepperdine University), “Civil War Participation, Victimization, and the Development of Post-Conflict Partisan Identity: Evidence from Lebanon”

  Discussant: Kristen Fabbe (European University Institute)

October 24, 2024 8am PST/11am EST/3pm GMT

• Juan David Gelvez (University of Maryland), “The Politics of Crime Prevention: Evidence from Colombia”

  Discussant: Danny Hirschel-Burns (Princeton University)

• Yu Mei (University of Rochester), “The Interplay of Military Intervention and Peacemaking”

  Discussant: Kyle Beardsley (Duke University)

November 21, 2024 8am PST/11am EST/3pm GMT

• Natalia Pia Guerrero Trinidad (University of Minnesota), “Non-State Social Structures and Social Capital: Evidence on Crime and Conflict”

  Discussant: Andres Uribe (University of Wisconsin-Madison)

• Sally Shariff (Simon Fraser University and University of British Columbia) and Julio Zuluaga Jimenez (Pontifícia Universidad Javeriana), “What Causes a Reduction in Post-Conflict Violence?”

  Discussant: MP Broache (UNC Greensboro)

Spring 2024

April 25, 2024 8am PST/11am EST/3pm GMT

• Mariana V. Ramírez Bustamente (Vanderbilt University) “How Do Drug-trafficking Organizations Shape Political Attitudes? Evidence from Peru”

  Discussant: Gabriella Levy, Brown University

• Elisa D’Amico (University of St. Andrews) “Beyond Borders: Humanitarian-Based Mediation in African Conflicts through Refugee Shocks”

  Discussant: Chris Blair, Princeton University

February 15, 2024 8am PST/11am EST/4pm GMT:

• Kirssa Ryckman (University of Arizona) “Return to the Streets: The Recurrence of Civil Resistance Campaigns”

  Discussant: Austin Mitchell (Norwegian University of Science and Technology)

• Carly Millerd (University of Iowa) “The Emergence of Networks of Women’s Civil Society Organizations During Civil Wars”

  Discussant: Kathleen Gallagher Cunningham (University of Maryland)

March 14, 2024 8am PST/11am EST/3pm GMT

• Madeleine Stevens (University of Chicago) “’Por Algo Será:’ Disappearances in Authoritarian Argentina”

  Discussant: Jane Esberg (UPenn)

• Diego Sazo (London School of Economics) “The Violence Disconnection: Broken Societies and The Logic of Civil Disorder in South America (2017-2020)”

  Discussant: Mason Moseley (University of West Virginia)

Fall 2023

November 9, 2023 8am PST/11am EST/5pm GMT

• Sean Paul Ashley (Dartmouth) “Wartime Institutions and the Durability of Rebel Regimes”

  Discussant: Andres Uribe (Stanford University)

• Sigrid Weber (Stanford) “Where to flee? Exploring household-level destination choices and political integration during displacement in the Kasai, DRC”

  Discussant: Mateo Villamizar Chaparro (Duke University)

October 12, 2023 8am PST/11am EST/4pm GMT

• Frank Wyer (Naval Postgraduate School) “Who’s to Blame? How Postconflict Violence Affects Public Support for Peace”

  Discussant: Juan Albarracín (University of Illinois, Chicago)

• Lucía Tiscornia (University College Dublin), co-authors: Ines Fynn (Universidad Catolica del Uruguay), Veronica Perez Bentancur (Universidad de la Republica), Gustavo Diaz (McMaster University), “In the Crevices of the State: Criminal Governance in Contexts of High State Presence and Low Violence”

  Discussant: Nicholas Barnes (University of St Andrews)

September 21, 2023 8am PST/11am EST/4pm GMT

• Sule Yaylaci (UPenn), co-author: Chris Price (Bates College) “Collective Targeting of Violence and Identity Shift: Evidence From Bosnia”

  Discussant: Baylee Harrell (University of Kentucky)

• Nihad Aboud (University of Essex) “Affiliation and Jihadist Rhetoric Dynamics: The Case of Boko Haram”

  Discussant: Emma Boyle (Penn State Harrisburg)

Spring 2023

• May 4, 8am PST/11am EST/4pm GMT

  “The Inter-State Dilemma of Transnational Repression: Origin State Strategies and Host State Variation” by Connor Kopchick (The University of Maryland - College Park)

  Discussant: Myunghee Lee (Nordic Institute of Asian Studies)

  “Returning Home: Child Soldiers, Cleansing Rituals and Reintegration in Uganda” by Allen Kiconco (Wits University)

  Discussant: Rebecca Tapscott (Geneva Graduate Institute)

• April 6, 8am PST/11am EST/4pm GMT

  “Effects of Conflicts on Intimate Partner Violence: Evidence from Mexico” by Anousheh Alamir (European Centre for Advanced Research in Economics and Statistics)

  Discussant: Marco Alcocer (Predoctoral Fellow, ITAM and Innovations for Poverty Action; PhD candidate, University of California, San Diego; Academy Scholar, Harvard University - fall ‘23)

  “Addressing Contentious Variance: Networks, Urban Space, and Collective Action in a Syrian Uprising, 1979–1982” by Motasem Abuzaid (University of Oxford)

  Discussant: Daniel Solomon (PhD Candidate, Georgetown University)

• March 9, 8am PST/11am EST/4pm GMT

  “The Public Response to Threats of Violence Against Elected Officials” by Alexandra Filindra (The University of Illinois Chicago) & Laurel Harbridge-Yong (Northwestern University)

  Discussant: Elsa Voytas (I.E. University)

  “Political Assassination, Elite Cues and Trust in Institutions: Quasi-Experiment from Tunisia” by Mohamed-Dhia Hammami (Syracuse University)

  Discussant: Mariana Carvalho (Brown University)

• February 9, 8am PST/11am EST/4pm GMT

  “The Political Economy of the Heavy Hand: How Poverty Reduces Politicians’ Incentives to Reform Security Policies” by Andrea Junqueira (Washington University in St. Louis)

  Discussant: Jessie Trudeau (Brown University)

  “Coercion and Capture in Democratic Politics” by Andres Uribe (The University of Chicago)

  Discussant: Alex Braithwaite (The University of Arizona)

Fall 2022

• December 8, 8am PST/11am EST/4pm GMT

  “How Does the Geography of Surveillance Affect Collective Action in the Occupied Palestinian Territories?” by Sandra Penic (University of Geneva)

  Discussant: Emily Ritter (Vanderbilt University)

  “How Corporatist Institutions Shape Criminal Violence: Evidence from Mexico’s Nucleos Agrarios” by Elena Barham (Columbia University)

  Discussant: Alma Bezares Calderón (Whittier College)

• November 10, 12pm PST/3pm EST/8pm GMT

  “The Economic Roots of Violence: The Unintended Consequences of Colombia’s Close Peace Referendum” by Andrés Felipe Rivera-Triviño (Universidad Javeriana-Cali) & Paula Zamora-Raiño (Texas A&M University)

  Discussant: Michael Weintraub (Universidade de los Andes)

  “Support from Afar? The Logic of Diaspora Sponsorship to Rebel Organizations” by Sara Daub (University of Maryland & The Hertie School)

  Discussant: Jessica Soedirgo (The University of Amsterdam)

• October 13, 8am PST/11am EST/3pm GMT

  “Violence Against Women and Political Participation in Mexico” by Angie Torres-Beltran (Cornell)

  Discussant: Jamie Shenk (Harvard University)

  “Taking to Kill: The Lethality of Hostage-Taking in Civil War” by Blair Welsh (Essex)

  Discussant: Jori Breslawski (Tel Aviv University)