Associate Professor
Associate Dean
- PhD, Conflict Analysis and Resolution, George Mason University
- MA, Heller School for Social Policy and Management, Brandeis University
- BA/MA (Honors), Political Science and French, Yerevan State Linguistic University, Armenia
Philip Gamaghelyan is an Associate Professor at the Joan B. Kroc School of Peace Studies at the University of San Diego. He has served as Director of the Master’s Program in Conflict Management and Resolution, the Graduate Certificate in Mediation, and the Security Studies concentration. His teaching spans conflict analysis and resolution, mediation, media and conflict, nationalism and conflict, and intervention design, among other areas.
Dr. Gamaghelyan is a conflict resolution scholar-practitioner and co-founder of the Imagine Center for Conflict Transformation, where he also serves on the Board of Directors. He is the Managing Editor of Caucasus Edition: Journal of Conflict Transformation (www.caucasusedition.net). His practical and research experience extends across the post-Soviet states of Ukraine, Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia, as well as Turkey, Syria, and other conflict-affected regions, where he has worked with policymakers, journalists, educators, and civil society leaders.
His current research focuses on the critical re-evaluation and redesign of conflict resolution interventions in the 21st century, as well as on shaping the future of peace studies and peace practice.
Areas of Expertise
Structural and symbolic violence, Ethnically-framed conflicts, Methodological innovations and intervention design in conflict resolution practice, Discourse analysis, Action research, Conflicts in Russia and Eurasia
Scholarly Work
Books
- Gamaghelyan, Philip. Conflict Resolution Beyond the International Relations Paradigm. Ibidem Press/Columbia University Press, 2017.
Journal Articles
- Gamaghelyan, Philip, and Sevil Huseynova. "Challenges to Building a Viable Alternative to Ethnonationalism in the Armenia-Azerbaijan Conflict Setting." Caucasus Survey (2024).
- Bath, Clare, and Philip Gamaghelyan. "Benefits and Challenges of Institutionalizing Peacebuilding and Activism in a Post-Liberal World." International Negotiation (2024).
- Gamaghelyan, Philip, Lisa Thomas, and Maria Helena Jaen. "La Jolla Children’s Pool: Who has rights to the beach?" Case Research Journal 43 (2), Spring/Summer 2023.
- Gamaghelyan, Philip. "Caucasus Edition: Decentralized Transnational Network as a Pivotal Structure for Peacebuilding in Non-Democratic Environments." Action Research (2022).
- Gamaghelyan, Philip, and Sergey Rumyantsev. "The Road to the Second Karabakh War: The Role of Ethno-Centric Narratives in the Nagorno-Karabakh Conflict." Caucasus Survey 9 (3): 320–36 (2021).
- Gamaghelyan, Philip. "Towards an Inclusive Conception of Best Practices in Peace and Conflict Initiatives." International Negotiation 26 (1): 125-150 (2021).
- Gamaghelyan Philip, Rumyansev Sergey, and Sayan Pinar. "Learning from Azerbaijani-Armenian and Armenian-Turkish Problem-Solving Workshops." Caucasus Edition (2015).
- Gamaghelyan, Philip, and Sergey Rumyantsev. "History Education in the South Caucasus." Turkish Policy Quarterly 12 (1), Spring 2014.
- Gamaghelyan, Philip. "A Word of Caution against Framing Syria as an Assad-Opposition Dichotomy." Turkish Policy Quarterly 12 (3), 2013.
- Gamaghelyan, Philip, and Christopher Littlefield. "Facilitator Co-Debriefing." Beyond Intractability, University of Colorado (2012).
- Gamaghelyan, Philip. "Rethinking the Nagorno-Karabakh Conflict: Identity, Politics, Scholarship." International Negotiation 15 (1): 33–56 (2010).
- Gamaghelyan, Philip. "Clash of Narratives: The under-Appreciated Role of Identity in Non-Resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh Conflict." Caucasus Edition 2 (2), 2010.
Edited Volumes
- Editor of multiple issues of Caucasus Edition special issues, including Themes for Consideration in the Armenia-Azerbaijan Peace Process (2022) and Introducing Transitional Justice (2022).
Book Chapters
- Gamaghelyan, Philip. "Fluid Narratives, Evolving Discourses: Armenian-Turkish Dialogue in a Changing Political Context." In Education and the Politics of Memory, edited by Sergey Rumyantsev, Routledge (forthcoming 2025).
- Gamaghelyan, Philip. "The Ones Who Walk Away to Stay and Fight." In Wicked Problems: The Ethics of Action for Peace, Rights, and Justice, edited by Austin Choi-Fitzpatrick, Douglas Irvin-Erickson, Ernesto Verdeja, Oxford University Press (2022).
- Gamaghelyan, Philip. "Armenia: The Role of History in Sustaining the Ethnic Framing of the Nagorno-Karabakh Conflict." In The Palgrave Handbook of Conflict and History Education in the Post-Cold War Era, edited by Luigi Cajani, Simone Lässig, Maria Repoussi, Palgrave Macmillan (2019).
- Greiff, Jacquie L., Matthew Graville Bricker, Philip Gamaghelyan, Margarita Tadevosyan, and Shu Deng. "Debriefing in Peacemaking and Conflict Resolution Practice: Models of Emergent Learning and Practitioner Support." Reflective Practice, 1–15 (2015).
- Gamaghelyan, Philip, and Sergey Rumyansev. "Armenia and Azerbaijan: The Nagorny Karabakh Conflict and the Reinterpretation of Narratives in History Textbooks." In Myths and Conflicts in the South Caucasus: Instrumentalization of Historical Narratives, International Alert (2013).
- Gamaghelyan, Philip. "Social Media: A New Track of Multi-Track Diplomacy." In Peacemaking: From Practice to Theory, edited by Susan Allen Nan, Zachariah Cherian Mampilly, and A. Bartoli, Praeger Security International (2012).
- Kusa, Dagmar, Adam Saltsman, and Philip Gamaghelyan. "Mediating History, Making Peace." In The Handbook for Working with Difficult Groups, edited by Sandy Schuman, Jossey-Bass (2010).
- Gamaghelyan, Philip, and Ceren Ergenc. "Politics of Memory in the Turkish-Armenian Conflict or Making Peace with an Elephant in the Room." In Training Manual in Historical Conciliation, Center for Historical Conciliation (2007).
Reports, Op-Eds, and Public Scholarship (Selected)
- Goksel, Nigar, and Philip Gamaghelyan. "Seizing the Moment: Armenia and Azerbaijan at the Crossroads." War on the Rocks (2024).
- Gamaghelyan, Philip, and Pinar Sayan. "What Next for Armenia and Azerbaijan?" London School of Economics EUROPP Blog (2022).
Gamaghelyan, Philip. "Nagorno-Karabakh: Nationalist Politics at a Geo-Political Crossroads." Progressive Post (2019).