Women PeaceMakers Provide Enlightening Dialogue During USD Residency

It’s a picture-perfect autumn day in the Garden of the Sea as a group of students sit in a circle surrounding the 2023 Women PeaceMakers. 

The students on the outside, the fellows on the inside, this fishbowl-style exercise yields candid conversation on the challenges and rights of women globally, as well as touches on their own personal experiences in their home countries. 

The 2023 Women PeaceMakers Fellowship cohort included Sveto Muhammad Ishoq (Afghanistan), Shadi Rouhshahbaz (Iran) and Kay Soe (Myanmar). The Joan B. Kroc School of Peace Studies’ annual program is part of its Women, Peace and Security Initiative. It brings together women peacebuilders who conduct applied research that builds mutual learning, more effective partnerships and strengthens peacebuilding practice and policy. 

"The time that the Women PeaceMakers spend with us on campus is always a highlight of the year," said Briana Mawby, Program Officer for Women, Peace, and Security at the Kroc Institute for Peace and Justice. "They engage with students, faculty and staff here at USD, and they also meet with members of the broader San Diego community. It's an opportunity to learn from their lived experience, to understand the realities of peacebuilding work from women peace leaders."

Since its inception in 2002, the program has had more than 70 alumni from more than 35 countries.

Among the many highlights of the two-week residency were two featured community events — a panel inside the KIPJ Theatre on Dec. 8 and a more informal student-led event in the Garden of the Sea on Dec. 9.

WOMEN PEACEMAKER FELLOWSHIP OUTCOMES

• Learn from and with other leading Fellows and the Kroc School's team
• Gain new skills, perspectives and innovative approaches to peacebuilding
• Expand professional peacebuilding networks
• Drive forward vital peacebuilding research that focuses on shifting practice and policy

— Story and photos by Matthew Piechalak