We welcomed Professor Darren Kew to the Institute in May, to commence his tenure for the US Friends of Queen’s University Belfast Visiting Professorship, awarded by the US-UK Fulbright Commission. 

Darren Kew (Ph.D. in International Relations, Tufts University, 2002) is Associate Professor and former Chair of the Department of Conflict Resolution, Human Security, and Global Governance, and Executive Director of the Center for Peace, Democracy, and Development at the University of Massachusetts, Boston. 

He studies the relationship between conflict resolution methods – particularly interfaith and inter-ethnic peacebuilding – and democratic development in Africa. Much of his work focuses on the role of civil society groups in this development. 

He has also been a consultant on democracy and peace initiatives to the United Nations, USAID, US Institute of Peace, the US State Department, and to a number of NGOs, including the Carter Center. He monitored the last six Nigerian elections and the 2007 elections in Sierra Leone.

Publications

Professor Kew is author of numerous works on Nigerian politics and conflict resolution, including the book Civil Society, Conflict Resolution, and Democracy in Nigeria (Syracuse UP, 2016), and his articles have appeared in International Negotiation, the Journal of Democracy, and Current History, among others. 

Research Interests

Professor Kew’s research interests include:

• Civil society, conflict prevention, and transnational civil society development
• Religion, Ethnicity, and Conflict Resolution
• International security, crisis intervention, and Early Warning/Early Response in Africa
• Conflict resolution efforts as grassroots approaches to promoting democracy 
• Conflict and democracy in Africa (especially Nigeria), including elections
• International negotiation and mediation
• Nonviolence as a practice and social movement development

US Friends of Queen’s University Belfast Visiting Professorship

During his Visiting Professorship at the Institute, Darren would like to learn more about the role that civil society groups played in building the infrastructure for peace that helped to make the 1990s process in Northern Ireland possible. 

He is especially interested in learning more about the cross- and intra-sectoral relationships and networks that were built prior to the 1990s, and how they have continued to develop after the 1990s process. How do these quiet but essential relationships develop, and what role do they play in fostering and sustaining peace processes? 

He wants to interview activists from all dimensions of civil society, but is especially interested in learning more about the role of religious peacemakers and the cross-community relationships they build.

The Mitchell Institute is well known worldwide as a leader in peace research, and it is home to globally recognised scholars in the areas of his interest, including both scholars and practitioners who were and are themselves leaders in peace efforts in Northern Ireland.

To learn more about Professor Darren Kew’s research, contact him by email at kew@umb.edu.