Dr. Sabrina Karim is an associate professor in Government at Cornell University. She directs the Gender and Security Sector Lab funded by Global Affairs Canada and is the PI of the NSF CAREER award “The Domestic and International Politics of Global Police.”

Her research focuses on conflict and peace processes, particularly state building in the aftermath of civil war. Specifically, she studies international involvement in security assistance to post-conflict states, gender reforms in peacekeeping and domestic security sectors, and the relationship between gender and violence.

She is also co-author of the book Positioning Women in Conflict Studies: How Women’s Status Affects Political Violence (Oxford University Press, 2024). She is also the co-author of Equal Opportunity Peacekeeping: Women, Peace, and Security in Post-Conflict Countries (Oxford University Press, 2017). The book was the winner of the Conflict Research Studies Best Book Prize for 2017 and the American Political Science Association Conflict Processes Best Book Award for 2018. Her work has appeared in the American Political Science Review, International Organization, the British Journal of Political Science, The Journal of Peace Research, International Interactions, World Development, among others.

Born and raised in Colorado, Sabrina received her PhD from Emory University in 2016. Prior to her doctorate degree, she received a Fulbright Fellowship and received her master’s degree as a Clarendon Scholar from Oxford University. She has an undergraduate degree from Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service.

Janna Solomon is the Gender and Security Sector (GSS) Lab Manager. She has prior experience in an organizational capacity through her work in the not-for-profit sector, secondary and higher education. Her interest in the work that the GSS lab is doing to increase the well-being and meaningful peacekeeping work for women globally, drew her to this position. She enjoys supportive roles which have a direct impact on people’s lives, and she is excited to see how the lab’s research will provide beneficial changes for the future.

Dr. DeAnne Roark is a Post-Doctoral Research Associate with the Gender and Security Sector Lab. Her primary research interests include gender and conflict, human rights, and peacebuilding. Her dissertation, a book project, explores the cause and effects of justice processes that address legacies of gender inequality and violence against women after episodes of mass violence and human rights abuse. Dr. Roark holds a B.A. and M.A. in Political Science from the University of Texas at Arlington and received her Ph.D. (International Relations/Research Methods) from the University of North Texas. With the GSS Lab, she assists with MOWIP projects as part of the Elsie Initiative.

Dr. Sky Kunkel is a Gender and Security Sector (GSS) Postdoctoral Research Associate and formerly a USIP Peace Scholar Fellow. They obtained their Ph.D. from the Purdue University Department of Political Science. Dr. Kunkel's research is split between research on UN Peacekeeping and Private Military and Security Contractors (PMSCs). They apply advanced methods of causal inference to uncover the effects of nonstate actors on violence perpetrated against vulnerable populations, and have experience teaching graduate students quantitative methods and causal inference. They also research PMSCs, such as Russia's Wagner Group, accused of committing war crimes in Ukraine, Mali, and the Central African Republic. Sky is a founding and executive council member of the Junior IO Scholars Workshop.

Dr. Roya Izadi is an Assistant Professor in the department of Political Science at the University of Rhode Island. Her research interests include political economy of security, civil-military relations, political violence and gender, security sector reform, conflict, and post-conflict settlements. She is interested in understanding the dynamics of contentious politics and political violence using both macro and micro-level methods of analyses. More specifically, her research examines the conditions under which militaries operate within the economic system, the role of security forces in understanding conflict dynamics, and citizens' perceptions of the security forces given the latter's societal role and characteristics. As a member of the GSS lab, she has assisted the MOWIP projects with the Public Security Directorate in Jordan, the Armed Forces of Bangladesh, and the Royal Cambodian Armed Forces. Her work has previously been published in the Journal of Conflict Resolution and Research and Politics and has won awards from the Peace Science Society (International), International Studies Association, and the Inter-university Seminar on Armed Forces and Society. Dr. Izadi holds a B.A in Political Science from University of Tehran, an M.A from Miami University, and PhD from SUNY Binghamton.

Angie Torres-Beltran is a Postdoctoral Research Associate in the Department of Political Science at Michigan State University. Her primary research interests include gender, violence, political behavior, and institutions. Her dissertation examines the political causes and consequences of gender-based violence, with an emphasis on political behavior and institutions in conflict-affected countries. Dr. Torres-Beltran received her Ph.D. in Government from Cornell University. Previously, she was a Predoctoral Fellow with the Center for U.S.-Mexican Studies at UCSD; Research Fellow in the Women and Public Policy Program at Harvard Kennedy School; and a United States Institute of Peace Scholar. Her research has been supported by the National Science Foundation, the American Political Science Association, and the Empirical Study of Gender Research Network. Her work has been published in International Studies Quarterly and PS: Political Science & Politics, among others.

Dr. Shanshan Lian is a Postdoctoral Associate at the Gender and Security Sector (GSS) Lab at Cornell University. Her research interests include human rights, international NGOs (Non-Governmental Organizations), repression, and gender. She employs various statistical and AI techniques in her projects. She received her Ph.D. in Political Science and International Affairs and an M.S. in Statistics from the University of Georgia in August 2023 and was a postdoctoral scholar at the University of Alabama at Birmingham before she joined the GSS Lab. Her work is published in the Journal of Peace Research, the Journal of Human Rights, and Human Rights Review

Dr Hatti Sellers is a Post-Doctoral Research Associate with the Gender and Security Sector Lab. Her research interests include gender and conflict, post-conflict processes, and peacekeeping. Hatti's primary research agenda is centered on gendered inclusion in disarmament, demobilization, and reintegration (DDR) programs. Her dissertation introduced new data on gender provisions within externally-supported DDR programs over the last 50 years. Her secondary research agenda focuses on aid worker security and the role of discourse in shaping violence against humanitarian aid providers. Her work on aid worker security has been published in the Journal of Human Rights. Dr Sellers holds a B.A. (with Joint Honors) in Politics and American Studies from the University of Nottingham and a M.A. and Ph.D. in Political Science (International Relations/Comparative Politics) from Louisiana State University. 

Taylor Vincent is a Klarman Postdoctoral Fellow at Cornell University. Her primary research interests include gender, civil conflict, and postwar politics. Her dissertation examines the gendered consequences of war, more specifically how electoral competition among political parties effects women's status in post-conflict states. Dr. Vincent received her Ph.D. in Government and Politics from the University of Maryland. Previously, she was a Predoctoral Fellow with the Gender and Security Sector Lab at Cornell University. Her research has been supported by the University of Maryland and the American Political Science Association. Her work has been published in the Journal of Peace Research and The Economics of Peace and Security Journal.Description goes here

Zinab Attai is a PhD student in Cornell University's Department of Government with research interests in state building, rebel governance, and gender in conflict-affected areas. Her recent work investigates the institutional legacies of Soviet and US intervention in Afghanistan and its consequences on social service provision. Her research has received support from the National Science Foundation, the Judith Reppy Institute for Peace and Conflict Studies, and Princeton's Empirical Studies of Conflict (ESOC) program.

Before starting her PhD, Zinab worked as an international survey researcher, managing projects in various countries including Afghanistan, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and South Africa. As a Graduate Research Fellow at the GSS lab, she has contributed to projects involving the Royal Cambodian Armed Forces, the Public Security Directorate in Jordan, and the Armed Forces of Bangladesh.

Emily Jackson is a PhD Candidate in comparative politics in the Department of Government at Cornell University and a Mellon/ACLS Dissertation Innovation Fellow. Her research interests include social movements, reproductive politics, public opinion, and gender in Latin America and the US. Emily’s dissertation project explores the relationship between formal and informal modes of abortion access: how activists’ efforts to make abortion safe and visible influence public and elite opinion and formal policy and legal reform. Her work has been supported by the Einaudi Center for International Studies, the Reppy Institute of Peace and Conflict Studies, and the Roper Center for Public Opinion Research.

Kathleen Bahian Fallon is a PhD Student in International Relations in the Department of Government at Cornell University. Her research focuses on the politics of international organizations at the state and bureaucratic levels, leveraging qualitative research methods alongside computational text and network analysis. In this space, she is interested in decolonial identity and its interaction with mechanisms of control and resistance, with a particular focus on the relationship between Southeast Asian actors and powerful states. 

Radwa Saad is a PhD candidate at Cornell University. Her research focuses include civil-military relations, Afro-Arab relations as well as regional integration processes and security alliances in Africa. Her current research explores how state-societal relations and archetypes of citizenship are (re)negotiated through military conscription practices in North Africa. Her research is supported by the Judith Reppy Institute for Peace and Conflict Studies, the Einaudi Center for International Studies and the African Leadership Centre.

Emma MacCallum is a PhD student in comparative politics, with a regional focus on Latin America, in Cornell University’s Department of Government. Her research interests in civil society organizations, political violence, anti-crime policies, and gender. Her research investigates how civil society organizations respond to violence and crime in weak states. Her research has received support from the Einaudi Center for International Studies and the Latin American and Caribbean Studies Program at Cornell.

Clara Kantorczyk is a junior government major in the College of Arts and Sciences at Cornell University. As the social media coordinator for the GSS lab, she is responsible for running the lab’s X, LinkedIn, and Bluesky accounts, in addition to maintaining the website and helping with general communications. Clara became interested in the work of the lab and the role of women in the international field after taking one of Dr. Karim's classes. She is excited to continue learning and promoting this important area of study!

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