UPEACE Faculty and Research Areas

Francisco Rojas (Ph. D., University of Utrecht, Netherlands), Rector, University for Peace

Areas of Interest:

  • International-relations
  • International security in the Americas
  • Analysis of conflict and negotiation
  • Comparative Latin American politics
  • Human Security

Department of International Law

Juan-Carlos Sainz-Borgo (Doctor of Juridical Sciences, Universidad Central de Venezuela), Dean and Associate Professor

Areas of Interest:

  • International border conflicts
  • International Law
  • International Criminal Law
  • International Human Rights
  • International courts and the settlement of disputes

Mihir Kanade (Doctorate, University for Peace, Costa Rica), Head of the Department

Areas of Interest:

  • Human Rights protection of vulnerable groups and persons
  • International Economic Law
  • Sustainable Development/SDGs/2030 Agenda
  • Governance/Global Governance/Good Governance
  • International Law and the Global and Regional Peace and Security Architecture

Mariateresa Garrido (Doctorate, University for Peace, Costa Rica) Doctoral Committee Coordinator

Areas of Interest:

  • Human rights and technology
  • Right to freedom of expression in the digital era
  • Protection of journalists and citizen journalists/Journalist’s safety
  • Media and international law
  • Critical analysis of Internet-based platforms/information and communication technologies

Department of Peace and Conflict Studies

Adriana Salcedo (School for Conflict Analysis and Resolution - George Mason University, Virginia, USA), Head of the Department

  • Conflict Transformation and grass-roots peacebuilding
  • Human mobility through intersectional lenses (transnational spaces, integration and belonging)
  • Interculturality and conflict resolution
  • Social Identities

Stephanie Knox (PhD., Pacifica Graduate Institute, Carpinteria, California, USA)

Areas of Interest:

  • Peace Education and Global Citizenship Education
  • Environmental justice and sustainability education
  • Decolonizing Education/Decolonial Pedagogies
  • Nonviolence and nonviolent movements
  • Inner peace
  • Post-qualitative, post-humanist research methodologies

Uzma Rashid (University of Maryland, Baltimore County, USA)

Areas of Interest:

  • Gender, inequalities and marginalization
  • Religion intolerance, and peacebuilding in religiously sensitive contexts
  • Race and ethnicity
  • Intersections of identities
  • Transnational identities

Department of Environment and Development

Olivia Sylvester (PhD., University of Manitoba, Canada), Head of Department

Areas of interest:

  • Food Security/Food Sovereignty
  • Sustainable Agriculture
  • Indigenous peoples’ resource access
  • Gender and environment
  • Research Methodologies (critical, indigenous, feminist)

Jan Breitling (Doctorate, University for Peace, Costa Rica)

Areas of interest:

  • Sustainability and sustainable development 
  • Conservation 
  • Environmental security and natural resource conflicts
  • Climate change governance 
  • Tourism