Rate My Professor Lisa Schirch

Lisa Schirch is the Richard G. Starmann, Sr. Professor of the Practice of Peace Studies in the Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies and a core faculty member in the Keough School of Global Affairs at the University of Notre Dame. A leading figure in Social Science, particularly peace studies, she earned her Ph.D. in Conflict Analysis and Resolution from George Mason University's Institute for Conflict Analysis and Resolution in 1989. Schirch has over 30 years of experience in peacebuilding research, policy advocacy, practice, and teaching. She served as Professor of Peacebuilding at Eastern Mennonite University's Center for Justice and Peacebuilding and Summer Peacebuilding Institute from 1995 to 2020, co-founding the PAX major in peace and development studies. From 2006 to 2015, she was Founding Director of the Alliance for Peacebuilding's Policy Program in Washington, D.C. Additional appointments include co-chair of the U.S. State Department working group on Religious Actors, Diplomacy, and Peacebuilding (2015-2016), member of the Dutch government's Security and Rule of Law Platform Research Review Panel (2016-2020), and since 2015, International Panel of Experts for the Global Community Engagement and Resilience Fund. She holds the position of Senior Research Fellow at the Toda Peace Institute and was a Fulbright Fellow in East and West Africa.

Schirch's research centers on peacetech, digital peacebuilding, social media impacts on conflict and democracy, human security, social cohesion, violent extremism, conflict assessment, dialogue, mediation, and peace process design. Key publications encompass "Social Media Impacts on Conflict and Democracy: The Tech-tonic Shift" (2021), "Ritual and Symbol in Peacebuilding" (2005), "The Little Book of Strategic Peacebuilding" (2004), "Conflict Assessment and Peacebuilding Planning: Toward a Participatory Approach to Human Security" (2014), "The Ecology of Violent Extremism" (2018), and "Synergizing Nonviolent Action & Peacebuilding" (2018). She has facilitated peace processes in over 20 countries, including Fiji's national peace process in 2001, and trained over 1,000 U.S. Foreign Service Officers and military officers. Schirch has presented keynotes at Pentagon conferences, Congressional hearings, UN headquarters in Geneva and New York, and London's Whitehall, Chatham House, and Wilton Park. Her work has shaped global peacebuilding policy and practice.