2016

2016 Greeley Scholar For Peace Studies, Sanam Naraghi-Anderlini

Sanam Naraghi-Anderlini is the co-founder and executive director of the International Civil Society Action Network (ICAN.) She is also an author specializing in gender, equality and non-violence. As a field researcher and activist, she has worked extensively with the United Nations training governments and NGOs worldwide in peacemaking.

From 2002 to 2005, Anderlini was the director of the Women Waging Peace Policy Commission where she directed field research on women’s contributions to conflict prevention, security and peacemaking in 12 countries.

Since 2005, she has also provided strategic guidance and training to key U.N. agencies, the British government and non-governmental organizations, leading a UNFPA/UNDP needs assessment into Maoist cantonment sites in Nepal. Between the years of 2008 and 2010, Anderlini was lead consultant for a 10-country UNDP global initiative on “Gender, Community Security and Social Cohesion” with a focus on men’s experiences in crisis settings.

She has served on the Advisory Board of the U.N. Democracy Fund (UNDEF), and was appointed to the Civil Society Advisory Group (CSAG) on Resolution 1325, chaired by Mary Robinson in 2010. In 2013, she was appointed to the Working Group on Gender and Inclusion of the Sustainable Development Network for the post-2015 agenda.

Between 2005 and 2014, Anderlini was a research associate and senior fellow at the MIT Center for International Studies. In 2011, she was the first senior expert on Gender and Inclusion on the U.N.’s Mediation Standby Team.

For nearly two decades she has been a leading international advocate, researcher, trainer and writer on conflict prevention and peacebuilding. In 2000, she was among the civil society drafters of U.N. Security Council Resolution 1325 on women, peace and security.

Anderlini has published extensively on gender, peace and security issues, including "Women Building Peace: What They Do, Why it Matters" (Lynne Rienner, 2007). She is the 2014 recipient of the U.N. Association of the National Capital Area Perdita Huston Award for human rights.

She holds a master's in philosophy in Social Anthropology from Cambridge University. Iranian by birth, she is a British citizen, and has twin daughters.

While at UMass Lowell, Anderlini’s residency includes lecturing in “Perspectives on Human Rights,” a multidisciplinary graduate seminar offered by the Peace and Conflict Studies Program and Political Science Department, where students can gain special insight from her unique expertise on the topic. She will also serve as the Day Without Violence keynote speaker.