Agnieszka Paczyńska

Agnieszka Paczyńska’s research focuses on the relationship between economic and political change and conflict, development and conflict, security-development nexus, post-conflict reconstruction policies and peacebuilding, emerging donors and peacebuilding, the relationship between globalization processes and local conflicts, and peace and conflict resolution pedagogy. She is the author Teaching Peace and Conflict Studies: Engaged Learning and Inclusive Theory (with Susan Hirsch, Edward Elgar Publishing) and State, Labor and the Transition to a Market Economy: Egypt, Poland, Mexico and the Czech Republic (Penn State University Press) and and editor of Changing Landscape of Assistance to Conflict-Affected States: Emerging and Traditional Donors and Opportunities for Collaboration (Stimson Center), Conflict Zone, Comfort Zone: Pedagogy, Methodology and Best Practices in Field-Based Courses (with Susan Hirsch, Ohio University Press), and The New Politics of Aid: Emerging Donors and Conflict-Affected States (Lynne Rienner Publishers). Her research has been published in Negotiation Journal, Frontiers in Political Science, Peacebuilding, Conflict Resolution Quarterly, Review of International Political Economy, PS Political Science and other peer-reviewed journals.

Her research has been supported by the Fulbright Foundation, United States Institute of Peace, U.S. Department of Education, Franklin Fellowship Program, Social Science Research Council, International Research Exchange Board and Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars among others. Her current projects focus on how states labeled as fragile engage in international debates about development assistance and on emerging donors and conflict-affected states.

Together with Susan Hirsch Paczyńska is co-editing a book series, Studies in Conflict, Justice, and Social Change, with the Ohio University Press. She has been a Nonresident Fellow at the Stimson Center and is the Chair of the Board of Directors of Saferworld USA and Member of the Board of Trustees of Saferworld. Most recently, she has also been a Visiting Professor at the Maria Curie Skolodowska University in Lublin, Department of Political Science (2018-2019) and Visiting Researcher at the German Institute of Development and Sustanability (IDOS) (Summer 2019), and Peacebuilding Advisor at Belun in Dili, Timor Leste (Fall 2020). Between 2020 and 2024 she served as the Chair of the Peace Studies Section of the International Studies Association and was a member of the International Studies Association’s Governing Council. 

Paczyńska engages in policy relevant research and discussions. She has consulted for the United Nations, U.S. Department of State, United States Agency for International Development, and the Marine Corps Combat Development Command and has observed elections in Afghanistan, Egypt, Ethiopia and Liberia.

Most recently Paczyńska has been teaching classes such as Conflict in Development, Conflict Sensitive and Inclusive Peacebuilding, Global Conflict Analysis and Resolution, and Mobilizing for Change and Justice. 

Honors and Awards

• Fulbright Specialist Award, “Peace and Conflict Studies Curriculum Development,” U.S. Department of State 
• Grant for project “Linking Theory to Practice: Conflict Analysis and Resolution Pedagogy,” FIPSE-Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education, U.S. Dept. of Education
• Grant for project, “Globalizing Reconstruction: Emerging Powers and Post-Conflict Settings,” United States Institute of Peace

Publications

• Teaching Peace and Conflict Studies: Engaged Learning and Inclusive Theory. (with Susan Hirsch), Edward Elgar Publishers 2024.
• “China and India’s Roles in Providing Development and Peacebuilding Assistance,” China-India Brief, Issue 241, 2024.Emerging Donors' Engagements in Africa: China, India, and the Localizing Peacebuilding and Development Interventions Negotiation Journal Fall 2023
• “’New’ State Actors and Conflict-Affected States: Confronting Violence, Shifting Ambitions, and Adjusting Principles,” Frontiers in Political Science, May 7, 2021.
• Russia in Africa: A New Great Power Competition? German Development Institute/Deutsches Institut für Entwicklungspolitik (DIE) Briefing Paper no. 15, 2020.
• The New Politics of Aid: Emerging Donors and Conflict Affected States. Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2020.
• Conflict Zone, Comfort Zone: Pedagogy, Methodology, and Best Practices in Field Based Courses (co-edited with Susan Hirsch), Ohio University Press, 2019.

Presentations and Performances

• Destabilizing Relationality: Dilemmas of Care in Peace and Conflict Studies
  April 3-6, 2024 | International Studies Association Conference, San Francisco, CA
• Challenges of Contemporary Peacebuilding, Systemic Vision in Peacebuilding Conference
  September 23, 2023 | United Nations Development Programme, Tbilisi, Georgia
• The New Politics of Aid: Emerging Donors and Post-Conflict Settings,”
  March 1, 2023 | University of Maria Skolodowska-Curie, Lublin, Poland

Degrees

• PhD, Political Science, University of Virginia
• MA, Political Science , New York University
• BA, Political science, New York University