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Dissertation Defense – Philip Gamaghelyan
Leaving the Shadow of International Relations:
Toward Inclusive Conflict Resolution Practices in Nagorno-Karabakh and Syria
Wednesday, March 29, 2017
10:00am - 12:00pm
Metropolitan Building 5183
Committee:
Dr. Susan Allen (Committee Chair)
Dr. Susan Hirsch
Dr. Jessica Srikantia
Abstract:
Conflict Resolution holds the promise of freeing approaches and policies with regard to politics of identity from the fatalistic grip of realism. While the conceptual literature on conflicts has moved in this alternative direction, conflict resolution practice continues to rely on realist frames and acts as an unwanted auxiliary to official processes. Perpetuation of conflict discourses, marginalization, and exclusion of affected populations are widespread, caused by the over-reliance of conflict resolution practice on the binary frames of classic IR paradigms and also by the competitive and hierarchical relationships within the field itself.
Philip Gamaghelyan relies on participatory action research (PAR) and collective auto-ethnography to expose patterns of exclusion and marginalization as well as the paradoxical reproduction of conflict-promoting frames in current conflict resolution practice applied to the Nagorno-Karabakh and Syrian crises. He builds on the work of post-modernist scholars, on reflective practice and on discourse analysis to explore alternative and inclusive strategies with a transformative potential through reflections and action cycle customary for PAR.