Three graduate students from the Keough School of Global Affairs have been awarded Graduate Justice Fellowships by Notre Dame’s Center for Social Concerns. The center’s new graduate fellowship program is designed to support graduate students in any discipline who explore questions of justice in their research and whose scholarship prioritizes service to the common good. Fellows receive a stipend and work with invited scholars and university leaders to refine their research plans through interdisciplinary dialogue and workshops.
Graduate Justice Fellows from the Keough School include:
Helal Khan, PhD student, anthropology and peace studies
Originally from Bangladesh, Khan is a PhD student at the Keough School’s Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies. Khan researches Rohingya refugees and their experiences in the three cities in the American Midwest: Chicago, Milwaukee, and Fort Wayne. While witnessing this population overcome trauma and persecution, he explores themes of hope and positivity.
Aidée Cuenca Narvaez, master of global affairs student
Narvaez’s research interests include education access, community development, and sustainable agriculture. She has worked in both public and faith-based community nonprofits and higher education in her home country of Ecuador and in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She is committed to leveraging the grassroots work of communities who are working for social transformation through collaborative partnership and empowerment.
Joachim Ozonze, PhD student, peace studies and theology
A Catholic priest from Nigeria, Ozonze’s research focuses on the intersection of ritual, memory, identity, healing, and reconciliation, especially within contexts of mass violence. Using ethnography and portraiture, ritual studies, and decolonial theologies as theoretical frameworks, he explores how bodies and communities are socialized in and out of violence, and whether Christian theology and rituals can contribute to unlearning hatred and reimagining identity and belonging.
Congratulations to all of the 2022-2023 Graduate Justice Fellows!
