Rachel Rafferty Editor & Author

Dr Katerina Standish is the Director of Research and Senior Lecturer at the National Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies at the University of Otago, New Zealand. Her research projects and scholarly publications include content related to COVID-19, suicide, femicide, conflict transformation, decolonization, story, humanistic sociology, hope, gender, social, cultural and political violence, Encounter Theory, education and conflict, peace education, Human Rights, social justice, personal peacebuilding, principled/pragmatic nonviolence and academic research and writing. She is the author, co-author or co-editor of Suicide Through a Peacebuilding lens, Yogic Peace Education, Cultural Violence in the Classroom, Conflict Transformation, Peacebuilding and Storytelling, and Expanding the Edges of Narrative Enquiry: Research from the Mauro Institute. Dr Standish has published academic journal articles in Peace Review, Peacebuilding, Journal of Peace Education, Journal of Peace and Justice Studies, In Factis Pax: Journal of Peace Education and Justice Studies, Peace and Conflict Studies Journal, Peace Research: The Canadian Journal of Peace and Conflict Studies, Humanity & Society, Journal of Gender Studies, Diaspora, Indigenous, and Minority Education, Nationalism and Ethnic Politics, Nordic Journal of Studies in Educational Policy, Global Journal of Peace Research and Praxis, Peace Studies Journal, Peace and Conflict Review, International Journal of Development Education & Global Learning, Journal of Intervention and Statebuilding, Journal of Human Security and Geopolitics. Dr Standish is the Editor-in-Chief of the Peace Review: A Journal of Social Justice, senior editor of the Palgrave Handbook for Positive Peace, and sits on the editorial boards of the Journal of Peace Education, In Factis Pax: Journal of Peace Education and Social Justice, International Journal of Advanced Peace and Gandhian Studies, andGlobal Journal of Peace Research and Praxis. Dr Standish is a community peacebuilder, Certified Conflict Coach, Somatic Trainer and trauma informed instructor.

Dr Adan E. Suazo is a Senior Policy Analyst at the Ministry for the Environment (New Zealand) and a Research Associate at the National Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies at the University of Otago (New Zealand). His research examines the conditions that influence the emergence and intensification of water disputes. He also specialises in the design and implementation of stakeholder identification and engagement strategies for peacebuilding and policy development. As the founding Coordinator of the Loyola Sustainability Research Centre at Concordia University (Canada), he worked on sustainability and peacebuilding projects with the International Secretariat for the Convention on Biological Diversity, the United Nations Environmental Education and Training Unit, and Future Earth.

Dr Heather Devere is Director of Practice at the Te Ao o Rongomaraeroa/National Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies at the University of Otago in Aotearoa New Zealand.  Her doctoral thesis is in Politics from the University of Auckland and examines women’s attitudes to civil rights issues.  She has taught at several universities on topics such as conflict resolution, indigenous peace traditions, ethics, social justice, and politics, and acts as an advocate for mediations involving not-for-profit organisations. Dr Devere is founding co-editor of AMITY: The Journal of Friendship Studies published by Leeds University. Some of Dr Devere’s publications include Friendship Studies: Practices across Cultures (with Dr Graham Smith and Professor John von Heyking); Decolonising Peace and Conflict Studies through Indigenous Research (with Dr Kelli Te Maihāroa and Dr Michael Ligaliga); Peacebuilding and the Rights of the Indigenous Peoples (with Dr John Synott and Dr Kelli Te Maihāroa) and The Challenge to Friendship Studies in Modernity (with Professor Preston King). 

Dr Rachel Rafferty Dr Rachel Rafferty works as a Lecturer in Sociology at the University of Derby, United Kingdom. Before joining the University of Derby, she worked as a Lecturer in Peace and Conflict Studies at the National Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies at the University of Otago, Aotearoa New Zealand. Before Dr Rafferty moved into an academic career, she gained several years of work experience in the charity sector. She worked for over five years coordinating community peacebuilding projects in post-conflict Northern Ireland. This work involved activities such as facilitating dialogues between different religious groups, coordinating collaborative art projects, and working with schools to promote peace education. She has also previously worked with New Zealand Red Cross coordinating youth humanitarian projects. Dr Rafferty’s areas of expertise include collective memory in ethnic conflicts, peace activism, and refugee resettlement. She has published a number of journal articles and book chapters on topics such as post-conflict peacebuilding, international conflict resolution, and refugee resettlement. Dr Rafferty holds a PhD in Peace and Conflict Studies from the University of Otago.