Laurie Gagnon's Page

What motivated you to become involved in peace and conflict resolution?

I just finished my master's and am beginning my job search with a strong interest in participatory approaches to post-conflict development and social justice.

Please feel free to provide a short bio about yourself (no more than 3 paragraphs)

In May 2008, I finished my master’s degree at The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University with concentrations in human security and development economics and a focus on the synergies between development, peace-building and democratization in post-conflict settings. I spent last summer in Guatemala studying Spanish and interning at Community Enterprise Solutions where I researched the needs of small businesses and organizations that support them. I returned to Guatemala in January with the Institute for Global Leadership (Tufts) on a research trip investigating how existing power structures influence governance. During the trip I also conducted interviews for my master’s thesis about potential strategies for organized civil society to increase its influence on national-level socioeconomic development policy a decade after the signing of the Peace Accords.

I grew up in northern New Hampshire and studied sociology, anthropology, and Japanese at Middlebury College in Vermont. I then spent two years in Fukui, Japan teaching English on the JET Programme. Upon returning to New England, I worked on the staff of the U.S.-Japan Program at Harvard before finding my way back to the classroom where I taught world and U.S. history to high school students at Charlestown High School (Boston) and Framingham High School. My time at The Fletcher School has been a springboard for expanding my pursuit of justice from the classroom to the immediate and long-term challenges of post-conflict development and human security and the impact these challenges have on our global community.

Please list the countries and/or regions in which you have direct and significant expertise

Central America (Guatemala)
Japan

What is your current country of residence?

United States

What is your current job (and organization) and/or where and what field are you studying?

The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Master of Arts in Law and Diplomacy with concentrations in human security and development economics, 2008

What is your personal or organizational website?

http://fletcher.tufts.edu/

What is one of your favorite websites in the field? (please provide one answer per box)

http://www.capabilityapproach.com/Home.php

What is one of your favorite websites in the field? (please provide one answer per box)

http://www.gapminder.org/

Which are your primary sectoral areas of expertise?

Conflict Resolution, Development, Education, Civil Society

Which are your primary skills areas?

Training, Evaluation, Program Design, Research

What are some of your current areas of research (if any)?

Potential strategies for Guatemalan civil society in national decision-making processes related to the Peace Accords