I ended up jumping into a Twitter conversation started by international development journalist Tom Murphy about how Rwanda changed the methodology for its Integrated Household Living Conditions survey (EICV), and thus demonstrated that their poverty rate had decreased. The problem is that the new methodology essentially redefines 'poverty' to get the numbers to look good; using the previous EICV methodology, … Continue reading National Interests, Overwork, and Statistics
Diagnosis Matters: Preventing human trafficking on the demand side
I was watching the news past Saturday when Australia's Prime Minister, Tony Abbott, took time out from a talk on iron ore prices (or something along those lines) to discuss the ongoing issue of people smuggling. It's a short video that you'll have to follow the link to see (The Australian doesn't provide embed code), but … Continue reading Diagnosis Matters: Preventing human trafficking on the demand side
Build Peace 2015
I was invited to be a speaker on the panel on behavior change and technology in peacebuilding and Build Peace 2015. The panel was a lot of fun, with some fascinating presentations! You can find them on the Build Peace YouTube page. Here's mine: This was a particularly fun conference, pulling together practitioners, activists and … Continue reading Build Peace 2015
Building Peace #5: PeaceTech
I'm excited to have my work included in Building Peace's latest issue on technology and peacebuilding. This is my doctoral topic and one of my main interest areas, so it's exciting to see it become an increasingly important topic in the conflict resolution and peacebuilding sphere. Here's a link to the entire contents of the … Continue reading Building Peace #5: PeaceTech
Dachau: A concentration camp up close
Yesterday I had the opportunity to visit the Dachau memorial outside Munich, Germany. First, I encourage everyone who can to go, it's a superb and moving memorial. Particularly though, as someone who studies violence and the political economy of conflict and who also studied German political history, I was wondering how I'd feel visiting one … Continue reading Dachau: A concentration camp up close
Initial Reflections on the Charlie Hebdo Attack
By now news of the tragic shooting at the Charlie Hebdo offices in Paris has made it around the world. Since I work in peacebuilding and conflict resolution, it's been interesting seeing how the narratives about freedom of expression and the role of religion have circulated on social media. As I've sifted through the articles … Continue reading Initial Reflections on the Charlie Hebdo Attack
Dissertation Proposal Defense
No, I won't be 'Dr.' tomorrow, but the proposal defense is a milestone none the less. For those who are interested in my dissertation research, and can't make it to my proposal defense tomorrow at 12:00PM at the School for Conflict Analysis and Resolution, below is a sound file you can listen to. You can … Continue reading Dissertation Proposal Defense
Peacekeeping tech with Dr. Walter Dorn
I got to interview Dr. Walter Dorn of Canadian Forces College about his work on technology and peacekeeping for my TechChange course on technology for conflict management and peacebuilding - a good interview that lends some operational and political insight for using these tools in peacekeeping settings!
Upcoming events!
Unfortunately the last few months have been fairly low output in terms of blog posts. This can be credited to resettling after returning from Samoa, getting back to work with the tech community in D.C, and of course getting a dissertation written. I have had the chance to get myself on a few panels this … Continue reading Upcoming events!
Presenting Research at Georgetown
I'm excited to be invited to present some of my work November 5 at Georgetown University's Center for Australian, New Zealand and Pacific Studies - here's some info, I think it'll be a fun talk!
Charles P. Martin-Shields 