BECOMING THE CHANGE

Violence, Inequality and Power Lab fellowship

by Matthew Piechalak

The Joan B. Kroc Institute for Peace and Justice’s Violence, Inequality and Power Lab (VIP Lab) will launch a new fellowship program intended to expand the breadth of work focusing on the relationships between power inequalities and violence.

“The fellowship program is an opportunity to create a space for advancing the research, advancing the practice and fostering dialogue between practitioners and researchers with a very direct benefit to their own work and a broader benefit to the field overall,” says Rachel Locke, director of the VIP Lab.

The VIP Lab held a joint press conference with U.S. Rep. Sara Jacobs (CA-51) in the Ministry

Center on Feb. 15 to officially announce the creation of the lab. In late 2022, Jacobs secured $580,000 in federal funding for the Kroc School initiative. Jacobs advocated for the program and helped secure the funding through Congress’ 2023 Omnibus Appropriations Bill.

“Understanding the role inequality plays in perpetuating the cycle of violence is key to building a more peaceful, just and equal society,” said Jacobs. “That’s why I was proud to secure federal funding to support the lab’s cutting-edge analysis, shape the broader field of study and invest in the next generation of research.”

USD President James T. Harris III, DEd, thanked Jacobs and spoke about the importance of the new fellowship.

The VIP Lab was established in January 2022 with an aim to “meet this moment by fostering collaborations that question the status quo, that use bridging language and that expand access to nuanced knowledge and discussion.”

“Violence, is in large part, representative of power relationships that serve certain individuals or populations at the expense of others, often through systems of structural exclusion that create cycles of harm,” Locke explained. “Yet, while the centrality of power inequalities is increasingly known to drive violence, research on the topic is sparse. The VIP Lab was established to help reverse this trend, investing in knowledge, learning and creative collaborations to shift harmful systems of power and reinforce systems of peace and justice.”

The new fellowship will create more opportunities for thinkers and practitioners to advance the dialogue around violence prevention, Locke says.

The program will recruit research fellows with specific backgrounds that make them experts in their field such as veterans, those with law enforcement backgrounds and people who have been directly impacted by the criminal justice system. The inaugural class will consist of eight fellows from around the world who will research topics related to violence against women, violence in communities and political violence.

“I’m excited to welcome each of you to our campus as we partner with Congresswoman Sara Jacobs, who served as a scholar in residence at our Joan B. Kroc School of Peace Studies, to share exciting news about expanding the work we’ll be doing through our Violence, Inequality and Power Lab,” Harris said.

“The work being done through the VIP Lab allows us to move past anecdotes and headlines to more fully and more accurately understand the scope and scale of urgent challenges and to become a part of the change this world so desperately needs.”

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