In November 2017, Roxani Krystalli attended the Social Practice of Human Rights conference at the University of Dayton. She was featured on a plenary panel on the meanings of peace, where she shared insights from her ongoing research on the Colombian peace process, reflections on gender and violence, and thoughts on the intersection of academia and peace advocacy or activism. She also participated in discussions with undergraduate students interested in careers in international human rights work. The full video is available here and a short excerpt of Roxanne’s remarks is available below.

“I’d like to first reflect on the identity of activist or advocate, not as separate from being an academic, but as part of it. Academia is very often afraid of activism or advocacy and, in fact, you get punished for it within particular systems. You get labeled as a troublemaker, which to those of us who are [troublemakers], this is an honor, not a way to offend us. This all comes from this assumption that your activism will ‘pollute’ the impartiality of your knowledge. To which I would say: Knowledge does not exist separately from the oppression that we are part of, that we embody, that we perpetuate — it’s part of it. And so to me, that ethic of care is not antithetical to the rigor of academia; it’s at the very foundation of it.”