Since returning to power in 2021, the Taliban have imposed increasingly oppressive laws, particularly targeting the freedoms of women and girls. A newly enacted “vice and virtue” law represents one…
Dyan Mazurana
Research Director and Professor
Research Professor, The Fletcher School at Tufts University
Research Professor, Friedman School of Nutrition
Senior Fellow, World Peace Foundation
Contact
Working with Feinstein since 2003
Based in Boston area, MA
Dyan Mazurana directs Feinstein’s Research Program on Women, Children, and Armed Conflict and co-directs the Masters of Arts in Humanitarian Assistance (MAHA) Program. She focuses on gendered dimensions of humanitarian response to conflict and crises, documenting serious crimes committed during conflict, and accountability, remedy, and reparation. She serves as an advisor to several governments, UN agencies, human rights NGOs, and child protection organizations regarding humanitarian assistance and improving efforts to assist youth and women affected by armed conflict. This work includes the protection of women and children during armed conflict, including those people associated with fighting forces, as well as remedy and reparation in the aftermath of violence.
Dyan has written and developed training materials regarding gender, human rights, armed conflict, and post-conflict periods for civilian, police, and military peacekeepers involved in UN and NATO operations. In conjunction with international human rights groups, she contributed to materials now widely used to assist in documenting serious violations and abuses against women and girls during conflict and post-conflict reconstruction periods. She has worked in Afghanistan, Southeastern Europe, Nepal, and southern, west and east Africa.
She has published more than 100 scholarly and policy books, articles, and international reports and her work has been translated into more than 30 languages.
Mazurana has a Ph.D. and an M.A. in women’s studies from Clark University, where she studied International Relations and Comparative Politics; International Humanitarian Law and International Human Rights Law during armed conflict, with an emphasis on women’s rights; Critical Social Theory, English and Comparative Languages. She also holds an M.A. and B.F.A. from the University of Wyoming, where she studied painting, art history, and feminist theory.
Dyan has practiced in the Zen Buddhist tradition of the Order of Interbeing under Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh for more than 20 years. She lives with her two children and their dog in a home with ever expanding gardens.
RESEARCH INTERESTS
- The ways in which war-affected populations, particularly victims of war crimes and crimes against humanity, recover—or not—from conflict, and the remedy and reparation for survivors that support recovery
- Gender and humanitarian response
- Gender dimensions of non-state armed groups
REGIONAL FOCUS
- East Africa
- South Asia
- Mexico
- Central America
COURSES TAUGHT
- Gender and Human Security in Transitional States and Societies (DHP D231), Spring Term
- Gender, Culture and Conflict in Complex Humanitarian Emergencies (NUTR 222/DHP D232), Fall Term
- Children, Violence, Protection, and Resilience (DHP D240), Spring Term
MOST CITED BOOKS & ARTICLES
- Benelli, Prisca, Dyan Mazurana, and Peter Walker. “Using Sex and Age Disaggregated Data to Improve Humanitarian Response in Emergencies.” Gender & Development 20, no. 2 (2012): 219–32. https://doi.org/10.1080/13552074.2012.687219.
- Annan, Jeannie, Christopher Blattman, Dyan Mazurana, and Khristopher Carlson. “Civil War, Reintegration, and Gender in Northern Uganda.” Journal of Conflict Resolution 55, no. 6 (2011): 877–908. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022002711408013.
- Mazurana, Dyan, Angela Raven-Roberts and Jane Parpart. Gender, Conflict, and Peacekeeping. Rowman and Littlefield: Oxford and Boulder (2005).
- McKay , Susan, and Dyan Mazurana . “Where Are the Girls? Girls in Fighting Forces in Northern Uganda, Sierra Leone, and Mozambique: Their Lives During and After War.” International Centre for Human Rights and Democratic Development, 2004. https://doi.org/10.1163/2210-7975_hrd-4208-0155.
- United Nations. Women, Peace and Security: Study of the United Nations Secretary-General as Pursuant Security Council Resolution 1325. New York: United Nations, 2002. (Published in Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian, and Spanish). Mazurana served as a lead author.
MOST RECENT EXTERNAL PUBLICATIONS
- Challenging Conceptions: Children Born of Wartime Rape and Sexual Exploitation, ed. Kimberly Theidon and Dyan Mazurana (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2022).
- Atim, Teddy, Dyan Mazurana, and Anastasia Marshak. “Women Survivors and Their Children Born of Wartime Sexual Violence in Northern Uganda.” Disasters 42 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1111/disa.12275.
- Proctor, Keith, and Dyan Mazurana. “The Role of Gender in Mobilizing and Countering Fundamentalist Violent Extremist Organizations.” The Routledge Handbook of Gender and Security, 2018, 227–38. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315525099-20.
- Mazurana, Dyan, Roxanne Krystalli, and Anton Baaré. “Gender and Disarmament, Demobilization, and Reintegration.” Oxford Handbooks Online, 2017. https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199300983.013.35.
- Mazurana , Dyan, and Bretton McEvoy . “Enhancing Women’s Access to Justice in the Transitional Phase.” Practitioner’s Manual on Women’s Access to Justice, 2017.
- Mazurana, Dyan, Anastasia Marshak, Teddy Atim, Rachel Gordon and Bretton McEvoy.*“Disability and Recovery from War in Northern Uganda,” Third World Thematic: A Third World Quarterly, 2016. Available at http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/23802014.2016.1235469 .
RECENT NEWS
On February 28, 2024, the International Criminal Court ordered reparations of more than $56 million to victims of Ugandan rebel commander Dominic Ongwen. Feinstein Visiting Fellow Teddy Atim was one…
The United Nations, women’s groups, and human rights groups are facing criticism for not quickly condemning Hamas fighters for raping and sexually violating Israelis during the Oct. 7, 2023, attack….
The Fletcher School Student Council selected Dyan Mazurana for the Jame L. Paddock Teaching Award for excellence in teaching and mentoring students. She received the award at commencement on May…
Anastasia Marshak, Teddy Atim, and Dyan Mazurana published their article, “International Humanitarian Law Violations in Northern Uganda: Victims Health, Policy, and Programming Implications,” in the Journal of Public Health Policy…
Challenging Conceptions: Children Born of Wartime Rape and Sexual Exploitation, edited by Kimberly Theidon, Dyan Mazurana, and Dipali Anumol, has been published by Oxford University Press. This book: provides cutting-edge…
On April 18, 2022, the Boston Globe editorial “The world must help the girls of Afghanistan” described how the Taliban is restricting education for girls and women and looked at…
Kinsey Spears, Bridget Conley, and Dyan Mazurana published an Occasional Paper on gender, famine, and mortality with the World Peace Foundation in December 2021. During times of famine, sex, gender,…
Dyan Mazurana was quoted in a USA Today investigation of sexual assault in the Peace Corps. Dyan spoke with the reporter, Tricia Nadoly, over three months as she carried out…
For Women’s History Month, Dyan Mazurana interviewed with Tufts Now to discuss the impacts of crises, from climate change to COVID-19, on women and children. In the interview, titled, “Crises…
Dyan Mazurana held presentations about her gender analysis research throughout the month of August. At the 6th ACM Special Interest Group on Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining (SIGKDD) Conference, Mazurana…
Grigor Simonyan, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) Head of Missions in Ukraine, published an opinion piece that illustrates the need for age and gender disaggregated data during the COVID-19 pandemic. The author cites…
Dyan Mazurana, Anastasia Marshak, and Kinsey Spears discuss child marriage in the latest issue, “Children and War,” published by the International Review of the Red Cross (IRRC). This article, titled…
Dyan Mazurana was featured on a panel titled, “On Marginalized Populations and the Impact of COVID-19,” which was presented by Fletcher’s Gender Analysis and Women’s Leadership Program. Click here for…
On April 3, 2020 Alisha Haridasani Gupta published an article in the New York Times about gender discrepancies in Covid-19 data. The article quotes Dyan Mazurana explaining that it would…
On Tuesday March 10, Dyan Mazurana, Anastasia Marshak, and Tom Dannenbaum presented findings from a Feinstein assessment of the lasting effects of massacres conducted by the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA)…
The Daily monitor, one of the major daily newspapers in Uganda, published an article of “School’s Out: Why Northern Uganda’s Girls and Boys Are Not Getting an Education and What…
Frontline published an article on the UN sex scandal on August 16, 2018. Frontline recently investigated abuse by peacekeepers in its documentary, UN Sex Abuse Scandal. This article shifts focus…
On May 28, 2018, CBC’s The Current, aired a story about the effects of cutting funds to aid groups that are accused of sexual misconduct. Dyan Mazurana is interviewed for…
On May 4, 2018, Teddy Atim testified at the International Criminal Court (ICC) at the trial of former Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) commander, Dominic Ongwen. Ongwen has been charged for…
On May 4, 2018, Daniel Maxwell, Dyan Mazurana, and Greg Gottlieb featured at the Tufts Return of Famine Symposium. The event covered four main topics: Why has famine returned? Challenges…
As news of sexual assault perpetrated by senior leaders at several aid organizations has recently been in the news, several news outlets have called on Dyan Mazurana for her expertise….
A March 8, 2018 Tufts Daily story by Laura Daily describes the ways in which the Master of Arts in Humanitarian Assistance program (MAHA) provides a mid-career boost to humanitarian…
Disasters Journal published Teddy Atim, Dyan Mazurana, and Anastasia Marshak ‘s paper on their study of women survivors of wartime sexual violence. Women survivors face challenges in gaining acceptance on return to…
On Tuesday December 19, 2017 Monica Jimenez published an article in Tufts Now about Dyan Mazurana and Phoebe Donnelly’s “STOP the Sexual Assault Against Humanitarian and Development Aid Workers” research project….
The Feinstein International Center participated in a Twitter conversation hosted by Devex about how development organizations should respond to sexual harassment. Feinstein’s participation was based on research by Dyan Mazurana…
Devex published an article on November 2, 2017 regarding the recent Oxfam sexual harassment scandal. In the article, Dyan Mazurana and Phoebe Donnelly‘s research on sexual harassment in the humanitarian aid sector…
Dyan Mazurana and Roxani Krystalli wrote a chapter called “Gender and Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration: Reviewing and Advancing the Field” for The Oxford Handbook of Gender and Conflict. The Handbook focuses…
An article published in The Conversation on October 24, 2017 discusses the prevalence of sexual violence around the world and its psychological effects on women. The article cites Dyan Mazurana‘s…
Harvard University’s Advanced Training Program on Humanitarian Action (ATHA) published an article addressing the implications of gender inequality within humanitarian agencies on their responses to gender related issues. The article…
Devex published an article on the appointment of two senior humanitarians to head up a taskforce dedicated to overhauling the way that the UN agencies and international NGOs deal with…
Devex reported that Kate Gilmore, U.N. deputy high commissioner for human rights, called upon a packed audience at a side event held during the U.N. Economic and Social Council Humanitarian Affairs…
Devex’s June 6, 2017 story on sexual assault against aid workers praised Dyan Mazurana and Phoebe Donnelly’s recent report. The article describes the report and other recent finding on the…
Aid workers face an underreported sexual violence crisis These South Sudanese soldiers are among those accused of rape, torture, killing and looting during an attack on aid workers. AP Photo/Bullen…
In May, Feinstein faculty and researchers conducted several workshops for students (particularly those with upcoming summer research internships) to help them prepare for practicalities in the field: Kim Wilson and…
Dyan Mazurana published a review of Female Combatants in Conflict and Peace: Challenging Gender in Violence and Post-Conflict Reintegration, edited by Seema Shekhawat in the Journal of Women, Policy &…
As part of the Protection of Humanitarian Action Series, ATHA featured Dyan Mazurana and Phoebe Donnelly on a recent podcast. In this episode several experts and practitioners discuss the duty…
Research on sexual assault against aid workers by Dyan Mazurana and Phoebe Donnellly is making headlines in early 2017. NBC26 posted a video about the research here. The European Interagency…
Dyan Mazurana was called upon by PolitiFact to weigh in on South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley’s statement about U.N. peacekeeping missions during her confirmation hearing to be America’s ambassador to…
Feinstein faculty are teaching a variety of courses on humanitarian issues during the upcoming Spring 2017 Semester. We encourage students to check them out: Karen Jacobsen: Forced Migration (DHP D239)…
On December 9, 2016 Karen Jacobsen and Dyan Mazurana published an opinion piece in Tufts Now. They write: War, persecution and natural disasters are wreaking havoc on communities across the…
On December 1, Feinstein researchers published an article in Third World Thematics. The article, “Disability and recovery from war in northern Uganda,” explores the prevalence and impact of disabilities resulting from…
In the past weeks, Tufts hosted two faculty panels to discuss what foreign policy may look like in the new U.S. administration. Faculty offered a wide range of expertise on subjects…
The night of October 25, 2016, Feinstein research director Dyan Mazurana presented at the third annual Fletcher Ideas Exchange (FIE), hosted by The Institute for Human Security at Tufts. FIE is…
On September 23, the World Peace Foundation hosted a panel titled “Staying safe in armed conflict contexts: What do crisis-affected people prioritize and does it work? Do humanitarian actors and others take…
On Friday September 23, Feinstein’s Rachel Gordon presented a panel at the Nordic Africa Days, the Nordic Africa Institute’s biannual conference. The panel—titled: Gender, sexuality, and violence during and after…
Classes are starting soon, and Feinstein faculty, researchers, and visiting fellows will be bringing their vast experiences to the classroom! Look below for the list of courses. Friedman and Fletcher…
Dyan Mazurana and Dallin Van Leuven published their summary paper, “Protection of Civilians from Sexual and Gender-Based Violence (SGBV): Insights for African Union Peace Missions.” This paper is the ninth…
Dyan Mazurana recently presented research findings at five briefings hosted by OECD, DFID, members of the UK House of Lords, ECHO, and the Graduate Institute of Geneva. Mazurana presented findings…
Dyan Mazurana spoke on her 17 years of research in northern Uganda at the Consortium on Gender, Security, and Human Rights on April 27, 2016. She focused her remarks on findings…
FEINSTEIN PUBLICATIONS
This report reviews progress, outlines barriers to further progress, and makes recommendations to advance gender equality in the humanitarian system.
This report reveals that sexual abuse is a major threat to uniformed peacekeepers, especially women. The UN and troop- and police-contributing countries have not adequately responded to the issue.
This report is a comprehensive and user-friendly concept note for a database on child marriage in humanitarian settings, a first step in eradicating the problem.
This report describes household recovery in northern Uganda from the 20 years of conflict between the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) and the Government of Uganda (GoU) by following the same…
This working paper presents findings from research examining the sharp decrease in girls and boys school attendance that was witnessed between 2013–2018 in northern Uganda.
This large-scale study from northern Uganda investigates how experiences of alleged war crimes or crimes against humanity relate to victims’ disability and how these experiences affect food security, wealth and access to basic services, including their access to basic and therapeutic healthcare over time.
This is an independent, in-depth assessment of the victims’ experiences before, during, and after the attacks at three internally displaced camps in northern Uganda. These attacks are at the heart of the International Criminal Court case against Dominic Ongwen, a former commander in the Lord’s Resistance Army. In May 2018, the report was submitted as evidence, presented, and defended before the ICC.
This report presents a series of challenges to conventional thinking around livelihood recovery for war-affected populations.
This report synthesizes findings on livelihoods from research projects that took place over five years in eight countries affected by fragility and conflict as part of the Secure Livelihoods Research Consortium (SLRC).
This report contributes to understanding, preventing, and responding to sexual assault against aid workers. It presents findings on: who the survivors of sexual harassment and assault are who the perpetrators…
This is the Executive Summary of the report: STOP the Sexual Assault Against Humanitarian and Development Aid Workers. The report contributes to understanding, preventing, and responding to sexual harassment and…
This briefing paper summarizes the findings from a review of scholarly and grey literature, as well as interviews, on the topic of sexual assault against aid workers. The overall study goal is…
This policy brief presents the implications of Sweden’s feminist foreign policy for the people they strive to assist, Sweden’s own humanitarian policy and operations, and more broadly the whole humanitarian…
The briefing paper explores the relationship between service delivery, peacebuilding, and state legitimacy in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and Uganda. It finds that the…
Victims of serious violations of international human rights law and international humanitarian law have a clearly established right to remedy and reparation. This right must be recognized without discrimination of…
In 2012/13, the Secure Livelihoods Research Consortium (SLRC) implemented the first round of an original sub-regional panel survey in northern Uganda aimed to produce data on livelihoods, access to and…
In 2012/13, the Secure Livelihoods Research Consortium (SLRC) implemented the first round of an original sub-regional panel survey in northern Uganda aimed to produce data on livelihoods, access to and…
In 2012/13, the Secure Livelihoods Research Consortium (SLRC) implemented the first round of an original sub-regional panel survey in northern Uganda aimed to produce data on livelihoods, access to and…
In 2012/13, SLRC implemented the first round of an original sub-regional panel survey in Uganda aimed to produce data on livelihoods, access to and experience of basic services, exposure to…
Victims of serious violations of international human rights law and international humanitarian law have a clearly established right to remedy and reparation. This right must be recognized without discrimination of…
This paper synthesizes current evidence on how people are recovering their livelihoods and accessing basic services and social protection interventions in the conflict-affected regions of Uganda’s Greater North.
This report outlines the views and priorities of victims of serious violations of human rights law and international humanitarian law which resulted from the conflict between the Government of Uganda and the rebel Lord’s Resistance Army,
This report shows that proper collection, analysis and use of sex and age disaggregated data, or SADD, allows operational agencies to deliver assistance more effectively and efficiently in a crisis.
By Khristopher Carlson and Dyan Mazurana. 2010. Sharanjeet Parmar, Mindy Jane Roseman, Saudamini Siegrist, and Theo Sowa (eds.) Children and Transitional Justice: Truth-Telling, Accountability and Reconciliation. Harvard University Press.
The Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA)—a rebel movement fighting the government of Uganda—is estimated to have kidnapped over 60,000 Ugandan children and youth. Those abducted include one in three male adolescents…
Youth are simultaneously the primary victims and the primary actors in the two-decade long war in northern Uganda. While we know that youth have suffered (and continue to do so),…
Karamoja is the poorest and least developed region of Uganda. The population experiences chronic food insecurity, little access to basic services, the weakening of traditional livelihood systems, ongoing insecurity, human…
As part of a larger project entitled “Livelihoods and Human Security in Karamoja,” this briefing paper presents findings on causal factors and broad patterns in out-migration among the Bokora population….
The protracted conflict in northern Uganda has created profound insecurity, brought the widespread loss of agrarian livelihoods, and pushed nearly two million people into internal displacement camps. With the current…
This report summarizes the findings of the first phase of a major research project on the challenges and compromises that are likely to affect humanitarian action in the next decade….
Three of the four topics addressed by the Humanitarian Agenda 2015 research seem pertinent in the case of Burundi – coherence, security and, to a lesser extent, terrorism. Many comparisons…
The war and humanitarian crises engulfing northern Uganda are intricately linked with the armed conflict and unrest in eastern Uganda and southern Sudan. As a result of the links between…
This study uses a livelihood framework to examine and analyze household livelihood strategies across three time periods in six rural villages in Bosnia-Herzegovina. The three time periods examined are the…
This report documents and analyzes recent countrywide trends in the relationship between human security and livelihoods throughout rural Afghanistan from 2002-2003. All countrywide information is generated by analyses of 2003…
FEINSTEIN RESEARCH PROJECTS
This project includes studies on early warning and assessment of crises, specifically looking at real-time monitoring, anticipatory action, political constraints, data collection and analysis, and the validity of indicators.
This page brings together multiple projects related to gender, sex, and age in humanitarian response.
Our latest research shows that we do not know enough about early marriage to design programs and policies that effectively support female youth in the ways that they need. This study is generating the evidence humanitarians need.
This project seeks to provide timely, precise, and insightful documentary evidence and analysis, drawing on our investigation into how victims and survivors view and experience these justice mechanisms. We aim to inform the processes as well as policies and responses that emerge as the processes unfold.
The Secure Livelihoods Research Consortium aims to generate a stronger evidence base on how people in conflict-affected situations make a living, access basic services like health care, education and water, and perceive and engage with governance at local and national levels.
This study examines the issue of sexual assault against humanitarian and development aid workers.
Over the past three years, Tufts/FIC has conducted 12 country case studies on local perceptions of the work of humanitarian agencies. The objective was to understand, from the perspective of those most affected by crisis and conflict, whether humanitarian action was seen as responding to a universal imperative or as an externally-driven approach linked to Northern and Western agendas.