Dyan Mazurana

Research Director and Professor

Research Professor, The Fletcher School

Research Professor, The Friedman School

Senior Fellow, World Peace Foundation

Contact

Working with Feinstein since 2003

Based in Boston area, MA

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Dyan Mazurana directs Feinstein’s Research Program on Women, Children, and Armed Conflict, as well as the M.S. in Nutrition Humanitarian Assistance Specialization at the Friedman School. She focuses on gendered dimensions of humanitarian response to conflict and crises, documenting serious crimes committed during conflict, and accountability, remedy, and reparation.

Dyan 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.

Dyan 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.

In 2023, Dyan received the James L. Paddock Teaching Award from the Fletcher School. The award is chosen by Fletcher students and recognizes the Fletcher professor who best exemplifies excellence in teaching.

Dyan 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 dogs 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

  • DHP D231 / NUTR 0242 Gender and Human Security in Transitional States and Societies
  • DHP D232 / NUTR 222 Gender, Culture and Conflict in Complex Humanitarian Emergencies
  • DHP D240 Children, Violence, Protection, and Resilience

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