A discussion with Nimmi Gowrinathan, Adam Bacqko, Michael Shaikh, Dipali Mukhopadhyay.

Nimmi Gowrinathan is author of the blog www.deviarchy.com and has examined the intersections of gender and violence as an academic, human rights researcher, policy analyst, and writer. She is currently lead author/gender expert, United Nations National Human Development Report on Afghanistan.

Adam Baczko is a Ph.D. candidate at the School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences (EHESS, Paris), Adam Baczko researches comparatively the exercise of justice by armed movements and its political implications, carrying out fieldwork in Afghanistan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Iraq and Syria.

Dipali Mukhopadhyay joined the SIPA faculty as an assistant professor in July 2012.  She received her doctorate from Tufts University’s Fletcher School in the fall of 2010 and spent 2011 as a post-doctoral fellow at Princeton University.  She studies modern state formation in conflict and post-conflict settings.  Her research interests lie, in particular, with the challenges weak political centers face as they attempt to grow their authority in the midst of formidable competitors. She is currently finishing a forthcoming book manuscript with Cambridge University Press entitled Warlords, Strongman Governors and State Building in Afghanistan.  She has been conducting research in eastern and northern Afghanistan, as well as Kabul, since 2007 and made her first trip to the country  for a project with the Aga Khan Development Network in 2004. Mukhopadhyay teaches in the field of international security.  This fall, she will teach a course on state formation, violence, and intervention in the modern world with a case study on Afghanistan.  Next spring, she will teach a course on warlords, militiamen, and mafias and another on foreign intervention and conflict management.

Registration is recommended on the SIPA and Columbia Events Calendars. For questions, contact Saltzman DRA Maggie Li, ML3408@columbia.edu.