Sweta Sen, Ph.D. candidate in Political Science, is the recipient of the prestigious Senesh Graduate Fellowship for 2016-2017. The fellowship provides a $10,000 stipend across a two-year period and is awarded to two exceptional women academics conducting research in the field of peace studies. The rigorous selection process is based on unrestricted citizenship, and includes worthy women scholars from various developing countries.
Originally from India, Sweta joined the doctoral program at KSU in 2012. Prior to beginning her graduate studies, she worked with an anti-human-trafficking project that was administered by the European Union through the Group Development Association of France in India. During her tenure there, she was actively involved in restoration, rehabilitation, and reintegration of the trafficking survivors into mainstream society.
Sweta's dissertation explores why some non-state armed groups voluntarily comply with international humanitarian norms and subsequently contribute significantly to the protection of civilians in situations of conflict. Through her research, she expects to expand our understanding of non-state actors and their socio-political relations, as well as constructive conflict management in regions where the state authority is absent or only offers extreme brutality and oppression. Thus, she plans to explore an alternative to the mainstream understanding of peace-building that still equates strong states with sustainable peace, and consequently, is impervious to the realities of irregular wars and sub-state networks.