Department of Conflict Resolution, Human Security, and Global Governance

Who gets left behind in the fight against climate change? Indigenous communities for sure, who are being displaced from their ancestral lands in the name of conservation and carbon markets.

Buket Altınçelep, MS, MA elaborates this answer by highlighting the critical gap in global climate action. Using the case of the Ogiek people in Kenya's Mau forest, Buket expertly unpacks how the principle of "free, prior and informed consent" often remains just a principle, unenforceable and easily sidelined in the race for carbon credits.

She reminds us that climate justice is inseparable from land rights and that true security requires the inclusion of Indigenous communities as decision-makers, not as afterthoughts.

Published by The Conversation

Efforts to combat climate change often exclude Indigenous people – and they may not have any recourse Efforts to protect land and environmental resources, including fighting climate change, often end up displacing people who have lived in those places for generations.

History made. 🏆✨

We are thrilled to congratulate Dr. Ellen Busolo M., PhD. and Dr. Krystal-Gayle O'Neill Ph.D. on becoming the inaugural recipients of the GGHS Early Career Excellence Award for Unique Contributions to Knowledge, Teaching, and Public Engagement and Service!

Dr. Busolo Milimu's research on global and national sports governance, women and girls in sports, and human rights is reshaping our understanding of the political economy of play. Her teaching at UMass Boston, Babson College, and Wellesley College has inspired countless students, and her publicly engaged scholarship proves that the playing field is always political.

Dr. Krystal-Gayle O'Neill, author of the groundbreaking dissertation Tan Ova Deh Suh: Queeribean Feminism, Human Security, and the Dynamics of Exclusion in Jamaica and Trinidad & Tobago, has given us a new theoretical language for understanding postcolonial LGBTQ exclusion. Her teaching and her ongoing work on free expression, racial and gender tropes, and the politics of identity continue to push the field forward.

Both awardees exemplify what this department stands for: rigorous scholarship, transformative teaching, and public engagement that refuses to stay inside the ivory tower.

Please join us in celebrating Busolo and Krystal-Gayle. Their work makes us all better scholars and better humans!

Food security is never just about food. James Kintu PhD brilliant dissertation defense on May 19, 2026 showed how climate change, land governance, and gender intersect to shape who eats and who doesn't in Uganda's Busoga region. What does sugarcane expansion have to do with hunger? Everything.

Dr. Kintu unraveled how climate vulnerability and gender inequality intersect to produce food insecurity, proving that food security cannot be understood without considering who gets left behind when the rains fail. Essential scholarship for an essential crisis.

Huge congratulations, Dr. Kintu! 🎓🌾 So proud to have you in our department!

UMass Boston's Conflict Resolution MA program takes pride in its rigorous coursework and practical experience that help you turn conflict into collaboration across interpersonal, community, and global contexts. Students will develop skills in mediation, dialogue facilitation, conflict management, and peace building.

Our Conflict Resolution MA GPD Karen Ross explains how, in addition to finding agreement between individuals and groups, we talk about (sort of) the role of power and culture, and thinking about how to move organizations or societies or cultures from a dynamic where there are inequities between groups to a more equitable society.

Join us for hands-on experience with Beacon-to-Beacon, the flagship practical program that provides conflict-resolution training and interventions for students, faculty, and staff on campus.

You can also serve as a mediator for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts through our mediation internship course and earn UN facilitator certification in the Intergroup Dialogue and Facilitation course!

Increasing Impact with Sheril Kirshenbaum: Communicating research and science from PBS to the U.S. Senate Pax Global Voices · Episode

Our MA in International Relations prepares students to face a wide range of global policy problems through a flexible, interdisciplinary program. We specialize in helping students bring academic rigor and scholarly insight to pressing policy challenges.

Our IR and GGHS MA Programs Graduate Program Director, Courtenay Sprague, explains that the IR MA Program equips individuals with the skills needed to work in international organizations, globally-oriented national or local government agencies, nonprofit or non-governmental organizations, international business consulting, or to continue on to an academic career.

Come join us to expand your understanding of strategies for successful political and economic development, of international organizations that make a difference, and of techniques for building peace and security on a global scale!

Our MA in International Relations prepares students to face a wide range of global policy problems through a flexible, interdisciplinary program. We specialize in helping students bring academic rigor and scholarly insight to pressing policy challenges.

Expand your understanding of strategies for successful political and economic development, of international organizations that make a difference, and of techniques for building peace and security on a global scale.

The International Relations MA Program equips individuals with the skills needed to work in international organizations, globally-oriented national or local government agencies, nonprofit or non-governmental organizations, international business consulting, or to continue on to an academic career.

Congratulations to our esteemed alumni Charla M. Burnett, Ph.D. (1stGen) for her new book "Global Land-Ocean Geospatial Applications Mapping and Surveying with Remote Sensing and GIS".

This book facilitates a deeper understanding of the diverse applications of geographic information systems (GIS) and remote sensing (RS) in land and ocean mapping and surveying across different fields and regions, bringing forward the best practices and innovations happening worldwide.

Find the book here:
https://www.routledge.com/Global-Land-Ocean-Geospatial-Applications-Mapping-and-Surveying-with-Remote-Sensing-and-GIS/Burnett-Pradhan/p/book/9781032728612

We’re so proud of all of our CRHSGG students and their many accolades and accomplishments!

If you’re a student or alum, share what you’ve been up to and be featured on our Student News wall!

TODAY! Don’t miss the Slomoff Memorial Lecture featuring Ambassador Samantha Power!