Bilan A. Stribling

Bilan Stribling is in the Master of Science in Negotiation and Conflict Resolution program at Columbia University. Her academic research engages the field of International Relations and Global Partnership Development. She holds a B.A in Political Science from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Bilan’s research at the IACM Conference will explore the factors that contribute to a negotiator’s ability to mitigate risks when making the first offer in a negotiation. The research analysis places a strong emphasis on confidence-building mechanisms as a key driver for mitigating risks. The scope of her research examines best practices for negotiators to reach optimal outcomes in various settings.

Pengxin Xie
Renmin University of China

Pengxin Xie is a PhD candidate in Renmin University of China in China and currently enrolled in the joint training PhD program at University of Southern California. Her academic research focuses on the field of labor relations, such as labor dispute mediation and collective dispute resolution. At the 2016 IACM, she will present an archival study on how disputants’ levels of experience in mediation moderate the relationship between experienced mediator and outcome. The research suggests that the experienced mediators try to balance unequal power between employee and employer.

Nadine Pierre-Louis
Nova Southeastern University
Conflict Resolution Studies

Nadine Pierre-Louis is completing her PhD in Conflict Resolution Studies at Nova Southeastern University. The research to be presented at the 2016 IACM Conference is a paper entitled “Fifteen Years of Conflict Style, Mode and Behavior: Is ‘How’ We Study Conflict Behavior Valid?” This paper is part of a larger body of research which develops a formal theory for conflict behavior. This paper lays the foundation for the need to develop more globally relevant, and culturally sensitive theory and instruments to identify and operationalize conflict resolution behavior. The results of the research demonstrate that the instruments and theories, which support the instruments originally using limited sample populations, have been generalized beyond their original intentionality.

Sahar Namazikhah
George Mason University, United States
Conflict Prevention

Sahar Namazikhah is a lecturer and doctoral candidate in the School for Conflict Analysis and Resolution at George Mason University. Her research and practice in the field of conflict resolution is focused on diplomacy, conflict prevention and digital peacebuilding. She has a Masters in Religions and is certified in Post-Master of Negotiation, Conflict Resolution and Peacebuilding.

Hong Zhang
Free University, Germany

Hong Zhang is currently at an advanced stage of her doctoral candidature at Free University of Berlin, Germany. She holds an MSc. in management from NEOMA Business School, France and a BSc. in business administration from Wuhan University, China. Hong’s main research interests are issue management and agenda setting in negotiation.

Eva Paul 
Columbia University
Negotiation and Conflict Resolution

Eva Paul is a graduate student in the Negotiation and Conflict Resolution program at Columbia University focusing on the extractive industries, energy, and sustainable development. At the IACM 2016, Eva will present her research on elections and violence prevention in Sub-Saharan Africa. This extensive project was conceived by the team of scholars who participated in the Summer ’15 fieldwork in Uganda, and will be presented as a visual poster session.

Dominika Bulska
University of Warsaw
Psychology

Dominika Bulska is currently enrolled in Psychology Masters program at University of Warsaw, where she will earn her degree this summer. Her main research interest is the role of third parties, such as mediators, but also neighbors or non-profit organizations, in the process of conflict resolution. At the 2016 IACM she will present two studies. In the first presentation she will show her results on how Poles perceive a distant conflict between Israel and Palestine and the relations between extreme opinions towards the conflict and traditional prejudice, while in the second presentation she will talk about the difference between the process of mediation and negotiation and the role played by mediator in subjective feeling of justice reported by two conflicted parties.

Hadia Sheerazi
Columbia University
Sustainability Management

Hadia Sheerazi is studying Sustainability Management at Columbia University and her research and advocacy work is focused on the intersections of sustainable development, climate change, gender, peace and security, and disaster risk reduction. She is an Ambassador for Girl Rising, the ONE Campaign, Half the Sky, A World at School (AWAS), a Youth Expert in the Commonwealth Youth Climate Change Network, and has served as a delegate in summits organized by The World Bank Group, UN ECOSOC, The Commonwealth, and the Youth Assembly at the United Nations. Hadia was a Presidential Scholar in the Honors Program at St. John’s University and graduated summa cum laude as Student Marshall and Class Speaker in 2010.

Ratha Khuon
Teachers College, Columbia University

Ratha Khuon is from the International Educational Development program at Teachers College, Columbia University. As an IACM scholar, she and her teammates analyze the linkages between democratization processes and the development of peace infrastructures, utilizing case studies of Benin, Rwanda, Uganda, and Burkina Faso.

BriAnne Watkins
Teachers College, Columbia University

BriAnne Watkins is from the International Education & Development program at Teachers College, Columbia University. She is a returned Peace Corps volunteer and 2015 Uganda Fieldwork research fellow in conflict resolution and peacebuilding through Columbia University. At IACM, BriAnne and her teammates will present their work on conflict prevention in African election contexts.

Agnieszka Hermel
University of Warsaw
Psychology

Agnieszka Hermel is interested in issues related to conflict, politics, economics and morality, as well as in traveling and art. In her work, she examined the relationship between the moral foundations, social value orientations and human behavior in a conflict. She took into account both personality as well as situational factors – dispositional preferences and the nature of the relationship with the other person. Her work shows that how we behave in a conflict is largely determined by our fast, intuitive, sometimes irrational and often unconscious moral judgments.