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Keith Stanski

United States of America

  • Program Year
  • 2009-10
  • Country of Current Residence
  • U.S.A.
  • City/Town of Current Residence
  • New York City
  • Current Position
  • Senior Program Officer
  • Organization
  • NYU Center on International Cooperation
  • Profession(s)

  • Academic, Political Consultant

  • Sector(s)
  • Academia, Consulting, International relations, Politics / Policy
  • Language(s)
  • English, Spanish, Portugese
  • Mentor
  • Associate Prof. Khalid Mustafa Medani, McGill University
  • Interest(s) / Expertise
  • armed conflict, government, international relations, political leadership
Scholar email address
Biography

Born in Northern California to a Canadian family, Keith has spent the last few years in the United Kingdom, studying International Relations at the University of Oxford. His ongoing doctoral research focuses on the importance of Anglo-American conceptions of ‘warlords’ in colonial and contemporary times. His article ‘So These Folks are Aggressive’: An Orientalist Reading of ‘Afghan Warlords’ concludes that recent concern about `Afghan warlords’ should be understood as part of the longer, and still unresolved, construction of a violent Afghan ‘Other’ in Anglo-American political thought. The project is an outgrowth of Keith’s wider interest in warfare between the global north and global south. He began to explore these issues after spending several months working with Sandinista leaders in northwest Nicaragua on public health projects. Learning more about their experience during the Contra War of the 1980s fostered a lasting interest in the capacity for war to tear communities apart, as well brings disparate ones together.

Prior to starting graduate school, Keith spent several years exploring similar issues in professional, public, and academic settings. In 2005 he worked with the International Organization for Migration (IOM), overseeing reconstruction projects across the southeast region. During and after his undergraduate studies, Keith spent several years researching and publishing about the ongoing armed conflict in Colombia, particularly with regard to women’s involvement in guerrilla movements, and violence along and across the border with Ecuador.

Keith holds an M.Phil in International Relations from University of Oxford and an A.B. with Honors (magna cum laude) in International Relations and Education Studies from Brown University, where he served as co-Editor-in-Chief of the Brown Journal of World Affairs.

Links: 

As a Fellow

Keith continued his doctoral research and began to adapt his conclusions about ‘warlords’ for a larger audience. He benefited from the guidance of his Academic Mentor, Khalid Mustafa Medani, whose research interests range from Islam and Politics to Ethnic and Civil Conflict and Political Economy of Development. He also apprenticed with a local photographer in hopes of developing his portfolio and finding new ways to incorporate visual images into his future research about war and society. The Sauvé Scholar Program gave Keith a chance to learn more about Canada and begin to come to terms with his self-described Californian-Canadian heritage. Ultimately Keith hopes to pursue a career that allows him to continue researching and publishing about the lasting consequences of war in the global south.

Field of Vision: A modest attempt at photoblogging during my Sauvé Year 

Portfolio