Staff

Executive Director: Michael Loadenthal

Dr. Michael Loadenthal is the Executive Director of the Peace and Justice Studies Association. He completed his PhD in 2015 at George Mason University, and previously completed an MLitt at the Centre for the Study of Terrorism and Political Violence at the University of St Andrews in 2010. Dr. Loadenthal has taught courses on political violence, terrorism and sociology at Miami University of Oxford, Georgetown University, George Mason University, the University of Cincinnati, the University of Malta, and Jessup Correctional Institution. Michael has served as the Dean’s Fellow for the George Mason’s School for Conflict Analysis and Resolution, a Practitioner-In-Residence for Georgetown’s Center for Social Justice, and a Research Fellow at Hebrew Union College’s Center for the Study of Ethics and Contemporary Moral Problems. His work has been published in a variety of venues including Critical Studies on Terrorism, Journal for the Study of Radicalism, Perspectives on Terrorism, Journal of Applied Security Research, Journal of Feminist Scholarship, Journal of Radical Criminology, Anarchist Developments in Cultural Studies and other social movement and political theory journals and books.

Contact: Michael@peacejusticestudies.org

Student Research Assistant Team

In conjunction with the Executive Director, a team of students are providing research support to help grow and develop PJSA’s many resources. Currently these students are engaged in a variety of projects including building a bi-national departmental directory of peace and justice studies programs, the development of a syllabi repository, supporting PJSA’s annual conference, and the development of outreach and publication materials. In the future, PJSA hopes to constitute additional student research teams at other universities.

Interested faculty members, and those seeking more information on how you can plug in, please contact us.

Abigail Citty is a junior at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro pursuing a degree in Social Work with minors in Anthropology and Peace and Conflict Studies. After finishing her undergraduate degree, she hopes to pursue law school or a masters degree in Social Work— she hasn’t quite decided yet! Abigail has been with PJSA since July of 2020 working as an intern with a special focus in conference planning for the PJSA’s 2020 online conference. Abigail hopes to gain professional skills and knowledge, but also is interested in the application of peace and conflict studies in social work. Abigail also spends her time as an Elon Academy scholar and working as a server.

Emma Lovejoy is the Production Manager for the Peace Chronicle, the PJSA’s quarterly magazine. They started working on the Chronicle in 2019 as an Editorial Intern, and have been on the team ever since. Emma is also a second-year master’s student at UMASS Boston, studying History and Historiography; they earned their B.A from Miami University in 2020, in Social Justice Studies. In their free time, you’ll usually find Emsie making art, or working on one of their writing projects.

Dan Martin is a second year master’s degree student studying international public policy at Fudan University’s School of International Relations and Public Affairs in Shanghai. He completed his bachelor’s degree at the University of Wisconsin – Madison in 2015, where he studied strategic communication in the School of Journalism & Mass Communication. He is mainly interested in ethnic conflict in Southeast Asia with a focus on Myanmar in addition to the international relations of the region. When Dan finishes his degree in the summer of 2021, he hopes to return to Southeast Asia and get involved with development work. In his free time, Dan is working towards honing his Chinese language skills. [Team member: Fall 2020]

Contact: dmart9693@gmail.com

Dion Mensah is a second year graduate fellow pursuing a dual degree Masters of Public Administration and Masters of Arts in Latin American Studies at The Ohio State University. They graduated cum laude from Miami University in 2020 with a B.A. in Political Science and a B.A. Social Justice Studies with a minor in Spanish. Their current areas of interests include climate justice, globalization in Latin America, poverty and domestic social policy, and international socio-political relations. Their first role with PJSA (Fall 2019-July 2020) focused on expanding resources offered to PJSA members through helping with the speaker’s bureau and developing PJSA’s online YouTube platform. Dion rejoined the team in May 2021 to continue building member resources. They are also are a community organizer working on grassroots campaigns to resist state violence and redistribute material resources and aid to community members in the area. In their free time they enjoy reading, spending time with loved ones, visiting parks, and watching documentaries.

Jacob Ostacher is a Junior at American University, in the School of International Service. He is pursuing a B.A. in International Studies in the Peace, Global Security, and Conflict Resolution program. His main interest is in the use of local-level, bottom-up strategies to conflict resolution and how these tactics can be incorporated by international organizations and NGOs engaged in peacebuilding. In his free time, Jacob enjoys reading and cooking for friends.