5th Annual 2026 Peace & Conflict Studies Journal (PCSJ) Conference; Nova Southeastern University

Conference: 5th Annual 2026 Peace & Conflict Studies Journal (PCSJ) Conference at Nova Southeastern University in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida
January 15 – 16, 2026

Presentation: “Reasons of Failure and Shortcomings in Afghanistan's Political Settlements"

Report:

 I attended the PCSJ Annual Conference at Nova Southeastern University, held on January 14-15, 2026, which brought together senior researchers, professors, deans, practitioners, and MA and doctoral students from institutions across the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Jordan, and other countries. 

From the panels I attended, I learned about design justice approaches to peace education and how relational trust-building can be operationalized in educational settings. I gained methodological insight into discourse analysis and its application in conflict management, as well as how creative writing and storytelling can serve as tools for social change. Presentations on youth outreach deepened my understanding of educational outcomes in conflict-affected areas and the challenges that digital echo chambers pose for community building and peacebuilding. In my own panel on human security in South and Central Asia, I presented my research on the failures of political settlements in Afghanistan, and listened to indigenous conflict resolution practices, and critiques of whether human security as a framework is sufficient in Pakistan and India from the work of other panelists. Later, the social justice and decolonization panel exposed me to work on state narratives and the construction of internal Others, as well as community resistance to hyper-capitalist modernization. 

Beyond the panels I attended, the broader conference program included several sessions directly relevant to my doctoral research, covering topics such as pluriversal peacebuilding frameworks, bottom-up redefinitions of human security, the role of memorials and memory in conflict and resolution, Western narratives about terrorism, decolonial critiques of settler-colonial frameworks, and the politics of collective imagination about women in the Arab world. 

Presenting alongside scholars working on Asia, and presenting my own research on Afghanistan, provided feedback on my research and made me respond to the audience’s questions. One of my goals was to introduce my work to the Peace and Conflict Studies Journal for publication. I am also engaged in productive networking with senior scholars and fellow doctoral students, expanding my professional network. In one instance, I connected with the dean of a public American university, who further put me in contact with an Iraqi scholar whose dissertation employs a novel methodology that I can benefit from in my own work.