Political science professor Severine Autesserre has been awarded the 2012 University of Louisville Grawemeyer Award for Ideas Improving World Order for the ideas set forth in her book, The Trouble with the Congo: Local Violence and the Failure of International Peacebuilding. From the Grawemeyer Awards site:
"Drawing from more than 300 interviews and 18 months of field research, Autesserre analyzed a global effort from 2003 to 2006 to curb widespread violence in the Congo. She found the attempt failed because international workers trying to restore peace overlooked the importance of local disputes over land, resources and political power. Her message that lasting conflict resolution must take place from the bottom up as well as from the top down “holds great promise for the pursuit of peace,” said award jurors."
Prof. Autesserre's research focuses on civil wars, peacebuilding and peacekeeping, humanitarian aid and African politics. She has appeared on Charlie Rose, Public Radio International's "The World" and elsewhere discussing issues related to the local violence and international intervention in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo. Her book, published by Cambridge University Press in 2010, also won the International Studies Association's 2011 Chadwick Alger Award.
The Grawemeyer Awards are five annual prizes given in the fields of music, political science, psychology, education and religion. They were founded by H. Charles Grawemeyer to help make the world a better place. Read more in The Chronicle of Higher Education, The Louisville Courier-Journal and WFPL News
