Sally Sharif, PhD

Welcome! I am Simons Foundation Canada Post-Doctoral Fellow at the School for International Studies at Simon Fraser University. Previously, I was a Peace Accords Matrix (PAM) Post-Doctoral Research Associate at the Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies at the University of Notre Dame. I have a PhD in Political Science from the Graduate Center of the City University of New York (2015-2021).

 

I am a conflict scholar. My research focuses on civil war, peacebuilding, and post-conflict state consolidation, with a regional focus on the Middle East and Latin America. My doctoral dissertation and book project analyzes Disarmament, Demobilization, and Reintegration (DDR) programs on the macro-, meso-, and micro-levels. Through analysis of three original datasets, I show how DDR is embedded in rebel cohesion and post-conflict political bargaining, and how these two processes shape prospects of post-conflict peace. The dissertation involved extensive field research with ex-combatants of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and employed mixed methods, including natural experiments, simultaneous equations modeling, machine learning, and within- and cross-case process tracing. 

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In other works, I explore the impact of rebel cohesion on a wide array of issues, such as civil war duration, mid-level commander defection, and perpetration of sexual violence during conflict. My scholarly work has been published by or is forthcoming at International Peacekeeping, Political Violence and Terrorism, Defence and Peace Economics, Studies in Conflict and Terrorism, Human Rights Quarterly, and the Social Science Research Council (SSRC). My policy briefs have appeared in The Washington Post, the PAM Policy Brief Series, and Political Violence at a Glance. See my Google Scholar page here. 

 

I speak seven languages and have done field research in Europe, Latin America, and the Middle East. Outside academia, I am a triathlete and am deeply concerned by environmental degradation, apparent first and foremost in our mountains and lakes.