Ernesto Verdeja

Ernesto Verdeja is associate professor of political science and peace studies in the Keough School of Global Affairs at the University of Notre Dame. He is a core faculty member of the Keough School’s Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies. Verdeja also is a faculty fellow of the Nanovic Institute for European Studies, the Klau Institute for Civil and Human Rights, and the Kellogg Institute for International Studies

Verdeja studies the causes and prevention of genocide and mass atrocities, genocide and mass atrocities early warning, social media disinformation and violence, transitional justice, political reconciliation, trials and truth commissions, and artificial intelligence and violence early warning. Other research interests include contemporary political theory, particularly critical theory and the Frankfurt School.

He is the author of Unchopping a Tree: Reconciliation in the Aftermath of Political Violence, coeditor of books on the ethics and practice of peacebuilding, peacebuilding and social movements, the field of genocide studies, the international politics of genocide, transitional justice, and civil society in Cuba, and he has published numerous academic articles, chapters, and policy reports. His publications are available here.

Verdeja is a core faculty member of the Center for the Study of Social Movements. He is also the executive director of the Institute for the Study of Genocide, a non-profit organization founded in 1982 to promote research and policy analysis on the causes and prevention of genocide and political violence. He also has served two terms on the advisory board of the International Association of Genocide Scholars, a worldwide scholarly association devoted to the study and prevention of genocide.

He regularly consults on mass atrocity early warning and prevention and on political reconciliation with various governments and nongovernmental organizations.

Verdeja is the recipient of the 2018 Sheedy Excellence in Teaching Award.