Joan Camilo Lopez

Joan is the Program Manager of the Youth, Peace, and Society Program at Advanced Consortium on Cooperation, Conflict, and Complexity (AC4) in the Climate School / Earth Institute. His work is situated in the threshold where sociopolitical processes led by youth community leaders meet with the production of spaces of peace in areas where violent conflicts are rampant. He focuses on understanding the ways youth leaders make sense of violent conflicts, and on how they construct practices and technologies to respond peacefully to the dynamics of such conflicts. He is also interested on how the concrete practices and technologies designed by community youth leaders can inform and further develop academic approaches to peacebuilding, conflict resolution, and leadership; and on how the work of youth leaders can benefit from applying some of the practices and theories that are produced in academia. In short, his work lays where theory and praxis melt. Part of his work at AC4 looks to develop qualitative and quantitative methods to monitor and evaluate the impact of the work led by the youth community leaders with whom we work. In addition to his work at AC4, he is also an adjunct professor of cultural anthropology at City College and Lehman College, CUNY.