{"id":23607,"date":"2018-08-30T15:45:37","date_gmt":"2018-08-30T19:45:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sciencescosmaincms.cm.ucf.edu\/news\/?p=23607"},"modified":"2018-08-30T15:45:37","modified_gmt":"2018-08-30T19:45:37","slug":"ucf-student-named-a-peace-fellow","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/news\/ucf-student-named-a-peace-fellow\/","title":{"rendered":"UCF Student Named a Peace Fellow"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_23608\" style=\"width: 310px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-23608\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-23608\" src=\"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/29\/2018\/08\/ucf_29638330-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" srcset=\"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/29\/2018\/08\/ucf_29638330-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/29\/2018\/08\/ucf_29638330-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/29\/2018\/08\/ucf_29638330-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/29\/2018\/08\/ucf_29638330-299x199.jpg 299w, https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/29\/2018\/08\/ucf_29638330.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-23608\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Ph.D. candidate Christopher Faulkner will use the fellowship to research child soldiering, which is the use of people under the age of 18 for militant purposes. (Photo by Nick Leyva &#8217;15). Courtesy of Nicole Dudenhoefer.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>By Nicole Dudenhoefer<\/p>\n<p>Christopher Faulkner, a Ph.D. candidate in UCF\u2019s\u00a0<a class=\"external\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/degree\/security-studies-phd\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">security studies program<\/a>, was recently awarded a Minerva Research Initiative and United States Institute of Peace Dissertation Write-Up Fellowship for his dissertation on child soldiering.<\/p>\n<p>More than 200 students applied for the award this year, but only 18 were awarded, with some of last year\u2019s winners attending schools such as Yale, Stanford and Georgetown. The USIP aims to reduce violent conflicts around the world and promote security within the United States and across the global. The Minerva Research Initiative is a project within the Office of Basic Research at the Department of Defense.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m really proud of this fellowship because it\u2019s external validation \u2014 not just for me, but also for the program, especially since it\u2019s still young,\u201d Faulkner says. \u201cIt\u2019s an opportunity to continue my dissertation research and hopefully do something more meaningful with it and maybe more ambitious than what I set out to do with it from the beginning.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Understanding Child Soldiering<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Faulkner\u2019s paper explores three main topics on child soldiering, which is the use of individuals under 18 for militant purposes. The first focuses on how external state sponsorship of rebel groups impact their recruitment decisions. The second examines gender relations and how militant groups select children as combatants, but exclude females from these roles. The final topic analyzes governments that use child soldiers and are held accountable for their actions.<\/p>\n<p>Faulkner became interested in the subject during his first semester at UCF. As part of a qualitative methods course, he read\u00a0<em>Inside Rebellion: The Politics of Insurgent Violence<\/em>, which opened his eyes to the micro-dynamics of conflict that often get overlooked. This led him to write a research paper on child soldiering.<\/p>\n<p>\u201c[That] sent me down a rabbit hole of reading about the experiences of young populations that are struggling just to survive, whether that be lack of educational opportunities or their societies are constantly in conflict,\u201d Faulkner says. \u201cIt\u2019s sad, but interesting and I think it\u2019s worthy of study.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Using Security Studies to Better the Future<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Although UCF\u2019s security studies program was only in its second year, Faulkner decided to come to the university in 2014 after speaking with Professor of\u00a0<a class=\"external\" href=\"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/politicalscience\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Political Science<\/a>\u00a0Mark Schafer, who convinced him that the faculty at UCF are deeply invested in their students.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think the faculty go above and beyond to be a resource,\u201d Faulkner says. \u201cI\u2019ve spent a lot time on campus and feel like I have both a professional and personal relationship with a lot of faculty members and especially those who serve on my dissertation committee. I think being selected [for this fellowship] is a testament to them helping students evolve as they are in the program.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Graduate students in the security studies program are taught how to communicate security issues to policy makers, the general public, the government and academia. These students may go on to work in fields within the military, government organizations and international corporations.<\/p>\n<p>Faulkner, however, wishes to follow another career path, pursuing a career in research and academia. During his undergraduate experience in his home state at the University of North Carolina Wilmington, he instructed courses and developed an interest in teaching at the university level. While at UCF, his passion for teaching has grown alongside the desire to be involved with research.<\/p>\n<p>\u201c[Teaching] a human-rights course where I have students who are passionate about topics all over the world has been really interesting,\u201d Faulkner says. \u201cTo see them bring their opinions and knowledge to the classroom and make me aware of human rights issues that I might not even be aware of [has been] really rewarding as a teacher.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Long-term, Faulkner also wants to work in policy development for human-right issues, but he knows the first step to making change in the world is educating others.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou don\u2019t want to have history repeat itself if it\u2019s negative history. If there are things you can do to study the consequences of issues, like child soldiering, you can teach future generations about why you should avoid these things,\u201d Faulkner says. \u201cThe more dialogue and conversation we have about challenging issues the more opportunity we have to improve those social injustices.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>To read the original story, <a href=\"https:\/\/today.ucf.edu\/ucf-student-named-a-peace-fellow\/\">click here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Nicole Dudenhoefer Christopher Faulkner, a Ph.D. candidate in UCF\u2019s\u00a0security studies program, was recently awarded a Minerva Research Initiative and United States Institute of Peace Dissertation Write-Up Fellowship for his dissertation on child soldiering. More than 200 students applied for the award this year, but only 18 were awarded, with some of last year\u2019s winners [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":133,"featured_media":23608,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[18,16,29],"tags":[663,2711,4933,5909,3457,3592,3613],"class_list":["post-23607","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ps-phd-highlight","category-political-science-departments","category-ucf-news","tag-christopher-faulkner","tag-political-science","tag-security-studies","tag-security-studies-program","tag-ucf","tag-ucf-news-2","tag-ucf-political-science"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>UCF Student Named a Peace Fellow - College of Sciences News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/news\/ucf-student-named-a-peace-fellow\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"UCF Student Named a Peace Fellow - College of Sciences News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Nicole Dudenhoefer Christopher Faulkner, a Ph.D. candidate in UCF\u2019s\u00a0security studies program, was recently awarded a Minerva Research Initiative and United States Institute of Peace Dissertation Write-Up Fellowship for his dissertation on child soldiering. 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