Keith Stanski (2009 - 2010)

United States of America - Canada

Keith’s research for his doctoral degree at Oxford focuses on Anglo-American conceptions of ‘warlords’ in colonial and contemporary times. His article ‘So These Folks are Aggressive’: An Orientalist Reading of ‘Afghan Warlords’ concludes that recent concern about `Afghan warlords' should be understood as part of the longer, and still unresolved, construction of a violent Afghan ‘Other’ in Anglo-American political thought.

Born in Northern California to a Canadian family, Keith has spent the last few years in the United Kingdom, studying International Relations at the University of Oxford. His ongoing doctoral research focuses on the importance of Anglo-American conceptions of ‘warlords’ in colonial and contemporary times. The project is an outgrowth of Keith’s wider interest in warfare between the global north and global south. He began to explore these issues after spending several months working with Sandinista leaders in northwest Nicaragua on public health projects. Learning more about their experience during the Contra War of the 1980s fostered a lasting interest in the capacity for war to tear communities apart, as well brings disparate ones together.

Prior to starting graduate school, Keith spent several years exploring similar issues in professional, public, and academic settings. In 2005 he worked with the International Organization for Migration (IOM), overseeing reconstruction projects across the southeast region. Keith spent a summer working with the US Department of Defense’s Regional Defense Counter Terrorism Fellowship Program as a Harold W. Rosenthal Fellow. Some of his most sustained exposure to questions about war in the global south came during his travels in Colombia. During and after his undergraduate studies, Keith spent several years researching and publishing about the ongoing armed conflict in Colombia, particularly with regard to women’s involvement in guerrilla movements, and violence along and across the border with Ecuador.

Keith holds an M.Phil in International Relations from University of Oxford and an A.B. with Honors (magna cum laude) in International Relations and Education Studies from Brown University, where he served as co-Editor-in-Chief of the Brown Journal of World Affairs.

As a Sauvé Scholar Keith will continue his doctoral research and begin to adapt his conclusions about ‘warlords’ for a larger audience. He will benefit from the guidance of his Academic Mentor, Khalid Mustafa Medani, whose research interests range from Islam and Politics to Ethnic and Civil Conflict and Political Economy of Development.He also intends to apprentice with a local photographer in hopes of developing his portfolio and finding new ways to incorporate visual images into his future research about war and society. The Sauvé Scholar Program will give Keith a chance to learn more about Canada and, with any luck, begin to come to terms with his self-described Californian-Canadian heritage. Ultimately Keith hopes to pursue a career that allows him to continue researching and publishing about the lasting consequences of war in the global south.

Keith speaks Spanish and a smattering of Portuguese, and in his spare time he enjoys developing his judo and photography skills.

Publications
‘So These Folks are Aggressive’: An Orientalist Reading of US Conceptions of ‘Afghan Warlords’
Terrorism, Gender, and Ideology: A Case Study of Women who Join the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC)

Blog
Field Of Vision: a modest attempt at a regular photoblog during my year in Montreal as a Jeanne Sauvé Scholar