Labs

CPDD Research Labs

CPDD’s Research Labs provide faculty and students with opportunities to examine issues that address the needs of our locational endowment in Boston through pressing global concerns, using interdisciplinary, community-focused and community-engaged approaches that foster partnerships between UMass Boston researchers as well as cross-institutional partnerships between UMass Boston researchers and local and global communities.  CPDD Research Labs provide students with foundational and applied experience with social research methodologies, complementing their classroom experiences and contributing to holistic student success.

As UMass Boston commits to a focus on Grand Scholarly Challenges, we are proud that CPDD’s Research Labs address all four areas at the core of our institution’s focus: Climate Equity, Bridging Divides in Health Equity, Education for the Future, and Advancing a Just Society - with a focus across multiple labs on gender equality and on grassroots peacebuilding and violence prevention.

CPDD Research Labs not only commit to undertaking research that directly responds to the grand scholarly challenges but also creates important platforms for engagement. To this end, these labs importantly create an opportunity for interdisciplinary and translational research and dialogue that connects to policy and practice across UMass Boston, the Boston area, and beyond.

CPDD Research Labs include:

• The Global Health & Development Lab

Lab leader: Courtenay Sprague

We are a cluster of researchers (faculty members, graduate students, independent researchers and practitioners) drawn from different disciplines and united by our commitment to ‘health as social justice’. Together, we investigate key global health concerns that influence groups and populations’ opportunities to be healthy. We collaborate closely with partners in the contexts where we work, whether Johannesburg, South Africa, Birmingham, Alabama or Bogotá, Colombia. Our goal is to conduct research using different methods and approaches to advance understanding of key problems, and where possible, to translate research into policy and practice for impact—whether at the level of the clinic, the city or state.

As part of this, we:

• Create opportunities for funding research, practice and training initiatives for faculty members, partners and students within the CPDD

• Support and mentor doctoral students, including field research and related training opportunities and travel or conference funding

• Cultivate and value diverse perspectives in our interdisciplinary collaborations

• Establish opportunities for dialogue with our global partners

• Share and disseminate our work with a range of stakeholders

• The Mental Health & Violent Extremism Lab

Lab leaders: Mehr Latif, Eben Weitzman

The Violent Extremism and Mental Health Research Lab studies violence, the processes of radicalization, cognitive and emotional dimensions of radicalization, and the impact of participating in these movements on the lives of adherents. The lab brings together multi-disciplinary perspectives on violent extremism and mental health. In so doing, the lab aims to support the development of comparative theoretical frameworks and associated research methods. It also seeks to engage with the wider academic and policy communities about research challenges, policy frameworks, and programmatic interventions.

• The Education and Dialogue forf a Peaceful and Just Future Lab

Lab leaders: Karen Ross, Jeff Pugh

The Education and Dialogue for a Peaceful & Just Future Lab at CPDD brings together individuals interested in issues related to education (broadly defined to include formal and non-formal education as well as community-based initiatives in conflict contexts) in relation to peacebuilding and social change.  This lab is a space for critically exploring questions through pathways including empirical research, reading groups, guest speakers, and so on - with an emphasis on connecting research to practice and to community-based and community-driven work. The principal major project that the lab is currently working on is the Measuring Networked Peacebuilding initiative.  It also helps to support conflict resolution trainings on campus and beyond.

• The Migration Lab

Lab leaders: Jeff Pugh, Denise Muro, Cecilia Idika-Kalu

Migration is one of the central political debates and governance/policy challenges of our era, and its intersections with conflict are increasingly visible and widespread.  The Migration Lab creates an innovative community of practice in which researchers, activists, policymakers, service providers, and students collectively identify challenges, deepen our understandings of the social and political dynamics influencing human mobility and the integration or exclusion of migrants, and seek to generate effective, evidence-based policy solutions and programs to ensure peaceful coexistence, respect for rights, and pragmatic problem-solving in migrant-receiving countries and communities.  Key projects include the Immigrant Political Activism Research Collaborative (IVPARC) and Transnational Transitional Justice and the Work of the Colombian Truth Commission with Exiles as central research projects, as well as strategic partnerships with community-engaged projects, service providers, and capacity building initiatives, including the Migrant Alliance and Partnership Network (MAP network), the Student Clinic for Immigrant Justice (SCIJ), the Summer Institute on Conflict Transformation across Borders, and the PAHO/IOM virtual course on Human Security, Health, and Migration in the Americas.  

• The Security, Risk, and Governance Innovation Lab

Lab leaders: Stacy Vandeveer and Hannah Brown

The Security, Risk, and Governance Innovation Lab is a collaborative working group within CPDD dedicated to advancing innovative approaches to security, peace, democracy, and governance. It will bring together faculty, fellows, and students around four streams: a.) Corporate Governance and Community Accountability, b.) Disaster Resilience and Community Governance, c.) AI Governance, and d.) Critical Security Research. The lab will begin with the first two streams and expand over time to include the latter two, ensuring both immediate focus and long-term growth. Planned activities include reading groups, roundtable discussions, speaker series, and dialogues with community partners, alongside opportunities for collaborative research, student engagement, and the development of applied frameworks that link scholarship with practice. The lab will also explore partnerships with other CPDD labs and UMass institutes, such as SSL and INENAS, as well as community organizations to strengthen its reach and impact.

• The Nonviolent Action and Social Change Lab

Lab leaders: Belen Garrido, Karen Ross, Jeff Pugh

At a time of advancing authoritarianism and intensifying social conflict, the Nonviolent Action and Social Change lab fosters a community of scholars, practitioners, and activists working to understand and apply "people power" and the transformative potential of collective action for justice, social change, and to resist oppression.  By strengthening networks and solidarity among activists and movements around the world, and by creating an infrastructure for applied research, impact assessment, training, and information and resource sharing, the lab contributes to analyzing and building a global pro-democracy movement committed to human rights and social justice.  

Core projects include the Scaling Up Peacebuilding and Social Change toolkit, and a strategic alliance with Regional Institute for the Study and Practice of Nonviolent Action in the Americas, including the In Movement blog and the Portraits of Resistance podcast.

• The Human Security and National Security Lab

Lab leaders: Jay Jang, Paul Kowert

The Human Security and National Security Lab brings together students, faculty, researchers, and practitioners to explore how state-centered security, human-centered security, and global geopolitical dynamics intersect across diverse regional contexts. The Lab examines how national security strategies, alliance politics, and great-power competition interact with human rights, migration, social resilience, and community-level vulnerabilities worldwide. A model project within the Lab is the Korean Peninsula Initiative, which analyzes Northeast Asia’s evolving geopolitical landscape—from nuclear deterrence and U.S.–Korea alliance transformation to the human security challenges facing North Korean defectors and residents—while serving as just one of many global case studies. Through empirical research, reading groups, practitioner dialogues, guest speakers, and an annual research seminar, the Lab fosters interdisciplinary collaboration and generates policy-relevant insights aimed at advancing strategic stability, human dignity, and holistic approaches to peace and security.