Institute for a Sustainable Earth

Leslie Dwyer, PhD

Title: Associate Professor, Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter School for Peace and Conflict Resolution

Phone: 703-993-1300

Website: https://carterschool.gmu.edu/profile/view/6204

Groups: Faculty

Research Focus

My academic research focuses on issues of natural resource conflict, gender in conflict and post-conflict contexts, transitional justice, and access to justice. I have 24 years of experience working in Asia, and am fluent in Indonesian/Malay. My scholarly work has been supported by grants from Fulbright, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the H.F. Guggenheim Foundation, and the United States Institute of Peace. I have conducted research, assessments, and training in Indonesia, Ghana, Nepal, Philippines, India, Myanmar, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Brazil, China, and Timor Leste.

Current Projects

■ Natural resource peacebuilding governance in Indonesia.

■ “Palm Oil Politics” – a collaborative project with Dr. Agnieszka Paczynska of GMU’s Carter School to investigate conflicts around palm oil in West Africa and Southeast Asia.

■ Gender and Conflict – conduct research on gender and peacebuilding, violence against women, and gender and access to justice in Indonesia, Nepal, and the Philippines, working with USAID and other organizations on analysis of the gender dynamics of conflict.

Select Publications

■  Dwyer, L. (2020). Indonesia Strategic Assessment. USAID/ Indonesia.

■ Dwyer, L. & Paczynska, A. (2019). Palm oil and peacebuilding: state power and community resistance. Paper presented to Building Sustainable Peace: Ideas, Evidence, Strategies, Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies, University of Notre Dame.

■ Dwyer, L. (2018). A Framework for the Assessment of Land and Resource Conflicts. Jakarta: World Resources Institute.