Karen Ross

Karen Ross is an Associate Professor in the Department of Conflict Resolution, Human Security, and Global Governance at UMASS Boston, and formerly the Program Director for their Graduate Programs in Conflict Resolution. In her academic and professional work she focuses on issues at the intersection of dialogue, peace-building, social activism, and education. She conducts basic and applied research to help understand the impact of grassroots peace-building interventions and the way these interventions fit into societal level peace-building efforts. She also explores and writes about issues related to how we conduct research about peace-building and social justice work and how we can do so in more inclusive ways.

Speaking at the 2022 Ikeda Forum for Intercultural Dialogue, Dr. Ross traced her path to dialogue and peacebuilding to her “lucky” circumstance of having been born into a “multicultural, multinational household.” With a mother from Israel and father from the United States, she spent time growing up in both countries, “going back and forth between them and experiencing cultural differences, cultural divides, and thinking a lot about some of the differences that I experienced.” Ultimately she is drawn to the “power of dialogue to create connections, bring people together, to create learning opportunities,” truly embodying a way of “being and becoming.”