Tony Jenkins

Tony Jenkins, PhD, is an Assistant Professor of Justice and Peace Studies at Georgetown University. He has more than 20 years of experience directing and designing peacebuilding and international educational programs and projects and leadership in the international development of peace studies and peace education. Since 2001 he has served as the Managing Director of the International Institute on Peace Education and since 2007 as the Coordinator of the Global Campaign for Peace Education. Professionally, he has been: Director, Peace Education Initiative at The University of Toledo (2014-16); Vice President for Academic Affairs, National Peace Academy (2009-2014); and Co-Director, Peace Education Center, Teachers College Columbia University (2001-2010). Tony’s applied research has focused on examining the impacts and effectiveness of peace education methods and pedagogies in nurturing personal, social and political change and transformation. He is also interested in formal and non-formal educational design and development with special interest in teacher training, alternative security systems, disarmament, and gender. Above all, Jenkins urges us to not treat peace education as an abstraction. “As education for and about peace,” he writes, “the substance of peace education (past, present, and future) cannot be separated from the reality of the learner.” In 2024, he spoke with the Center’s Mitch Bogen about what he has learned about the qualities of effective peace education, the legacy of his mentors, and his vision for the future of the field.