Karina Korostelina

Photo of Karina Korostelina

Professor of Conflict Analysis and Resolution, Carter School

Contact Information

Email: ckoroste@gmu.edu
Phone: 703-993-1304
Campus: Arlington
Building: Arlington: Vernon Smith Hall
Room 5072
Mail Stop: 4D3

Personal Websites

ORCID

Biography

Karina V. Korostelina is a Professor and Director of Sustainable Peace Lab and of the Program on History, Memory, and Conflict at the Carter School for Peace and Conflict Resolution, GMU. She is a President of the International Association for Reconciliation Studies. Professor Korostelina is a social psychologist whose work focuses on dynamics of social identity and power in protracted social conflicts. Within this theoretical framework, she conducts research in several areas: (1) identity-based conflicts, including ethnic conflicts and nation building processes, nationalism and mass violence; (2) peace processes, reconciliation, and peacebuilding in post-conflict societies; (3) environmental peacebuilding; (4) the role of history in conflict and post-conflict societies; and (4) resilience in communities affected by chronic conflict and violence.

Dr. Korostelina is an author or editor of 18 books and over hundred articles and chapters. Among her books are Memory sites and dynamics of conflict: collective memory, identity, and power (2024), Identity and Religion in Peace Processes: Mechanisms, Strategies, and Tactics (2024), Neighborhood Resilience and Urban Conflict (2022), History Can Bite - History Education in Divided and Post-War Societies (2016), Constructing Narrative of Identity and Power (2013), History Education in the Formation of Social Identity (2013), Why they die? (2012), and Social Identity and Conflict (2007).

She has received 53 grants from: the US Congress, the National Science Foundation, the United State Institute of Peace, US Department of State, US Department of Defense, US National Academy of Education, National Endowment for Humanities, the MacArthur Foundation, Luce Foundation, Spencer Foundation, Rockefeller foundation, Ebert Foundation, Northeast Asia History Foundation, Soros Foundation (Research Support Scheme, Managing Multicultural Communities Project, Renaissance Foundation), USAID, INTAS, IREX, the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS), Eckert Institute, and Council of Europe.

Dr. Korostelina has been a Fulbright New Century Scholar, Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Center Writing Fellow, and a fellow at the Kennan Institute at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. She also has been awarded 11 residential fellowships, including University of Bologna, Isaac Manasseh Meyer Fellowship at the National University of Singapore, the East-West Center at the University of Hawaii, the Institute for Advanced Studies at Waseda University, Japan, the Northeast Asia History Foundation, the Eckert Institute for International Textbook Research, and the Curriculum Resource Center of the Central European University. She has conducted comparative research and single case studies in Armenia, Bangladesh, Brazil, Ethiopia, Fiji, Georgia, Japan, Kyrgyzstan, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Mexico, Russia, Senegal, Serbia, South Africa, South Korea, Sudan, Tajikistan, Turkey, Ukraine, and the U.S.  

Dr. Korostelina is deeply involved in the practice of conflict resolution and peacebuilding. In the US, she developed approaches to increasing resilience in underprivileged urban communities and supported the bridging of digital divide for Native American Tribes. In Lebanon, Serbia, UK, and Ukraine, she helped youth to develop and implement projects in their municipalities and increased community engagement among university students. In Fiji, she helped design and implement dialogue between the government and communities earmarked for relocation. In Kyrgyzstan, she facilitated women empowerment and social norm change through efficient waste management programs.

Dr. Korostelina has a long record of establishing collaborations with international institutions. Her collaboration with Waseda University in Tokyo, Japan resulted in the establishment of the Center for Reconciliation Studies and $10 million grant from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS). She helped establish Peace Lab in the University of York with the $70,000 grant of the US embassy in UK, and the Center for Tolerance in the University of Nis with the $200,000 grant from US embassy in Serbia. In addition, she has helped establish the academic programs on conflict resolution, reconciliation and peacebuilding in Georgia, Lebanon, South Korea, Tajikistan, and Ukraine (6 universities)

Dr. Korostelina is frequently invited to give a keynote address and present results of her research to academics, policymakers, and practitioners. She has given over hundred talks to academic and policy- oriented institutions, think tanks, government and non-government organizations, and international bodies. She provides consultations to USAID, US State Department, US Department of Defense, Department of Homeland Security, the World Bank, Woodrow Wilson Center, US Institute of Peace, OSCE, Civil Peace Service (GIS), and the Council of Europe. Dr. Korostelina also presented her research at 103 conferences and served as an organizer or convener of 22 conferences.

Recent Awards

  • Fellowship at the University in Bologna as a Visiting Professor 2024/2025 at the Department of Political and Social Sciences - Excellent University Department Project 2023/2027.
  • Co- Principal Investigator, “Enhancing Emergency Communications Resiliency and Effectiveness Through AI”, supported by NIST (congressional earmark), 2024-2025
  • Principal Investigator, “Promoting youth leadership in Poland: developing awareness on US and Polish policies toward Ukraine and resilience to disinformation,” supported by the US Embassy in Poland, the US Department of State, 2024-2025
  • Co- Principal Investigator, “Exploring current narratives of national identity in Ukraine,” supported by USAID, 2023-2024.
  • Co- Principal Investigator, “Exploring International Reconciliation Studies based on Universal Values and Collective Memory”, supported by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS), 2023-2029.

Latest Publications

Affiliations

  • International association for reconciliation studies, President
  • International Studies Association, Member
  • Conflict Research society, Member

In the News

Keynote Addresses

  • “Strengthening global and local communities to foster human security and sustainable peace.” Keynote at the 5th Annual Peace & Conflict Studies Journal Conference, Fort Lauderdale, FL, January 15-16, 2026
  • “Systemic Approach to Sustainable Reconciliation,” keynote at 6th Annual IARS Conference, Seoul, South Korea, July 18-22, 2025
  • “Just peace and reconciliation: a bridging framework,” keynote at 5th Annual IARS Conference Assisi, Italy – July, 1- 4, 2024 
  • “The Failures of the Minsk Agreements and the Perspectives for Peace Processes in Ukraine” Keynote and a public lecture at the academic workshop "Conflict and Conflict Transformation in the Former Soviet Space: Ukraine-Russia and Beyond” at the University of Bern, June 26-29, 2024
  • “Is Ukraine part of the West now, and could Russia accept it?”, keynote address at the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs annual Russia conference, November 14, 2023
  • “Reconciliation studies through Nationalism study and Conflict resolution studies,” keynote address at the Research Seminar on Reconciliation Studies, Waseda University, Tokyo, Japan, April 22, 2023.
  • “Dynamics of identity and attitudes toward peace and war in Ukraine?” Lecture Series Russia´s war, Ukraine’s resistance. Europa-Universität Flensburg, March 21, 2023
  • “Unpredictable Past: Social Identity Approach to Collective Memory and Conflict”, 18th international conference Days of Applied Psychology – Current challenges in psychological science, University of Niš, Niš, Serbia, September 23, 2022 
  • “Dilemmas of Reconciliation in the Midst of Violence,” keynote address at the 3rd annual conference of the International Society for Reconciliation Studies, Arlington, VA, August 18-20, 2022.
  • “Violence and Conflict: Social Identity Approach,” key lecture, Violent Societies: Past and Present. Berlin, August 8-12, 2022
  • “Peace Education in the Midst of Identity-based Conflicts,” keynote address at the conference “Teach Peace! For the New Ukrainian School Reform”, Dnepropetrovsk, Ukraine, December 4, 2021
  • “Addressing Identity-based Conflicts Through Education,” keynote address at the international conference “Conflict and Identity: confronting the past through education.” Lincoln College, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK, October 17-18, 2019
  • “History Education in the Formation of Social Identity: Toward a Culture of Peace,” keynote address at the international conference “Negotiating History Education in Conflict and Post-Conflict Settings,” New Delhi, October 9-10, 2018
  • “Dynamics of Identity and Power in nation building”, keynote address at 5th anniversary of the Program on Culture, Language and Communication at Waseda University, Tokyo, Japan, July 5, 2018

Degrees

  • DSc, Social Psychology, National Academy of Science Institute of Psychology
  • PhD, Psychology, Odessa State University
  • MA, Psychology, National Kiev University