معرفی
Caroline Hughes is a Professor and the Rev. Theodore M. Hesburgh, C.S.C. Chair in Peace Studies at the Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies within the Keough School of Global Affairs at the University of Notre Dame. She also serves as Director of Doctoral Studies. Her research focuses on the political economy of aid and development in post-conflict and authoritarian contexts, with deep regional expertise in Southeast Asia. Hughes challenges conventional liberal notions of peace and development by analyzing them as contested political constructs shaped by unequal resource distributions and social group dynamics.
Her work employs a political economy lens to examine how actors at local, national, and international levels negotiate power and legitimacy, particularly through ideas of 'locality,' 'authenticity,' and 'North-South' dynamics. She has conducted extensive fieldwork in Cambodia, Timor-Leste, Indonesia, Thailand, and Vietnam, with a two-decade focus on post-conflict Cambodia. Notable projects include analyzing the political economy of global university expansion, youth as peacebuilders in Cambodia, and the structural turn in global peace policies.
Hughes holds prior roles as Head of Peace Studies and International Development at the University of Bradford and former Director of the Asia Research Centre at Murdoch University. She advises the Cambodia Development Research Institute and consults for international agencies like the World Bank and DFID. Her interdisciplinary research bridges peace studies, development economics, and political theory, emphasizing critical perspectives on aid dependency and neoliberal hegemony.
