Berkley Center

Judd Birdsall is assistant professor of the practice in the Department of Theology and Religious Studies at Georgetown University, where he is also a senior fellow at the Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs and the project director of the Transatlantic Policy Network on Religion and Diplomacy (TPNRD). In addition, he is a senior advisor on the religion and peacebuilding team at the United States Institute of Peace. From 2011 to 2020 Birdsall was based at Cambridge University, where he earned his Ph.D., founded a research center on religion and international studies, and served as an affiliated lecturer in the Department of Politics and International Studies. Prior to his time at Cambridge, he served in the U.S. State Department’s Office of International Religious Freedom and on the Secretary of State’s Policy Planning Staff. Birdsall is the editor of Religion & Diplomacy, and his work has appeared in the Washington Post, Foreign Policy, Guardian, Huffington Post, Christianity Today, and Religion & Politics. He is also a senior editor and a frequent contributor at the Review of Faith & International Affairs.

Jim Della-Giacoma is a conflict specialist, political economist and development consultant. He has been working across the Asia Pacific for three decades, including in Papua New Guinea (PNG), focusing on supporting community government in Bougainville. He has researched and written about religion and conflict in South and Southeast Asia. Other recent work for US Institute of Peace (USIP) on PNG include What Can Bougainville’s Independence MovementLearn from Timor-Leste?

Miranda Forsyth is a professor in the school of Regulation and Global Governance at the Australian National University.

William Kipongi is a research officer at the Papua New Guinea (PNG) National Research Institute (NRI), under the Society and Culture research program. In the last six years of his work with NRI, he has contributed to publications, newspaper articles, workshops, and trainings, particularly on sorcery accusations related violence (SARV), tribal conflicts, and the national elections in PNG. Recently he was assisting the Enga Provincial Government and the national government with the peace process after tribal warfare in the Wapenamanda district in Enga province of PNG. He holds a Bachelor of Arts in social and religious studies from Divine Word University.

Gordon Peake is a writer, researcher, and consultant affiliated with the Development Policy Center, Australian National University. He has worked in Papua New Guinea for more than a decade, including three years spent in the Autonomous Region of Bougainville, the subject of his memoir Unsung Land, Aspiring Nation. He was formerly senior adviser for the Pacific Islands at the United States Institute of Peace