Who We Are

Origins

The Oxford Initiative, founded in 2018, was awarded 501(c)(3) public charity status in April of 2020. Early partnerships and collaborations include the UNESCO Chair Program (founder), the Oxford Global PeaceTech Project, the RAND Corporation, the International Human Rights Law Association, Oxford, UN Women Zimbabwe, the Centre for Peace and Democracy (Belfast, Northern Ireland), Estácio de Sá University (Rio de Janeiro), and Lotic.ai (diagnostic tools).

Initial seed funding for the Global Women’s Narratives Project was provided by the Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs on two separate occasions through its Global Ethics Fellows program.

Graduate student editorial fellows and interns have come from the University of Oxford, Wellesley College (Albright Institute), Imperial College London, the University of California Los Angeles, the University of Southern California, the University of Michigan, and the University of Hong Kong.

Editors & Fellows
Workshop Faculty
Senior Fellows
Advisory Board

Leadership

Dr. Lyn Boyd-Judson

Chair, Oxford Initiative; International Human Rights Law MSt, University of Oxford (2021); Former UNESCO Chair in Global Ethics Education; USC Medical School, Narrative Medicine faculty; Founder, Global Women’s Narratives Project.

BIO

Dr. Patrica Owens

Professor of International Relations, University of Oxford, and Director of the Leverhulme Research Project, Women and the History of International Thought and is a Co-Investigator on a Danish Council for Independent Research project.

BIO

Ms. Alexandra Hoerr

Trauma Specialist and Senior Principal of Optimum Joy psychological therapy in Chicago, IL; a nonprofit providing trauma specialists to travel with GWNP interviewing teams. Co-leads training and interviewing teams in Oxford, Belfast, and Cairo.

BIO

Dr. Vahid Nick Pay

Lecturer in International Politics at the Diplomatic Studies Programme, University of Oxford; Member of the Management Committee at the Centre for International Studies Department of Politics and International Relations, University of Oxford.

BIO

Ms. Asil Sidahmed

Strategic Advisor for Advocacy and Member of the Ethics Committee at Médecins Sans Frontières Belgium; Founder and Research Fellow, Sana’a Center for Strategic Studies, Yemen, MPhil in International Development, University of Oxford.

BIO

Team

GWNP Previous Team Leaders

The current women’s narratives team is grateful for those who have given their time and vision in the past. Dedicated teams of volunteers built our project as a labor of love, and many individuals worked devotedly across several years to make the project a reality. In particular, the project would not exist in its current form without the vision and efforts of Brooke Bacigal, Isabella Carr, Mae McAleavy, Sydney Ahmed, Victoria Friend, Sarah Windham, Noor Alwani, Lena Perenchio, Brooke Helstrom, Julianne Lewis, Jenna Mazza, Ellen Murray, and Anthony Momo.