SIS is pleased to announce the winners of two of our SIS internal research awards: the Innovative Scholar Award and the Research Catalyst Award. 

This year’s Innovative Scholar Award will support Dr. Anthony Fontes. Dr. Fontes’ proposed project is titled, “Spectacles of Disappearance: Detention and Disappearance in the Americas.” The work will focus on mass forced detention and disappearance (FDD) of migrants and other vulnerable populations in the Americas. Dr. Fontes, working with international collaborators, will employ qualitative and ethnographic fieldwork, archival research, and community based participatory research (CBPR) with families and civil society organizations in a range of countries, to explore the reasoning behind and cascading consequences of FDD. Early exploratory research funded by the Innovative Scholar Award will position Dr. Fontes and research partners to apply for a Wellcome Trust Discovery Grant in early 2027.

Two Catalyst Awards will be made this round, to Dr. Susanna Campbell and Dr. Sarah Snyder.

Dr. Campbell’s award, “The Future of Aid and Conflict Management: Understanding the Aid and Conflict Ecosystem,” will support convening of a one-day workshop to discuss the future of international aid and conflict management. Using the Networks of Influence (NOI) dataset, the workshop seeks to break down traditional silos between humanitarian, development, and peacebuilding actors to foster evidence-based dialogue and collaborative problem-solving.

Dr. Snyder’s award, “A Global History of Allied Internment,” will enable a workshop aimed at expanding the understanding of the global phenomenon of the detention of alien civilians during World War Two. The proposal is very timely, particularly given the growing policy focus on the construction of infrastructure for the mass internment of noncriminal residents in the United States.

Congratulations to the winners of these awards!