Dr. Brett is Associate Professor in Peace and Conflict Studies at the University of Bristol. He is trained as an anthropologist (through a scholarship to the University of Cambridge) and political scientist (through a scholarship to the University of London) and now works from an interdisciplinary perspective. His research and teaching work across Conflict Resolution / Peacebuilding, Anthropology, Genocide Studies, Transitional Justice and International Relations. I possess comparative regional expertise in Latin America, although he is broadening my work increasingly towards Ukraine and Myanmar.
His research addresses a series of interests of fundamental importance to conflict resolution and peace and conflict studies, in particular the study of armed conflict and political violence (including genocide), the impact and legacies of these phenomena, the strategies through which individuals and collective groups seek (or seek not) to coexist in the aftermath of mass violence and the responses of national actors and the international community to humanitarian crises. His professional career combines over two decades of academic scholarship in Politics and IR – with particular emphasis on the emergence, evolution, impact and transformation of political violence and those initiatives directed at transforming armed violence – with work as a senior practitioner and policymaker in the United Nations, government and non-governmental organisations in the fields of conflict analysis and conflict transformation. He has lived and worked in conflict-affected and post-conflict countries in Latin America. In Guatemala, he was part of the team that developed the investigation of and prepared the evidence against former de facto president General Rios Montt for genocide and crimes against humanity, culminating in his conviction in 2013.
