HFG Welcomes Its 2026 Emerging Scholars September 16, 2026 (NEW YORK) — Today, The Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation announced the selection of its 2026 HFG Emerging Scholars. The nine doctoral candidates—selected through a rigorous evaluation process—are conducting research that increases understanding of problems of violence around the world. The scholars are completing dissertations on a range of important topics, including school shooting incidents in the United States, anti-minority vigilante violence in India, and the governance of displaced populations and refugees in Lebanon and Turkey. FIRST ROW: KARTHIKA BABY SUJATHA, JUDITH HOPPERMANN, LINDSAY J. LERNER, NAOMI NERO, ENRIQUE OLIVARES-PELAYO; SECOND ROW: MAYRA ORTIZ OCANA, EMMA RIKKEN, AARUSHI SHAH, YASH SHARMA “Does cattle insurance reduce or increase violence between herders? What differentiates a school shooting that occurs from one that was prevented? What is it about psychopathic personality traits that elevates the risk of committing aggression and violence? How do prisons promote conflict between racial and ethnic groups? Each of our 2026 Emerging Scholars—all exceptional doctoral candidates—is asking a question whose answer will, we hope, help to reduce the misery caused by violence, as Harry Guggenheim intended in creating this foundation,” said HFG Director of Research Joel Wallman. The awards are given to promising researchers in their final year of writing a doctoral dissertation that examines a salient aspect of violence. In selecting the awardees, HFG prioritizes research that addresses urgent, contemporary problems. 2026 Scholars and Research Topics Karthika Baby Sujatha (United Nations University – Maastricht Economic and Social Research Institute on Innovation and Technology & Maastricht University) Understanding and Altering Men’s Attitudes, Tolerance, and Behaviors Towards Intimate Partner Violence: A Field Experiment in Kerala, India Judith Hoppermann (SOAS, University of London) Governing Displacement, Contesting the State: Armed Transnational Movements, Refugees and Political Reordering in the Syrian Borderlands Lindsay J. Lerner (John Jay College of Criminal Justice & The CUNY Graduate Center) Advancing School Safety: Comparing Completed & Averted School Shootings Naomi Nero (Georgetown University) Valuing and Devaluing Others: Identifying Mechanisms Relevant to Predicting and Preventing Interpersonal Violence in Psychopathy Enrique Olivares-Pelayo (University of Arizona) Running Raza: An Ethnography from Inside Arizona’s PrisonsMayra Ortiz Ocana (University of Notre Dame) Gatekeeping Justice: Criminal Epistemologies in Prosecuting Organized Crime Violence Emma Rikken (Wageningen University & Research) Drought, Rain, and Raiders: Testing Insurance and Edutainment Against Conflict in East Africa Aarushi Shah (Columbia University) Crime and Replenishment? An Ethnographic Study of the Remedial Work of a Domestic Violence Court in New York Yash Sharma (University of Cincinnati) Majoritarianism and its Discontents: Violence, Mobilization and Resistance in Contemporary India The Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation is a leader in creating and disseminating knowledge on the nature, consequences, and reduction of violence in its many forms, including war, crime, and human aggression. For more information contact: Halima Gikandi, Senior Communications Manager info@hfg.org | 646.428.0973
HFG Participates in the Paris Peace Forum November 7, 2025 [Photo Credit: Paris Peace Forum] The Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation was pleased to support the eighth edition of the Paris Peace Forum, which took place from October 29 to October 30 in Paris, France under the theme “New Coalitions for Peace, People and the Planet.” The forum brought together thousands of leaders from governments, international organizations, businesses, civil societies, and academic institutions around the world to discuss preventing and resolving conflicts, defending democracy, and other pressing topics. The Foundation also co-organized the panel “From Local to Global: How Polarization Challenges the International Order,” which brought together the following experts: Comfort Ero, president and chief executive officer of International Crisis Group Nils Gilman, senior vice president of programs at the Berggruen Institute Shamil Idriss, chief executive officer of Search for Common Ground Arancha González Laya, dean of the Paris School of International Affairs, Sciences Po Paris and former minister of foreign affairs of the Kingdom of Spain. “Most times when polarization is discussed it’s usually seen exclusively in terms of its domestic effects,” said HFG’s president Daniel F. Wilhelm, who moderated the session. “But there’s another aspect to polarization and that is how it affects the conduct of states.” HFG’s support of The Paris Peace Forum is part of our continued commitment to the creation and dissemination of knowledge against violence in the United States and around the world.
Salzburg Global: Polarization and Violent Threats to Democratic Systems A new report from Salzburg Global’s Polarization and Violent Threats to Democratic Systems program aims to identify ways to mitigate the threat of political violence and address the dangers that polarization and political violence pose to democratic systems. The HFG-supported report “Polarization and Violent Threats to Democratic Systems: Assessing the Risks and What Can Be Done About Them” suggests that the greatest dangers to democratic systems emerge when full democracies shift toward “hybrid democracies,” i.e., systems with democratic structures but marked by dysfunction, identity struggles, and intense forms of political competition that undermine democratic processes. The report is part of a three-year project HFG has launched with Salzburg Global to explore violent threats to democracy worldwide. Salzburg Global is an independent non-profit organization founded in 1947 with a mission to challenge current and future leaders to shape a better world.The project, “Polarization and Violent Threats to Democratic Systems: Assessing the Threats and What We Can Do About Them” aims to: develop an international, interdisciplinary network of researchers and stakeholders working on understanding and addressing rising polarization and political violence in a range of mature democratic systems; define a set of critical questions and objectives to inform and shape a new research agenda on the rise of polarization and political violence across the selected countries; contribute to a better understanding of how to assess escalating threats; and, posit policy and practice recommendations for how to address the threats more effectively. In September 2024, HFG President Daniel F. Wilhelm joined some twenty-five experts and policymakers for a kick-off conference in Salzburg, Austria. Following the conference, Salzburg Global published Tackling the Rising Threat of Polarization and Political Violence. The report suggested steps to reduce political violence and restore democratic trust in countries where this is a problem. For more information contact: Nyeleti Honwana, Senior Program Officer info@hfg.org | 646.428.0971
