Staci Martin , EdD

Staci B. Martin, EdD, is a learner, educator, Fulbright Scholar, and Rotary Peace Fellow. She is a (forced) migration researcher, hope scholar, and youth psychosocial peacebuilding education practitioner who specializes in SE Asia and East Africa, primarily Thailand, Cambodia, and Kenya. Her practitioner work focuses on psychosocial peacebuilding education programs in South Africa (Nthabiseng Project), Jamaica (Irie Project), Nepal (Khelera Sikou Project), and Kenya (Pambuzuko Project). The art-based psychosocial programs address the role of hope, storytelling, and peacebuilding education and how that impacts youths’ mental health and well-being in conflict and protracted contexts. Her Speaking for Ourselves Action Research (SOAR, Martin, 2018) is based on critical hope (pedagogy of hope), which is a theory and a process where inquiry and dialogue expand and deepen critical reflections, shared responsibility, and transformative actions. Dr. Martin’s critical hope and migration scholarship is based on co-creating and supporting “third spaces” that are for, led, and with BIPOC communities, in particular the Global South, so that they are able to produce knowledge, research, and publications themselves. Her latest publications are Global South Scholars in the Western Academy Harnessing Unique Experiences, Knowledges, and Positionality in the Third Space and Peacebuilding Practice: A Textbook for Practitioners. Dr. Martin is a faculty member of the School of Social Work at Portland State University, Portland, Oregon.