Bruce Knauft is not a political scientist or a seasoned humanitarian. As an anthropologist, however, he saw the need for a collective dialogue between policymakers, humanitarians, scholars and other groups in conflicted regions around the world to help find a sustainable solution for states at risk. In 2008, with a grant from the Carnegie Corporation, Emory’s Samuel Candler Dobbs Professor of Anthropology formed the States at Regional Risk Project (SARR) to jump-start this much-needed conversation in conflicted regions around the world.
Now with SARR coming to a close this spring, the program is in the process of transitioning into the Comparative Post-Conflict Recovery Project (CPRP). With an award of nearly $300,000 from Carnegie’s “States in Transition” grant program, Knauft plans to narrow the focus of CPRP to state-building and peace-building, particularly in Asia and Africa.