Melissa Kerr Chiovenda
Melissa Kerr Chiovenda
Adjunct Faculty
Anthropology: Afghanistan, human rights, genocide and atrocity crimes, refugees and immigrants, collective memory and collective/intergenerational trauma, political identity, civil society and protest movements, ethnic and religious minority vulnerability
Melissa Kerr Chiovenda is a co-founder and researcher at Ereuna Research and Consulting, LLC. In this capacity, she works with asylum seekers from Afghanistan as well as the South and Central Asian regions and the Middle East, and collaborates with law firms and legal organizations in the United States, Europe, the UK and Australia in working to deliver country and context specific reports, clinics, and trainings. She also conducts research on refugee and immigrant integration in the US and Europe in this capacity. She is on the Board of Directors of five non-profits that work on related issues - Porsesh Policy Research Institute (a think tank focused on refugee, immigrant, and human rights and atrocity crimes issues), Shahmama Organization (an organization that documents human rights abuses against Afghan women), Hazara Resource Platform (an organization that documents atrocity crimes against ethnic Hazaras and works on Hazara cultural preservation), Free Speech Centre (an organization that seeks to bring awareness to and address the persecution of Afghan journalists) and Generation Outside Afghanistan (an organization that seeks to assist Afghan refugees with integration in Europe, and address human rights abuses of Afghans in Pakistan, Iran, and Turkey). Melissa's most extensive research projects focused on ethnic Hazara collective trauma and the politics of civil society activists in Bamyan, Afghanistan, women working with NGOs in Jalalabad, Afghanistan, and transnational political identity of Afghan refugees in Athens, Greece. Melissa worked for five years as an assistant professor of anthropology in Abu Dhabi, UAE, and was for two years a Science and Technology and Policy Fellow with the American Association for the Advancement of Science, where she conducted research on equity and traffic/transportation safety, before shifting to work primarily as an independent consultant with Ereuna. Melissa also served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan.
Expanded Publication List
Education
PhD in anthropology - University of Connecticut (2016)
MA in Russian, Eurasian, and East European Studies (focused on Central Asia) - Georgetown University (2009)
BS in Russian Language and Literature - Georgetown University (2001)