Alison Castel

Dr. Alison Castel is an Assistant Professor of Rhetoric and Communication at Regis college, where she engages students and faculty in critical approaches to conflict, narrative, and dialogue. She holds a M.S.Ed in Intercultural Communication from the University of Pennsylvania and a Ph.D from the Carter School for Peace and Conflict Studies at George Mason University with a specialization in narrative approaches to conflict.

Dr. Castel has over twenty years of experience in peace and conflict studies practice and pedagogy including as principal faculty for the Peace and Conflict Studies program at University of Colorado- Boulder as well as leading field studies, for example, in Israel/Palestine, Indonesia, Rwanda, Colombia, and Northern Ireland with an emphasis on examining the intersection of national and grassroots perspectives in the aftermath of violent conflict.

Her doctoral research focuses on the narrative dynamics of transitional justice between the state and rural communities in Colombia during the peace process, which she is expanding on in order to examine narrative dynamics of race in the U.S. She is especially concerned with how narratives shape and constitute issues of voice, power, and agency in conflict and how narrative approaches can be used to reduce violence and marginalization and facilitate transitions to peace.