Six years of hard work for Cyanne Loyle and her fellow researchers is about to pay off.
Loyle, a West Virginia University assistant professor in political science, was recently awarded a Fulbright grant to travel to Norway later this year and complete research at the Peace Research Institute of Oslo.
“The Fulbright is a fantastic opportunity for scholars and provides us the space to pursue projects that individual universities aren’t able to support,” she said. “I’m extremely grateful to have the chance to head abroad for an extended period this fall.”
A total of 67 faculty and staff at WVU have earned Fulbright grants since 1968. WVU has received a total of 72 Fulbright awards, as some have received two or three in their careers.
Loyle, who joined WVU in 2011, and two co-researchers from the Peace Institute have been studying “during-conflict justice,” which is defined as tactics (ex. trials, truth commissions, reparations agreements, amnesties, purges, exiles, etc.) used by governments during conflicts (ex. civil wars, rebellion, etc.) to help end and prevent them from happening again. Loyle hopes this research will ultimately help governments around the world prevent conflicts.
The research was sparked in an unusual way while Loyle was a Ph.D. student at the University of Maryland. Scott Gates, a well-respected American academic based in Norway, visited the university’s campus to share his research on civil war. Loyle was a member of the discussant panel and felt underwhelmed by Gates’ findings.
“I thought the project needed some work, so I gave my comments and explained to this incredibly illustrious and well-respective academic that I thought his project could use some help,” Loyle recalled. “There were a variety of ways he could’ve taken it.”
Her bold approach paid off, as Gates was gracious and told her “If you think it’s so bad, why don’t you come over here and do it better?” Gates funded Loyle to travel to Norway and join the research team.
“I don’t recommend this as a life plan for other Ph.D. students,” Loyle joked. “It just happened to work out for me.”
While in Norway, she built a strong relationship with Gates and fellow Norwegian researcher Helga Malmin Binningsbo. That allowed for future opportunities, and, in 2008, the three combined to begin research on “during-conflict justice.”
“What we found in our initial research on “post-conflict justice” was that a lot of times these governments didn’t wait for the conflict to end,” Loyle said. “So, the fact it must follow a transition or end of conflict was wrong.”
But, why? That’s what Loyle wanted to research.
“Maybe governments are using ‘during-conflict justice’ to win the conflict or destroy the rebels in some way ? to try to pacify the population or win them over,” she said.
With a grant from the National Science Foundation, the research group, with the help of numerous WVU political science students, began to study conflicts between 1949 and 2013. In addition, through funding from the U.S. Institute of Peace, Loyle traveled to Uganda and Nepal and hopes to go to Northern Ireland later this summer for case study research. She has interviewed government officials, army personnel, rebel groups, victims and victim organizations, human rights activists, attorneys and embassies on conflicts in those countries’ histories.
She hopes this research will detail different processes that could make conflict shorter, prevent them from occurring again or stop them from happening altogether.
When Loyle travels to Norway later this year, it will be the longest stint the researchers have been together. In 2008, the trio spent two months together in Oslo but has since only spent week-long spans together.
“This is a save-the-world project,” she said. “It’s very much designed to come up with strategies to end conflict or make it harder to reoccur. If we can find those patterns, then the next step is to get our research in the hands of governments trying to end conflict.”
She will leave in August and spend the fall semester analyzing and writing up findings in Norway. Loyle hopes to publicly release the data this summer. In addition, three academic articles and a book with case study information are planned.
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