Sally Sharif (PhD City University of New York, 2021) investigates state-society relations during and after war, explaining why civil wars begin or recur. She is especially interested in peacebuilding; post-conflict state consolidation; and disarmament, demobilization, and reintegration (DDR) programs. Prior to joining the Department, Sally was a Postdoctoral Research Associate at the University of Notre Dame.

Her doctoral dissertation and book project analyzes DDR programs on the macro-, meso-, and micro-levels. Through analysis of three original datasets, she shows how DDR is linked to rebel cohesion and post-conflict political bargaining, and how these two processes shape the prospects for peace. The dissertation involved extensive field research with ex-combatants of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and employed mixed methods, including natural experiments, simultaneous equations modeling, machine learning, and within- and cross-case process tracing.

Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in the Journal of Conflict Resolution, International Studies Quarterly, Conflict Management and Peace Science, International Interactions, International Peacekeeping; and Political Violence and Terrorism, among others. Her policy analysis has been published by The Washington Post, the Conversation, the Peace Accords Matrix Policy Brief Series, and Political Violence at a Glance.

She has received the Mitacs Globalink Research Award for Social and Scientific Innovation (2023); the American Political Science Association (APSA) First Generation Scholar Award (2022); the City University of New York Joseph Murphy Award for best conference paper (2021); and the Ivo Duchasek Award for best graduate student publication (2019).

Outside academia, Sally is a triathlete and is deeply concerned by environmental degradation, which is apparent first and foremost in our mountains and lakes.