Jeffrey D. Pugh, Ph.D

Jeffrey D. Pugh

is Associate Professor in the Department of Conflict Resolution, Human Security, & Global Governance at the University of Massachusetts Boston. He is also the executive director of the Center for Mediation, Peace, and Resolution of Conflict (CEMPROC). His PhD in political science is from the Johns Hopkins University, with an AB in political science and speech communication from the University of Georgia, where he was a Foundation Fellow.

Pugh's research focuses on the role of non-state actors and international institutions influencing governance and peacebuilding in the Global South, especially in migrant-receiving areas of Ecuador. His book, which won the Arthur P. Whitaker best book prize from MACLAS, is The Invisibility Bargain: Governance Networks and Migrant Human Security (Oxford University Press 2021). It focuses on non-state actors and governance networks providing peace and security for Colombian migrants in Ecuador.  He has published articles in International Migration Review, Latin American Politics and Society, International Studies Perspectives, PS, Journal of Peacebuilding and Development, and Negotiation Journal, among others.

His work has been recognized with best paper awards from the International Studies Association Ethnicity, Nationality, and Migration (ENMISA) section, the Migration and Citizenship section of the American Political Science Association (APSA), the Middle Atlantic Council of Latin American Studies (MACLAS), the New England Council of Latin American Studies, and his dissertation won the 2011 Peace and Justice Studies Association Best Graduate Dissertation of the Year award. He was a 2014-2015 Fulbright Scholar in Ecuador and served as a past president of the Middle Atlantic Council on Latin American Studies (MACLAS).

Pugh has developed several experiential and study abroad programs over the past ten years, including the UMass Boston/FLACSO Summer Institute on Conflict Transformation across Borders in Quito-Ecuador and the Regional Institute for the Study & Practice of Strategic Nonviolent Action in the Americas, implemented together with ICNC, FLACSO Ecuador, PUCE, and CEMPROC. He has taught a range of courses including Negotiation, Theories of Conflict Resolution, Human Security, Immigration & Conflict, International Conflict Resolution, International Relations, Latin American Politics, and Model Organization of American States, among others.