Séverine Autesserre is an award-winning author, peacebuilder, and researcher, as well as a Professor of Political Science at Barnard College, Columbia University. She is the author of The Frontlines of Peace, Peaceland, and The Trouble with the Congo, in addition to articles for publications such as The New York Times, The Washington Post, Foreign Affairs, and Foreign Policy.

Autesserre has been involved intimately in the world of international aid for more than twenty years. She has conducted research in twelve different conflict zones, from Colombia to Somalia to Israel and the Palestinian territories. She has worked for Doctors Without Borders in places like Afghanistan and Congo, and at the United Nations headquarters in the United States. Her research has helped shape the intervention strategies of several United Nations departments, foreign affairs ministries, and non-governmental organizations, as well as numerous philanthropists and activists. She has also been a featured speaker at the World Summit of Nobel Peace Laureates and the U.S. House of Representatives.

For more information and updates on her work, please visit her website www.severineautesserre.com, or follow her on Twitter at @SeverineAR.

Fun-fact: Severine has been a vegetarian for 17 years, and she often has trouble getting enough proteins when conducting fieldwork. So once, when she was spending a year in Congo, she travelled back from Europe with a suitcase full of Tofu.