Welcome to Our 2025 HFG Distinguished Scholars

(NEW YORK) — The Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation is pleased to announce the selection of its 2025 HFG Distinguished Scholars. The ten grantees, chosen through a rigorous peer-review competition, are exploring important problems of violence in the world.

The topics they are investigating include the evolution of a far-right terrorist group in the US; the role of religious leaders as peacebuilders in Africa; the potential for improving interethnic relations in Israel by diversifying primary education teaching staffs; policing structures in Brazil, El Salvador, and Honduras; and early-warning systems for violence.

In selecting the ​​recipients of the awards, highest priority was given to research that addresses the causes, manifestation, or prevention of current problems of violence.

FIRST ROW: NICHOLAS BARNES, JUAN MASULLO, ANJULI FAHLBERG, JONATHAN GREEN, HARORO INGRAM; SECOND ROW: STEPHEN KAPINDE, ROUDABEH KISHI, RONI PORAT, YUVAL OFEK-SHANNY, ANALIA SCHLOSSER

“This year’s recipients of the HFG Distinguished Scholar Award are quite varied in the violence problems they’re studying and the sites of that violence,” said Joel Wallman, Director of Research at HFG.​ “Supporting their work reflects the Foundation’s belief that reducing violence requires first understanding its causes. These researchers will substantially augment that knowledge.”

The Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation is a leader in creating and disseminating knowledge on the nature, consequences, and reduction of violence in its many forms, including war, crime, and human aggression.

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2025 Scholars and Research Topics

Nicholas Barnes (International Affairs, University of St. Andrews) and Juan Masullo (Political Science, Leiden University), Under the Iron Fist: Examining Public Security Policy Preferences of Favela Residents in Rio de Janeiro 

Anjuli Fahlberg (Sociology, Tufts University), How States of Exception Impact Lived Experiences of Violence in Gang Territories: A Comparison of El Salvador and Honduras

Jonathan Green (Journalism, Independent scholar), The Devil Can Cite Scripture: A Story of Violent Religion and the Revenge of America’s Most Dangerous Cult

Haroro Ingram (Political Science, The Australian National University), The Promises of Revolutionary Violence: Propaganda, Recruitment, and Motivational Pathways to Violence in the Southern Philippines

Stephen Kapinde (Social Sciences, Pwani University and University of London), “Performance of (In)justice”: Mainstreaming Religious Actors in Transitional Justice Processes towards Taming Political Violence in Conflicting Democracies in Africa

Roudabeh Kishi (Political Science, University of Denver), Improving Early Warning Models Outside of Conflict Zones: A Case Study of the US

Roni Porat (Political Science, Hebrew University of Jerusalem), Yuval Ofek-Shanny (Economics, University of Haifa), and Analia Schlosser (Economics, Tel-Aviv University), Reducing Violence Through Cross-Ethnic Teachers: Insights from the Israeli Education System

For more information contact: 

Nyeleti Honwana, Senior Program Officer

info@hfg.org | 646.428.0971