GCI-Democracy

One year after becoming the United Nations Academic Impact (UNAI) Hub Chair for Sustainable Development Goal 16 (Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions), the Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter School for Peace and Conflict Resolution at George Mason University is expanding its role as a global convener of research, education, and partnerships aimed at advancing peace and sustainable development.

Every election cycle brings headlines about the lack of voter participation among 18- to 24- year-olds. The conventional wisdom is that young people are too apathetic or tuned out to vote. But, according to George Mason University research from the 2025 election cycle, that story is wrong.

As debates over digital propaganda, misinformation, and media manipulation intensify, audiences are increasingly unsure what’s fact and what’s fiction across news outlets and social media feeds. At George Mason University, Sergei Samoilenko, associate professor in the Department of Communication, is working to better understand how digital disruption and manipulation practices shape public perception.

Oakley Hill, a PhD candidate at the Carter School for Peace and Conflict Resolution, leverages Root Narrative Theory (RNT) to analyze how political narratives shape public perception, ideology, and voting behavior in the United States. His research, including the national Justice Languages of America Survey, highlights the distinct ways liberals, conservatives, and moderates interpret political conflict while advancing practical conflict resolution through mediation and facilitation work.

As the university’s Grand Challenge Initiative (GCI) enters its second year, George Mason University today announced funding for seven catalyst research projects and the launch of the Grand Challenge Research Exchange—quarterly convenings for all GCI-related research to accelerate solutions to the grand challenge of our time.

In spring 2024, during his internship with MHCR, Jonathan Fang and his supervisor, Rowda Olad, a mental health and psychosocial support expert and associate director of the MHCR, came upon the idea of developing a series of student-focused conversations on difficult, but relevant topics to students and inviting different cultural and ethnic student groups to participate.

Eighty-one energetic Patriots traveled to Richmond on March 5 for Mason Lobbies, where George Mason University President Gregory Washington joined House Majority Leader Charniele Herring, BA Economics ’93, and Senator Saddam Salim, BS Public Administration ’12, MPA ’15, in welcoming students to the General Assembly for a whirlwind day of advocacy.

From October to mid-February, the Venerable Buddhist monks of the Dhammacetiya Huong Dao Vipassana Bhavana Center of Fort Worth, Texas walked more than 2,300 miles to Washington, D.C. Known as the Walk for Peace, their goal was to raise awareness of the global need for peace as well as how we can practice and foster peace in our own lives and neighborhoods.

In the Polarization and Violence Transformed Peace Lab, researchers and practitioners are developing methods for peace-oriented responses to the negative impacts of extreme polarization and conflict around the globe.

A project led by George Mason University professor Arthur Romano is working to prevent gun violence in Baltimore through proactive peacebuilding initiatives.