Bristol Who’s Who Recognizes Dr. Vanessa A. Farr

 
Vanessa Farr is a specialist in Conflict and Gender, International Affairs and Research, and a Consultant on Women, Peace and Security. With special expertise in the Islamic world, she is working to create a more peaceful, just, and gender-equitable world. An accomplished writer and activist, she hopes to implement programs designed to analyze war, while building peace and transforming gender and security research.
 
She earned a PhD in Women’s Studies from York University and is Fulbright, Ford and Rockefeller Foundations award recipient. She currently serves as a Research Fellow at the Centre for African Studies at the University of the Free State, South Africa.
 
Tireless in her research, Vanessa has co-edited two books: Back to the Roots: Security Sector Reform and Development (Münster: LIT, 2012) and Sexed Pistols: The Gendered Impacts of Small Arms and Light Weapons (UNU Press, 2009). She was a contributor to the book Selves in Question: Interviews on Southern African Auto/Biography, and has written for the South African publication the Daily Maverick.
 
A former United Nations staff member with ongoing consultancy connections, Vanessa attributes her success to a deep passion and belief in her work. She is a member of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF), the United Kingdom Government’s roster of experts on gender-based violence in conflict settings (managed by Social Development Direct in London) and the Athena Consortium.
 
Vanessa’ goals for the upcoming years are to continuously expand her expertise in the field of gender and development in crisis settings, now with a focus on women’s access to health in complex emergencies. She is honing her skills in this field through an extended Advisory post with UNICEF Afghanistan’s Polio Eradication Initiative, an exciting collaborative venture with the government of Afghanistan which is committed to interrupting the transmission of the polio virus by mid-2016. She hopes to undertake more public speaking and other public engagements and to continue to serve the global women’s peace movement.
 
She also has ambitions to learn to be a DJ in 2016, playing uplifting dance music for her friends and colleagues from round the world…both at home and wherever she finds her work taking her.
 
Bristol Who’s Who Member Vanessa A. Farr, PhD can be found on the Who’s Who Directory, where she is looking forward to networking with you.