Stephaney Patrick

I am a doctoral candidate and a University of Manitoba Graduate Fellowship (UMGF) recipient at the University of Manitoba, where I am pursuing my studies in the Peace and Conflict Studies Program under the supervision of Dr. Sean Byrne. Before coming to Manitoba, I completed two postgraduate programs: an MA in Coexistence and Conflict and an MA in International Sustainable Development at the Heller School of Social Policy and Management at Brandeis University in Boston. Both degrees were funded by the Joint Japan World Bank Scholarship Program. Prior to that, I earned a Bachelor of Science Degree in Political Science from the University of the West Indies.

My career has spanned over ten years as a civil servant working with the Government of Jamaica as a Development Specialist and Policy Analyst. My work focused on addressing violence as a public health issue and using a cross-sectoral collaboration approach to strengthen the governance framework of volatile communities to prevent crime and violence. I am passionate about creating spaces for the inclusion of young people’s voices in political decision-making.

For my PhD research, I am exploring Envisioning Pathways to Post-War Peace: The Views of Young Sri Lankan Tamils Living in Canada and the UK. Since becoming a Spectrum Fellow in 2021, I have worked on summary content and reviews for Spectrum's newsletter and website. Spectrum’s application of the decolonization approach to research provides opportunities to hone skills that seek to modify policies, procedures, and programs to better address systemic issues in the health system.

My research interests include violence as a public health issue, youth engagement in political decision-making and peacebuilding, social justice, ethnic conflicts, cultures of violence, peace education, peacebuilding practices, and leadership. I am also interested in how trauma-informed and decolonization approaches can be applied to redress systems of structural violence that discriminate against, marginalize, and exclude vulnerable groups politically, economically, and socially.

In my spare time, I enjoy counseling young people, teaching Bible study sessions, singing, and dancing.