Biography

Dr. Joseph G. Bock is Director of the School of Conflict Management, Peacebuilding and Development at Kennesaw State University. He joined KSU in August 2015 from the Eck Institute for Global Health at the University of Notre Dame. Prior to his work at the Eck Institute, Dr. Bock was Director of External Relations at the Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies at University of Notre Dame. Other positions include being Executive Director of the Center for Peace and Global Citizenship at Haverford College and Executive Director of the Secure World Foundation. Dr. Bock’s humanitarian work has included directing Catholic Relief Services’ programs in Pakistan and Jerusalem/West Bank/Gaza Strip, and overseeing programs in Bosnia, Croatia, Guinea, Iraq, Kosovo, Liberia, Macedonia, Montenegro, Pakistan, Rwanda, Serbia, Sierra Leone, Thailand, and Uganda while serving as Vice President at American Refugee Committee. In 2010, he took a two-month leave from Notre Dame to serve as American Refugee Committee’s country director in Haiti following its devastating earthquake. Dr. Bock has been a consultant on violence prevention with the World Bank and a consultant with The Asia Foundation on conflict management and democratic governance, providing support in Thailand, Nepal, and Sri Lanka. He has been a Fellow with the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, a Fulbright Specialist at University of Malta, and a Visiting Fellow at Gonzaga University. After completing his Ph.D. at the School of International Service of American University, Dr. Bock served six years in the Missouri House of Representatives, with leadership positions as Chair of the Energy and Environment Committee and Vice-Chair of the Commerce Committee. More recently, he was a candidate for the U.S. Congress. Dr. Bock is on the Advisory Council of the War Prevention Initiative of the Jubitz Family Foundation and is a member of the Advisory Committee of the Center of Conflict Studies, Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey. Dr. Bock is an editorial adviser to Development in Practice, a peer-reviewed journal founded by Oxfam Great Britain. He has authored or co-authored articles in various peer-reviewed journals including, among others, Political Geography, Information Technology for Development, Journal of Peace Research, Journal of Information Technology & Politics, and Journal of Refugee Studies. He is the author of three books. His most recent, The Technology of Non-Violence: Social Media and Violence Prevention, was published by MIT Press in 2012.