Priyankar Upadhyaya, UNESCO Chair for Peace and Intercultural Understanding, and Professor, Faculty of Social Sciences, Banaras Hindu University, India, has recently been appointed PRIO Global Fellow. Professor Upadhyaya has been working with PRIO researchers Åshild Kolås, Jason Miklian and Elida K. U. Jacobsen on several different projects, and is currently associated with the IDSA-PRIO Institutional Cooperation and the project India in the World: Emerging Perspectives on Global Challenges(INDWORLD).
Professor Upadhyaya manages the Malaviya Centre for Peace Research at Banaras Hindu University. Widely regarded as the pioneer of Peace Studies in India, Professor Upadhaya holds a PhD from Jawaharlal Nehru University, and Advance International Diplomas in Conflict Resolution from Uppsala University, Sweden. He has carried out post-doctoral research at London University and the Woodrow Wilson Centre for International Scholars, Washington DC, and has been selected for the Guest Scholar Award of the Woodrow Wilson Centre, Faculty Research Award of the Canadian Government and Senior Fulbright Award. Professor Upadhyaya has taught Political Science and Conflict Resolution in many parts of the world, including Concordia University in Montreal, Ulster University in Northern Ireland, the Department of Political Science, Karlstad University in Sweden, and the US Air Force Academy at Colorado Springs. He has also been a Fellow at the Henry L Stimson Center, Washington DC, and a Visiting Fellow at PRIO. Professor Upadhyaya has publications in journals and books from Oxford University Press, Cambridge University Press, Sage, Ashgate and Routledge, and research articles in journals such as International Law & Policy, International Studies and Strategic Analysis.
Professor Upadhyaya has taught International Relations and Peace Studies at Banaras Hindu University for over three decades. He has contributed as a Resource Person to the UN University of Peace and has been a visiting speaker at the Foreign Service Institute, Naval War Academy and National Defense College in India. He is currently ICCR Chair of Indian Studies at Dublin City University. In June 2016, Professor Upadhyaya delivered a path breaking speech at the UN Consultative meeting in Geneva on ‘Peace as a process’, highlighting the transformative force of peace and its linkages to sustainable development. Together with Åshild Kolås he is commissioned to author a book on Progress and Challenges for the UN Peace Agenda, 70 years after the creation of the United Nations and UNESCO, for UNESCO, as a contribution to the implementation of the International Decade for the Rapprochement of Cultures (2013-2022) for which UNESCO has been designated lead agency by the UN General Assembly.
