Ben Skinner recently graduate from the University of Waterloo with an undergraduate degree in Peace and Conflict Studies. Their area of academic interest lies within the intersection of gender studies, politics, and law. In their final years of undergrad, Ben studied the correlation between gender inequality and a country’s likelihood to experience violent civil conflict for their capstone project, postulating a cyclical framework for analyzing the correlation. Ben believes that understanding concepts related to human identity is a key part of understanding social processes. As a nonbinary person of colour, Ben often finds themself reflecting on how things like race and gender identity have played a role in their social upbringing. They hope to continue to explore these ideas in academia. Ben wishes to eventually work in international law in order to help improve global justice systems and provide adequate legal protections to populations who have traditionally been exploited by those in power.

Ben currently works at peace research institute Project Ploughshares, where they design digital media content and manage their main website. Ben has also worked on the design elements in Ploughshares’ annual Space Security Index (SSI) for the last couple years, and they manage the SSI website as well. They have been working at Ploughshares for almost four years.