My name is Christina Sciabarra, and I am an adjunct faculty member in Political Science at Bellevue College. I formerly served as the Director of the Center for Career Connections/the Women’s Center in the RISE Learning Institute at BC. I graduated from the US Naval Academy with a B.S. in History and completed a B.A. in Russian and Political Science from the University of Arizona and a Master’s in International Diplomacy from Norwich University. I earned my doctorate from the University of Arizona and research focuses on building peace after civil wars. I have conducted field work in Bosnia-Herzegovina and Northern Ireland focused on understanding concepts of peace in post-conflict states. I specialize in the Middle East, particularly Iraq and the Levant region and I am actively engaged with organizations building cultural bridges between the Middle East and the US. I am a United Nations Alliance of Civilizations Fellow and work with an international non-profit focused on youth social entrepreneurship. As a veteran of the war in Iraq, I am committed to peace through dialogue, art, and education above all else.
My teaching philosophy is that of a community leader and by this I mean that while I am here to guide the course and ensure all students are learning, I am also learning right alongside them because everyone’s experience matters. My goal is to help students find their own voices by challenging assumptions, analyzing data, and uncovering and exposing hidden power structures. I utilize both quantitative and qualitative methods in my courses and ensure students understand how to assess both types of research. Additionally, I incorporate high impact practices into all of my courses because there can be no theory without application. Students should come away from my courses with an understanding of how politics (power) work, the tools to analyze it, and an action plan for making change in the world.