Saghar Birjandian

Saghar Sara Birjandian is scholar-practitioner with years of experience working on Transitional Justice and Mass Atrocity Prevention initiatives across diverse contexts such as Canada, Iran, and Uganda. 

Saghar is currently working on an institutional reform initiative with the Government of British Columbia to address and prevent structural violence and systemic racism against diverse Indigenous Peoples perpetuated by colonial legacies and approaches to providing children and family development services. She is also a Consultant on statement gathering with the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation.

Saghar recently completed a two-year postdoctoral fellowship at the Institute for Genocide and Mass Atrocity Prevention, State University of New York at Binghamton. She previously served as Director of George Mason University’s (GMU) Genocide Prevention Network and Deputy Director of GMU’s Genocide Prevention Program while based in Uganda. She also had the honour of serving as a Statement Gatherer for the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, which was mandated to document the effects of genocide and other atrocities perpetrated through the colonial Residential ‘School’ system, on First Nations, Inuit, and the Métis Nation, as well as contemporary Canadian society.

Saghar holds a PhD in Politics and International Studies from the University of London’s School of Oriental and African Studies. She completed her Master of Science in Global Affairs with a concentration in International Law and Human Rights at New York University and a Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy with a concentration in Philosophy of Law at the University of Victoria, Canada.