Violence Protection Response Fellow

Role: Violence Protection Response Unit LATAM’s portfolio of services, in line with the humanitarian demands of the region, has expanded to areas related to strengthening protection systems, integrated protection models, responding to specific risks such as forced recruitment of children, and holistic health and socioeconomic integration interventions aimed at profiles such as deportees and returnees, women survivors of GBV, young people who are neither in education nor employment, and migrants and refugees impacted by multiple challenges. 

The Violence Protection Response Fellow will potentially be involved in projects related to the above-mentioned topics and will work with both the VPRU technical advisory team and the protection teams of each country operation in the region. Similarly, they will be able to collaborate with and receive guidance from VPRU’s regional and global MEAL teams as needed. Their work will focus on gathering available information from both past and current projects, and in specific cases, they may interview technical staff who have information on the results of certain methodologies such as Girl Shine, Women Rise, SAFE, FACE, RISE,  WILL, OTCA and interventions on Protection System Strengthening. They will also be able to participate in technical support and learning spaces with the protection teams of the country programs. This is expected to enrich their knowledge not only in terms of preventing and responding to violence in Latin America, but also to help answer the question “what works in the region” and thus continue to build on evidence and good practices contextualized to our reality. 

The fellow’s day-to-day activities may include synchronous training sessions with field teams, secondary information gathering, primary data gathering (e.g. protection coordinators, VPRU regional team, partners, clients if needed, etc.), qualitative data systematization, and conversations with protection focal points in each country program. 

Potential deliverables:   

• Desk review: mapping of evidence documents (may include project reports, consultancies, fact sheets, report of interviews with implementation teams, etc)  
• Fact sheets by methodology, including their main results in the region and their added value 
• Support in the development of cap statements for VPRU LATAM. 

Learning questions:  

• What quantitative and qualitative outcomes have been achieved through VPR programming in Latin America?  
• What are some indicators of success? 
• What are challenges in VPR qualitative data (or simply “data”) to be collected, analyzed and measured? 

Desired Skills:  

• Academic knowledge in social sciences, anthropology, sociology, human rights, law, or gender studies. 
• Experience and interest in collecting and systematizing information from various sources. The ability to analyze qualitative data is particularly desirable.  
• Interest and motivation in issues related to human rights in Latin America. Experience in the region is desirable, although the team is open to candidates who do not have such experience. 
• Strong communication skills to interact with technical and field teams, both regionally and globally. 
• Proficiency in Spanish and/or the use of tools that facilitate communication with teams that speak the language and the review and analysis of documents in Spanish is desirable. 
• Proactive and adaptable skills. The student will receive ongoing support, guidance, and mentoring, but at the same time is expected to be able to work independently, actively propose ideas, and foster a space for co-design. The VPRU LATAM team will provide a supportive environment for the fellow to feel comfortable proposing ideas and being creative. 

Requirements: Students must be a matriculated graduate or Ph.D. student at The New School. Fellows are hired as Research Associates by The New School.

Work Environment: This fellowship will work with the Violence Protection Response Unit in collaboration with the Latin America offices at the the IRC. While this fellowship is remote, all Fellows must be physically located in the US.

Fellowship Length: This fellowship carries a maximum of 20 hours/week during the Spring 2026 semester (January 5 – May 17, 2026). This fellowship is currently expected to last one semester.

How to apply: The deadline to apply is October 22, 2025. Please submit one PDF document containing a cover letter, CV/resume, and two work samples (writing and/or design portfolio – 5 pages maximum per sample) to Catherine McGahan, McGahanC@newschool.edu.

Interviews will be conducted in November via Zoom.

Team: The International Rescue Committee (IRC) responds to the world’s worst humanitarian crises and helps people whose lives and livelihoods are shattered by conflict and disaster to survive, recover, and gain control of their future.  

The Airbel Impact Lab designs, tests, and scales life-changing cost-effective solutions for people affected by conflict and disaster. By applying the IRC’s deep technical expertise and field experience with a range of skills from the behavioral sciences, human-centered design, research, and multi-disciplinary problem-solving in humanitarian contexts, we work to develop breakthrough solutions that combine creativity and rigor, openness and expertise, and a desire to think afresh with the experience of a large-scale implementing organization.

The Violence, Prevention and Response Unit (VPRU) supports programming that prevents and responds to violence against women, children, and other vulnerable groups. Over the past 16 years, IRC has pioneered violence prevention and response (VPR) programs in refugee settings and in other conflict-affected contexts, making it a global leader in this field. Today, IRC manages VPRU programs in countries across Africa, Asia, Latin America (LATAM), Europe and the Middle East. As VPRU we leverage our expertise in women´s protection and empowerment, child protection, protection and rule of law, and governance.  

VPRU programming in LATAM started in 2019 and it has been growing exponentially in both scale and impact. Its history has been built through the implementation of actions in Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, and Peru. Currently, the violence prevention and response operation, during its six years of history in the region, has provided services to more than 124,322 children in its child protection programs, to 119,776  people in need of legal protection through its protection and rule of law programs, to 238,131 women and girls through its women’s protection and empowerment programs, and to 4,463 people belonging to local organizations and institutions that have received technical and organizational support in the area of governance. 

Given the scope of VPRU’s programming, its monitoring unit has designed a robust measurement system, and each sector has a series of standardized indicators that allow for the analysis of the results of each service. 

Although IRC has its own results and evidence framework, there is no integrated and systematized information on the main qualitative results of the protection methodologies implemented specifically in Latin America over the years. This information is vitally useful for advocacy, business development, external influence, and positioning efforts for the unit and protection programming in IRC’s country operations.