Grisel d'Elena

Biography

Grisel d’Elena is a PhD Candidate in International Relations at FIU’s School of International and Public Affairs. Additionally, she is an Adjunct Professor for Religious Studies, International Relations and Interdisciplinary Studies. Grisel also works as the Director of the Panthers Care program at the Dean of Students Office. She has performed fieldwork abroad with U.N. officials, refugee coalition members and ethnic minorities, specifically Southeast Asia, where she began to investigate the Rohingya Muslim ethnic group in Myanmar. As victims of systematic, state-sponsored persecution, she began to question why they faced such discrimination. This question led to the Buddhist 969 Movement in Myanmar, which contributes to the isolation and oppression of the Rohingya. Grisel was able to interview Time Magazine’s “Buddhist Terror” U Ashin Wirathu and provide feedback directly from the source of the violence for her ethnographic work. This became the focus of her Master’s thesis, “The Gender Problem of Buddhist Nationalism in Myanmar: The 969 Movement and Theravada Nuns.” This work paved the road for her PhD work focused on the international community's response to the Rohingya crisis.