Gabrielle Penna

Gabrielle Penna is a senior at the University of Notre Dame, double majoring in Honors French and Anthropology with a supplementary major in Peace Studies. In the Spring of 2023, she enrolled at L’Institut d’Études Politique de Paris (SciencesPo) where her studies focused on history and political science.

Most of Gabrielle’s work at Notre Dame has centered around exploring opportunities for and effects of peacebuilding efforts. In 2021, she assisted Professor Angela Chestler in analyzing the correlation between regional autonomy and state-led mass atrocities so as to expose ways in which states have leveraged autonomy to circumvent international human rights standards. In the same year, Gabrielle assumed a role in the Human Rights and Reparations Lab, working under the leadership of Professor Diane Desierto. In this project, she analyzed World Bank inspection panel cases to note how the World Bank addressed human rights violations and critique its response to them. Beginning in 2022, her work shifted to focus on development and sustainability, primarily through her position in the Mendoza College of Business; Gabrielle worked with Professor Drew Marcantonio to build a database that provides context to inform the extent to which the development efforts of Notre Dame MBA students are helping and/or harming a country.

Gabrielle’s current work is twofold; In the Reparations Lab she is identifying human rights violations occurring to internally/externally displaced people fleeing uninhabitable areas around the world and through the REEL Lab, she is exploring the extent to which environmental issues are included in interstate and intrastate peace agreements.

Additionally, Gabrielle is involved in Notre Dame’s Student Coalition for Immigrant Advocacy, where she spreads awareness on issues related to immigration. When she is not informing others about these important topics, she is volunteering at La Casa de Amistad, where she teaches adult citizenship classes.