Dr Richard Latham Lechowick is a Research Associate with the Global History Lab at CRASSH. In this role, he spearheads the Narrative Observatories programme, a peer-led, globally connected research initiative that empowers observers to investigate how stories shape identity and memory, society and conflict, within and between communities.
Dr Lechowick’s academic background is multi-disciplinary, with interests spanning International Relations and Conflict Resolution to Ethnography and Oral History to Postcolonial Feminist Theory and Ethno-Political Studies. He authored the 2024 book, ‘I Won’t Let Them Be Like Me’, a study of, and with, Ezidi (Yezidi) women in Northern Iraq who survived the 2014 Sinjar Genocide. Utilising women’s words and stories, the work portrays their daily lives, experiences, memories, and hopes for themselves, their children, their families, and Ezidi society as a whole. He continues to give talks and lead courses on, among other subjects, memory, narrative, and politics, on ethnographic inquiry, skills, and trust-building, and on learning and education in conflict.
An aid-worker and an academic, Dr Lechowick has lived and worked in Iraq, the West Bank, and Aceh, Indonesia. He has also worked in Europe and North America with refugees from Afghanistan, Eritrea, Laos, Somalia, and Syria. In addition to acting as a communications and capacity-building consultant, he has taught classes to refugees and IDPs (Internally-Displaced Persons) in such subjects as English, Theatre, Improv, Music Composition, and Film Production.
