The Russell Sage Foundation is saddened to report the passing of former visiting scholar Lee Ann Fujii (University of Toronto). Fujii was Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Toronto and the author of the books Killing Neighbors: Webs of Violence in Rwanda (2009) and Interviewing in Social Science Research (2018). She was a fellow at the Institute for Advanced Study from 2016-2017 and the recipient of grants from the Social Science and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC), the National Council for Eurasian and East European Research (NCEEER), the Connaught New Researcher Program, and the United States Institute of Peace (USIP). She earned her PhD in political science from George Washington University in 2006.
Fujii was a visiting scholar during the 2013-2014 academic year. During her time at time at the foundation she investigated the processes that drive people to join in brutal forms of violence against neighbors in their communities. Using data from intensive interviews and primary documents, Fujii studied public displays of violence in three contexts: the Bosnian War, the Rwandan genocide, and Jim Crow Maryland.