People

Pr Anastasia Shesterinina

Founding Director of the Centre for the Comparative Study of Civil War
Email: [email protected]

UKRI Future Leaders Fellow leading the Civil War Paths project and Professor and Chair in Comparative Politics at the Department of Politics, the University of York.

Eduardo Álvarez-Vanegas

PhD Researcher
Email: [email protected]

PhD Researcher on the Civil War Paths project, working on the internal dynamics of armed groups, rebel fragmentation, and its impacts on the peace process in Colombia.

Dr Hanna Ketola

Post-Doctoral Research Associate
Email: [email protected]

Research Associate on the Civil War Paths project, working on feminist approaches to civil wars, gender, embodiment, and experiences of ex-fighters in Nepal.

Dr Toni Rouhana

Post-Doctoral Research Associate
Email: [email protected]

Research Associate on the Civil War Paths project, working on a comparative study of the role that sect identities play in pre-war, war, and post-war periods in Lebanon, Syria, and Iraq.

Michael A Livesey

PhD Researcher
Email: [email protected]

PhD Researcher at the University of Sheffield and former Research Assistant on the Civil War Paths project, working on the genealogy of counter-terrorism practice in twentieth-century Britain and Northern Ireland (end date April 2023).

Dr Sayra van den Berg

Post-Doctoral Research Associate
Email: [email protected]

Research Associate on the Civil War Paths project, working on transitional justice and civil war and the socio-legal dynamics of accountability within and across armed groups in sub-Saharan Africa.


Advisory Board

Mariano Aguirre

Associate Fellow of the International Security Program in Chatham House and Fellow of the Latin American Network on Sustainable and Inclusive Security of the Friedrich Ebert Foundation.

Henk-Jan Brinkman

Permanent Observer of the International Development Law Organization to the United Nations in New York.

Feargal Cochrane

Emeritus Professor of International Conflict Analysis in the School of Politics and International Relations at University of Kent.

Katharina Coleman

Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of British Columbia.

Duncan Higgins

Professor of Visual Art and Bonington Gallery Committee Chair at Nottingham Trent University.

Daniel Hyslop

Director of Policy, Learning and the Interpeace Advisory Team at Interpeace.

Patricia Justino

Senior Research Fellow at the United Nations University World Institute for Development Economics Research and Professorial Fellow at the Institute of Development Studies.

Stathis Kalyvas

Gladstone Professor of Government at the Department of Politics and International Relations at theUniversity of Oxford and Fellow of All Souls College.

Phil Orchard

Associate Professor of International Relations at the University of Wollongong and Senior Research Fellow at the Asia-Pacific Centre for the Responsibility to Protect.

Alexander Ramsbotham

Director of Accord at Conciliation Resources.

Jennifer Welsh

Professor and Canada 150 Research Chair in Global Governance and Security and Director of the Centre for International Peace and Security Studies at McGill University.

Colombia

Víctor Barrera

Researcher at Centro de Investigacion y Educacion Popular Programa Por la Paz.

Francisco Gutiérrez Sanín

Director of Observatorio de Tierras and Professor at Universidad Nacional.

María Victoria Llorente

Executive Director of Fundación Ideas para la Paz.

Lebanon

Lisa Wedeen

The Mary R. Morton Professor of Political Science and the College and Co-Director of the Chicago Center for Contemporary Theory at the University of Chicago.

Marie-Joëlle Zahar

Professor of Political Science and Director of the Research Network on Peace Operations at the Université de Montréal and non-resident Senior Fellow at the International Peace Institute.

Fighters for Peace

Lebanese NGO, which brings together individuals who were actively involved in violent actions during the Lebanese Civil War (1975–1990).


The Fellows

2022-2023

Nada Alsaady

PhD researcher at the Transitional Justice Institute, Ulster University, Belfast, Northern Ireland, working on transitional justice in the Arab Uprisings countries.

CP Aryal

PhD researcher at the Department of Sociology, South Asian University, New Delhi, India, working on the sociology of inter-marital relations between CPN (Maoist) former combatants during Nepal’s Maoist insurgency, 1996-2006.

Theresa Bachmann

PhD candidate in International Conflict Analysis at the School of Politics and International Relations and the Global Challenges Doctoral Centre, University of Kent, researching expectations of and experiences with inclusive peacebuilding in the implementation of the 2016 peace accords in Colombia’s most war-affected territories.

Mathew Bukit

Senior Analyst at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, researching Islamist collective identities in Southeast Asian civil wars.

Geraldine Bustos-Zamora

PhD candidate at the Department of Government, University of Essex, examining ideology and patterns of violence in rebel groups in Latin America with a focus on Colombia.

Coline Cardeño

Independent researcher from the Philippines with MA in International Development Studies and Peacebuilding from Nagoya University, Japan, working on rebel governance, local peacebuilding, and the lives of ex-combatants and civilians in Bangsamoro, Southern Philippines.

Lorraine Charbonnier

PhD candidate at King’s College London, working on ‘farmer-herder conflicts’ and peacebuilding governmentality in West Africa and the Sahel.

Edoardo Corradi

PhD candidate at Department of Political and International Sciences, University of Genoa, Italy, examining foreign fighters’ participation in civil wars.

Sara Daub

PhD candidate at the Centre for International Security, the Hertie School, Berlin, and Fulbright visiting researcher at the University of Maryland, College Park, working on external support, non-state actors, and conflict dynamics with a focus on causes and consequences of diaspora sponsorship of rebel organizations.

Dr Erica De Bruin

Associate Professor of Government at Hamilton College, researching connections between coups and civil wars, armed group governance, and the global rise of police militarization.

Cesare Figari Barberis

PhD student in International Relations/Political Science at the Graduate Institute of Geneva, working on the interaction of trauma, emotions, and ideology in post-conflict Georgia and Azerbaijan.

Mabel González Bustelo

Senior Advisor at the Institute of Studies on Conflict and Humanitarian Action (IECAH), Madrid, advising governments and international organizations on mediation issues. Expert in mediation, negotiation, and conflict resolution with experience in Track I and Track II mediation processes in armed and sociopolitical conflicts and an interest in the impact of third-party mediation on the ways wars end.

Luisa Isidro Herrera

PhD student at the Department of Anthropology, York University, Canada, researching non-violent practices and alternative forms of security developed by women in Colombia.

Abbas Ismail

PhD candidate in International Studies at the ISCTE University Institute of Lisbon, researching international mediation strategies in multi-dimensional peace negotiations to end civil wars with a focus on Lebanon and Syria.

Dr Luna KC

Postdoctoral fellow at the Center for International Peace and Security Studies, McGill University, Canada, working on gender, peace, and security in South Asia with a focus on Nepal.

Dr Federico Manfredi Firmian

Lecturer in Political Science at Sciences Po Paris, working on the driving forces of civil war and armed conflict in the Middle East with a an interest in US policy in the Middle East, Islamist movements and armed groups, authoritarianism, elections, democratization, the geopolitics of energy, and climate change.

Dr Tarila Marclint Ebiede

Political Scientist, Co-Founder and Director of Conflict Research Network West Africa, Abuja, Nigeria, and Adjunct Lecturer at the Brussels School of International Studies, University of Kent, and the Brussels School of Governance, both in Belgium, working on post-conflict peacebuilding with an interest in DDR, local governance, political violence, armed groups, and (in)security.

Nicola Mathieson

PhD student at the Department of International Relations, Australian National University, examining foreign fighter trajectories and their impact on domestic and international security.

Leigh Mayhew

Research Officer within ODI Global Risks and Resilience programme and Fellow at The Centre on Armed Groups, working on civil war and armed group dynamics, smuggling networks, illicit economies and development, and radicalisation.

Dr Miranda Melcher

PhD in Defense Studies from King’s College London, working on the negotiation, writing, and implementation of security and military issues in civil war peace treaties, most recently in Angola and Mozambique.

Dr Wassim Mroue

Research assistant on the “Arab International Thought and the New Middle East” project with PhD in Politics from the University of Edinburgh, working on intra-sectarian relations during civil wars with a focus on the role of external actors in brokering peace.

Dr Delphin Rukumbuzi Ntanyoma

Visiting researcher at the Institute of Social Studies/Erasmus University Rotterdam, conducting micro-level analysis of violent conflicts in the Eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Dr Alejandra Ortiz-Ayala

Research Associate and Head of Conflict and Conflict Management specialization in The Willy Brandt School of Public Policy, University of Erfurt, Germany, examining transformations of state forces after peace agreements.

Dr Andrea Peinhopf

ESRC Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Department of Politics, University of York, working on post-war identity and complex victimhood in the context of unresolved war (Abkhazia), and the trajectories of ethnically mixed families in civil war (Georgia and Ukraine).

Kerry-Luise Prior

PhD student at the Department of War Studies, King’s College London, working on the perception of those implicated and affected by the transitional justice mechanisms established through the 2016 peace agreement between the FARC-EP and the Colombian Government.

Dr Laura Saavedra-Lux

Research Associate at the United Nations University World Institute for Development Economics Research, Finland, examining the micro-foundations of political violence, socio-economic development, and the consolidation of peace in post-conflict societies.

Dr Rachel A. Schwartz

Assistant Professor of International and Area Studies at the University of Oklahoma, researching the legacies of conflict and post-war institution-building in Central America.

Daniel Odin Shaw

PhD candidate at the University of Glasgow, working on the links between peacebuilding policies, demobilisation, security reforms, and post-conflict violence.

Dr Christopher Wiley Shay

Postdoctoral Research Associate at the Human Rights Institute, University of Connecticut, and Research Fellow at the International Security Program, Belfer Center for Science and International Relations, Harvard University, working on political violence, nonviolent resistance, and democratization.

Dr Elizabeth Stubbins Bates

Visiting Researcher at Oxford Brookes University, with expertise in the prevention, investigation, and prosecution of violations of international law in armed conflict and a monograph A Framework for Compliance in International Humanitarian Law forthcoming with Hart.

Dr Bikram Timilsina

PhD in International Relations from Griffith Asia Institute, Griffith University, Australia, working on Nepal’s civil war, external intervention, peace process, climate change, and geopolitics.

Dr Francisco Villamil

Assistant Professor of Political Science at Carlos III University, Madrid, working on the sociopolitical processes triggered by civil wars and their effects on post-war legacies.

Pauline Zerla

PhD candidate in War Studies, King’s College London, researching war experiences, trauma, ex-combatants’ reintegration, and narrative methods.

Ulaş Erdoğdu

PhD student at the Department of Political Science at Northwestern University, working on political violence, civil wars and insurgencies in the Middle East in the context of Turkish and Kurdish politics


The Fellows

2021-2022

Maria Amjad

PhD candidate in Security and Strategic Studies at the University of Genoa, working on rebel groups’ participation in the formal negotiations of the peace process.

Nick Barker

ESRC Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University of Birmingham, working on the causes, character, and consequences of armed conflict and the termination and aftermath of secessionist wars.

Victoria Baskett

PhD student a the Department of Journalism Studies, and Department of Politics and International Relations, the University of Sheffield, researching community radio in post-conflict Sierra Leone.

Ahmed Bastaki

PhD student at the Department of Politics and International Relations, the University of Sheffield, working on symbolic and discursive politics in Bahrain.

Dr Zana Gulmohamad

PhD in Politics from the University of Sheffield, working on foreign policy, armed groups, political parties, and movements in Iraq, Syria, Egypt, and Kuwait.

Qianrui Hu

PhD student at School of Slavonic and East European Studies, University College London, researching the interplay among ethnic, regional, and national identity in the context of the Donbas war.

Tiina Hyyppä

PhD student at the Department of Cultures, the University of Helsinki, working on local governance and civil actors in the Syrian war based on original interviews.

Amna Kaleem

PhD student at the Department of Politics and International Relations, the University of Sheffield, working on the relationship between the states and citizens through the lens of the Prevent Strategy in the UK.

Finn Klebe

PhD student at the Department of Political Science, University College London, examining the intersection of (non)violent tactics, the emergence of radical flanks, and inter-group relations.

Dr Guillermo Kreiman

Postdoctoral Researcher at the Social Sciences Department of Carlos III University, Madrid, working on a conceptualisation of civil wars as processes with distinct stages through an empirical focus on Latin American guerrillas.

Rune Wriedt Larsen

PhD candidate at the Department of Government, London School of Economics, investigating patterns of mobilisation and armed organisation-building in Southeast Asia. 

Dr Laura Martin

Assistant Professor of Politics and International Relations at the University of Nottingham, working on continuities of crisis and conflict and the relationship between everyday violence and humour with a focus on gender in sub-Saharan Africa, primarily Sierra Leone.

Dr Juan Masullo

Assistant Professor at the Institute of Political Science at Leiden University, researching civilian agency and political attitudes in contexts affected by political and criminal violence, especially in Latin America.

Madlen Nikolova

PhD student at the Department of Politics and International Relations, the University of Sheffield, working on anticorruption and counterterrorism policies in Bulgaria.

Dr Mikelli Marzzini Ribeiro

Assistant Professor of International Relations at the Political Science Department, Federal University of Pernambuco, Brazil, working on the role of external actors in preventing and halting mass atrocities.

Muhyadin Saed

PhD student at the University of St Andrews’ School of International Relations, researching democratisation and political violence in Somaliland.

Ufuk Sahin

PhD candidate at the Freie Universitaet Berlin and Research Fellow at the University of Innsbruck, working on variation in reconciliation policies, civil war recurrence, and ethnonational movements.

Benoit Siberdt

PhD candidate in Politics at the University of Oxford, examining the link between the types of civil war onset and key wartime dynamics.

Elena Simon

PhD student at the Department of Politics and International Relations, the University of Sheffield, working on the interplay between “civil” and “military” production of collective violence.

Dr Santiago Sosa

Assistant Professor of International Business at Universidad EAFIT in Medellín, working on pro-government militias in civil conflict, and the impact of businesses on civil war and peace.

Dr Henry Staples

PhD from the Department of Geography, the University of Sheffield, working on the disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration of FARC-EP ex-combatants in Colombia.

Bryony Vince

PhD student at the Department of Politics and International Relations, the University of Sheffield, working on locally derived knowledge on peacebuilding in South Africa.

Dr Abellia Anggi Wardani

Lecturer at Universitas Indonesia, and Research Director at Knowledge Hub Myanmar (CSI) with PhD from Tilburg University, working on sub-national conflicts areas.

Alex Waterman

Dr Alex Waterman is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow (India/Asia) at the German Institute for Global and Area Studies, Hamburg, a Visiting Fellow at the University of Leeds, and is Co-Editor of Civil Wars journal.

Dr Şule Yaylacı

Banting Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Pennsylvania with PhD from the University of British Columbia, working on a typology of civilian targeting in civil wars, operationalisation of exposure to violence, and the electoral consequences of terrorism.

Applications for fellowships have now closed (15th August 2022). We will reopen the fellowship scheme on 15th July 2023.