
Pr Anastasia Shesterinina
Founding Director of the Centre for the Comparative Study of Civil WarEmail: [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 ResearcherEmail: [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 AssociateEmail: [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 AssociateEmail: [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 ResearcherEmail: [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 AssociateEmail: [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.