Ilaria Tucci
Dr Ilaria Tucci (she/her) is the president of EuPRA. She works as a theatre practitioner, community facilitator, diversity agent and peace researcher. She uses theatre as a nonviolent tool for peace education, conflict transformation, empowerment and peacebuilding. In her Doctoral Dissertation “Community-Based Theatre as Conflict Transformation in Lampedusa”, she explores the potential of community-based theatre as a participatory practice of co-production of knowledge with communities at the militarised border of Europe. She is currently based at TAPRI (Tampere Peace Research Institute, Finland), where she works as a researcher in the project Homeward led by Dr Bruno Lefort. She is also active in the Finnish context within the Diversity Agents Network, which aims to promote and implement DEI practices in the Finnish artistic and cultural contexts.
Stephanie Thiel
Ms Stephanie Thiel is from Germany where she is working as an education officer on a project against right-wing extremism. Besides she is working on her PhD thesis which explores how news frames of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict possibly influence anti-Semitic and/or anti-Islamic attitudes. In addition, she has been working as a Visiting Lecturer at the International Graduate School Zittau since 2012. She holds a Diploma in Psychology and a Master of Arts in International Criminology, both from Hamburg University.
Anush Petrosyan
Anush Petrosyan currently studies Peace, Mediation and Conflict Research at the Tampere University in Finland. She was also the President of Tampere International Global Society Students (TIPSY ry) Association. Her research interests are national identities, memory, and peace activism and movements. She has previously trained youth on conflict resolution and peacebuilding, and co-facilitated dialogue sessions. She is a mentor for hundreds of participants on several non-formal education platforms.
Leena Vastapuu
Dr Leena Vastapuu is an assistant professor and associate senior lecturer in the area of gender, peace and security at the Swedish Defence University. Her research concentrates on girl and women soldiers’ life trajectories in war and its aftermath, including DDR. As a feminist researcher, Leena emphasizes research ethics in all aspects of her work and has been among the first scholars to use auto-photography in peace and conflict research. Leena is the author of ‘Liberia’s Women Veterans: War, Roles and Reintegration’ (Zed Books 2018), and the recipient of the Raimo Väyrynen dissertation prize of 2019 for the best IR PhD dissertation written in a Finnish university between 2016 and 2018. In addition to academia, Leena has worked in the areas of development cooperation and consultancy (e.g. Plan International Finland and the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland). Most recently, she was the Planning and Reporting officer at the EU Civilian Crisis Management Mission in the Central African Republic, being a member of the core team setting up the mission.
Craig Brown
Craig Brown (PhD in International Politics, Leeds Beckett University) is an Affiliate Researcher at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. He acts as an assistant editor and book review editor for the Journal of Resistance Studies, as well as an editor for the Resistance Studies page on WagingNonviolence.org. Craig’s recent research projects have focused on nonviolent and unarmed resistance in West Asia and North Africa, as well as Europe.
Jusaima Moaid-azm Peregrina
Jusaima Moaid-azm Peregrina (she/her) is a Doctoral Researcher at the University of Granada and a research collaborator at the IPAZ. She has a BA in Law and Political Sciences. Her main research lines address international mediation and political change processes, civil society inclusion, and women’s political participation, focusing on Syria. She is currently based in the Department of Political Sciences where she teaches Comparative Politics and Political Dynamics in the Middle East. She co-leads various ongoing research projects, such as on women’s inclusion in Syria, Libya, and Yemen (funded by Foundation SEIPAZ).
Iiris Niemelä
Iiris Niemelä is the secretary of EuPRA. She holds an MA in Peace, Mediation, and Conflict Research from Tampere University, Finland. As a member of A Common Word Among The Youth (ACWAY), she is particularly interested in studying the youth inclusivity in decision making.
Bram J. De Smet
Bram J. De Smet has a background in robotics. He has an MA from the University of Kent in International Conflict and Security and is currently a doctoral researcher at the Tampere Peace Research Institute at Tampere University (TAU), Finland. His research explores how sovereign actors, influenced by nationalism and militarization, enact body politics, biopower as necropolitics, and gendered violence on subjected and oppressed bodies. He also maintains the website.