Peace News Expert Network

Roselyne Omondi is a conflict and peace expert and a skilled researcher-writer-editor with broad social science and humanities backgrounds. She is adept at working at the intersection of research, and policy; communication, journalism, and media; international development; and humanitarian action. While her recent work has focused on the greater Horn of Africa region, she has a good grasp of current affairs, and a global outlook. Her research interests span, inter alia, armed conflict, peace, forced migration, food insecurity, pastoralism, terrorism, geopolitics, climate change, and development. She has excellent project management, conflict mapping, media analysis skills, and strategic crisis communication skills. Different research, media, and international development entities have featured her work.

Roselyne holds Erasmus Mundus Master of Art degree in Journalism, Media and Globalization- War and Conflict Specialization (Denmark and United Kingdom); Erasmus Mundus Master of Arts degree in International Humanitarian Action – Comprehensive Security Specialization (the Netherlands); a Bachelor of Arts degree in Sociology and English Language (Kenya); and several other post-graduate qualifications including: Peace and Conflict Research (University of Oslo and PRIO, Norway), Terrorism Theory and Practice (the Netherlands), Advanced Field Safety and Security (Germany and Kenya), and Advanced Grammar (the UK). She was, until recently (November 2022), the Associate Director, Research, at the HORN Institute, and is set to become the Associate Director, Center for Climate Change, Migration, and Development, at the Institute.

Saepudin Mashuriis an Associate Professor and dean for the Faculty of Education and Teacher Training at the State Islamic University of Datokarama Palu, Central Sulawesi, Indonesia. His studies focused on multicultural Islamic education, religious moderation, and cross-cultural studies. At his campus, he teaches bachelor, master, and doctoral students on multicultural religious education and moderate Islam studies. Collaborating with LeimenaInstituteInstitut, he educates cross-cultural religious literacy for religious teachers in Eastern Indonesia's elementary and junior-senior high schools. He is also a trainer for a religious moderation program to build religious harmony in Indonesia. He researches the development of peacebuilding in conflict areas such as Poso and multi-ethnic schools. He has published several research results related to his studies, such as Spiritual Base of Pesantren for Building Multicultural Awareness In Indonesia Context. Jurnal Ilmiah ISLAM FUTURA, Vol. 24. No. 1, February 2024, 1-20. DOI:http://dx.doi.org/10.22373/jiif.v24i1.17141. The building sustainable peace through multicultural religious education in the contemporary era of Poso, Indonesia. Cogent Education, 2024-12-31 DOI:10.1080/2331186X.2024.2389719

Dr. Saliba Sarsar is a Professor of Political Science at Monmouth University and President/CEO of the Jerusalem Peace Institute. His teaching and scholarly interests focus on the Middle East, Palestinian-Israeli affairs, Jerusalem, and peacebuilding. Among his authored books are Peacebuilding in Israeli-Palestinian Relations(2020) and Jerusalem: The Home in Our Hearts(2018). His edited books include The Holy Land Confederation as a Facilitator for the Two-State Solution (2022) and What Jerusalem Means to Us: Christian Perspectives and Reflections(2018). His most recent co-edited books are Democracy in Crisis Around the World (2020); Continuity and Change in Political Culture: Israel and Beyond (2020), and What Jerusalem Means to Us: Muslim Perspectives and Reflections(2021).

Dr. Sarsar is also a peace advocate and a public speaker. He is the co-Founder and President/ CEO of the Jerusalem Peace Institute, a non-profit that highlights Jerusalem as humanity’s shared gift as central for a just peace.

Samer Abboud is Associate Professor of Global Interdisciplinary Studies at Villanova University and the author of the book Syria (Polity, 2018).

Sawssan Abou-Zahr is a Lebanese journalist, editor and consultant. She covers issues related to  Syria, Palestine, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iran.

Sean is a NUAcT Fellow based at Newcastle Law School. Focused on children’s rights, Sean is currently working on a project on children’s rights in societies attempting to transition from conflict to peace. This work covers multiple areas of interest including child soldiers, child participation in peace processes, peace agreements and children, children and constitutional reform and children and transitional justice.

Shabir Hussain is a peace academic based in Islamabad, Pakistan. He has published extensively on the current practices of conflict coverage in Pakistan and devising peace-oriented media strategies for constructive reporting. He can be reached at shasain2@gmail.com.

Spogmai Akseer has over 16 years of experience working in the field of educational development and research in Canada and internationally focusing on gender and conflict. She has worked as a consultant with UNICEF and UNESCO on various educational initiatives to improve educational equity and equality in the Global South, particularly in conflict-affected environments. Recently she supported UNESCO-IIEP in the development of a continental report examining Sustainable Development Goal 4 and the African Union’s Continental Education Strategy for Africa. Previously, Spogmai managed a USAID-funded project to help develop new graduate degree programs, as well as Registrar and professor at the American University of Afghanistan. In these roles, she worked closely with the Ministry of Higher Education of Afghanistan to develop a national quality assurance and accreditation framework, as well as a graduate education policy framework. Presently, Spogmai is working on the implementation and monitoring of the Ministry of Education’s anti-oppression and anti-racism directives across over 250 elementary and secondary schools in Ontario, Canada. She has a PhD in Education and Comparative, International Development Education from the University of Toronto.

Stacey L. Connoughton is an Associate Professor in the Brian Lamb School of Communication and the Director of the Purdue Peace Project.

Stefano Costalliis Full Professor of Political Science at the Department of Political and Social Sciences of the University of Florence. Prior to joining the University of Florence, he worked at the Catholic University of Milan and the Department of Government at the University of Essex, where he is still a Research Fellow at the Michael Nicholson Centre for Conflict and Cooperation. He has also been a Visiting Research Fellow at the University of Amsterdam and the University of Oxford. 

His research interests include civil wars, political violence, peacekeeping, democratization processes, ethnic conflicts, long-term consequences of armed conflict and authoritarianism, political realism, and quantitative methods for political research. His studies have been published in international scientific journals such as British Journal of Political Science, Comparative Political Studies, International Security, Journal of Peace Research, Political Geography, World Politics.

He has been Associate Editor (2018-2022) and is still a member of the Editorial Board of Political Geography. He is also a member of the Editorial Board of Conflict Management and Peace Science.