Peace News Expert Network

Steven Youngblood is the founding director of the Center for Global Peace Journalism at Park University in Parkville, USA.

Sylvia Brown is a Conflict Advisor and International Development specialist with twenty years experience advising international non-governmental organisations (INGOs), local civil society organisations, UK government and UN agencies. She has a special interest in the Humanitarian-Development-Peace (Triple) Nexus, Conflict Sensitivity and Peacebuilding.

She is experienced in political economy analysis, conflict analysis and gendered conflict analysis, using primary data collection (including in hard to access areas) as well as secondary data analysis (from academic and 'grey' literature. She has experience applying these skills in Myanmar, Thailand, Pakistan, Kenya, Indonesia and the Philippines. She has a special interest in women and youth in peacebuilding, community-based peacebuilding, local and customary governance and forced migration issues. She is also experienced in organisational development of civil society organisations and am familiar working in conflict-sensitive environments among refugees, multiple power-holders, political upheaval and international humanitarian interventions.

Thursica Kovinthan Levi is a SSHRC Postdoctoral Fellow and lecturer at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE), University of Toronto. Her current research focuses on trauma-informed pedagogies for integration and reconciliation in refugee education. This research builds on her doctoral dissertation examining the interface between gender, education, and conflict in fragile contexts, focusing on Sri Lanka. She has worked and conducted research in South Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa, and Central America with various NGOs and as a research consultant. Thursica is also an educator with the Toronto District School Board, where she teaches children with refugee experiences. She has worked as an Education Policy Analyst at Global Affairs Canada and Part-time Professor at the Faculty of Education, University of Ottawa. Thursica holds a Ph.D. in Education from the University of Ottawa and a M.A in Child Studies and Education from OISE.

Tobias Ide is Senior Lecturer in Politics and International Relations at Murdoch University Perth (Australia) and Specially Appointed Professor for Peace and Sustainability at Hiroshima University (Japan). He received most of his academic training Germany and published widely on the environment, climate, peace and conflict, including in International Security, Journal of Peace Research, and Nature Climate Change. Tobias also frequently works with and consults decision makers, including at the United Nations, the European Union, and NATO.

Ute Kollies is deployed in Mali for the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), and is the organizer of Mali Football for Peace.

Uzra Zeya is president and CEO of the Alliance for Peacebuilding. She has over two decades of diplomatic experience in Near East, Asian, European, human rights, and multilateral affairs.

Dr. Vesna Bojicic-Dzelilovic is Senior Research Fellow at LSE IDEAS, and an Associate Fellow of the LSEE Research on South Eastern Europe at the Hellenic Observatory, both at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE). She is Co-director of UN Business and Human Security Initiative at LSE, a research and implementation programme which investigates private sector’s contribution to peace and development in the context of Agenda 2030. She specialises in the political economy of development and conflict, with a particular interest in the business, peace and development nexus, and the role of international aid in transitioning from armed conflict. Her geographic focus and field work is South East Europe and she has also studied from a comparative perspective Afghanistan, Syria and Colombia. Dr Bojicic-Dzelilovic has published in a range of academic journals including Review of International Political Economy, Journal of International Relations and Development, International Feminist Journal of Politics, co-edited six academic book volumes and advised World Bank, European Union, UNDP and national governments. Her latest publication (co-authored) “Assessing Peace and Social Impacts through Local Human Security Business Partnerships” is forthcoming in Business Horizons Journal. She holds PhD in Economics and MA in Development Economics.

Xavier Mathieu is a Lecturer in International Politics at the University of Liverpool (UK). His research focuses on post-colonial legacies in global politics, in particular as they impact past and current notions of sovereignty, international interventions, and identity/difference. His current project explores the way (post)colonial violence opens up spaces of resistance by disrupting the frontiers between ‘us’ and ‘them’.

Yoav Kapshuk is Senior Lecturer at Kinneret College on the Sea of Galilee, Israel; Head of Israel Studies Unit at the department of Multidisciplinary Studies. Former Visiting Fellow at the LSE Middle East Center, and at the Peace Research Institute Frankfurt. Dr. Kapshuk focuses on peace research: peacebuilding, peace education, peacemaking and transitional justice, especially about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and Israelis and Palestinians relationships. He received his Ph.D. in Political Science and International Relations from the Tel-Aviv University (2017). His studies have been published in peer-reviewed academic journals such as Defence and Peace Economics, Israel Law Review, and Peace and Conflict: Journal of Peace Psychology.