Academic Staff
Professor Hastings Donnan
Hastings is Director of the Mitchell Institute and co-Director of the Centre for International Borders Research.
He is a Fellow of the British Academy, a Member of the Royal Irish Academy and a foundational Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences. He has conducted extensive field research at Pakistan’s borders with Kashmir and Afghanistan and has published over twenty books and lectured worldwide.
Professor John Brewer
A Professor of Post-Conflict Studies, John is a Member of the Royal Irish Academy, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh and a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences.
He has an honorary degree from Brunel University for services to social science, is a former President of the British Sociological Association and is a member of the prestigious United Nations Roster of Global Experts for expertise on religion and peacebuilding. Author of 15 books and editor of three.
Professor Beverley Milton-Edwards
A Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences and the Higher Education Authority; Beverley's research focuses on violence, terrorism and security.
She has worked as a Special Advisor to a number of high-level governmental representatives, including the EU High Representative for Common Foreign and Security Policy, and the EU’s Middle East Peace Envoy.
Professor Fiona Magowan
A Professor of Anthropology, Fiona’s research examines value conflicts in Australian Aboriginal domestic moral economy & the effects of art in reparation & reconciliation processes
She is the author or editor of seven books, including Christianity, Conflict and Renewal in the Australia Pacific (2016), as well as more than fifty chapters and journal articles. She has held positions as Chair of the Anthropological Association of Ireland and Vice-President of the Australian Anthropological Society.
Professor Kieran McEvoy
A Professor of Law and Transitional Justice, his research interests include transitional justice; human rights; political imprisonment, restorative justice, and conflict resolution
He has written or edited six books and over fifty journal articles and scholarly book chapters and has conducted research on transitional justice in Sierra Leone, Rwanda, Uganda, Colombia, South Africa, Argentina, Uruguay, Spain, Italy, Cambodia, Chile, Israel, Palestine as well as Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.
Professor Richard English CBE
Pro-Vice Chancellor for Internationalization and Engagement at Queen's, he is also Professor of Politics, and Distinguished Professorial Fellow at the Mitchell Institute.
Author of the award-winning studies Armed Struggle: The History of the IRA (2003) and Irish Freedom: The History of Nationalism in Ireland (2006), Professor English is a Fellow of the British Academy, a Member of the Royal Irish Academy and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh.
Professor Jonathan Powell
Honorary Professor, Jonathan Powell, was Chief of Staff to Tony Blair from 1995 to 2007 and from 1997 to 2007 was also Chief British Negotiator on Northern Ireland.
He is Director of Inter Mediate; from 1978-79 he was a broadcast journalist with the BBC and Granada TV and from 1979 to 1994 a British Diplomat. He is author of Great Hatred, Little Room: Making Peace in Northern Ireland, The New Machiavelli: How to Wield Power in the Modern World and Talking to Terrorists: How to End Armed Conflict.
Professor Pumla Gobodo-Madikizela
Mitchell Institute Professor, Pumla Gobodo-Madikizela served on the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission as coordinator of victims’ public hearings. She is also based at Stellenbosch University.
Pumla's current research – on the development of empathy in victim-perpetrator dialogue – applies the insights emerging from her work on forgiveness, to conceptualise the components of the TRC process that led to expressions of remorse by perpetrators and forgiveness by victims/survivors and/or their family members.
Practitioner Chairs
Professor Michael Semple
Professor Michael Semple is Practitioner Chair at The Senator George J. Mitchell Institute for Global Peace, Security and Justice. He works on innovative approaches to peace-making and engagement with militant Islamic movements in Afghanistan and South Asia.
His interests include the political culture of the Afghan Taliban and kindred militant Islamic, the role and potential of dialogue and social media in conflict transformation and the challenge of pluralism in the post 9/11 Muslim world.
Professor David Connolly
Professor David Connolly works at the intersection between research, policy and practice in fragile and conflict-affected states, specializing in the role of evidence in conflict prevention and post-conflict recovery.
With a primary interest in institutional governance, David engages regularly with other disciplines and sectors that include education, climate change adaptation, financial management, and international law.