Roz graduated with a PhD on governance and peace-building from the QUB School of Law in 2008 and has been a Research Associate with the Institute of Governance at Queen's.

Her most recent research has been on policy and practice around sectarian interfaces in Northern Ireland, for the Belfast Interface Project, funded by Belfast City Council and the European Regional Development Fund.

During her tenure as Visiting Scholar, Roz worked on and published her latest book A Dangerous Pursuit: The anti-sectarian work of Counteract (Reimagining Ireland, Volume 102, Monographs XIV, Peter Lang, 2021).

He studies the relationship between conflict resolution methods – particularly interfaith and inter-ethnic peacebuilding – and democratic development in Africa. Much of his work focuses on the role of civil society groups in this development. 

He has also been a consultant on democracy and peace initiatives to the United Nations, USAID, US Institute of Peace, the US State Department, and to a number of NGOs, including the Carter Center. He monitored the last six Nigerian elections and the 2007 elections in Sierra Leone.

Professor Kew is author of numerous works on Nigerian politics and conflict resolution, including the book Civil Society, Conflict Resolution, and Democracy in Nigeria (Syracuse UP, 2016), and his articles have appeared in International Negotiation, the Journal of Democracy, and Current History, among others. 

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Peter’s research interests focus on the themes of political violence, post-conflict transformation, policing and community and the impact of ethno-sectarian reproduction. This includes a particular emphasis upon former combatants and their inclusion/exclusion within civic society. He has undertaken a series of consultations with political actors in Montenegro, Iraq, Israel, Palestine, Turkey, Serbia, Macedonia and Bosnia. He has also undertaken significant survey research regarding ethno-sectarian based segregation that has studied inter-community immobility, the power and influence of prejudice and the psychological impact upon families living within interfaced communities.  He has published extensively on these issues.

His latest book Northern Ireland a generation after Good Friday: Lost futures and new horizons in the ‘long peace’ (Manchester University Press, 2021) was co-authored with Mitchell Institute Fellow Professor Katy Hayward, and others. 

He is the Independent Chair of the Executive Office's Employers' Guidance on Recruiting People with Conflict-Related Convictions Working Group and a board member of the mental health charity Threshold. He sits on the editorial boards of Irish Political Studies and International Planning Studies.

Professor Shirlow has undertaken conflict transformation work in Northern Ireland and has used that knowledge in exchanges with governments, former combatants and NGOs in the former Yugoslavia, Moldova, Bahrain and Iraq, He has also presented talks to members of the US Senate and House of Representatives and is a regular media contributor.

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Her research on gender relations in agriculture has focused on dynamics of power, how it is accepted and almost unquestioned that women rarely inherit land, are not recognised by the industry, and have limited access to capital and training. This persists in a context of general improvements in gender equality. To date her research has focused on Europe, Canada, Australia, Tanzania and Nigeria.

She has published extensively on these themes. Her most recent work focuses on the role women play in ensuring farms undertake green agriculture and sustainable practices. Her recent research shows that women drive green agriculture.

Sally is working with the Mitchell Institute’s Prof John Brewer to develop comparative research looking at healing and reconciliation in divided communities. This research draws on their respective experience in Belfast, Sri Lanka and on the divided mining communities during the mining strikes in the North East of England during the 1980s. 

They are also collaborating on publications.    

Sally has regularly been commissioned by international organisations, national governments and EU agencies and departments to undertake research on gender and agriculture and contribute to policy development.

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Emma has served in several advisory roles in Iraq and Afghanistan.  She has also worked in the Palestinian territories to develop Palestinian Institutions and promote co-existence between Israelis and Palestinians. Emma has provided technical assistance on a range of issues including human rights, justice reform, security sector reform and conflict resolution in the Middle East, South Asia and Africa.

Emma is the author of the highly acclaimed The Unravelling: High Hopes and Missed Opportunities in Iraq (Public Affairs, 2015) and In a Time of Monsters: Travelling in a Middle East in Revolt (Atlantic Books, 2019).

Both Emma Sky and Bonnie Weir will be working with us to consolidate the work already done between Yale and the Mitchell Institute, in particular, in relation to the emerging Peace Partnership, which aims to enhance peace leadership globally, and to generate practical benefits and ideas for leaders facing real-time conflict dilemmas.

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This includes a collaborative arts postgraduate teaching and research project, led by Weimar Bauhaus University, involving postgraduate research students, with the other partners being QUB, University of Rennes 2, Concordia University Montreal, UCC, and the University of Barcelona. 

Eva will also be involved in the Creative Approaches to Public Space (CAPS) international Graduate School Project involving the University of Rennes 2 and QUB, offering opportunities to postgraduates.

Eva has recently been appointed as EUR CAPS Visiting Professor for the International Chair in Humanities and Social Sciences for the duration of four months at the University of Rennes 2. Eva will be contributing to talks, seminars, and workshops during her tenure. She will also be co-organising the CAPS International Summer School 2023.

She is currently researching and writing a monograph entitled Remorse Drama and Celtic Romanticism: Staging Conflict and Cosmopolitanism since the Scottish Enlightenment.

Eva is the author of La Philosophie des Lumières dans le Théâtre Breton: Tradition et Influences (Enlightenment Philosophy in Breton Theatre: Tradition and Influences) (Rennes: TIR Université de Rennes 2, 2019).

During his previous Visiting Scholar tenure at the Institute, James carried out research in Northern Ireland which informed his latest book A Troubled Sleep: Risk and Resilience in Contemporary Northern Ireland (Oxford University Press, September 2021).

James has published extensively and his book Becoming Evil: How Ordinary People Commit Genocide and Mass Killing (Oxford University Press, 2^nd edition, 2007) was widely acclaimed.

James’ current research project is a comparative analysis of the literal and figurative notion of “walls” in deeply divided societies. Grounded in the lived experience of people in deeply divided societies, the following forms of walls will be analyzed: physical walls of social separation, symbolic walls of identity separation, and hidden walls of geographical separation.

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Professor Azrini Wahidin’s current research focuses on the issues of imprisonment, penal policy, the legacy of conflict in Northern Ireland and South Africa, former female ex-combatants, violence against women, women in the criminal justice system, transitions out of custody, the criminalisation of migrants, the engendering of punishment, LGBT+ prisoners and the experiences of elders in prison in the UK and USA.

Her previous work focused on older women in prison, managing the needs of elders in prison, the meaning of death and dying for prisoners, older LGBT persons, resettlement, the body and dirt.

Azrini has been a recipient of awards and grants, such as ERSC, AHRC, Leverhulme, BA Academy, Horizon 2020, COST, MOJ, NIP, NICCY.

Azrini is the author of a range of academic articles in international journals and edited collections.

Her latest edited book co-authored with the Mitchell Institute’s Professor John Brewer: Ex-Combatants' Voices: Transitioning from War to Peace in Northern Ireland, South Africa and Sri Lanka (Palgrave MacMillan, 2022).

Azrini’s next book Under Siege: The role of women in liberation movements under the Apartheid regime and the transition to peace in South Africa is forthcoming. This research builds on her single authored book Ex-Combatants, Gender and Peace in Northern Ireland - Women, Political Protest and the Prison Experience (Palgrave Press, 2016). The book focused on female former politically motivated prisoners and the role of transitional justice in post-conflict societies.

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He has served as CEO of a large NDPB as well as Chair of a number of public sector bodies, including, most recently, 8 years as Chief Commissioner at the Equality Commission Northern Ireland.  He is currently Chair of the NI Police Fund, Chair of the Board of the Northern Ireland Transport Holding Company, Chair of the Public Sector Chairs’ Forum and Chair of the Corrymeela Council.

Michael is a graduate of Queen’s University Belfast, having achieved his Doctorate in Education in 2013.  He also has an MA in Theology. 

Michael is a Chartered Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development and qualified as a Fellow of the Chartered Insurance Institute.

Bonnie’s recent publications include an article in A U.S Special Envoy to Northern Ireland would help to preserve the peace (The Hill, 16 March 2022) and Brexit and Border Town: Troubles Ahead in Northern Ireland? (The New York Review, 11 April 2019).
 
Bonnie is currently working on a book on the Aftermath of Peace processes as well as projects on sectarianism and minority rights.

Her research is grounded in extensive, qualitative fieldwork paired with original spatial and survey experimental data through which she hopes to highlight the very personal and local nature of insurgency, counter-insurgency, and societal division.

Both Emma Sky and Bonnie Weir will be working with us to consolidate the work already done between Yale and the Mitchell Institute, in particular in relation to the emerging Peace Partnership, which aims to enhance peace leadership globally, and to generate practical benefits and ideas for leaders facing real-time conflict dilemmas.

Read more here.