Visiting researcher May 2017 – November 2017

PhD Candidate in Political Studies, Queen’s University, Kingston, ON Canada

Research Interests

My doctoral research focuses on the role of external interveners and third-parties in conflict settlement processes, using a comparative case study of the 1998 Belfast Agreement in Northern Ireland and the 2004 Annan Plan in Cyprus. I am also interested in the failure of external intervention to produce legitimate institutions and the discourse of the ‘local peace’ in peacebuilding and intervention literature. My work endeavours to connect the external processes of international politics with the local processes of civil conflict in order to inform policy-makers on areas of promise and areas of concern for future negotiations and settlement processes. My wider research interests broadly cover mediation and conflict management in divided societies, institutional state building, political sectarianism and nationalism, ethnic conflict, power sharing and federalism, the Northern Ireland Peace Process, and interventions in Cyprus, Afghanistan and Iraq. I am currently serving as the Belfast RA on The Politics of Complex Diversity in Contested Cities joint project.

Conference Presentations

2017. “Climate Change as an Emerging Hurdle for Externally Incentivised Conflict Settlements” Understanding Change in World Politics, International Studies Association 58th Annual Convention, Baltimore. February 22-25.

2016. “Addressing the legitimacy dilemma in intervention: A relational approach to perceptions of legitimacy in multilateral interventions” Problems Abroad? Revisiting the Intervention Trap in an Era of Global Uncertainty, Carleton University, October 6-7.

2016. “Competing Interpretations of Identity and Legitimacy: Intervention and Conflict Resolution in Northern Ireland and Cyprus” The Politics of Borders and Belonging at Home and Abroad, Queen’s University. May 6.

2016. "Analyzing the 'Local Turn' in Peacebuilding Literature: New Paths or Old Debates?" Intersections/Cross-Sections, York University. March 11-12.

2015. “The Evolution of Difference in the Kurdish Identity: An Analysis of State-Based and Counter-State Nationalism in Turkey & Iraq” Politics in Fragmented Polities: Cohesion, Recognition, Redistribution and Secession, International Summer Research Institute, (EURAC) Bolzano, Italy. June 24.