Staff and Associates

Prof. Dr. Dr. Hans J. Giessmann
Director

Hans J. Giessmann has overall responsibility for BCR operations and research projects. He is co-editor of the Berghof Handbook for Conflict Transformation and coordinates the State and Non-State Relations research programme area. He also supervises PhD and MA students affiliated with BCR. His research interests include: interactions between non-state and state actors within key areas of crisis prevention, conflict transformation and peacebuilding; innovative approaches to the prevention and resolution of violent conflicts, particularly in Asia. Hans J. Giessmann is a member of the Advisory Board for Civilian Crisis Prevention at the German Federal Foreign Office. He is also a co-editor and advisory board member for numerous academic journals that focus on both peace-related and foreign policy issues. Professor Giessmann teaches and supervises PhD students at the University of Hamburg and is a board member of the European MA programme on Human Rights and Democratisation in Venice, Italy. Before coming to BCR, he was head of the Centre for European Peace and Security Studies and deputy director of the Institute for Peace Research and Security Policy at the University of Hamburg. He has also been a visiting professor at universities in the US, Poland and China. Besides his professorship he holds two doctorates, in philosophy and political science. His list of academic publications comprises over 300 articles, books and essays, with translations in more than ten languages.

Research Focus: State and Non-State Relations in Transforming Violent Conflict

Projects
Cultures of Governance and Conflict Resolution in Europe and India (CORE)
Berghof Handbook for Conflict Transformation

Publications
selected publications

Dr. Martina Fischer
Deputy Director

Martina Fischer is BCR’s deputy director. She is a co-editor of the Berghof Handbook for Conflict Transformation and is responsible for the Peacebuilding in Post-War Regions research programme area. Her research interests include: peacebuilding in the Balkans; European peace and security policy; the nexus between peacebuilding and development cooperation; civil-military relations, the role of civil society in conflict transformation, dealing with the past/transitional justice; and youth and conflict. Martina Fischer is a member of the advisory council for the Centre for International Peace Operations (ZIF), of the scientific advisory council for the German Foundation for Peace Research (DSF) and of the Working Group for Peace and Conflict Research at the German Federal Foreign Office. She was deputy chair of the DSF until March 2011 and a member of the advisory council for Civilian Crisis Prevention of the Foreign Office from 2004-2009. She is also an advisory board member for diverse academic journals that focus on peace research and international relations. She also advises civil society organisations, ministries and public development agencies on issues of crisis prevention and post-conflict regeneration. She is a consultant for various members of the German Bundestag, political parties and the European Parliament. Dr. Fischer has published ten books and around 200 articles, with translations in seven languages.

Research Focus: Peacebuilding in Post-War Regions

Projects
Dealing with the Past and Peacebuilding in the Western Balkans
Berghof Handbook for Conflict Transformation

Publications
selected publications

Prof. Dr. Michael Daxner
Senior Fellow

Michael Daxner is a philosopher and sociologist. As a senior fellow he gives conceptual advice on BCR’s research activities and supervising PhD students. He also conducts his own research. His research interests include: cultures of intervention; education policy and civil/military interaction in Afghanistan and Kosovo; national cultural policies; higher education policy. In the course of his career, Michael Daxner has held prominent posts both as an academic and as a political consultant. From 2000 to 2002 he worked for UNMIK and the provisional self-government in Kosovo, serving as international administrator of the University of Pristina and principal international officer at the Ministry of Education and Technology. From 2003 to 2004 he was commissioned by the German Rectors and German Academic Exchange on behalf of the German Federal Foreign Office to advise the Afghan government on issues of higher education reform.

Professor Daxner was president of the University of Oldenburg, Germany from 1986 to 1998. He has taught and conducted research at universities in Oldenburg, Osnabrück and at the Freie Universität Berlin (all in Germany). He was awarded an honorary doctorate by Novosibirsk State University, Russia, in 1995. Michael Daxner is the author of numerous books and academic articles.

Dr. Véronique Dudouet
Senior Researcher

Véronique Dudouet coordinates the Resistance and Liberation Movements in Transition research programme area. Her research interests include: conflict transformation theory; negotiation; nonviolent resistance; power asymmetries in violent political conflict; and the role of various stakeholders in war-to-peace transitions: resistance and liberation movements, civil society organisations and third-party interveners. Véronique Dudouet also carries out consultancy projects for various civil society organisations and the European Parliament. She has been co-founder and editor of several graduate and electronic peer-reviewed journals.

Dr. Dudouet has an MA and PhD in Conflict Resolution from the Peace Studies Department at the University of Bradford, UK, as well as a postgraduate research diploma (DEA) in International Relations and Security from the Institut d’Etudes Politiques, Toulouse, France.

Research Focus: Resistance and Liberation Movements in Transition

Publications
selected publications

Beatrix Austin (ex Schmelzle)
Researcher and Coordinator of the Berghof Handbook

Beatrix Austin (was Schmelzle) co-edits and coordinates the Berghof Handbook for Conflict Transformation. In this capacity, she reviews current conflict transformation themes and issues, liaises with authors from a wide range of backgrounds and is responsible for overall project management, including all aspects of language-editing and production. Her research interests include: linking theory and practice in conflict transformation; violence and identity; dialogue and reconciliation work in the western Balkans and the Middle East; supporting civil society peace activities; capacity-building and training; negotiation; and impact assessment. Prior to joining BCR, Beatrix Austin worked for various US-based NGOs, including Search for Common Ground, Seeds of Peace and the Public Conversations Project. She also worked for International Alert, UK. She is a founding member of Vienna Conflict Management Partners and a member of the training team of the Vienna School of Negotiation, Austria.

Beatrix Austin has a Masters in Public Administration (MPA) from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, US and a graduate diploma in Political Science from the Freie Universität Berlin, Germany. She is currently doing a PhD on Peacebuilding and Dealing with the Past in Post-War Regions.

Projects
Berghof Handbook for Conflict Transformation
Dealing with the Past in Post-War Regions

Publications
selected publications

Anna Bernhard
Researcher

Anna Bernhard joined BCR in April 2011 as a researcher for the CORE project. She holds a Master of Advanced Studies (MAS) in Development and Cooperation (NADEL, ETH Zurich, Switzerland) and an M.A. degree in Cultural Anthropology, Gender Studies and Pedagogy (University of Basel, Switzerland). Anna has been a social researcher for many years and, most recently, was a research associate at the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) in New Delhi, India, where she was part of the Local Governance and Decentralization program management team. At SDC, she was involved in co-managing the Local Governance Initiative South Asia (LoGIn). She also conducted a research study covering the on-going status of decentralization in various regions of India and was trained in participatory rural appraisal/participatory learning and action by Robert Chambers and other experts in Kerala.

Prior to SDC, Anna worked in both Switzerland and Nepal for Helvetas, the Swiss Association for International Cooperation, in the area of civil society and the state, with special focus on conflict sensitivity and civil peacebuilding (do no harm and conflict sensitivity – theory and tools).
Anna began her international development career at the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs, Political Division IV, in the areas of gender issues, human rights, and combating human trafficking.

Cultures of Governance and Conflict Resolution in India and Europe (CORE)

Janel B. Galvanek
Associate Researcher

Janel B. Galvanek is an associate researcher at Berghof Conflict Research. Her research interests include: the interaction between state and non-state actors during conflict, engaging local actors in conflict transformation (with a focus on Afghanistan), and the reintegration of child soldiers, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa.

Janel holds a Master’s degree in Peace Research and Security Policy from Hamburg University and an MA in German Studies from Georgetown University in Washington, DC. She is also an active volunteer with Amnesty International and is a member of the German Coordination Group for Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories.
CORE project
Publications

Daniela Körppen
Researcher

Daniela Körppen is a researcher for BCR’s CORE project. Before, she coordinated an action research project on systemic conflict transformation at Berghof Peace Support, which explored the potential of systemic thinking for conflict transformation strategies. One of the results of this project is the edited volume “The Non-Linearity of Peace Processes – Theory and Practice of Systemic Conflict Transformation” (co-edited with N. Ropers and H.J. Giessmann), to be published in summer 2011. Additionally, she is engaged in the development of systemic methods for strategy planning, assessment and conflict analysis for Berghof Peace Support.

She has several years of work experience as a consultant and trainer for the German Civil Peace Service. She has participated in numerous seminars and trainings on systemic mediation and systemic conflict management. She graduated in Sociology and Latin American Studies (M.A.) and in Peace and Conflict Studies (M.A.) and has several years of work experience as a journalist.

Cultures of Governance and Conflict Resolution in India and Europe (CORE)
Theory and Practice of Systemic Conflict Transformation (BPS project)
Publications

Dr. Ljubinka Petrović-Ziemer
Researcher

Ljubinka Petrovic-Ziemer is investigating theoretical and practical approaches to transitional justice and reconciliation, as part of the DSF-funded research project on dealing with the past and peacebuilding in the region of former Yugoslavia. Her peacebuilding work began in 1992 at the Peace Center in Osijek, Croatia. In 1998 she co-founded the Association for Inter-Religious Peace Work “Abraham” in Sarajevo, where she was also the director. She has also worked as a lecturer of German Literature and Cultural History, in the German Studies Department of the Faculty of Philosophy at the University of Sarajevo. She has been living in Germany since 2005 and regularly teaches Peace and Conflict Studies at the Studienforum Berlin e.V.

Ljubinka Petrovic-Ziemer studied English and German Studies in Osijek and earned her post-graduate degree in General Literary Studies in Sarajevo. She holds a PhD in German Literature Studies from the University of Trier.

Dealing with the Past and Peacebuilding in the Western Balkans
Publications

Katrin Planta
Research Assistant

Katrin Planta is a research assistant at Berghof Conflict Research. Her research interests include: war-to-peace negotiations and the grey zones between violent conflict and peace, citizen security and violence control, post-agreement (re)construction, and the nexus between development and conflict.

Katrin Planta graduated in Social Science from Westfälische Wilhelms Universität Münster, Germany, and the Institut d’Etudes Politiques de Lille, France, and holds an MA degree in Conflict Resolution from the University of Bradford, UK. Before joining the Berghof team, she worked for the German Development Service’s “Civil Peace Service” programme in Bolivia.

Resistance and Liberation Movements in Transition
“Whores or Heroes?” – The Reintegration of Former Combatants (PhD)
Publications

Dr. des. Hannah Reich
Associate Researcher

Hannah Reich is an asssociated researcher affiliated with BCR. She recently accomplished her PhD thesis, an action research project conducted in post-war Lebanon that focused on developing forum theatre methodology as a way to generate knowledge about how to transform conflict. She also teaches in the Master of Peace and Security Studies programme at the University of Hamburg. Her research interests include: the role of creative media in conflict transformation in intercultural contexts; relationships between external and internal actors in conflict, in particular issues of local ownership; and the processes and dynamics of implementing intercultural projects.

Hannah Reich has an MA in Islamic Societies and Cultures from the School of Oriental and African Studies in London, UK and a graduate diploma in Human Geography from the University of Bonn, Germany.

Interactive Theatre in Post-War Lebanon
Publications

Dr. Oliver Wolleh
Associate Researcher

Oliver Wolleh researches in the State and Non-State Relations programme, with a focus on the Georgia-Abkhazia conflict. He also coordinates the Georgian-Abkhazian Dialogue project. Initiated by BCR in 2000, the project has been managed by Berghof Peace Support since 2003, with Oliver Wolleh remaining as project coordinator. His research interests include: strategies of conflict transformation in asymmetrical conflicts; methods of facilitation, mediation and inter-group meetings; strategies for trust-building; power-sharing models; project monitoring and evaluation; and civilian conflict management. Oliver Wolleh has teaching posts at the Alice Salomon University of Applied Sciences in Berlin, on the Intercultural Conflict Management MA programme, the Institute for European Studies at Tbilisi State University, Georgia and the Development Diplomacy Programme at the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre in Ghana. He has also published several articles on conflicts in the Caucasus and Cyprus.

Dr. Wolleh studied at the London School of Economics and Political Science, UK and has a PhD in Political Science from the Freie Universität Berlin, Germany.

Georgian-Abkhazian Dialogue
Selected Publications

Ulrike Petri
Administrator of Staff, Finances and Third-Party Funding

Ulrike Petri is responsible for the administration of staff, finances and day-to-day running of the centre. Before joining BCR, she worked for the Research Institute for Molecular Pharmacology in Berlin, both in the public relations division and as an assistant to the director. She was also coordinator of the European Structural Funds Projects at the Technische Universität Berlin.

Ulrike Petri graduated in economics and business administration at the Academy of Business Administration and Public Management in Potsdam, Germany.

Thomas Böhlke
external PhD student

Thomas Böhlke is an instructor for joint military operations at the German Armed Forces Command and Staff College in Hamburg. He is a military officer with the rank of Commander in the German Navy. Before joining the college in 2002, he served aboard naval units and as a staff officer both in national and in NATO units. He is currently pursuing a PhD on “The Bangsamoro Rebellion – Mediation Efforts and the Role of Armed Groups in Conflict Transformation Towards Re-Establishing the State’s Monopoly on the Use of Force”.

Thomas Böhlke completed an MA in Mediation at the European University Viadrina in Frankfurt (Oder) and also holds a graduate diploma in Adult Education from the University of the Federal Armed Forces in Hamburg.

The Bangsamoro Rebellion

Javaid Hayat
Georg Zundel PhD grant student

Javaid Hayat is one of the Berghof Foundation for Conflict Studies’ Georg Zundel PhD grant students at Berghof Conflict Research. He is currently working on his dissertation about the role of non-state actors in transforming the Kashmir conflict and its impacts on South Asian security, regional integration and economic co-operation. Having grown up in Pakistan and Pakistani-administered Kashmir (Jammu & Kashmir), he gained working experience in both the public and private sectors in Pakistan, and has been closely involved in peace and conflict resolution activities initiated by international non-governmental organisations in the Kashmir region. He has also participated in many international conferences and workshops related to the Kashmir conflict. His further research interests include: peacebuilding and reconciliation initiatives at the grassroots level; regional integration; security and terrorism, particularly linked with South Asian politics.

Javaid Hayat completed a masters degree in Peace, Conflict and Development Studies at Universitat Jaume I, Castelló, Spain. He also holds an MA in Mass Communication from the University of the Punjab, Pakistan.

Georg Zundel scholarship programme
Kashmir Conflict and Regional Security

Ulrike Hopp

Ulrike is currently developing the Infrastructures for Peace Programme for our sister organisation, Berghof Peace Suppoert (BPS), while on leave from her post at the BMZ (Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development). Before taking up her current post, she was the Deputy Director of the Sri Lanka conflict transformation project from 2005-2008 and from 2002-2005 she served as the desk officer for conflict prevention and peace building at the BMZ, where she authored the ministry’s concept note for the area (Übersektorales Konzept). Ulrike Hopp is a PhD candidate at the University of Hamburg, conducting an investigation into organisational learning and capacity-building in the work of peace secretariats.

Ulrike Hopp graduated in business administration at the Freie Universität Berlin. She also completed a post-graduate programme in development politics at the German Development Institute in Bonn.

Institutionalised Dialogue and Negotiation Support Structures

Stefan Maschinski
Associated Researcher/ PhD student

Stefan Maschinski is an associated researcher at the Berghof Research Center in Berlin. He joined the institute in 2009 and has been involved in the writing of research articles and policy recommendations on conflict resolution in Afghanistan, the South Caucasus as well as on the (transatlantic) European security architecture. In his PhD project, Stefan Maschinski investigates the legitimacy and instruments of international actors directly engaged in justice sector reform on the local level in Afghanistan.

Stefan Maschinski has an MA in International Conflict Analysis from the University of Kent at Brussels and a BA in European Studies from Maastricht University and the Institut d’études politiques de Grenoble, France.

Publications

Markus Weissert
Georg Zundel PhD grant student

Markus Weissert is one of the Berghof Foundation for Conflict Studies’ Georg Zundel PhD grant students at Berghof Conflict Research. He is currently writing his dissertation on the role played by ‘places of memory’ in processes of reconciliation in rural communities in Guatemala and Peru. His work is being supervised by Prof. Giessmann of BCR and Prof. Sven Chojnacki of the Freie Universität Berlin. His further research interests include the link between perceptions of ethnicity and space and the way these can be instrumentalised in conflicts.

Markus Weissert studied geography, political science and cultural anthropology at the University of Bonn and University of Santiago de Compostela in Spain from 2002 to 2009.

Georg Zundel scholarship programme
Making Memory Work

Astrid Fischer
Editor and Research Assistant

Astrid Fischer is responsible for editing and graphic design of all Berghof publications (print and online). She also manages the website and provides administrative support and research assistance to staff members. Previously, she worked for various NGOs in Bosnia-Herzegovina and also for the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), serving as an election supervisor in Bosnia-Herzegovina and Kosovo and as an election monitor in Georgia.

Astrid Fischer studied Political Science and History at the Freie Universität Berlin and at University College Cork, Ireland, graduating in 1999.

Claus-Dieter Wild
Librarian and Research Assistant

Claus-Dieter Wild has primary responsibility for managing the library and IT system. He also provides research assistance to staff members. Previously, he was active in the field of political education. He has also worked as a mediator. More recently, he worked in a support role on the capacity building programme in Sri Lanka that was initiated by our sister organisation, Berghof Peace Support.

Claus-Dieter Wild has a graduate diploma in Political Science from the Freie Universität Berlin, Germany.

Library

Mir Mubashir
Research Assistant & Webmaster

Mir Mubashir is a research assistant, affiliated to the CORE project, and webmaster. His research interests in the field of conflict transformation are: traditional methods, cultural dimensions, systemic aspects and the use of creative arts (e.g. interactive theatre methods).

Mir has been in the IT field for a long time, having studied Computer Science at universities in Iowa and Maryland, finishing with a bachelor’s degree in Software Engineering at the American International University, Dhaka, Bangladesh. Through his work as an IT specialist for GTZ Bangladesh, Mir slowly shifted his focus to development and conflict transformation, resulting in pursuing a master’s degree in Peace Research and Security Policy from Hamburg University.

Cultures of Governance and Conflict Resolution in India and Europe (CORE)

Josefina Bajer
Student Assistant

Josefina Bajer is supporting the research project on dealing with the past and peacebuliding in former Yugoslavia.
She is studying European Studies at Viadrina University in Frankfurt/Oder and holds a BA in cultural scienses.

Dealing with the Past in the Western Balkans

Nastassja Gotzler
Student Assistant

Nastassja Gotzler supports the Berghof team by administrative tasks, organising meetings and conferences and operating in-house media. She is currently studying agricultural economics at the Humboldt University Berlin.

Amy Hunter
Student Assistant

Amy Hunter supports the Berghof team with editorial assistance and translation of English and German texts. She is currently studying linguistics, political science and modern history at the Technische Universität Berlin and the Freie Universität Berlin, with a focus on minority language policy in education.

Sebastian Marambio
Student Assistant

Sebastian Marambio supports the Berghof team in the operation of in-house media and library research. He is currently studying information technology and Spanish at the Humboldt-Universität in Berlin.

Barbara Rühling
Student Assistant

Barbara Rühling supports the Berghof team with organisational tasks concerning our in-house library, esp. with keeping the library catalogue up to date. She studies cultural anthropology at the Freie Universität Berlin.