News of the GIGA Doctoral Programme

Rafael Castro Alegría successfully defended his dissertation titled “Crisis and Regional (Dis)Integration: A Post-structuralist Approach“ at the University of Kiel. Congratulations!

Juliana Tappe Ortiz handed in her dissertation titled “Peace Spoilers and Peace Supporters: How Individual Characteristics Influence the Outcome and Duration of Civil Conflicts” at the University of Hamburg. Congratulations!

We welcome new Visiting Doctoral Researcher Ana Tereza Duarte Lima De Barros, from the Universidade Federal de Pernambuco. She will stay with us from 16 January until 30 June 2023. So far she submitted two paper proposals to the IPSA Congress in Buenos Aires. Additionally, she submitted a paper proposal and a book presentation proposal to the congress of the Sociedad Argentina de Análisis Político – SAAP. Furthermore, the second volume of the book series “Political Science: an educational proposal”, which she is editing, will be published as an eBook.

Diba Mirzaei gave a lecture on Iran and feminist foreign policy at the Technische Universität Kaiserslautern.

Johanna Pieper gave an interview for Deutsche Welle about police violence against demonstrators in Peru, who demand the president to resign, the closing of congress, new presidential elections and the release of former president Pedro Castillo. You can read the article here (in Spanish). Additionally, gave an interview at Deutsche Welle about the political crisis in Peru, which can be watched here (in Spanish). She also gave an interview for dektektor.fm on the political situation in Peru, its elections and the possibility of a new constitution, which you can listen to here (in German). From end of February until the end of March she will do a research stay in Bolivia.

On 20 January Alina Ripplinger gave a presentation on “Central America and Democratic Erosion” to introduce the Coloquio Americano “Guatemala: Law in a Cooptated State” organized by the MPIL Heidelberg. Additionally, she was a panelist in a virtual class on Nicaragua, for the International Day of Education, titled “Academic Freedom, Democracy and Human Rights in Nicaragua: From Crisis to Reconstruction”, which was organized by the Colectivo Nuna Más Nicaragua.

Désirée Reder was interviewed by the tagesschau24 on the current events in Brazil. The interview was transmitted live on TV (“De facto ein Angriff auf die Demokratie”), which you can watch here (in German). You can also read the transcript on their website here (in German). Additionally, her GIGA Focus on the repression against civil society and in particular the attacks on the Church in Nicaragua can be read here.

Hager Ali wrote a blog post on why the military promised to withdraw from power in Sudan, which can be read here.

On 23 February Alina Ripplinger attended an expert-led internal workshop on the Istanbul Protocol, the investigation of torture, and individual complaints to the Committee Against Torture.

In early February Askan Weidemann participated a course on Critical Discourse Analysis of the ECPR Winter School.

Dastan Jasim published an article titled “Under Attack: Addressing Cross-Border Violence in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq” in the Kurdish Peace Institute, which you can read here.