Welcome On Board! The GIGA’s New Doctoral Researchers

This year, Adhiraaj Anand, Olena Osypenkova, Mahima Duggal, and Mira Demirdirek have been newly admitted to the GIGA’s Doctoral Programme. We are very happy to welcome you all to the GIGA team!

In their dissertation projects, the four new doctoral researchers will pursue exciting lines of inquiry.

• Adhiraaj Anand’s work is dedicated to investigating whether shared concerns and issues are increasing transnational political engagement between youth in Taiwan, Thailand, and Malaysia (“Youth Politics and Transnational Activism in Taiwan, Thailand and Malaysia”).

• Olena Osypenkova examines the changes in the role of the Russian Federation in the Middle East and North Africa and the dynamics of its foreign policy in this regard during 21st century (“The Role and Foreign Policy of the Russian Federation in the MENA”).

• Mahima Duggal aims to understand how the EU can navigate the quickly growing great power rivalry in the Indo-Pacific while driving greater structural engagement with the region (“Connecting Distant Geographies: EU's Engagement with the Indo-Pacific”).

• The aim in Mira Demirdirek’s work is to analyze the continuities and similarities in Turkey's foreign policy (discourse) towards Africa and its perception of its own global role (“(Dis)continuities in Turkey’s Africa Policy”).

As part of the GIGA team, our four new doctoral researchers will benefit from an international research environment and the Institute’s global research approach. Based on their individual thematic orientations, they are member of one of the regional institutes and one of the research programmes.

We wish our new team members a warm start to life at the GIGA and much success for their dissertation projects going forwards.