Brussels Staff Profiles

Dr. Mihnea Tanasescu, Post-doctoral fellow of the Research Foundation Flanders (FWO), Vrije Universiteit Brussel (http://poli.vub.ac.be/team/mihnea-tanasescu). The above teaches Public Policy Analysis at the Free University of Brussels (VUB) and runs a research project on the politics of environmental restorations.

Dr. Anna Bara is a Project Officer for the Khartoum Process of the Africa-EU Migration and Mobility Dialogue at the International Centre for Migration Policy Development (ICMPD) in Vienna, Austria. She holds a PhD in History and Civilization (2011) and a Master of Research degree (2004) from the European University Institute in Florence, Italy, and MA degree in Central European History from the Central European University in Budapest, Hungary (2003). Prior to joining ICMPD in 2014, Dr. Bara partook in the INTERACT project at the Migration Policy Centre (MPC) of the Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies (RSCAS), in Florence, Italy.  Previously, Dr. Bara coordinated the activity of the Social-Political Module of the Consortium for Applied Research on International Migration (CARIM-East project) within the MPC. Her main research interests are in the interconnected migration flows between the EU member states as destination countries on the one hand, and countries of origin, including but not limited to the Horn of Africa, Eastern Partnership countries, Russia, and Central Asia, on the other. Social impact of migration on sending and receiving states, as well as legal aspects of migration, constitute areas of particular research interest. Dr. Bara has also worked on governmental responses to human trafficking and migrant smuggling, with specific focus on post-conflict societies. At the Brussels School of International Studies, Kent University, Dr. Bara teaches the MA course in Histories of International Conflict.

Georgios Kostakos holds MA and PhD degrees in International Relations from the University of Kent, UK, and a Mechanical Engineering degree from the National Technical University of Athens, Greece. He served on the secretariat of the UN Secretary-General’s High-level Panel on Global Sustainability (GSP) as Senior Adviser and Acting Deputy Executive Secretary (2010-2012), and on many other positions at the United Nations, the Hellenic Foundation for European and Foreign Policy (ELIAMEP), the University of Athens, The Hague Institute for Global Justice and the Salzburg Global Seminar. Highlights of his career include UN field missions to South Africa, Mexico, Haiti and Bosnia & Herzegovina (1994-1996); spearheading the establishment at the University of Athens of a “Master’s Degree in Southeast European Studies”, bringing together ten Universities from different countries of Southeastern Europe with EU support (1999-2000); serving as Assistant Secretary of the UN Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People (2000-2003); contributing to the preparation of the 2005 World Summit as member of the UN Secretary-General’s Strategic Planning Unit (SPU); working with the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) to prepare the High-level Event on Climate Change (New York, 24 September 2007) and subsequently serving as climate change focal point in the Secretariat of the UN System Chief Executives Board for Coordination (CEB) (2007-2010). An independent consultant based in Brussels, Belgium, since August 2012, Georgios has been one of the founders of the Foundation for Global Governance and Sustainability (FOGGS) and is currently serving as its first Executive Director. Georgios’ areas of expertise include global governance and sustainability, climate change, UN reform, conflict resolution, peacekeeping and peacebuilding. He maintains a current affairs blog: www.kostakos.net

Philippe Bonditti received his PhD from Sciences Po in Paris (France) in 2008. After two years teaching International Relations at Brown University (Watson Institute for International Studies, 2008-2010), he joined the Instituto de Relaçoes Internacionais at PUC-Rio (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil) where he was an Assistant Professor until he came back in Europe late 2013. His research explores the mutations of political modernity through the study of the (kind of) politics involved and play out in both development  and security discourses, especially when the latter take terrorism as their main target and mobility as their referent object. His article have appeared in Alternatives, Security Dialogue (with CASE Collective), Cultures&Conflits (fr.), and Critique Internationale (fr.) as well as in several edited volumes.

BSc (McGill), BA (McGill), MA (Leuven), PhD (Leuven)

Anya Topolski completed two bachelors degees at McGill University in Montreal, Canada: BSc in Biochemistry (1999) and a BA Honours in Philosophy (2000).  After a brief but memorable experience teaching in Korea, Anya moved to Belgium to complete a Masters in Continental Philosophy (2002, Magna Cum Laude) specialising in the political thought of Hannah Arendt and the ethics of Emmanuel Levinas with a  special interest in contemporary Jewish thought. She obtained her PhD in Philosophy (Magna Cum Laude) at the KU Leuven in 2008. Her dissertation was awarded the Auschwitz Foundation Stichting Prize and is currently being published. In addition, she completed her high-school teacher’s degree in 2009 (ALO, KU Leuven), and  university lecturer degree in 2011 (BKO, 2011, T.U. Eindhoven). In 2009, she joined an NWO project (Eindhoven, Breda) as a post-doctoral researcher to consider the application of her theory of relationality in the field of military ethics at the Netherlands Defense Academy where she engaged in post-Srebrenica research on responsibility and judgment. Her current research on antisemitism and islamophobia in Europe is funded by FWO – Flanders. She has lectured extensively on the thought of Hannah Arendt and Emmanuel Levinas and has taught courses on the ethics of globalisation, global democracy, terrorism & totalitarianism, conflicting political traditions, ethics and Judaic ethics.

Caterina Carta is Assistant Professor at Vesalius college (VUB). she holds a PhD in comparative and European Politics from the University of Siena. She is associated researcher at the Institute d’Etudes Européennes (IEE) at ULB, Brussels. Before joining Vesalius College, she has been research and teaching fellow at the University of Siena (Italy), the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE, UK), Westminster University (UK), the IEE (ULB, Belgium). Her research interests cover diplomacy, foreign policy, discourse analysis, the EU institutional setting and its foreign and security policy. Her articles have been published in Cooperation and Conflict, the British Journal of Politics and International Relations and European Foreign Affairs Review. She is author of The European Union’s Diplomatic Service: Ideas, Preferences and Identities (Routledge, 2012) and coedited with Jean-Frederic Morin the volume Making Sense of Diversity: EU’s Foreign Policy through the Lenses of Discourse Analysis (Ashgate, 2014).

Thomas Saalfeld is Professor of Political Science at the University of Bamberg and Director of the Bamberg Graduate School of Social Sciences (BAGSS). He is Fellow of the (UK) Academy of Social Sciences (AcSS), managing academic editor of German Politics and member of the Advisory Board of the Italian Political Science Review. His research focuses on representation, legislative behaviour, parliamentary accountability and coalition government in European democracies. He has extensive teaching and research experience in game theory, bargaining theory and the strategic dimension of political behaviour. His work was published in academic journals including the European Journal of Political Research, International Studies Quarterly, the Journal of Legislative Studies, the Rivista Italiana di Scienza Politica, Parliamentary Affairs and West European Politics. His most recent publications include The Oxford Handbook of Legislative Studies (jointly edited with Shane Martin and Kaare Strøm, 2014) and The Political Representation of Immigrants and Minorities (jointly edited with Karen Bird and Andreas M. Wüst, 2011).