Carla Habif

Carla Albala Habif holds a PhD in International Relations from PUC-Rio, a Master’s degree in History from UFRJ, and a Bachelor’s degree in History from UFF. She has professional experience in education, mediation, intercultural dialogue, and the international humanitarian field. Since 2023, she has collaborated with the Global South Unit for Mediation (GSUM) and the International Center on Nonviolent Conflict (ICNC). Her areas of expertise include civil resistance, conflict transformation, peacebuilding, and nonviolent movements.



Aureo Toledo

Associate Professor at the Federal University of Uberlândia (UFU), where he coordinates the Center for Research on Peace, International Security and Strategic Studies (NUPSIEE-UFU), as well as working on undergraduate and postgraduate courses in International Relations. He has a degree in International Relations from the Pontifical Catholic University of São Paulo (PUC-SP), and a master’s and doctorate in Political Science from the University of São Paulo (USP). He was a Visiting Scholar at the Humanitarian and Conflict Response Institute, University of Manchester, UK. He was also a Fulbright Visiting Scholar at the Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter School for Peace and Conflict Resolution, George Mason University, USA. His areas of interest are Critical Studies in International Security, Peace Studies and International Relations Theories.



Jana Tabak

Jana Tabak is a researcher at the Global South Unit for Mediation (GSUM), where she coordinates the line of research on Youth, Peace and Security. She is an Adjunct Professor in the Department of International Relations at Rio de Janeiro State University (UERJ). She holds a PhD in International Relations from IRI/PUC-Rio with a sandwich scholarship at Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey (2014), a Master’s degree in International Relations from IRI/PUC-Rio (2009) and a Bachelor’s degree in Social Communication with a major in Journalism from PUC-Rio (2003). She is a Pro-Science Fellow (UERJ) and a Researcher at the Global South Unit for Mediation (GSUM). Her areas of interest include International Relations Theory and International Security, with an emphasis on the following themes: international politics, critical studies of international security, militarization, international institutions and organizations, and childhood.



Esra Çuhadar

Dr. Esra Çuhadar is an associate professor at Bilkent University in Ankara, Turkey, where she has been teaching since 2006 and is the Head of Research of the Ottawa Dialogue at the University of Ottawa, Canada. She has over three decades of experience researching, teaching, and practicing dialogue facilitation, mediation, and conflict assessment. In 2023, she was selected to join the United Nations standby team of senior mediation advisers as a process design and inclusion expert. Dr. Çuhadar received her M.A. and Ph.D. from the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University, where she also earned an advanced graduate certificate in applied conflict resolution. Dr. Çuhadar’s extensive career in the mediation field includes serving as a mediation adviser to the United Nations (on the roster since 2024), senior expert on dialogue and inclusion at the United States Institute of Peace (2020-2023), a regional mediator for the World Bank (2011-2020), advisor to the OSCE (ongoing), and a senior research fellow at Inclusive Peace (continued). She has worked with various civil society and governmental actors and supported numerous dialogue and mediation initiatives in conflict areas such as Afghanistan, South Caucasus, Ukraine, Turkey, Cameroon, Venezuela, Cyprus, and between Israel-Palestine, Greece-Turkey, Turkey-Armenia, and Somalia-Somaliland. She is also a member of the Mediterranean Women Mediators Network.



Andrea Gill

Andréa Gill is a professor in the Department of Political Science at the Institute of Philosophy and Social Sciences at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), in the International Politics and Decoloniality department. She is a member of the Advisory Board of the Centre for Afro-Brazilian and Indigenous Studies (NEABI-UFRJ). Associate researcher at the Interdisciplinary Centre for Afro-descendant Reflection and Memory (NIREMA) and the Global South Unit for Mediation (GSUM) of the BRICS Studies and Research Centre (BPC) at the Institute of International Relations of the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro (PUC-Rio). She is a member of the Fiscal Council of the Board of Directors of the Brazilian Association of International Relations (ABRI), as well as the Coordination of the Thematic Area of Teaching, Research and Extension; the Equity Forum; and ABRI’s Commission for the Evaluation of Affirmative Policies. She is a member of the editorial team of the journal Sexualities published by Sage. Her education consists of a BA in Social and Political Thought from Western University (UWO-Canada) and the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN-South Africa), and an MA and PhD in Political Science, with a specialisation in Cultural, Social and Political Thought, from the University of Victoria (UVIC-Canada).



Jeff Pugh

Jeffrey Pugh (http://jeffreypugh.com) is an associate professor of conflict resolution at the University of Massachusetts Boston and the executive director of the Center for Mediation, Peace, and Resolution of Conflict
(CEMPROC), an NGO in Ecuador. In 2024-25, he is serving as a Council on Foreign Relations International Affairs Fellow in the U.S. House of Representatives. He received his PhD in political science from the Johns
Hopkins University. Pugh’s research focuses on peacebuilding, migration, and non-state actors in the Global South. He has published scholarly articles, book chapters, and policy reports, and his award-winning book, The Invisibility Bargain: Governance Networks and Migrant Human Security (Oxford University Press, 2021), examines the integration, political participation, and access to human security of Colombian migrants in Ecuador. His current research agenda applies the human security framework to immigrant activism in the United States, and he is studying the networked effects of the Colombian Truth Commission’s work with exiles abroad on transitional justice and the networked peacebuilding effects of international training and education programs. His research has received more than 10 awards, from the American Political Science Association, the International Studies Association, and others, and he was a 2014-15 Fulbright Scholar affiliated with FLACSO Ecuador. Pugh teaches graduate courses on Negotiation, Immigration & Conflict, Human Security, Theories of Peace and Conflict, and others. He is a co-founder of the Regional Institute on Nonviolent Action in the Americas as well as the Summer Institute on Conflict Transformation across Borders. He occasionally serves as an expert witness for asylum cases of Ecuadorians in the United States, and he is editor in chief of the Middle Atlantic Review of Latin American Studies (MARLAS).



Luisa Lobato

Luisa Cruz Lobato is an adjunct professor at the Institute of International Relations of the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro (IRI PUC-Rio) and Academic Coordinator of the PUC-Rio Digital Humanities Laboratory. She has a Masters and PhD in International Politics from the same institution, and a degree in International Relations from the University of Amazonia (Belém/PA). She conducts research in the areas of cybersecurity, algorithmic security, predictive policing and the politics of technology, focusing on topics such as the role of digital technologies in security governance, the imaginaries surrounding these technologies, their securitisation and militarisation, and their impacts on democracy, having published work on these topics in national and international journals such as the Brazilian Journal of International Politics, the Brazilian Journal of Criminal Sciences, International Affairs, the Journal of Cyber Policy and the Journal of European Public Policy.



Raíssa Caliano

Graduate student in International Relations at IRI/PUC-Rio. She is currently a scientific initiation fellow at the BRICS Policy Center’s Monitoring and Evaluation HUB. She also works as a researcher at the Asia Pacific Studies League (LEAP/PUC-Rio) and as a tutor for the undergraduate extension course Methodology 2. She has worked as a research intern in the Tutorial Education Program at IRI/PUC-Rio and as a research assistant in the Department of Government at Georgetown University. Her interests include: Methodologies in International Relations, Social Participation (with an emphasis on projects, programs and policies in the field of development), the Nexus of Conflict and Development, International Mediation, Peace Studies and the International Politics of the Middle East.



Marta Fernández

Director of the BRICS Policy Center | Researcher

Lattes

PhD in International Relations from the Institute of International Relations of the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro (2011) with a CAPES sandwich scholarship at the University of St. Andrews, Scotland (2010). She holds a master’s degree in International Relations from IRI-PUC-Rio (1996). Adjunct Professor II, 40 hours, exclusive dedication, at the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro. Director of the Institute of International Relations at PUC-Rio (2016-2020). She was coordinator of the Undergraduate Program in International Relations at IRI/PUC-Rio (November 2012 to March 2014). She was coordinator of the Graduate Program at IRI/PUC-Rio (February 2016 to December 2016). FAPERJ Young Scientist Fellow (2017-2018). CNPq Research Productivity Fellow – Level 2. Brazilian editor of Palgrave Macmillan’s Global Political Sociology series. Member of the Fiscal Council of ABRI (Brazilian Association of International Relations). Coordinator of the TEPP Program (Tutoring and Teaching and Research) at the Institute of International Relations of PUC-Rio, researching Africa(s) (2012). Tutor for the PET Program (2013-2016) She has taught at Cândido Mendes University, Unilasalle, Estácio de Sá University and Dom Bosco University. Teaching experience in the areas of: Postcolonial Studies, Introduction to International Politics, International Relations Theory, International Security, International Organizations, Formation of the International System, History of the 20th century and Contemporary International Relations. She coordinated the International Relations course at the Estácio de Sá-Niterói University (1998-2003). Member of the Brazilian Association of International Relations (ABRI) and the International Studies Association (ISA). Member at-large of IPS (International Political Sociology) in 2017. Researcher for the GlobalGRACE International Project (Global Gender and Cultures of Equality). Her main areas of interest and publications focus on: International Relations Theory, Postcolonial and Decolonial Studies, Aesthetics, Race and Gender Relations, South-South Cooperation, Critical Perspectives on Development.

 



Thomas Hardern

Nationality: England
Institution: Instituto Igarapé
BPC research period: June 5th to July 20th