Organisers

Professor Eiki Berg, University of Tartu

Eiki Berg is Professor of International Relations at the University of Tartu. He has published widely in leading peer-reviewed journals on critical geopolitics, territoriality issues and bordering practices, and on different aspects of de facto state dynamics. He is co-editor of Routing Borders Between Territories, Discourses and Practices (Ashgate, 2003), Identity and Foreign Policy: Baltic-Russian Relations and European Integration (Ashgate, 2009), The Politics of International Interaction with De Facto States: Conceptualising Engagement without Recognition (Routledge, 2018), and co-author of De Facto States and Land-for-Peace Agreements: Territory and Recognition at Odds (Routledge, 2022). During the years 2003-2004 he served as MP in Estonian Parliament and observer to the European Parliament, EPP-ED faction, Committee on Foreign Affairs, Human Rights, Common Security and Defence Policy. In 2012, he received the National Science Award in the field of Social Sciences for the research in ‘Identities, Conflicting Self-Determination and De Facto States’.

James Ker-Lindsay is a visiting professor at the University of Kent and a research associate at the London School of Economics. His areas of specialisation are conflict, peace, and security in Southeast Europe and the Eastern Mediterranean, as well as secession and state recognition in international relations. In particular, he takes a close interest in Cyprus and Kosovo. He has published 15 authored and edited books and over 70 articles and book chapters. His latest book, co-written with Mikulas Fabry, is, ‘Secession and State Creation: What Everyone Needs to Know’, and was published by Oxford University Press in 2023. In addition to his academic work, he has considerable experience in policy analysis and peace processes. He has been a specialist adviser at the Foreign Office (2016-2017 and 2021) and was a member of the UK delegation at the UN Cyprus settlement talks in Switzerland. He has also worked closely with the UN, EU and Council of Europe.

Professor James Ker-Lindsay, University of Kent and London School of Economics

Dr Nasia Hadjigeorgiou, UCLan Cyprus

Nasia Hadjigeorgiou is an Assistant Professor in Transitional Justice and Human Rights at UCLan Cyprus. She holds an LLB from University College London (2009), an LLM from the University of Cambridge (2010) and a PhD from King’s College London (2015). Her research focuses on the relationship between frozen conflicts and the protection of human rights, with a particular focus on Cyprus. Her monograph, entitled Protecting Human Rights and Building Peace in Post-violence Societies: An Underexplored Relationship (Hart Publishing, 2020), which received the Constantinos Emilianides Annual Book Award in Law for 2020 by The Cyprus Review, focuses on the protection of human rights in Cyprus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Northern Ireland and South Africa. She has edited a book (Nasia Hadjigeorgiou (ed.) Identity, Belonging and Human Rights (Brill, 2019)) and has published articles in, among others, the European Journal of International Law, the International Journal of Human Rights, Ethnopolitics, and the Global Studies Quarterly

International Advisory Board

David Newman, Emeritus Professor of Geopolitics, Department of Politics & Government, Ben-Gurion University

Jussi Laine, Professor of Multidisciplinary Border Studies, Karelian Institute, University of Eastern Finland

Anne-Laure Amilhat Szary, Professor, University of Grenoble Alpes and Pacte Research Center

Tina Harris, Associate Professor, Department of Anthropology, University of Amsterdam

Willie Eselebor, Independent Researcher and Consultant, Universal Research & Training Institute, Lagos State University

Martin Klatt, Associate Professor, University of Southern Denmark and European Centre for Minority Issues

Anna Casaglia, Associate Professor, School of International Studies and Deptartment of Sociology & Social Research, University of Trento

James Scott, Research Professor of Regional & Border Studies. Karelian Institute, University of Eastern Finland