WIIS Netherlands

Vanessa Newby is an Assistant Professor at Leiden University based in The Hague. She has a PhD in
international relations and her research interests include women peace and security, peacekeeping,
peacebuilding, humanitarian aid and disaster response and the international relations of the Middle
East. Vanessa is an Arabic speaker with thirteen years’ experience of researching the Middle East.
She is the author of Peacekeeping in South Lebanon: Credibility and Local Cooperation with
Syracuse University Press (2018) and has published in international peer-reviewed journals such as
International Peacekeeping, Contemporary Politics, the Australian Journal of International Affairs,
and Third World Quarterly.

Saskia has a background in public affairs and public policy with an interest in foreign relations and
international security. She has an MA in European Studies from the University of Amsterdam with a
major in European Law and a minor in Spanish. Saskia has lived and worked in Europe, the US and
Lebanon. Her career includes interning at the Dutch mission to the United Nations in New York, and
at PA-Europe in Brussels. She also worked for three years as a policy assistant to a Dutch Member of
Parliament. In her role as Vice-President she aims to contribute to a better understanding of the
important role of women in international peace and security, and raise awareness of this important
topic.

Amy currently works as a study coordinator for the Advanced MSc International Relations and Diplomacy at Leiden University. Before joining Leiden University she completed the Robert Schuman traineeship at the European Parliament and interned for the European Law Institute. She is an alumna of the University of Glasgow where she gained an LL.M. in International Law and Security and then a second LL.M. at the University of Copenhagen focusing on EU External Relations.

Fleur de Braaf is an Advanced Master’s student at the University of Leiden completing her degree in International Relations and Diplomacy in June 2020. She is currently also a facilitating member of the Women Ambassadors Group in the Netherlands and an Associate at a political risk consultancy called Libya Desk. In 2019 she was an intern at the Department of Crisis Management Peace Operations at the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs focusing on the Dutch contribution to peace operations in the Middle East. Prior to her MSc, she finished her BA in Development Studies at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) in London. During her time there she was President of the University branch of 180 Degrees Consulting, a consultancy for NGOs. Fleur is interested in particular in the role of women in the context of peace operations and counter(terrorism).

Eva Froneberg currently works as a tutor for the Bsc. Security Studies programme at Leiden University where she teaches on a variety of subjects including interdisciplinary approaches to safety and security and scientific research methods. Eva holds an MSSc. in Peace and Conflict Research from Uppsala University and a BA in International Affairs from Vesalius College Brussels. Prior to her current role, she worked with the Asia Regional Team at Search for Common Ground in Washington, D.C., and spent a year in Bangladesh as a World Teach Fellow at the Asian University for Women. Her research interests include the roles of young people and education in peacebuilding, as well as the intersections between the YPS and WPS agendas.

Dr. Joana Cook is an Assistant Professor of Terrorism and Political Violence in the Faculty of Governance and Global Affairs, Leiden University. She is also a Senior Project Manager at ICCT, and Editor-in-Chief of the ICCT journal. Her research more broadly focuses on women and gender in violent extremism, countering violent extremism, and counter-terrorism practices. More recent scholarly interests include non-state actor governance, and factors and pathways to radicalization.

Joana is also a Research Affiliate at the Department of War Studies, King’s College London and an Associate Fellow at the International Centre for the Study of Radicalization; an adjunct lecturer at Johns Hopkins University; a non-resident Fellow at the Program on Extremism at George Washington University; a Research Affiliate with the Canadian Network for Research on Terrorism, Security and Society (TSAS); and a Digital Fellow at the Montreal Institute for Genocide and Human Rights Studies (MIGS), Concordia University. She is a graduate of King’s College London where she completed her MA and PhD in the Department of War Studies (BA University of Regina).

Isi works as a research assistant to the Chair of UN Studies in Peace at Justice, Professor Alanna O’Malley. He holds an MA in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics from Leiden University. He is also the Co-President and Co-founder of UN Youth Impact, a student and young-professional initiative based in the Hague.

Dr. Paula Kibbelaar was the founding dean, associate professor and lecturer at the Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS) at the University of Aruba (UA) (2009-2013).  Currently she works as a lecturer, researcher and policy worker at the the Aruban Teacher Training College (www.ipa.aw) within the context of Kingdom of the Netherlands applying sustainable inclusive development as a perspective. She has implemented this perspective within the IPA’s curricula and as tool for sustainable learning and education for her projects and lectures at the IPA. Previously, she worked for several Dutch ministries, the Dutch Employers organization De Baak VNO-NCW, and other organizations in the Netherlands and the Netherlands Antilles (Curaçao).  Dr Kibbelaar obtained her PhD in social Sciences in 2005 at the University of Utrecht at the Utrecht School for Governance (REBO or USG) and she is an interdisciplinary social science researcher. Her research interests include Latin American and Dutch Caribbean Island studies; women’s and ethnic studies (gender diversity); organization (corporate diversity) and governance research and development studies. She was chair of the foundation Weconnect Aruba. She is currently also member of the Gender Steering Committee for the Development of a Gender Policy in Aruba for the office of the Prime Minister of Aruba.