News of the GIGA Doctoral Programme

Three of our doctoral researchers successfully defended their PhD projects: Lisa Hoffmann defended her dissertation “Social Cohesion under Threat? Evidence from Behavioral Experiments in sub-Saharan Africa” (University of Hamburg). Leonardo Bandarra defended his dissertation titled “Nuclear Latency and the Participation Puzzle: Constructing the international non-proliferation regime” (University of Göttingen). And Tharcisio Leone defended his dissertation on "Striving for Educational Improvement: Essays on Intergenerational Mobility and Teacher Bonus Programmes in Contemporary Brazil" (Freie Universität Berlin). Congratulations!

Tevin Tafese participated in the “COVID-19 and Post-Pandemic Investment and Development Workshop” organized by Tobias Center for Innovations in International Development, Indiana University Bloomington. Participants of the workshop were researchers as well as practitioners. Tevin gave a presentation titled “COVID-19, Foreign Direct Investment, and Structural Transformation in Africa”.

Clara Franco was invited to the online "Tea Time" event of the organization Polis180. This informal academic event was part of the series “Feminism(s) that takes a look at feminist movements, ideas and actors around the world”. Clara was invited to speak about feminist movements in Mexico and the new Mexican "feminist foreign policy". In early April, Clara had an interview with the Center for Feminist Foreign Policy (CFFP). They interviewed her for their research project on Nuclear Policy and Feminist Movements. Their report will only be published later in the year.

Rafael Castro Alegría published a GIGA Focus Latin America entitled "When Tone Is Not Everything: Joe Biden and Latin America", analyzing the challenges and perspectives of a regional policy under the new US administration. The text is available in English and German. 

Some of our doctoral researchers participated at the virtual ISA convention on “Globalization, Regionalism and Nationalism: Contending Forces in World Politics”:

• Niklas Krösche presented the paper “The African Union (AU) and the Role of Security Paradigms in Responding to Violent Conflict in its Member States”.

• Swantje Schirmer presented her paper “The Politics of Human Rights – Legitimation Communication in Regional Organizations”.

• Hager Ali presented two papers: “Professionalism and its Critiques. Contemporary Military Professionalism Beyond the Soldier and the State” and “Horseman of Authoritarianism? The Role of States of Emergency in Democratic Development”. She also chaired the panel "Elections in Hybrid Regimes" and was a discussant for three papers in the panel "Populism, Democracy and Development".

• Juliana Tappe Ortiz presented the paper “Homo pacificus? – Traits and readiness for peace”.

• Désirée Reder presented a paper titled “The Rationale of Repression: Violent Repression of Peaceful Protest and The Management of Political Costs”.

• Hana Attia presented two papers: “Domestic Explanations to Sanctions Initiation: Government Composition, the Economy and the Imposition of U.S. Presidential Sanctions” and “International Sanctions Termination, 1990—2018: Introducing the IST Dataset” (co-authored with Julia Grauvogel, GIGA).

• Leonardo Bandarra presented his paper “Bargaining Pipelines: Regional Power Disputes And The Reshaping Of The Energy Panorama In South America (2006 – 2007)" (co-authored with Rodrigo Lyra, University of Sao Paulo and Kings College London).

Mona Saleh and Jayane Maia participated at the 78th Annual Political Science Conference of the Midwest Political Science Association. Jayane chaired a panel called "Legislative Elections in Latin America: a Comparative Perspective from the Subnational Level". She was also a speaker in the panel and gave a presentation titled "The Subnational Roots of the Change of Brazil's Party System: From the Decay of the Workers' Party to Bolsonaro's Election". Among the participants of the panel were well known researchers in the field, also from GIGA, such as Mariana Llanos who was a discussant. Jayane has also been invited to be the editor along with a colleague of a special issue titled "Subnational Politics: An Emergent Research Agenda" that will come out in the Brazilian journal Agenda Política.

Ximena Zapata published a GIGA Focus titled “Elections in Ecuador: An Emerging Alternative beyond the Left–Right Antagonism”. The text is available in English and German.

Juliana Tappe Ortiz participated at the virtual SLAS conference. She presented her paper “It takes two – Leaders who sign peace agreements in civil war”.