The project team is based at the University of Freiburg. The project team is based at six different universities. The Principal Investigator is Sandra Destradi and the Project Coordinator is Julia Gurol, both based at the University of Freiburg. Besides, the project team consists of five early career researchers from Brazil, Bolivia, India, Israel and Turkey.
Sandra Destradi
Prof. Dr. Sandra Destradi holds the Chair for International Relations at the University of Freiburg, Germany. Before moving to Freiburg in 2020, she was a Professor of International Relations and Regional Governance at Helmut Schmidt University / University of the Federal Armed Forces Hamburg and head of the research programme ‘Power and Ideas’ at the German Institute for Global and Area Studies (GIGA) (2016-2020). Earlier, she held several positions at the GIGA (Research Fellow 2009-2014, Senior Research Fellow 2014-2016) and during the academic year 2014-15 she was a Jean Monnet Fellow at the Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies of the European University Institute (EUI).
Sandra Destradi holds a Dr. phil. from the University of Hamburg, Germany, and completed her studies in International and Diplomatic Sciences at the University of Trieste, Italy.
Sandra Destradi’s research interests include the impact of emerging powers of global governance, regional security dynamics in the Global South, India’s foreign and security policy, and the impact of populism and democratic backsliding on foreign policy and international politics. She has published the monograph Indian Foreign and Security Policy in South Asia: Regional Power Strategies (Routledge) and articles in journals such as the European Journal of International Relations, Review of International Studies, Democratization, Foreign Policy Analysis, Third World Quarterly, and Asian Survey.
Julia Gurol
Dr. Julia Gurol is a postdoctoral researcher and lecturer at the Chair for International Relations at the University of Freiburg, Germany. She is currently one of the Principal Investigadors of the Volkswagen-Foundation funded project on “Global autocratic collaboration in times of COVID-19”. Julia Gurol obtained her PhD at the University of Freiburg with a thesis on EU-China security relations in the Middle East. Before, she has worked as a researcher and policy advisor at the Center for Applied Research in Partnership with the Orient as well as at the Bonn International Centre for Conflict studies. She completed her studies in International Relations at the University of Bonn in 2017.
Julia Gurol’s research interests include the international dimension of authoritarianism, the international relations and international political economy of China as well as critical approaches to connectivity and infrastructure with a regional focus on the Global South. Her monograph The EU-China Security Paradox: Cooperation against all Odds? will be published with Bristol University Press in January 2022. Moreover, she has published widely in journals such as the Journal of Common Market Studies, the Journal of Contemporary China, Globalizations (forthcoming) and the International Quarterly for Asian Studies.ity.
Ferit Belder
Ferit Belder (PhD) is an assistant professor in the Department of International Relations at Marmara University, Istanbul, Turkey. He received his MSc degree from SOAS, University of London in 2015 and his PhD degree from Istanbul University in 2019. In his PhD thesis, he analysed ultra-orthodox political parties in Israel through the lens of the societal security approach. His research interests include identity and security, Middle Eastern Politics, Israeli Politics and Turkish Foreign Policy.
Carlos Rodríguez Heras
Carlos Heras Rodríguez graduated from his master’s in Political Science at El Colegio de México in 2021. He focuses on political parties, party systems and populism in Latin America and Southern Europe. He is currently based in Bolivia, where he has previously worked as a journalist. [He supports the group with research and data collection for the Mexican case].
Melih Kölük
Melih Koluk is a research assistant at the Department of Politics and International Relations, Marmara University, Turkey. He is a master student at the Department of Politics and International Relations, İstanbul University, Turkey. His research interests are in the fields of Political Phsycology, Political Communication, Political Sociology and Computational Methods in Political Science.
James Martins
James Martins is a PhD candidate of the Global Health and Sustainability Program, at the School of Public Health, University of São Paulo (USP), Brazil. He holds a Master’s and Bachelor’s degree in International Relations from the same university. His thesis explores the local healthcare policies towards migrants and refugees in the city of São Paulo, in the light of the political tensions between different tiers of government. His research also engages more broadly with major topics in Global Health, such as social determinants of health, international health regulations and pandemics.
Shaked Rogel
Shaked Rogel is a graduate of philosophy and political science from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, and he is currently a Master’s degree student at the university’s European Studies program. As part of his studies, Shaked interned with the Israeli Government Economy Ministry’s section for international commerce, and with the Israeli Knesset. He wrote his bachelor’s thesis on the epistemology of collective action problems in ethics, and his research interests include social epistemology and democratic theory.
Swarati Sabhanpandit
Swarati Sabhapdndit is a PhD Student in the department of International Relations and Governance Studies in Shiv Nadar University, India. Her doctoral research looks at examining populism as a global phenomenon and the rise of populist discourses in contemporary India.
Through the investigation of the existing literature and the new faces of populist politics in the 21st century, she aims to lay the groundwork towards theorizing populism in the Global South. Her wider academic interests include migration and identity politics in South Asia, Historical International Relations, gender, and Conflict Studies. She is currently pursuing her doctoral coursework.
She is working as a teaching assistant for two course- International Security and Global History and International Relations. She also worked as a Program executive on a project titled Global Ambassadors for Peace through Tourism (an initiative of IIPT and En-Suite tourism).
Konrad Ringleb
Konrad Ringleb studies Political Science at University of Freiburg. During his preceding bachelor’s program of Psychology in Frankfurt/M., he worked as a student assistant of Max-Planck-Insitute and is thus well-schooled in data analysis. Recently, he pursued his second passion of journalism as an intern for German television broadcaster ZDF and French news agency AFP. He has been working at the department of International Relations for a year and supports the project team by doing background research from Rome where he currently spends the semester.