TFF Associates & Themes Blog

Archive for the ‘A – Associate CVs’ Category

Ina Curic became a TFF Associate in April 2006, TFF’s project coordinator in Burundi in May 2007 and a member of the foundation’s Board in March 2008.

Romanian-born Ina Curic is a trained sociologist, with a M.A. in Gender Studies from Babes-Bolyai University, Romania and a M.A. in Peace and Conflict Studies from the European Peace University, Austria.

She has a solid background in peace and conflict research, gender studies and NGO management and more than ten years work experience in civil society organizations in different countries.

Since 1999, Ina has provided numerous national and international training programmes and workshops on different topics related to organizational development, project management, peace, conflict and gender related issues in various settings: Romania, Bosnia & Hertzegovina, Croatia, Turkey. Her field experience with training, capacity building as well as gender and peace projects in post war and conflict areas extends to Former Yugoslavia, Iraq, and Burundi.

International organizations for which she has provided training and consultancy include UN World Food Programme, International Medical Corps, Norwegian Council for Refugees. Read the rest of this entry »

David Swanson became a TFF Associate in August 2017.

Here is everything about him from his very rich homepage DavidSwanson.org.

David Swanson’s main focus is to abolish war and create a world based on non-violence – about which you can read a wealth of materials at WorldBeyondWar.org

If you want to receive his newsletters and articles directly from himself, click here.

Mairead Corrigan Maguire
Nobel Peace Laureate

Co-founder, Peace People – Northern Ireland l976.

Mairead Corrigan Maguire was awarded the l976 Nobel Peace Prize for her actions to help bring about peace and an end to the violence arising out of the ethnic/political conflict in her native Northern Ireland. She shares the award with Betty Williams.

Mairead was the aunt of the three Maguire children who died as a result of being hit by an Irish Republican Army getaway car after its driver was shot by a British soldier. Mairead responded to the violence facing her family and community by organizing, together with Betty Williams and Ciaran McKeown, massive peace demonstrations appealing for an end to the bloodshed, and a nonviolent solution to the conflict.

Together, the three co-founded the Peace People, a movement committed to building a just and nonviolent society in Northern Ireland. The Peace People organized each week, for six months, peace rallies throughout Ireland and the UK. These were attended by many thousands of people, mostly women, and during this time there was a 70% decrease in the rate of violence.

Since receiving the award, Mairead has dedicated her life to promoting disarmament and peace, both in Northern Ireland and around the world.

Working with community groups throughout Northern Ireland, political and church Leaders, she has sought to promote dialogue and conflict resolution, in order to bring about a nonkilling, nonviolent society and world.

Mairead has visited many countries, amongst others, North/South Korea, Afghanistan, Gaza, Iran, Syria, Lebanon, Congo, Iraq, and other countries in violent conflict in order to be in solidarity with all people working for peace, justice and disarmament.

A graduate of Irish School of Ecumenics, Mairead – a pacifist – works with inter-church, inter-faith and secular organizations. And she is a councillor with the International Peace Council and Co-Chair of Nobel Womens’ Initiative.

She is a Patron of the Methodist Theological College, and Northern Ireland Council for Integrated Education. She has worked extensively in the Middle East believing that peace is possible and as we are all interconnected as the Human Family, sharing one common Mother Earth, we can all do something for peace and justice for all.

Mairead is author of The Vision of Peace: Faith and Hope in Northern Ireland which is also available in Urdu.

Mairead joined as TFF Associate in March 2016.

Born July 5, 1986
Nationality Italian-Argentinean

2013-2015
Peace & Conflict Transformation (Masters Program) Masters of Advanced Studies at the World Peace Academy, Universität Basel

2012
Advanced Studies in Human Rights Education & Training (CAS Program) Pädagogischen Hochschule Zentralschweiz. Lucerne, Switzerland

2010-2012 Master of Art performances (In Clarinet, Orchestra and Chamber Music)
Conservatorio della Svizzera Italiana, Lugano, Switzerland

Mentoring and project management NGO PLAYforRIGHTS

Organization series of human rights workshops and cultural activities aiming at creating and intersection between the arts, peacebuilding and human rights.

Conceptualized, trained and mentored youth within the NGO Musica Para Todos Youth forums focusing civil society projects especially in music education as social inclusion in Argentinean slum communities

Working experience in the artistic field (classic music)

Neues Orchester Basel

Theoretical knowledge & practical experience in peacebuilding and conflict transformation

Publications related to art-based approaches in peacebuilding:
2014: Imagine the art of creating what does not exist. Centre of Advanced Studies, University of Basel. 2014

2013: Music and Human Rights Education, in: Journal of Human Rights Education 5/1. 2013. Quoted by the author, Dr. Kirchschläger P. G.

2013: PLAYforRIGHTS, playing for rights without borders. Pädagogischen Hochschule Universiät Zentralschweiz. 2013

2008: The Way music would make A Better World. Universidad Nacional de Cuyo. 2008

2013 – 2015 NGO PLAYforRIGHTS
Assessed and advised on a systematic and sustainable approach to knowledge sharing amongst Swiss organizations and people around the world on Peace-building and Arts.

2008-2013 NGO Musica Para Todos
Conducted Youth Forum and Art Festivals connecting classic music with human rights. Developing local projects with an integrated approach, carried out self assessment of the NGO, represented NGO at National Level, coached trainers of trainers on tools and advocacy materials and participated in development of advancing human rights issues from different art and human rights perspec-tives.

2004 – 2005 Societá Dante Alighieri, Comitatto di Lujan de Cuyo
Conceptualised youth focused projects amongst the civil society in Mendoza. Topics: Culture, literature, Arts. Dealing with youth sector within the organiza-tion.

2006/2007 Full-Course in Video edition and creative visualizations. Exagrama Produc-tions. Mendoza. Argentina
Samples here and here.

08/2004 Received training in Basics of Humanitarian Response Municipalidad de Lujan De Cuyo, Area de Defensa Civil

2003 Awarded a Certificate of Cultural Entrepreneurship
Fundacao: Musica No Museo, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Inter-personal skills (active listening, effective communication and presentation competences coaching, facilitating and training expertise, team worker, organizational and planning skills, can work autonomously and multi-task under pres-sure, loyal, cooperative and honest) plus multilingual Spanish (Mother tongue), English (Fluent), Italian (Fluent), Portugueise (Flu-ent), French (In process of learning); others analytical mind, Computer literate, Pro Video Edition Adobe CS6.

References

(1) Hans Von Sponeck, former UN assistant secretary general and was UN humanitarian co-ordinator for Iraq, Germany.
(2) Jan Oberg, Transnational Foundation for Peace & Future Research, Sweden.
(3) Dr. Peter Kirchschlaeger, Co-Director Centre of Human Rights Education, Switzerland.

Elías Abraham Foscolo joined us as TFF Associate in January 2016.

Contact
Elias Abraham-Foscolo
Address: Rebgasse 52 4058 Basel, Switzerland
Phone: +41 76 759 10 69
Skype: eliasabrahamfoscolo
E-Mail: elias@playforrights.org

Miko Peled became a TFF Associate in March 2015

Miko Peled is an Israeli writer and activist living in the US. He was born and raised in Jerusalem.  Driven by a personal family tragedy to explore Palestine, its people and their narrative he has written a book about his journey called “The General’s Son, Journey of an Israeli in Palestine.” 

In the forward to the book, Pulitzer prize winner Alice Walker writes:
 

“There are few books on the Palestine/Israel issue that seem as hopeful to me as this one…There is a short video featuring Peled on Youtube that is well worth viewing. The video can be found on his blog“

Jim Miles of Foreign Policy Journal writes in his review:

“There are many powerful books written on the topic of Palestine/Israel but few if any are as masterfully written as Miko Peled’s “The General’s Son.””

The book covers the work in which Peled’s family has been involved since his grandparents immigrated to Palestine in the early 20th century, describing their work and their life in detail. Peled’s maternal grandfather was a signer on the Israeli Declaration of Independence; his father was a General in the Israeli army; in the 1970’s his father pioneered the Israeli Palestinian dialogue and eventually met with Yasser Arafat. 

In 1997 his sister Nurit lost her daughter in a suicide bombing in Jerusalem. 

Peled is a contributor to several online publications that deal with the Middle East and he authors a blog dedicated to tearing down the separation wall, and advocating the creation of one democratic state with equal rights for Israelis and Palestinians. He travels regularly to Palestine/Israel where he speaks and works with the popular resistance. Miko has been arrested several times by the Israeli authorities for his activities.  Read the rest of this entry »

Gareth Porter became a TFF Associate in January 2015

Gareth Porter

Gareth Porter is an independent investigative journalist and historian who specialises in covering issues related to the U.S. national security state. His books on the Vietnam War and the Iran nuclear issue have reflected a new approach to understanding the outcomes of U.S. national security policy in terms of the institutional and personal interests of the decision-makers.

Porter was the winner of the 2012 Gellhorn Prize for Journalism, named after the renowned American foreign correspondent Martha Gellhorn, given annually by the UK-based Gellhorn Trust for journalism that uncovers government lies and propaganda.

He covered U.S. policy toward Iraq, Afghanistan, Iran, Pakistan, and Syria for Inter Press Service from 2004 to 2014, and his stories were widely republished on news sites such as Huffington Post, Truthout, Antiwar.com and Counterpunch.

Since late 2014, Porter has been writing a weekly column of news analysis or Middle East Eye, a London-based news and analysis site. His longer investigative articles are published regularly at Truthout, and have also appeared on Foreign Policy, Salon, The Nation, the Huffington Post, Firedoglake, Counterpunch and many other websites.

Porter was Saigon bureau chief of Dispatch News Service International in 1971 while working on his Ph.D. in Southeast Asian studies and international politics at Cornell University. He later reported on trips to Southeast Asia for The London Observer, Asian Wall Street Journal and Pacific News Service.

He was Co-Director of the Indochina Resource Center in Washington, D.C., an anti-war education and lobbying organization, from 1973 to 1975, and helped write the last piece of legislation aimed at ending the U.S. war in Indochina definitely, which was filed in February 1975.

Porter’s books
Porter is the author of five books, including one of a widely-used college textbook on global environmental politics and three books on Vietnam and the U.S. war in Indochina. His latest book, Manufactured Crisis: The Untold Story of the Iran Nuclear Scare, published by Just World Books in February 2014, reveals the true story of the Iran nuclear issue that has been hidden and distorted by government propaganda and complete lack of media scrutiny.

In a review in The Nation historian Andrew Bacevich has called his book, Perils of Dominance: Imbalance of Power and the Road to War (University of California Press in 2005), “without a doubt, the most important contribution to the history of U.S. national security policy to appear in the past decade.”

In the 1980s, Porter taught Southeast Asian politics and international studies at American University, City College of New York and the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies.

From 1990 to 2005, he worked for an environmental organization and then was a consultant on sustaining development and global environment.

Gareth Porter on Wikipedia.

Jonathan Power became TFF Associate in 1991.

Jonathan Power is a foreign affairs columnist, film maker and author. For 17 years his column ran weekly in the International Herald Tribune. His BBC documentary film, “It’s Ours Whatever They Say”, won the silver medal at the Venice Film Festival. His last book “Conundrums of Humanity – The Big Foreign Policy Questions Of Our Day” – was described by one reviewer as “epic” and by another as worthy of the Nobel Prize. His forthcoming book is entitled “Ending War Crimes, Chasing The War Criminals”.

Jens-Jørgen Nielsen became TFF Associate in May 2014

jensjorgenmeister@gmail.com

Basic facts
Nationality: Danish
Married status: Married with 2 children to Yelena since 1992 (She is Russian, born in Estonia).
Current employment: Assistant professor with Niels Brock Department for Business Studies.
Besides I run my own small business as consultant in the field of managing culture clashes and conflict management and consultant for Danish export firms. Moreover I am the author of several books, the latest being: På egne præmisser – Putins nye Rusland (On its own terms – Putin´s New Russia).
Date of Birth: 12.09. 1949 Read the rest of this entry »

Jelena Mair became a TFF Associate in April 2014

jmair@posteo.de

Education

2011 – 2013
Master of Advanced Studies in Peace Studies and Conflict Transformation,
World Peace Academy – swisspeace Academy, Basel University.

2009 – 2010
Bachelor of Arts in Interdisciplinary Studies (Sociology, Anthropology, Ecology, Psychology,
Philosophy, Global Studies), California Institute of Integral Studies, San Francisco, CA, USA. Read the rest of this entry »

Capucine Riom became a TFF Associate in 2013

capsriom@gmail.com

Education

2013 – UC Berkeley – Exchange Abroad Student. Economics classes (“Public Economics”, “Macroeconomic Policies”) as well as Law and Development and Philosophy classes GPA: 3.85 Read the rest of this entry »