Since Anja started teaching in the Political Science Department in 2010, Conflict Studies has become an interesting addition to my expertise. Initially, she focussed mainly on understanding refugees, ethnic conflicts in cities, and migration-related conflicts. But after teaching the course Introduction to Conflict Studies her (theoretical) insight into the escalation process from small-scale scapegoating to mass mobilisation to violent conflict and civil war increased. From 2011 onwards, she supervised many master theses every year in the Master Conflict Resolution and Governance. The students wrote about very different subjects, for instance, the role of the diaspora in peace and conflict, the mobilisation of protestors in Sudan, the ethnic identity of Iraqi and Turkish Kurds, youth participation in Morocco, the negotiator role of care professionals, re-integration programs of youth gang members in Los Angeles, motives of extreme right protesters in Berlin, etceteras.
Publication together with Conflict Studies students:
- Poberezhna, A., O. Burly & A. van Heelsum (in press). Superhero Army, Courageous People and Enchanted Land: Wartime Political Myths and Ontological Security in the 2022 Russian Invasion of Ukraine, Czech Journal of International Relations.
- Kassaye, A., I. Ashur & A. van Heelsum (2016) ‘The relationship between media discourses and experiences of belonging: Dutch Somali perspectives’. Ethnicities 16 (5)773-797, DOI: 10.1177/1468796816653627.
- Fletcher, C., A. van Heelsum & C. Roggeband (2018) ‘Water Privatisation, Hegemony and Civil Society: What motivates individuals to protest about water privatisation?’, Journal of Civil Society 14 (3), 241-256, DOI: 10.1080/17448689.2018.1496308.