Antonio Marchesi (Program Director)
Professor Marchesi was Chairperson of Amnesty International Italy from 1990 to 1994 and from 2013 to 2019. He has been a staff member and consultant, as well as a research delegate, trial observer, and member of delegations to international conferences on behalf of the International Secretariat of Amnesty International. He has also worked as a consultant for the Council of Europe, the European Parliament, and the European Commission, as well as for Italian public bodies and national and international NGOs.
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Samer Abdel Ghafour
Samer Abdel Ghafour is a Syrian cultural heritage specialist who began his formal career at the National Archaeological Museum of Aleppo. There, from 1994 to 2005, he served as assistant curator for the Ancient Near East Department before moving to Damascus to serve as Chief of Staff until 2012 at the office of the Director-General for the Syrian Directorate-General for Antiquities and Museums — DGAM.
Irene Caratelli
Associate Professor of International Relations. Research focuses on international relations, European studies and international political economy. Prof. Caratelli also has extensive experience as a policy analyst and consultant.
Catherine Cornet
Adjunct Professor. Her research focuses on International relations, Mediterranean Studies and Middle Eastern politics and cultures. Professor Cornet is also an arabist and journalist covering the Middle East and North Africa and has an extensive experience of European Research projects on Mediterranean and Middle Eastern issues.
Viviana De Annuntiis
Adjunct Professor. De Annuities is Liaison & KD Section Head for NATO, Italy, where she is responsible for the development, implementation, and coordination of NATO engagement strategy, supervising the overall coordination of liaison activities with Governments, international organizations, diplomatic missions, and other key stakeholders.
Anar Khamzayeva
Khamzayeva has worked in both government-based and non-governmental organizations: think-tanks and universities in the US, the UK, Belgium, and Kazakhstan. She has a PhD in Political Theory from LUISS “Guido Carli” University in Rome, a Master’s degree in International Affairs from American University, in Washington DC and a BA degree in International Affairs from Richmond, American University in London.
Valerie Higgins
Valerie Higgins has an honours degree in ‘Ancient and Mediaeval History and Archaeology’ from the University of Liverpool and a Master’s in ‘Economic Archaeology’ from the University of Sheffield. She then worked as a professional archaeologist in local government before returning to the University of Sheffield to complete a Ph.D. on human remains from an Italian monastery site. After periods of research in the United States and New Zealand she came to live in Rome where she has been teaching and researching Italian archaeology.
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Anna Paterlini
Adjunct Professor. Professor Paterlini is Co-Founder & Client Director of NEWU, a consulting firm offering strategic and creative advice in communication, marketing and business with a phygital approach.
Chiara Perelli
Chiara Perelli’s research interests range from the sustainable management of natural resources to the climate change impacts on developing contexts, both in terms of food security and social equality. Furthermore, she is interested in socio-economic factors affecting the adoption of climate-smart agricultural practices and, in particular, in the role played by women in developing sustainable agricultural systems.
Valentina Peveri
Since 2004 Valentina Peveri has been carrying out fieldwork in Southern Ethiopia. Two main passions have inspired her work: the resilience of perennial plants, subsistence and famine foods; and the robust constitution of (women) farmers who are materially and symbolically connected to such landscapes and foodscapes. Her research interests span the subfields of environmental, gendered, and bio-cultural anthropology.
David Pollon
Prior to entering the academic world, Professor Pollon made his career in the international financial arena working for The Walt Disney Company. After serving as Finance Director at the company's headquarters in Los Angeles, he became Finance Director in the UK and then Italy, where he was in charge of all cinema, video, and DVD financial operations. He is currently completing his PhD with the International School of Management in Paris.
Giorgio Potì
Adjunct Professor. Potì is a modern historian with a background in international studies. His research revolves around the entangled processes of state- and empire-building in the Euro-Mediterranean area, and their interactions with the global political and legal order. Professor Potì is currently completing a book manuscript examining the contestation and re-negotiation of British, French, Italian, and Spanish imperial rule in the Middle East in the early aftermath of World War One. In the meantime, he has presented his ongoing research at some twenty academic workshops and conferences throughout Europe, and his scholarship has appeared in leading academic journals.
Elizabeth Wueste
Professor Wueste is a classical archaeologist whose research focuses on Roman art, archaeology, and socio-cultural history. Before AUR, she was a postdoctoral fellow and visiting assistant professor at Oberlin College in Oberlin, Ohio (2016-2018).
Shirin Zakeri
Adjunct Professor. Professor Zakeri has different teaching experiences in the University of Rome La Sapienza and University of Pisa. Previously, she was a Research Fellow at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London in 2016-2017 and Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law in 2013-2014. Her area studies are the MENA region and the Persian Gulf countries.