Visiting Scholars

Past Visiting Scholars

2021

Jennifer Santiago Oreta, PhD (Fulbright US-ASEAN Scholar)

Jennifer Santiago Oreta, PhD is currently an Assistant Professor of the Department of Political Science, and Director of the Ateneo Initiative for Southeast Asian Studies (AISEAS) of the Ateneo de Manila University, Philippines.

Under the administration of President Benigno S. Aquino III (2010-2016), she was appointed as Assistant Secretary for Policy in the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process (OPAPP) of the Philippine government. OPAPP is the agency under the Office of the President that is specifically mandated to facilitate political negotiations with armed groups, and supervise the implementation of peace agreements.

She was part of the Technical Working Group on Normalization (demobilization of arms and forces) representing the Philippine government in the peace talks with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front. She was also given a special assignment by the Cabinet (Cluster on Security, Justice and Peace) to lead and initiate the crafting of a strategy paper on dealing with the communist insurgents outside the peace table. In this assignment, she led the national and local consultations with various government agencies, police, military, intelligence units, and local government units.  The strategy paper was used as basis of the Memorandum circular release by the Executive Secretary in 2014.

As Asst. Secretary, among her tasks were the mainstreaming of the government’s peace policy and strategy with the military, police, and other government agencies, both in the national and local levels.  She was also tasked to generate strategy papers on security issues including matters relative to demobilization of arms and forces, community security management and anti-terrorism. In 2016, she joined the Philippine government’s delegation to present the human rights performance of the Philippines to the Geneva-Convention on Anti-Torture.

She attended certificate courses on Conflict Resolution at Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden (1996), peace studies at the European Peace University in Stadtschlaining, Burg, Austria (1997), and South-South Cooperation Study Tour on DDR (Disarmament, Demobilization, Reintegration) in Columbia (2013).  She received the Senesh Fellow-International Fund for Third World Women of the International Peace Research Foundation (1998-2000), and the Asia Leaders Fellows Program of the Japan Foundation (2009).  She was a member of the International Peace Research Association (IPRA) from 2001 to 2012, serving as youth commission convener, women commission convener, and member of the Board.

At present, she is a member of the Board and concurrent Executive Director of the Human Security Advocates (HSA), a civil society organization group focused on security governance and community security management. She is the focal person on security sector governance projects in the Philippines and in Southeast Asia of the DCAF-Geneva Center for Security Sector Governance. She is also engaged in various consultancy work on security governance, conflict management, and anti-terrorism.

Ms. Oreta has written and published on security issues, anti-terrorism, and social movements. She was a regular contributor at the opinion column, Blueboard of the Philippine major daily Business World (2011-2012 and 2016 to present).

Among her relevant publications are

  1. Oreta, Jennifer. The Grey Zone of Irregular Forces: Politically Sanctioned, Local Defense, and Organized Crime Groups in the Philippines-Chapter in Atsushi, Hall, Kiba (eds). “Irregular Forces in New Democracies of Southeast Asia: Alternative Pathways to Community Security Management.” (for publication)
  2. Oreta, Jennifer.   Thirty years in search for Peace:  The Philippine Peace process Experience.  In National Security Review.  National Defense College of the Philippines (NDCP).
  3. Oreta, Jennifer, Tolosa, Kathline.   Revisiting the Policy Environment on Peace and Security:  Tracing Alignments and Problematizing Gaps.  ADMU-Dept of Political Science, The Asia Foundation, and Australian Aid.
  4. Oreta Jennifer, Salvador, Alma. 2012. Defense Budget and Spending: Alignment and Priorities Philippines Defense Spending (2001-2012).  ADMU-Dept of Political Science and Friedrich Ebert Stiftung
  5. Oreta, Jennifer, Tolosa, Kathline. Pagpatiut:  Mediating Violence in Sulu.  Center for Humanitarian Dialogue
  6. Oreta, Jennifer Santiago et al. 2011. Gun Proliferation and Violence Complicating Conflict Dynamics and Peace Building. ADMU-Dept of Political Science and OPAPP-UNDP
  7. Oreta, Jennifer Santiago, Lao, Melissa Jayme.   Appropriating Terror in the Philippines:  Post 9-11 Policy of the Phil. Govt.    in Anceschi, Luca; Camilleri, Joseph, and Tolosa, Benjamin (eds).  “Conflict, Religion, and Culture Domestic and International Implications for Southeast Asia and Australia.” Ateneo de Manila University:  Phil-Australia Studies Network

2019

Dr. Wei Jia is a post-doctoral research fellow at TraCCC and Institute of American Studies, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, experienced in research in comparative criminal law and international politics. She was a visiting scholar at Max Planck Institute for Foreign and International Criminal Law.

Dr. Ararat Osipian, founding member of the New University in Exile Consortium, Alexander Mirchev visiting professor, economics researcher and specialist in corruption.


2011

Hakary Amin, Kurdistan, Women Program Manager for NGO Al-Mesalla, Compared on anti-sex trafficking laws and NGO support against female sex trafficking in  Kurdistan and US.

Rovshan Imbrahimov, Azerbaijan, Professor and Head of Department of International Relations at  the Qafqaz University,Conducted research on the energy security and provided a series of seminars in different institutions

Maria Laura Gomez-Mera, Argentina, Assistant Professor in the Department of International Studies at the University of Miami, Researched ‘The Politics of International Cooperation in the Fight Against Human Trafficking.”

Tienporn Vongkamhangharn, Thailand, Prosecutor from the Office of the Attorney General, Human Trafficking in Sex and Forced Labor as Transnational Organized Crime: Learning from the US Perspective


2010

Yulia Zabyelina, Ukraine, Doctoral student at the School of International Studies and Transnational Crime Center at the University of Trento in Italy, Collected data related to criminal cases and policy papers with  respect to the fight of the United States against transnational crime


2009

Nikolay Naydenov, Bulgaria, Fulbright Fellow, Studied responses to corruption in Bulgaria and the United States


2006

Hyungsok Kwak, South Korea, Studied the methods of reducing corruption by assessing corruption measurement