Natalia Rencic (2013 BSSRPL)

Natalia Rencic is a recent student of the European studies (EU law, economy and politics) at the European college in Parma and of the Master of Arts in the peace and conflict studies at the European Peace University in Stadtschlaining, Austria, while in Croatia she got her MA in Philosophy-Theology at the University of Zagreb. In September 2011 Natalia was a Robert Schuman Foundation stagier in the European Parliament, in the communication and lobbying position for Croatian entrance to the EU. During her studies in Croatia, as a part time volunteer, Natalia was actively involved in writing about social and volunteering topics within the local and national Catholic newspapers, and the PR department of the Archdiocese of Rijeka – Caritas Rijeka. She has been actively engaged in capacity building and the PR, as well dealing with the youth empowerment and writing projects within the local NGO Family for youth, at the island Krk, where she lives. Natalia has a particular interest in the advocacy for the social change, corporate responsibility development and youth entrepreneurship / self-employment.

Maja Šoštarić (2012 ISSRPL)

Maja Šoštarić was born in Slavonski Brod (Croatia) and is currently working in Sarajevo (Bosnia and Herzegovina) as a lead researcher for Impunity Watch on a project that deals with assessing and improving gender-sensitivity of approaches to transitional justice. Her work consists in reviewing legislation and documents related to truth, justice, reparations and institutional reforms in Bosnia and Herzegovina, interviewing key stakeholders in the field of transitional justice as well as working closely with various categories of war victims (camp inmates, victims of war rape, IDPs and refugees, families of the missing persons, etc.). Prior to that, Maja interned and worked in Geneva (Permanent Representation of the Order of Malta to the United Nations), Brussels (Center for European Policy Studies and International Crisis Group) and Sarajevo (International Crisis Group and Geneva Center for Democratic Control of Armed Forces). Moreover, she is a standing correspondent for the American website Balkanalysis.com, writing on human rights and politics in the Balkans, notably Croatia, Bosnia and Kosovo. Maja holds a PhD with distinction in Political Science from the University of Vienna (2009), a Diploma in International Studies from the Diplomatic Academy of Vienna (2008) and an MA in Economics from the Vienna University of Economics and Business Administration (2007). Her research interests include transitional justice and human rights, international development, as well as religion and conflict.

Slavica Jakelić (2006 ISSRPL)

Slavica Jakelić is Research Assistant Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Virginia and Co-Director of the Program on Religion, Culture, and Democracy at the UVA’s Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture. Her work explores the importance of religion for people’s collective identities. She has written specialized and non-specialized essays on the theories of religion, public role of religions in modern societies, secularization and secularism, religion and violence, and religious dialogue. She is presently working on a book entitled Religion as Identity: The Challenge of Collectivistic Religion in the Contemporary World.