Martin Barthel (2013 BSSRPL)

Martin Barthel is a doctoral student at the University of East Finland, Karelian Institute.

Jürgen Lembke (2013 BSSRPL)

Jürgen Lembke, in “everyday life” a project manager in a reputed software company, is committed to intercultural / interfaith communication and understanding (Muslim/Christian, Christian/Buddhist). In addition to conducting street retreats he offers courses in contemplation and Zen meditation. For many years he has also been involved in international peace and reconciliation events. He lives in his home country of Switzerland. He has a special interest in finding one’s narrative, i.e. being a third-generation, post-WWII German/European and postwar narratives of reconciliation.

 Lucia Fetzer (2010 ISSRPL)

Holding a B.A. in Cultural Studies Lucia Fetzer received her Master’s degree in European Studies with focus on conflict transformation in 2009 from the University of Hannover, Germany. Attending several training courses about peacebuilding and ethnic identity, she was gathering practical experience in the field while living in Cyprus for 10 months. Next to writing her thesis about the “Image of the Turkish ‘settlers’ in Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot perceptions” she was working in a local NGO. At the moment Lucia is doing an internship with German Technical Cooperation in Sri Lanka in the project “Facilitating Local Initiatives for Conflict Transformation.”

Constanze Kolbe (2010 ISSRPL)

Constanze received her BA in European Studies from Maastricht University and her MA in Near and Middle Eastern Studies from the School of Oriental and African Studies, London. She spent about 2 years in Turkey studying Turkish and one year in Ioannina, Greece studying Greek. In her MA she focused on the Population Exchange between Greece and Turkey in 1923, in particular on aspects of Turkish nationalism in the cultural sphere. She analyzed how these were reflected in the narratives of exchanges life stories of Crete and Lesbos, which were transferred to Cunda/ Ayvalık after the Treaty of Lausanne in 1923. She will start her PHD in Indiana University in the fall 2010 and will focus on the Northern Greek Jewry of Ioannina in the 19th century. She will explore how this population negotiated its identity vis-à-vis different nationalist movements and western influences. She believes that the study of this community can give further insight into the interaction of different ethnic and religious communities in the area of Epirus and how this diversity was gradually reduced in the wake of nationalist aspirations.

Malte Frye (2008 ISSRPL)

I am a graduate in Social Anthropology and Comparative Religious Science. My main fields of research are the history of religions, ethnicity and nationalism as well as symbolic anthropology and notions of local and global Islam. My studies have focused mainly on India and the Balkans, especially Bosnia and Herzegovina were I conducted several months of field work. I am engaged in several NGOs and associations that deal with cultural exchange between Western and Eastern Europe and interreligious dialogue in general.