Josep Maria Royo Aspa

Biography

He is a research fellow at the School for a Culture of Peace at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB) since 2000. As part of his job, he has participated in internationally funded research projects, conducted field research in conflict areas in sub-Saharan Africa, served as a consultant on peace and conflicts and has completed an academic stage at the UNESCO Chair on Peace and Human Rights. Previously, he has given technical support to the Spanish Campaign “Farewell to Arms” led by Amnesty International, Greenpeace, Doctors Without Borders and OXFAM. He is a lecturer on peace and conflict studies at the UAB and the Universitat de Barcelona. He is a member of the African Studies Group (GEA) of the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (UAM) (since 2010), member of the Board of the Catalan Federation of NGOs for Peace, Human Rights and Development (since 2012), member of the Board of the Memorial Democratic (Government of Catalonia, since 2016). He is occasional adviser of different NGO related to their activities for Africa. He publishes in Spanish journals and he works with media outlets such as the Spanish newspapers El País and ARA. He holds a Master in International Relations –with honours–, a Postgraduate Diploma on Peace Culture, and a BA on Political Science specialised on International Relations by the UAB.

Research Interest

Conflict-affected areas, Non-state armed actors, The political economy of armed conflicts, Comparative analysis of armed conflicts and peace processes and Sub-Saharan Africa (Great Lakes Region and the Horn and East Africa)