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Meet the team
Silvia Regina Ferabolli
Coordinator
PhD in Politics and International Studies from the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London (SOAS). In 2023, she was a Visiting Fellow with the Council on Middle East Studies (CMES) at the MacMillan Center for International and Area Studies at the Yale University. Her major publications include Arab Regionalism: a Post-Structural Perspective (Routledge Studies in Middle Eastern Politics 2014 hardcover; 2016 paperback), International Relations of the Arab World (Juruá 1st ed. 2009; 2nd ed. 2013), Regions that matter: the Arab-South American inter-regional space (Third World Quarterly 2017) and Space Making in the Global South: Lessons from the GCC-Mercosur Agreement (Contexto Internacional 2021). She is currently an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Economics and International Relations at Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS), where she coordinates the Graduate Program in International Strategic Studies and the Arab World International Relations Research Group (NUPRIMA).
Gabriela dos Santos Silva
Researcher
Graduate and Master in International Strategic Studies at Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS). Postgraduate in Diplomatic Studies at Centro de Estudos em Direito e Negócios (CEDIN). Graduated in International Relations at Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina (UFSC). Since graduation, she has been researching topics related to Syria (Syrian refugee, internal political processes in Syria). In her thesis, she dedicates her research to understanding the perception that Syrian refugees in Brazil have about the conflict that affected their country of origin.
Silvia Regina Ferabolli
Coordenadora
Issam Rahib Menem
Researcher
Graduate at the Graduate Program in International Strategic Studies (PPGEEI - UFRGS). Master in Contemporary Integration of Latin America and Graduate in International Relations and Integration at Universidade Federal da Integração Latino-Americana (UNILA). Specialist in International Business at Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Paraná (PUCPR). Researcher associated with the South American Institute of Politics and Strategy (ISAPE) and collaborator researcher of the Center for Strategic Studies, Geopolitics and Regional Integration (NEEGI). He is interested in the areas of Geopolitics, Strategic Studies and Middle East.
Natália Morari Ochôa
Researcher
Master in International Strategic Studies (PPGEEI) at Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS). Specialist in Strategy and Contemporary International Relations at Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS). Graduated in International Relations at Centro Universitário Ritter dos Reis (UniRitter). She dedicates her research to the areas of Gender Studies, Feminism, International Relations and Middle East. Acted in the Project "The New Role of the Gulf Cooperation Council in the Arab World", developing research in the "ASPA Summit Research Group", at Centro Universitário Ritter dos Reis (UniRitter) throughout the year 2015. Participated in the UniRitter Junior Company during the period of 2014.2 and 2015.2. Currently, she participates in the Defense and Security Studies Laboratory (LEDS), at UniRitter, and as a researcher of the Arab World International Relations Research Group (NUPRIMA), at UFRGS.
Camila Hirt Munareto
Researcher
Graduate in the Graduate Program in International Strategic Studies at Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS). Master in Social Sciences and Bachelor in International Relations at Universidade Federal de Santa Maria (UFSM). She is interested in the areas of International Relations, Foreign Policy Analysis and Middle East. She dedicates her research to the study of issues related to the Islamic Republic of Iran, in particular, Iranian foreign policy.
Luiz Antônio Araujo
Researcher
Graduate in International Strategic Studies at PPGEEI-UFRGS with a research project on Orientalism in Brazilian Thought. Journalist, Master in Communication and Information (UFRGS, 2013), professor of Journalism at da Faculdade de Comunicação, Artes e Design (FAMECOS/PUCRS). Author of Orient in Review: What journalism talks about when it talks about Islam (Insular, 2020) and Binladenistan: a Brazilian reporter in the world's most dangerous region (Iluminuras, 2009), finalist of the Jabuti Prize for Literature in 2010. Associate researcher at Resto Laboratório de Práticas Jornalísticas (UFSM, CNPq). He has received the Associação Rio-grandense de Imprensa e RBS de Jornalismo awards, among others. As a freelance journalist, he has published in Folha de S.Paulo, O Globo, O Estado de S.Paulo and The Intercept Brasil, among others.
Catharina Seadi Pereira
Researcher
Master's student in International Strategic Studies at Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul and specialist in Strategy and Contemporary International Relations from the same university. Bachelor in International Relations Universidade do Vale do Rio dos Sinos. Having developed a taste for research during her undergraduate studies, she seeks to study international relations, the Arab world, nationalism, and cultural studies. She is currently working on her dissertation about the political influence of Arab literature.
Julia Marin de Oliveira
Researcher
International Relations student at Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, currently a Nuprima volunteer scientific initiation scholar. She actively participates in university extension, having been the General Secretary of the XII UFRGSMUNDI, a project aimed at conducting United Nations simulation events for young people in high school. It was from this work that an interest in research on international relations of the Arab world - especially Palestine and the Occupation by Israel -, nationalism, environment, cultural and post-colonial studies emerged. Currently her research is centered on the Palestinian diaspora in Latin America as manifested in literature.
Felipe Oliveira
Researcher
International Relations student at Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, currently a Nuprima scientific initiation scholar. He is one of the coordenators of the extension project Intenational Relations for Educators (RIPE in portuguese) which seeks to encourage debate on topics of politics and international relations within schools, through teachers. He is interested in topics such as nationalism, regional security, BRICS, Belt and Road Initiative and foreign policy analisis of Middle Eastern countries.
Denise De Rocchi
Researcher
Graduate in the Postgraduate Program in International Strategic Studies (PPGEEI - UFRGS), Master in International Relations at UFRGS, specialist in International Relations and Diplomacy atUNISINOS and Bachelor in Journalism from UFRGS. She worked for two decades as a journalist and was a professor of Journalism and International Relations courses at Centro Universitário Ritter dos Reis. At the moment she is working on her thesis Media, Consensus Building and Power, in which she analyzes the journalistic discourse on major international political issues, such as the Syrian war and post-Mubarak Egypt. At NUPRIMA, she is dedicated to the study of Arab media and narratives about this region.
Edgar Garcia Velozo
Researcher
Ph.D. student in the Geography Graduate Program at the University of Kentucky (UK). M.Sc. in Geography from the Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS). Researcher at the UNBRAL Fronteiras project and the Global IR and Brazil research group at BRaS. His research interests are Political Geography, Border Studies, Territorial Dispute, Refugees, and Trauma.
Arlene Clemesha
Collaborator
Professor of Arabic History at the Arabic Course at the Department of Oriental Letters at the University of São Paulo. Doctorate (2003) and Master's (1998) from the Graduate Program in Economic History at the University of São Paulo. Visiting Researcher at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor (2001). She served as a representative of Brazilian civil society at the United Nations International Coordinating Network for Palestine (ICNP-UN) from 2005 to 2015, and as the director of the Center for Arab Studies at University of Ssão Paulo, from 2008 to 2017. She founded and directed the Images from the East film festival, in conjunction with the Documentary and Experimental Film Center of Iran and the Institute of Arab Culture. She currently serves on the board of the Common Action Forum (Madrid) and collaborates with the Istanbul-based organization Al Sharq. Her research is centered on contemporary Arab history and conflicts in the Middle East.
Danny Zahreddine
Collaborator
PhD in Geography (2010) from the Graduate Program in Geography - Processing of Spatial Information at PUC Minas, Master in Geography from the same program (2004), Bachelor in International Relations from the Pontifical Catholic University of Minas Gerais (2001), and graduated in Tourism by the Superior School of Tourism of PUC Minas (2012). He is currently Director of the Institute of Social Sciences at PUC Minas and Adjunct Professor IV of the Department of International Relations, being a permanent member of the Graduate Program in International Relations. He was visiting professor at Peking University (China) in 2014, Research Fellow of the Moshe Dayan Center (2017), and visiting professor at Universidad Nacional de Rosario (Argentina) in 2018. He is leader of the Middle East and Maghreb Research Group (GEOMM) and member of the Average Power Research Group (GPPM). He has experience in the area of International Relations and Geography, working mainly on the following topics: Regional Studies and Focus of Tension with an emphasis on Middle East, Theory of International Relations, International Politics, Brazilian Foreign Policy, Political Bargaining, Geopolitics, Geodemography, Information System Geographic (GIS).
Thauane Medeiros da Silva
Researcher
International Relations student at Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, currently a Nuprima volunteer scientific initiation scholar. She also participates in extension projects in the university, having been the Academic Secretary for the XII UFRGSMUNDI, a project aimed at conducting United Nations simulation events for young people in high school. She is interested in the Arab World, feminist and queer studies, besides cultural and post-colonial studies. Her research is centered on the LGBTQIA+ Movement in the Arab World.
Pietra Ribeiro Studzinski
Collaborator
Graduated in International Relations at Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS). Helped in the creation of NUPRIMA's website and helped in the organization of events and research, having been a scholarship student at NUPRIMA from 2019 to 2021. She has an interest in Arab World studies, doing volunteer work in Egypt in 2018. Her interests are international politics, Arab World and the media in the Gulf.
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