Established in 1992 in Bolzano/Bozen, the main city of South Tyrol (Italy), the European Academy of Bozen-Bolzano (Eurac Research) is a private non-profit organisation for applied research and further education, supported by both private and public funding. EURAC Research is composed of 12 institutes with almost 400 collaborators, whose work embraces three major themes: regions fit for living in, diversity as a life-enhancing feature, and a healthy society. Within EURAC Research, the Institute for Minority Rights pursues research on the protection of minorities and the management of cultural diversity. It focuses on issues of cohesion and governance in pluri-ethnic societies, including the new challenges related to migration into territories inhabited by minorities.
Andrea Carlà, PhD in Politics, New School for Social Research, New York – Postgraduate studies in Diplomacy and International Relations, University of Bologna, is Senior Researcher at the Institute for Minority Rights of Eurac Research. His research focuses on the interplay among ethnic politics/minority protection, migration politics and security issues. He is the co-editor of “Migration in Autonomous Territories. The Case of South Tyrol and Catalonia” (Brill-Nijhoff: 2015) and author of articles in various academic publications. He has also served as the Principal Investigator of the Eurac team for the AMIF funded research project VOLPOWER: Volunteer and Empower: Enhancing Community Building and Social Integration through Dialogue and Collaboration amongst Young Europeans and Third Country Nationals (12.2018-12.2020).
Roberta Medda-Windischer, Senior Researcher and Group Leader for National Minorities, Migration and Cultural Diversity at EURAC Research Institute for Minority Rights (Bolzano/Bozen – Italy), is an international lawyer specialised in migration issues, human rights and minority protection. Dr. Medda-Windischer worked as Legal Officer for various international organisations, including the European Court of Human Rights (CoE/ECHR, Strasbourg), the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR, Tuzla, BiH), the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE/ODIHR, Shkodra, Albania), and the UN Centre for Human Rights (OHCHR, Geneva). At EURAC Research, her research focuses on the protection of minorities in international law, diversity governance, anti-discrimination and reasonable accommodation measures. Dr Medda-Windischer lectured in various post-university program, including the Master Programme for Peace Mediators in Integrational Conflicts (University of Bologna) and the European Master´s programme in Human Rights and Democratisation (Venice). She has a considerable experience in coordinating EU-funded projects in teaching diversity, minority rights and civic education.
Kerstin Wonisch is researcher at the Institute for Minority Rights at Eurac Research (Bolzano/Bozen) and a PhD candidate at the University of Graz/Austria. Holding a background in law and religious studies, she focuses in her research on rights of religious minorities, both in international and in traditional Islamic law, on the governance of religious diversity, as well as on religion and gender. Besides, she teaches Islamic law, and sociology of law and religion at University of Graz and University of Innsbruck.
Giuditta Fontana: PhD in Education and Conflict Regulation, King’s College London. MA in Mediterranean Studies, King’s College London. BSc International Relations and History, London School of Economics. Her research focuses on institution-building in conflict-affected societies, power-sharing, education reform and cultural policy in Europe, the Middle East and West Africa. Her recent publications include a monograph on Education Policy and Power-Sharing in Post-Conflict Societies: Lebanon, Northern Ireland and Macedonia (Palgrave, 2016), a chapter in The Prevent Duty in Education: Enactment, Impact and Implications (Palgrave Pivot, 2020), and a number of articles in high-impact peer-reviewed publications. She served as the primary investigator on the Leverhulme Career Fellowship on “Towards a Culture of Tolerance” and is co-investigator on the Global Challenges Research Fund project on “Development Award: Education in Conflict-Affected Societies”.
Mattia Zeba is researcher at the Institute for Minority Rights at Eurac Research (Bolzano/Bozen) and a PhD student at the School of International Studies of the University of Trento. His research interests include language rights and policies, minority language education, subnational constitutionalism, and the relation between ‘old’ and ‘new’ minorities. He has worked in EU-funded projects dealing with cultural and linguistic diversity, minority rights and civic education. He holds MAs in Modern Languages (University of Padua) and International Relations (University of Trento), jointly with a Graduate Diploma in Transnational Governance (Sant’Anna School of Advanced Studies, Pisa).