Joint Coordinators
Prof. Kesi Mahendran
Scientific Coordinator
Professor of Social & Political Psychology specialised in the dialogue between citizens and their governments. Kesi Mahendran leads OppAttune and is the founding member of the Public Dialogue Psychology Collaboratory (PDPC), chair of the BPS Political Psychology Section and on the board of the IMISCOE Standing Committee on Reflexive Migration Studies.
Prof. Xenia Chrysouchouu
Administrative Coordinator
Director of the Social and Political Psychology lab at Panteion University in Athens. Xenia Chryssochoou works on identity, migration and multiculturalism, ideologies and political participation. She participated at the EC of the European Association of Social Psychology and chairs the Scientific Council of the Hellenic Foundation for Research & Innovation.
Prof. Umut Korkut
Scientific Coordinator
Professor of International Politics at Glasgow Caledonian University. Umut Korkut has an expertise in European politics, with specialisation in East European and Turkish politics. He is currently leading the Horizon 2020 funded project D.Rad: De-radicalisation in Europe and Beyond. His recent book reflects on crisis of cosmopolitanism in Europe
Dr. Sandra Obradović
WP8 co-lead, WP6 and WP1 team member, data management lead for the project
Senior Lecturer in Psychology at the Open University and a researcher at the Electoral Psychology Observatory (EPO, LSE). She completed her MSc and PhD in Social Psychology at the London School of Economics in the UK. She serves on the editorial board for the European Journal of Social Psychology. She specializes in researching how group identities and group boundaries are constructed, mobilised and resisted, and the consequences this has for political behaviour, including in contexts of post-conflict societies, populism, polarization and elections.
Dr. Zona Zarić
Postdoctoral Fellow and WP2 co-lead
Philosopher, member of the Center for Critical Democracy Studies at The American University of Paris, where she also lectures. Zarić is a Research Fellow at the Institute for Philosophy and Social Theory at the University of Belgrade. She holds a PhD in philosophy from the École Normale Supérieure (Ulm, Paris), an MA in International Relations from The American University of Paris, and a BA in Law from the University of Belgrade. Her research explores the intersection of political and moral philosophy, focusing on how compassion can be understood as a political concept and how we can expand our collective political consciousness.
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Irini Kadianaki
EDI Board and WP2 & WP7 Team Member. Responsible for Cyprus Data collection & Attunement
Associate Professor of Social Psychology at the University of Cyprus. She completed an MPhil and a PhD degree in Social and Developmental Psychology at the University of Cambridge in the UK. She has worked an Associate Editor for the European Journal of Social Psychology and is also member of the editorial board of the journal “Culture & Psychology”. She is interested in studying social representations and lay understanding of citizenship rights of social groups that are frequent targets of discrimination and exclusion, such as migrants and LGBT+ individuals. She is also interested in social representations of mental health issues, such as depression, developmental disabilities and eating disorders.
Prof. Dr. Edward Abbott-Halpin
Team member WP2, case study legal development
Emeritus Professor of the University of the Highlands and Islands, having recently retired as Principal at the University of the Highlands and Islands, Orkney College, and Professor of Social and Human Rights Informatics at the University. He has a background in politics, human rights, governance, and social informatics. He is currently a Trustee of the William Temple Foundation. He has been involved as an Expert Panel member at the Cambridge Governance Labs, Cambridge University, and a Visiting Professor to the Citizenship and Governance Strategic Research Area (SRA), at the Open University. He is an Associate Schumann Fellow of the European University and served as an Expert for the European Parliament Scientific and Technical Options (STOA) Unit.
Prof. Dr. Hasret Dikici Bilgin
EDI Board and WP2 & WP7 Team Member. Responsible for Turkey Data collection & Attunement Implementation
Professor of political science at the department of International Relations, Istanbul Bilgi University. She works on class and gender dynamics of Islamist politics. She has published extensively on Islamist social movements and parties in Türkiye and the Middle East as book chapters, as well as articles in Third World Quarterly, Turkish Studies, Swiss Political Science Review, Review of Middle East Studies, Journal of Balkan and Near Eastern Studies, International Political Science Review and Parliamentary Affairs.
William Warda
Team member WP2, WP5 and WP7 Responsible for Iraq data collection & Attunement where possible within ethics
Co-founder and public relations director of the Hammurabi Human Rights Organization (HHRO), and former president (2007-2013). Warda holds an MA in International Studies and a BA in Political Science from the University of Baghdad, as well as Civil Engineering at the University of Mosul. Additionally, he is co-founder and chairman of the Alliance of Iraqi Minorities (AIM) and vice-president of the Iraqi Forum Network for human rights organizations. Warda has conducted extensive research on topics such as international protection for minorities, Iraqi Christians’ political and civil rights, the situation of Iraqi refugees in Syria, European Human Rights System, the role of Iraqi women in politics, and the impact of war on geopolitics. He authored “Human Rights in Iraq and the Needed Protection” and led EU-funded projects on mass migration and de-radicalization. Active in peacebuilding, he participated in anti-radicalization initiatives in Nineveh and organized workshops to promote social cohesion in Iraq.
Mag. Dr. Ursula Reeger
PI of the Austrian team, co-lead of WP4, team member of WPs 6 and 8
Deputy director of the Institute for Urban and Regional Research of the Austrian Academy of Sciences in Vienna and leads the working group “Migration and Urban Diversity.” With a background in research on migration and integration mostly in the urban context, she has expanded her research interests towards issues of radicalisation and everyday extremism in urban societies in recent years. Due to her participation in several large‐scale international research projects, she is well‐embedded into the European scientific community.
Tina Askanius
Professor in media and communication studies at the School of Arts and Communication, Malmö University, and affiliated researcher at Södertörn University in Stockholm, Sweden. Her work on the interplay between everyday extremism and online media for WP4 sits at the intersection of media and cultural studies and social movement studies. As part of her ongoing participation in a series of international research projects, she works on questions related to the circulation and normalization of extremist narratives in areas related to migration, gender, climate change and public health in digital environments.
Jullietta Stoencheva
OppAttune PhD student, WP4
Jullietta Stoencheva is a PhD candidate in Media and Communication Studies at Malmö University, Sweden. Her project “Everyday Extremism in Sweden and Bulgaria” employs a mix of qualitative and computational methods to assess how extremist narratives gain traction in these countries through the interplay between online and offline mediated activities.
Dr. Miriam Haselbacher
Team member of WPs 4, 6 and 8
Post‐doctoral researcher with a background in political science at the Institute for Urban and Regional Research of the Austrian Academy of Sciences. In her work, she has focused on local politics and refugee immigration to rural areas, youth religiosity in urban and digital settings as well as political polarization online and offline. She is particularly interested in studying societal transformations and power relations across rural, urban and digital settings.
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Susan Beth Rottmann
Leader of WP5
Associate Professor of Anthropology at Özyeğin University in Istanbul, Turkey. A migration expert with 10+ years of research experience, she has published in a wide variety of international peer-reviewed journals, including International Migration Review, Journal of Refugee Studies, Space and Culture, Identities: Global Studies in Culture and Power, Migration Studies and Critical Sociology. Dr. Rottmann has received several major research grants from the European Union to study migration, gender, belonging, democracy and citizenship.
Dr. habil. Harald Weilnböck
Co-WP Lead on WP5
Social researcher (on professorial level) and trained psychotherapist (in group settings), works as deradicalisation practitioner in prison and community since 2007, helped building the Radicalisation Awareness Network, and co-chaired the working-group RAN Derad on disengagement and rehabilitation methods until 2016. Among numerous publications and projects are WomEx.org (Women/ Gender in Extremism and Prevention) and CEE Prevent Net. Harald has a background in social research, psychology, biography studies and pursues intervention research.
Joana Ricarte
WP5 team member and WP7 co-lead
Researcher at CEIS20 - University of Coimbra. She is the author of The Impact of Protracted Peace Processes on Identities in Conflict: the case of Israel and Palestine (Palgrave MacMillan, 2023). She researches identities and/in conflicts, memory, peace, peace processes, othering and dehumanisation, everyday extremism and ontological (in)security.
Samarjit Ghosh
Team Member WP5
Samarjit Ghosh is a political scientist, with research projects and publications in urban security, terrorism, extremism, and critical security studies. He is a co-convenor of the Early Career Development Group at the European International Studies Association, and serves on the editorial board of the journal Global Policy: Next Generation.
Stevan Tatalović
Testing of the Attunement model in the field and actively contributes to WPs 5-7
Researcher in refugee and migration studies, currently a Principal Investigator on EC Horizon Europe projects focused on deradicalization and violent extremism prevention. He has worked with various international humanitarian organizations as a research consultant, and holds a master’s degree in human security from the University of Belgrade. Stevan’s role involves implementing project findings through various interventions, ensuring the model's practical application and effectiveness across different activities.
Dr. Antonis Dimakis
Postdoctoral fellow, WP6, WiDE Lens survey co-lead researcher
Social psychologist, member of the Lab of Social and Political Psychology in Panteion University, where he also lectures. Participated in two research projects for the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights. Participated in a project on Conspiracy Theories, co-financed by the European Social Fund and the Greek State. Participated in the project ‘Mobilizing Populism’ lead by the Faculty of Social Sciences and Business Studies, Department of Social Sciences, University of Eastern Finland. Research interests consist of Social Representations Theory, social order beliefs under conditions of societal change and conspiracy theories as factors that may play a role in conflictual and dichotomized worldviews in an ever-growing context of exclusion and increased vulnerability to extreme narratives and practices. The latter may also relate to intergroup conflict and inclusive identities/alternative identity projects, under processes of identity politicization. Currently exploring the role of sociopsychological drivers onto extremism and populism.
Dr. Anthony English
WP6 member and four-country pairing study lead. General support.
Post-doctoral research fellow on the Horizon-Europe/Innovate UK funded OppAttune project with the Open University and is a visiting researcher at Lancaster University. A political psychologist, Anthony is currently exploring how polarised individuals can sustain dialogue during direct interactions on the vexed issue of immigration.
Prof. Gordon Sammut
Work Package 7 Lead
Professor of Social Psychology at the Department of Cognitive Science of the University of Malta, where he directs the Centre for the Study & Practice of Conflict Resolution. His research interests concern worldviews, intergroup relations and political behaviour.
Dr. Mohammed Turki Al-Obaidi
Prominent Iraqi legal expert and human rights advocate. He served as the Vice Chairperson of the UN Committee on Enforced Disappearances (CED) from 2010 to 2014 and has been a CED member since 2017. His extensive career in Iraq's Ministry of Human Rights (MoHR) includes roles as Deputy Director General of the Legal Department (2009-2016) and Deputy Director General of the Human Rights Monitoring Department (2008-2009). Al-Obaidi was also the Head of the Human Rights Treaty Reports Section at the Ministry of Justice (2016-2018) and led the Human Rights Department there from 2019 to 2023.
He holds a Bachelor of Law, a Master’s in International Law, and a PhD in International Law, complemented by various diplomas, including a focus on women’s rights in the MENA region from Lund University. His professional achievements include representing Iraq in international human rights discussions and contributing to legal frameworks on human rights and humanitarian law.
Al-Obaidi has authored numerous studies on human rights issues, including those affecting persons with disabilities and trafficking in persons. He continues to support human rights initiatives in Iraq, actively participating in national mechanisms to address enforced disappearances and implementing international human rights recommendations. As of 2023, he is authorized by the Iraqi government to serve as a Rule of Law Officer for UNITAD.
Dr. Rebekah Mifsud
Postdoctoral researcher at the University of Malta. Rebekah completed her PhD degree in Cognitive Science at the University of Malta. Her research predominantly centres on social cognition, with a specific interest in the cognitive processes that shape how individuals construe the social world, make social judgements, and behave.
Dr. Adelina Hasani
Researcher and publicist. She graduated from the Faculty of Political Sciences at Ankara University. She earned her Master's in Human Rights and Democracy in South East Europe from the University of Sarajevo and the University of Bologna (ERMA). She completed her Ph.D. in International Relations at the University of Ankara, with her dissertation titled "The Transformation of Russian Federation Security Policy: The Former Yugoslavia States." Adelina has authored several publications and delivered academic presentations on gender, nationalism in former Yugoslav countries, and Russian foreign policy.
17 partners 16 countries 11 Universities 6 NGOs
Independent Research Advisory Committee
Assoc. Prof Berna Yazici
Berna Yazıcı is a socio-cultural anthropologist. She received her PhD from New York University. Currently, she teaches and supervises graduate students at Bogazici University’s Ataturk Institute for Modern Turkish History. Her research and scholarship focus on the politics of welfare and the family; gender; social inequality; anthropology of the state and policy, and urban transport and mobility.
Prof. Fathali Moghaddam
Fathali M. Moghaddam is Professor of Psychology at Georgetown University, and Editor, Cambridge University Press, Progressive Psychology Books Series. His recent books include ‘Mutual Radicalization: The Psychology of How Groups and Nations Drive Each Other to Extremes’ (2018), ‘How Psychologists Failed’ (2022) and ‘The Psychology of Revolution’ (March, 2024). Website: fathalimoghaddam.com
Prof. Simon Usherwood
Simon works on euroscepticism, most recently in the context of the UK’s withdrawal from the EU. He has also done much work in bringing social science research to non-academic audiences, including through the ESRC’s UK in a Changing Europe initiative and as Chair of the University Association for Contemporary European Studies (UACES).
Prof. Anne Kaun
Anne Kaun is Professor at the Department of Media and Communication Studies, Södertörn University, Sweden, and a Wallenberg Academy Fellow studying the democratic implications of automated decisions making, artificial intelligence and digitalization in the welfare sector.
Dr. Maria Xenitidou
Maria Xenitidou is assistant professor of Social Psychology at the University of Western Macedonia, Greece. Her background is on citizenship, identity and discourse from a critical social psychological approach. She has worked as a researcher in several research projects in Greece and the United Kingdom. Her research interests include identity, power, migration, citizenship and intergroup relations. She has presented and published extensively on these topics
Dr. Bruce White
Dr. Bruce White is the founding director of the Organization for Identity and Cultural Development (OICD). Bruce develops programs to redress identity-based divisions across: social and conflict transformation, social work, education, policing and public health. This includes the development of technologies, research, training and practice methods, and impact evaluation toolsets.
Ethics Board
An independent Ethics board sits within the Independent Research Advisory Committee, and the overall ethics of the project is led by Prof. Xenia Chryssochoou. The ethics board consists of Prof. Kesi Mahendran, and specialist advisors within the independent research advisory committee. A fundamental aim of the board is to ensure the protection of the participants’ rights, interests, values, dignity and health and safety at all times during the research process.
That anyone involved in the research will be fully informed and not coerced in any way to participate and will be given the right to retract their data within a defined period. The following key principles guide our research: informed consent, confidentiality and careful data management, and the protection of health and safety and dignity of participants and researchers
Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Board
The OppAttune Project Consortium pledges its commitment to the European Commission’s Diversity and Inclusion Charter of 2017, in that it sets up an EDI Board as a pillar of the three-year long project. The EDI Board will prepare a public document accessible on the project website on our EDI policy based on the EC Charter and other relevant EC initiatives.
The EDI Board will be headed by Dr Irini Kadianaki and Dr Hasret Dikici Bilgin. They will be joined by Prof. Kesi Mahendran, Dr Harald Weilnböck, and Prof. Umut Korkut to deliver yearly evaluation reports.
Please read our equality, diversity, and inclusion report here:
Link to the document – ready in late September.
