Dr Giuditta Fontana

Dr Giuditta Fontana

Institute for Conflict, Cooperation and Security
Birmingham Fellow
Leverhulme Fellow

Contact details

Telephone
+44 (0)121 414 8241
Email
g.fontana@bham.ac.uk
View my research portal
Address
School of Government and Society
Muirhead Tower
University of Birmingham
Edgbaston
Birmingham
B15 2TT
UK

Giuditta Fontana is a political scientist specialising in cultural institutions in post-conflict and fragile societies. She has expertise in conflict management, institutional design and in European and Middle Eastern history and politics.

Qualifications

  • PhD Education and Conflict Regulation, King's College London, 2014
  • MA Mediterranean Studies, King's College London, 2008
  • BSc International Relations and History, London School of Economics, 2007

Biography

Dr Fontana is a Leverhulme Early Career Fellow and Birmingham Fellow. Her current project focuses on the interface between peace processes and reforms of cultural institutions (such as schools, the media and museums) in divided societies (such as Northern Ireland, Lebanon and the FYR of Macedonia).

Her research interests include post-conflict institution-building, power-sharing, education policy in divided societies, Mediterranean and Middle Eastern history and politics. 

Giuditta is a United World College alumna and holds a BSc International Relations and History from the London School of Economics (2007) and an MA Mediterranean Studies from King's College London (2008). Her PhD (awarded in October 2014 by King's College London) focused on the political function of formal education in deeply divided societies and compared the experiences of Lebanon, Northern Ireland and the FYR of Macedonia.

Prior to her doctorate, Giuditta worked in a number of non-governmental and international organisations in Europe and the Middle East, including the European Commission and Minority Rights Group International.

Teaching

  • Conflict management
  • Power-sharing
  • Middle Eastern contemporary history and politics
  • Modern European history and politics

Research

Ethnic, religious and national conflicts

  • Conflict and coexistence in divided societies
  • The conflicts in Lebanon, Northern Ireland, Macedonia  and Bosnia and Herzegovina

Conflict management

  • Design and implementation of peace agreements
  • Institutional design after violent ethno-national conflicts
  • Power-sharing

Cultural institutions in fragile and divided societies

  • Cultural reforms in peace agreements
  • The relationship between cultural policy and resilient peace processes
  • Schools, museums, libraries, the media and other cultural institutions as instruments for peace-building and sites for reconciliation

Publications

Recent publications

Book

Fontana, G 2016, Education Policy and Power-Sharing in Post-Conflict Societies: Lebanon, Northern Ireland and Macedonia. Palgrave, New York.

Article

Fontana, G 2019, 'Does Education Help the Transition out of Power-Sharing in Plural Societies? A Comparative Study', Ethnopolitics. https://doi.org/10.1080/17449057.2019.1595909

Fontana, G 2018, 'Mapping the relationship between education reform and power-sharing in and after intra-state peace agreements: a multi-methods study', Journal on Education in Emergencies, vol. 4, no. 1, pp. 74-113. https://doi.org/10.17609/3m0x-8692

Fontana, G 2017, 'Educational Decentralisation in Post-Conflict Societies: Approaches and Constraints', Third World Thematics, vol. 1, no. 6, pp. 857-878. https://doi.org/10.1080/23802014.2016.1338921

Fontana, G 2015, 'Religious Education after Conflicts: Promoting Social Cohesion or Entrenching Existing Cleavages?', Compare. https://doi.org/10.1080/03057925.2015.1099422

Fontana, G 2013, 'War by Other Means: Cultural Policy and the Politics of Corporate Consociation in Bosnia and Herzegovina', Nationalism and Ethnic Politics, vol. 19, no. 4, pp. 447-466.

Fontana, G 2013, 'Education and Peacebuilding: A View from Beirut', Bulletin of the Council for British Research in the Levant, vol. 8, no. 1. https://doi.org/10.1179/1752726013Z.00000000018

Fontana, G 2010, 'Creating Nations, Establishing States: Ethno-Religious Heterogeneity and the British Creation of Iraq in 1919–23', Middle Eastern Studies, vol. 46, no. 1, pp. 1-16.

Chapter

Fontana, G 2013, State-Building and Religious Education in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia: Policies and Politics of Teaching Religion. in T Hanf & K El-Mufti (eds), Policies and Politics of Teaching Religion. Nomos, Baden-Baden, pp. 69.

Fontana, G 1800, Bulletin of the Council for British Research in the Levant: Policies and Politics of Teaching Religion. in K El-Mufti (ed.), Policies and Politics of Teaching Religion. Nomos, Baden-Baden, pp. 69-88.

View all publications in research portal

Expertise

Education

Expertise in conflict management  and constitutional design for divided societies (particularly power-sharing); in cultural expressions (including the media, museums and education) in divided and post-conflict places; in education reform design and implementation in plural societies. 

Policy experience

Giuditta Fontana is an expert on education in conflict and post-conflict contexts. Her first monograph, Education Policy and Power-Sharing in Post-Conflict Societies was published in 2016 with Palgrave. She has experience providing consultancy and drafting reports for government departments and international organisations, including the European Commission and the World Bank.