Maja Halilovic Pastuovic (PhD) is Research Professor at the School of Religion, Theology and Peace studies in Trinity College Dublin and radicalisation expert for Western Balkans as part of Radicalisation Awareness Network (RAN). She is the coordinator of GEMS (Games as Multi-layered Security Threat) project. GEMS is a Horizon Europe funded project that commenced in September 2023. Prior to GEMS project Maja was a partner and WP leader (WP covering theory, methodology and ethics) on PAVE project. PAVE (Preventing and Addressing Violent Extremism through Community Resilience in the Western Balkans and the MENA, 2020-2023) was Horizon 2020 funded project which tackled the global issue of radicalisation by examining community vulnerability and resilience. PAVE was based on a comparative assessment of local communities across seven case study countries (Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Kosovo, North Macedonia, Tunisia, Lebanon and Iraq). Prior to this Maja was a partner in PERICLES project. The PERICLES (Policy recommendation and improved communication tools for law enforcement and security agencies preventing violent radicalisation, 2017-2020) project’s overall aim was to develop a comprehensive approach to prevent and counter violent radicalisation and extremism via five practical tools. Prior to that Maja was PI on GATED project (GATED: Segregated education in post-conflict Bosnia and the possibilities of future conflicts in Europe), MSCA Global Fellowship where she spent two years at Sie Centre for International Security and Diplomacy at the University of Denver.
At present Maja’s research focuses on radicalisation and violent extremism (ethnic, religious and far-right) in Europe and Western Balkans, both online and offline. Maja teaches in the areas of sociology of peace and conflict, radicalisation and violent extremism, sociology of race and ethnicity and sociology of identity.
Languages: English, Croatian, Bosnian, Serbian
