Blog Management Team
ISS Blog Bliss is run by a Management Team (MT) comprising a Blog Manager and Blog Editor. The MT is overseen by an Editorial Board whose members are drawn from the ISS community and who work on a voluntary basis.
Lize Swartz
Blog Editor
Lize Swartz has been editor of Bliss since it was founded in 2017. She is a PhD researcher at the ISS where she studies how water users understand and respond to drought and water scarcity in urban contexts. She also researches understandings of and responses to heatwaves and academic blogging as transformative research communications method. She holds an MSc degree in Sustainability Science and Policy from Maastricht University, a BPhil degree in Journalism from Stellenbosch University, South Africa, and a BA degree in International Studies (cum laude) from Stellenbosch University.
Ezinne Chidinma Aninwe
Blog Manager
Ezinne Chidinma Aninwe holds an MA in Development Studies, majoring in Human Rights, Gender and Conflict Studies at the ISS. She holds a B.Sc in Sociology and Anthropology from Imo State University, Nigeria and has been trained locally (FRCN) and Internationally (RNTC) in Broadcast Journalism with an experience spanning over 8 years in Nigeria’s Radio Industry. She works in the field of conflict and peace studies.
Dorothea Hilhorst
Dorothea Hilhorst is professor of Humanitarian Studies at the International Institute of Social Studies of Erasmus University in The Hague. In 2022, she was awarded the Spinoza Prize, one of the most notable Dutch awards in science. From this award, she is currently establishing a Humanitarian Studies Centre (HSC) based at the ISS.
Linda Johnson
Linda Johnson was the executive secretary of ISS, but has now retired. She is particularly interested in the societal relevance of research. In addition, she has done recent work on the safety and security of researchers and co-developed a course on literature as a lens on development.
Syed Mansoob Murshed
Syed Mansoob Murshed is Professor of the Economics of Peace and Conflict at the International Institute of Social Studies (ISS), Erasmus University in the Netherlands. His research interests are in the economics of conflict, resource abundance, aid conditionality, political economy, macroeconomics and international economics.
Amod Shah
Amod Shah is a PhD candidate at the International Institute of Social Studies (ISS) in the Hague, The Netherlands. His research focuses on conflicts over coal extraction in India and their linkages to the wider dynamics of agrarian change, rural development and climate politics.
Xander Creed
Xander Creed is a PhD Researcher at the ISS working on global and regional approaches in migration and asylum governance, particularly focused on responses to climate change and displacement. Xander’s work draws on queer theory/methodologies, feminisms, and human security.
Petronilla Wandeto
Petronilla Wandeto is a PhD candidate at ISS under the ADAPTED project. Her research looks into the political economy of agricultural value addition in East Africa. Prior to this, she worked in the non-profit, public, and private sectors. She has a Master’s degree in Public Management from the University of Potsdam, Germany, and a Bachelor’s degree in Actuarial Science from Dedan Kimathi University of Technology, Kenya.
Jonathan Moniz
Jonathan Moniz is a dedicated thinker deeply invested in radically questioning the issues that shape our contemporary reality. He engages in topics ranging from environmental issues, the role of law in perpetuating colonial relations, abolition, black studies, and sustainable development issues. He is pursuing a PhD at ISS while working with abolition movements in the US and developing visual literacy programs for disenfranchised populations. He has a Bachelor’ degree s in Political Science from UCLA, a Master’s degree in Governance and Development Policy from the ISS and another in International Law and Diplomacy from AUP.
Tom Ansell
Tom Ansell is the Coordinator of the Humanitarian Studies Centre and International Humanitarian Studies Association. He has previously edited The Northern Times news website, and worked in local government in the Netherlands and at The Hague Humanity Hub. He holds a BA (Hons) in Theology from the University of Durham in the UK and an MA (Cum Laude) in Conflict, Religion & Globalisation from the Rijksuniversiteit Groningen in the Netherlands. His interests include the use of religious symbolism in politics, and using religious techniques and narratives in conflict resolution.
Former members of the Editorial Board are Maryse Helbert, Sylvia Bergh, Rod Mena Fluhmann, Matthias Rieger, Lee Pegler, and C. Sathyamala.