Staff Profiles

Anita Ferrara is a lecturer at the Irish Centre for Human Rights, National University of Ireland, Galway. She obtained an honours BA degree in Political Science, International Relations at the University of Siena in 2001. She completed her Postgraduate Studies in "International Studies and Diplomacy" at the University of Florence in 2002 and obtained a Master Degree in "Human Rights and Conflict Management" at the Scuola Superiore Sant' Anna, Pisa in 2004. She successfully completed her PhD in Law at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London, in 2012. She has been a Graduate Teaching Assistant and Teaching Fellow at SOAS lecturing on post-conflict Justice and Reconciliation processes.

Anita is the author of the book, Assessing the Long-Term Impact of Truth Commissions: the Chilean Truth and Reconciliation Commission in Historical Perspective. The book is one of the first studies assessing the longer term impact of Truth and Reconciliation Commissions. The book has been translated in Spanish and published in 2021 by the prestigious publisher Alberto Hurtado Univerity in Chile. 

Anita Ferrara 's main areas of research lie in the field of Transitional Justice and Human Rights. Her research is strongly interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary combining the field of Transitional Justice with Political Science, Memory Studies, Archival studies, Dispute Resolution and Peace Building. 

Before her academic career, Anita worked for United Nations Agencies and NGOs in the field of human rights. She has worked at the Regional Office for South America of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights in Santiago, Chile and at the United Nations Development Programme in Gaborone, Botswana. She also worked at the World Organization against Torture (OMCT) as an intern of the Human Rights Defenders Programme in Geneva.

Anita is fluent in English, Spanish and has good working knowledge of Portuguese.