Our visiting scholars are part of our vibrant research community
Current Visiting Scholars
The below list covers all bona fide visitors to the Department of POLIS:
| Name | Start date | End date |
| Dr Toon Dirkx | 01/01/2023 | 31/12/2024 |
| Prof Boris Kashnikov | 12/06/2023 | 11/06/2025 |
| Dr Michael Hochberg | 16/01/2024 | 14/06/2024 |
| Dr Florian Kern | 16/01/2024 | 31/07/2024 |
| Ms Sarah Overton | 22/04/2024 | 14/06/2024 |
| Dr Neil Whyman | 22/04/2024 | 14/06/2024 |
| Ms India Blissett | 22/04/2024 | 14/06/2024 |
| Mr Iain Robertson | 22/04/2024 | 14/06/2024 |
| Mr Joseph Wainwright | 22/04/2024 | 14/06/2024 |
| Mr Liam Purbrick | 22/04/2024 | 14/06/2024 |
Visiting Scholar Profiles
Sarah Overton - Visiting until 14/06/2024
Sarah Overton is a Senior Research Analyst at the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office and a visiting scholar at the Centre for Geopolitics. Her research topic at Cambridge covers UK-Ireland structural relations past, present and future.
Sarah is a former researcher at the independent thinktank UK in a Changing Europe, the House of Lords and the House of Commons. She was previously an ENP-EU Scholar at the College of Europe. Her Masters research focused on EU external relations and diplomacy, with a specific focus on the European Neighbourhood Policy and the migration-defence nexus. She maintains research interests in UK-EU relations, EU internal dynamics, migration and UK devolution.
Dr Michael Hochberg - Visiting until 14/06/2024
Michael Hochberg earned his PhD in Applied Physics from Caltech and is currently a visiting scholar at the Centre for Geopolitics at Cambridge University. He is the President of Periplous LLC, which provides advisory services on strategy, technology, and organization design.
He co-founded four companies, representing an exit value over a billion dollars in aggregate, spent some time as a tenured professor, and started the world’s first silicon photonics foundry service. He co-authored a widely used textbook on silicon photonics and has published work in Science, Nature, National Review, The Hill, American Spectator, RealClearDefense, Fast Company, Naval War College Review, etc. His writing is accessible at longwalls.substack.com. He is working on a book about applied geopolitics.
Toon Dirkx - Visiting until 31/12/2024
Toon Dirkx is a Visiting Postdoctoral Scholar in the Department of Politics and International Studies (POLIS) and a College Research Associate at Emmanuel College. His main research interests are governance by armed groups in civil wars, the legacies of rebel governance, and the politics of peace- and state-building. He has engaged with these themes through qualitative fieldwork in Afghanistan and the Horn of Africa. In December 2022 he defended his PhD dissertation on the political stability of post-insurgent states at the University of Basel. At POLIS he is working on a postdoctoral research project about rebel diplomacy that analyses the relationship between insurgent legitimation strategies and external support from foreign governments.
Previously, Toon worked as a PhD fellow at the swisspeace Statehood and Conflict programme, and as a researcher at the Centre for Conflict Studies at Utrecht University. He has held visiting fellowships at the Institute for Peace and Security Studies at Addis Ababa University, and the Institute for Peace, Development, and Security Studies at the University of Juba. His research has been supported by the European Union, the Dutch Research Council, the University of Basel, the French Centre for Ethiopian Studies, and the Swiss National Science Foundation. In addition to his academic research, he has informed various multilateral organisations, governments, and non-governmental organisations through commissioned research.
Professor Boris Kashnikov - Visiting until 11/06/2025
The research interests of Professor Boris Kashnikov, as well as practical activities, belong to the sphere of moral and political philosophy, mostly the ethics of war and peace. His PhD and Post PhD (Habilitation) are on the problems of justice.
Нe is a member of the board of directors of the International Society for Military Ethics in Europe (EuroISME). In 2003 – 2004 he was a Director of the Moscow office of International Crisis Group (ICG). In 1993-1994 Professor Kashnikov worked with UNPROFOR in Former Yugoslavia as a member of the UN monitoring mission and in 1989 served in the Nagorny Karabakh peace making mission.
He is a three-fold winner of the Fulbright one year grant for teaching and research in the USA. (George Mason University 2010-2011, Emory University 1999-2000 and Mershon Center for International Security Studies at Ohio State University 1996 -1997). He was a DAAD visiting professor at Ruhr University Bochum Institute for International Law of Peace and Armed Conflict and Philosophy Department, (2017-2018, 2013-2014 and 2004-2005). In 2017 he was on fellowship at the University of Oxford and graduated from the “Changing Character of War Executive Leadership Course” of Changing Character of War Institute.
Professor Kashnikov taught courses on ethics of war and peace at Moscow Research University “Higher School of Economics”, University of Bayreuth (Germany), University of Urgench (Uzbekistan). On many occasions he provided expertise for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).
Published widely on moral problems of War and Justice. His publications include countless articles and a monograph: “Terrorism. The New World Disorder”, London: Continuum, 2007 (in co-authorship). Contributed several chapters to monograph: “Moral Constraints on War. Principles and Cases”, edited by Bruno Coppieters and Nick Fotion, Lexington Books, 2020; and a chapter on Self-Determination of Peoples to a recent monograph “International Conflict and Security Law”. Volume One: Protected Values, Law, and Institutions. Ed. by Sergey Sayapin, Rustam Atadjanov, and Umesh Kadam T. M. C. Asser Press / Springer. 2022.
He currently works on monograph on terrorism.
Become a Visiting Scholar at the Department of POLIS
The Department of Politics and International Studies (POLIS) Visitors Programme welcomes a small number of scholars each year. The Programme is aimed at scholars in established posts in other academic institutions.
Find out how to apply
Former Visiting Scholars