People

Professor John Langmore AM

Chair of the Board, Initiative for Peacebuilding

Professor John Langmore initiated the Initiative for Peacebuilding concept. Between 1963 and 1976 he worked in Papua New Guinea as a public servant and academic where he led the preparation of the first national plan. Between 1976 and 1984 he was an economic advisor to the Australian Labor Party and proposed the negotiation of the Accord. In 1984 he was elected as the Member for Fraser in the House of Representatives and was re-elected four times. One of his achievements there was chairing the committee which planned the adoption of the first comprehensive committee system for the House of Representatives.

John retired from parliament in 1996 to become Director of the UN Secretariat Division for Social Policy and Development in New York for five years and then Representative of the International Labour Organization to the United Nations for two. He was responsible for the organisation of the 24th special session of the UN General Assembly which was the first world conference to agree on a global target for halving serious poverty. Since 2005 he has been a Professorial Fellow in the School of Social and Political Sciences in the University of Melbourne where he has initiated and coordinated graduate subjects on the UN, Social and Political Development and nuclear disarmament.

He has written, jointly written, or jointly edited six books including two reports to DFAT on conflict prevention and peacebuilding; and has published over 70 refereed journal articles and chapters in books on economic, social, environmental, and foreign policy issues including international peacebuilding and global governance.

He was one of the two founders of the Australia Institute, was National President of the UNAA for five years from 2005 and was a member of the founding committee of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons which was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2017.

Dr Tania Miletic

Assistant Director of the Initiative for Peacebuilding, and Senior Research Fellow (School of Social and Political Sciences)

For the past 20 years Dr Tania Miletic has been engaged in policy-oriented research, peacebuilding practice, teaching post-graduate subjects in peace and conflict studies, and supporting actors engaged in peace processes in the Asia-Pacific region.

Tania is a Faculty member on the Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies Applied Conflict Transformation Studies PhD program and a former consultant to CPCS from 2006-2012. She has collaborated with Chinese academics in mainland China for over a decade in research and teaching on contemporary conflicts within China; while being a visiting researcher to the Centre for Human Rights & Conflict Resolution Programs at the Zhou En Lai School of Government, University of Nankai, Tianjin, China.

Tania has been a Sessional Academic at Victoria University teaching units on Conflict Resolution ASA5050; Peace, Conflict and Violence ASA5010 and Transnational Gender and Human Rights since 2007.

Tania first trained as a psychologist, worked with Melbourne Uni’s Centre for Global Mental Health, and still consults on trauma informed peacebuilding, collective approaches to social healing and wellbeing. She was recently the Policy consultant to the Victorian Foundation for Survivors of Torture and the Ethnic Communities Council of Victoria. She is a member of the American Psychological Association’s Conflict and Peace Division.

Board members
- Associate Professor Jennifer Balint, Head of School, Social and Political Sciences
- Professor Erika Feller, Professorial Fellow, Melbourne School of Government
- Dr Emma Leslie AM, Executive Director, Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies (Cambodia)
- Professor Adrian Little, Pro Vice Chancellor (International) and Professor of Political Theory
- John McCarthy AO, former senior Australian diplomat, analyst, and writer
- The Reverend Professor Russell Goulbourne, Dean, Faculty of Arts
- Associate Professor Tilman Ruff AO, Nossal Institute for Global Health.
Research Affiliates
- Professor Derek McDougall, Professorial Fellow, School of Social and Political Sciences.
- Dr Carla Winston, Lecturer in International Relations, School of Social and Political Sciences.
- Dr Siad Darwish, Environmental Peacebuilding and Gender Advisor.
- Dr Dolly Kikon, Collaborator on Food Systems, Conflict and Peacebuilding.
- Professor Sanjay Barbora, Tata Institute of Social Sciences.
- Dr Rachael Diprose, Senior Lecturer in Indonesian Studies, School of Social and Political Sciences.
- Dr Anne Decobert, Lecturer in Development Studies, School of Social and Political Sciences.
- Dr Lesley Pruitt, Senior Lecturer in Development Studies, School of Social and Political Sciences.
- Dr Anouk Ride, Independent Researcher, Solomon Islands.
- Denise Nichols, Practitioner Affiliate.
- Mr Soth Plai Ngarm, Research Affiliate.
- Dr Gabrielle Grant, Research Affiliate.
- Dr Gillian Howell, Dean's Research Fellow, Fine Arts and Music.
- Dr Nerkez Opacin, Teaching Associate, School of Social and Political Sciences.
- Dr Ali Albakaa, Research Affiliate.
PhD Candidates
- Jacob Berah, who is undertaking research into UN Special Political Missions and the politics of peacebuilding.
- Sophia Htwe, whose research aims to develop a better understanding of the role of Myanmar’s civil society organisations in peacebuilding in the Rohingya conflict.