Josep Maria Royo

• @josepmroyo

Josep Maria Royo Aspa is a political scientist and a researcher in the Conflict and Peacebuilding Program from the School of Peace Culture (Escola de Cultura de Pau) at the Autonomous University of Barcelona . He is also a member of the African Studies Group (GEA) at the Autonomous University of Madrid, an interdisciplinary research group specializing in the field of African studies. His main areas of expertise are armed conflicts, non-state armed groups, peace processes and the political economy of natural resources. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in International Relations and Public International Law, and a Master’s degree in International Relations and European Integration. He also holds a degree in Culture of Peace and a degree in Political Sciences. He teaches on conflict and peacebuilding, and has conducted field research in several countries in the Great Lakes and Horn of Africa such as Uganda, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Rwanda, Burundi, Kenya and Djibouti. He is advisor to the NGO League for the Rights of Peoples and one of the promoters of the Network of Entities for the Democratic Republic of the Congo. He is also a member of the Board of the Catalan Federation of NGOs for Peace, Human Rights and Development (FCONG). Since its first publication in 2002, he has co-authored the Alerta! Informe sobre Conflictes, Drets Humans i Construcció de la Pau report, published every year by the Escola de Cultura de Pau. He is a regular contributor to the Africaye magazine and the blog Paz en Construcción. He also co-authored the publication Brújulas sobre África. Miradas para desaprender la región subsahariana (Catarata, 2021).