Visiting Professors
An important component of the Kent Program is its sponsorship of a visiting professorship each year for a distinguished practitioner of conflict resolution. Below you may find information about our previous visiting professors.
Ms. Margot Wallström is a Swedish politician from the Social Democratic Party with a long career at national, European and international level. She served as Sweden’s Minister of Foreign Affairs between 2014 - 2019. Ms. Wallström was appointed the first United Nations Special Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict from 2010 to 2012. She worked as Vice-President of the European Commission and European Commissioner for Institutional Relations and Communication Strategy from 2004 to 2010 and European Commissioner for the Environment from 1999 to 2004.
From 1988 she held several cabinet posts, first as Deputy Minister of Civil Affairs, Minister of Culture and also Minister of Social Affairs, an assignment she left after the 1998 election.
She was the CEO of a regional TV network in Värmland, Sweden from 1993 to1994. Before taking up her appointment as an EU Commissioner she was the executive vice-president of Worldview Global Media in Colombo, Sri Lanka.
While at SIPA, she taught a course entitled Foreign Policy - Thinking outside the Box, in which she expounded on her experience in creating a "Feminist Foreign Policy" for Sweden, among other topics in conflict resolution.
Ghassan Salamé is Professor of International Relations Emeritus at SciencesPo Paris and the founding dean of its Paris School for International Affairs/PSIA.
He taught at the American University of Beirut and at Saint-Joseph University, Beirut, before moving to Sciences Po, Paris where he spent most of his academic career (1986-2015). He is the author and/or editor of a dozen books including Democracy Without Democrats, Appels d’empire and The Foundations of the Arab State as well as many dozens of articles in scholarly journals. He also was a visiting professor at many universities, notably at Columbia, New York.
Ghassan Salamé also served in politics and diplomacy. He served as Minister of Culture in the Lebanese Government (2000-2003). He was the political advisor to the UN Mission in Baghdad before being appointed as the UNSG Kofi Annan’s Senior Advisor (2003-2007). He also served as member of the Annan Rakhine State Commission (2016-2017) in Myanmar. His most recent assignment was as the United Nations Secretary-General Special Representative in Libya (2017-2020).
He serves on the board of a number of international NGOs.
As a visiting professor at SIPA, he taught a course entitled "Ending Civil Wars," discussing his experiences in high-stakes conflict negotiations.