Category: Internship

Lauren Stevens was an intern at the Peace Institute in Autumn 2018 and has written a text about her internship: I applied for an internship at the Åland Islands Peace Institute (ÅIPI) because I’m interested in issues concerning peace, security, minorities, and autonomy. I’m particularly interested in minorities related to sexual orientation, gender, and disability, and I wanted to learn more about national and linguistic minorities. I also like going to different places and trying to learn languages. Before I started my internship at ÅIPI, I’d visited Åland once before during last summer. I didn’t know any Swedish at all, I didn’t know much about the Swedish-speaking population in Finland, nor did I know much about the history and politics of Åland. During my internship at ÅIPI, I learnt a lot about these, especially as I had the opportunity to participate in the e-course ‘Territorial Autonomy as a Tool for Diversity Management: Lessons from the Åland Example’. I now consider it important for people in Finland and beyond to know about Åland’s status as an autonomous, demilitarised, and neutralised territory, as well as Åland as an example of a successful solution to a minority conflict. Being an Information Intern at

Lauren Stevens will be a communications intern at the Åland Islands Peace Institute from the end of September to the end of November 2018. She is originally from Britain, and currently studies the Master’s programme in Peace, Mediation and Conflict Research at the University of Tampere. For her Master’s thesis, she is researching the impact of Britain leaving the EU (Brexit) on the peace process in Northern Ireland. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in International Development Studies and Spanish language from the University of Chester in Britain. The third year of her Bachelor’s degree (2013-14) consisted of a Year Abroad Placement through the Erasmus Programme, a European Union (EU) student exchange programme. During this time, she lived in Melilla, a Spanish autonomous city located on the north coast of the African continent that shares a border with Morocco. There, she worked for the British Council as an English Language Assistant in a secondary school. She speaks English at a native level and has prior studies in Spanish and Finnish at intermediate levels. She is participating in a beginners’ Swedish course at evening classes alongside her internship at the institute.

Hasan Akintug will serve as an intern between late-August and early-November 2018 at the Åland Islands Peace Institute. He is originally from Northern Cyprus and grew up in Canada. He currently studies at the University of Helsinki in the European and Nordic Studies masters program. He holds a bachelor’s degree in political Science and Public Administration from Hacettepe University in Ankara, Turkey. He spent a year (2015-16) on exchange at Åbo Akademi and developed interest in the topic of Swedish language in Finland and multiculturalism in general. He has prior internship experience in research institutes in Cyprus such as The Association of Historical Dialogue and Research and IKME Sociopolitical Studies institute. He speaks Turkish and English at a native level and has prior studies in Swedish and Finnish at a basic level. He hopes to improve his Swedish skills during his internship at the institute.

Aune Sanz is doing and internship at the Åland Islands Peace Institute from mid-March until mid-June 2018. At the moment Aune studies a masters in Statistics at the University of Helsinki and is interested in survey methodology and visualization of data. During her semester abroad at the University of Otago, New Zealand, Aune studied a minor in Criminology and became fascinated by intersectionality, feminist criminology and transformative justice a community-based strategy for responding to crimes concerned with the root causes of conflicts. She did her Bachelor’s thesis on the correlation between children’s experiences of physical punishment and other forms of violence at home. Aune has previously worked as a Research Intern at Demos Helsinki and a Research Assistant in the Finnish Youth Research Society’s project ”You Can Never Go Home Again: young adults in transforming labour market”. Eager to improve her Swedish skills during her stay in Mariehamn, Aune is fluent in Finnish, Spanish and English.

Valentin Strömberg will do an internship at the Peace Institute from February to April 2018. He was born in Sweden but grew up in Spain. He holds both Swedish and Spanish citizenship. Valentin studies a Master programme in International Relations at Linköping University and is currently writing his master thesis about Greenland’s influence in Arctic policies from the ontological security perspective. He will mainly work with seminar arrangements, assistance in research projects and website overhaul tasks. Valentin has previously worked as a law assistant in Spain. He is fluent in Swedish, Spanish and English.  

Mirna Aho will be interning for the institute from September to December. She will be focusing on the communicational aspects of the institute and helping with arrangement of different events. Mirna is majoring in speech communication at the university of Jyväskylä and is currently writing her master thesis about interaction in peace mediation. She will be expected to graduate in the beginning of 2018. She has previously worked for example in Sweden and in India and is excited to get to talk some Swedish with her co-workers.

Sumia “Celina” Alshareef is an intern at the Peace Institute from 23 May to 22 June 2017. She is from Syria (Aleppo) and lives in Åland since one and a half years. Celina has studied international relations and diplomacy at Damascus University in Syria and has volunteer to support Syrian refugees in Lebanon. Celine’s internship is part of her studies in Swedish at Medis in Mariehamn. In the future she wants to work with translation and complete her studies in international relations, so that she can work with international organizations to quickly support refugees, and refugee women in particular, who need support and help to start a new life.

Vanessa Westerlund will be an intern from January to April in 2017. She will mainly participate in the arrangements of the “The Kastelholm talks”, which are being held 30th March. Vanessa will also be working with tasks relating to information dissemination and website development. Vanessa is majoring in political science at Åbo Akademi University, and she is currently working on her master thesis on fragile states. Her minor is International law. Vanessa expects to receive her master’s degree by the end of 2017.

Sin Ngor Shek is an intern at the Institute since October and will be working with us until mid-November. He will mainly be responsible for doing research about historical and modern Chinese autonomous bodies. He will also be doing studies related to Hong Kong as an autonomous region. Ngor Shek is majoring in Public International Law at University of Helsinki, and is currently writing his master thesis on self-determination as a failing yet important principle in International Law. Originally from Hong Kong, he graduated with a Bachelor of Law in the Chinese University of Hong Kong. His research interests are related to self-determination, autonomy, treaty law, international transport law and artificial intelligence law. He speaks Chinese (Cantonese and Mandarin), English, a little bit of Swedish and Finnish.

Nicklas Böhm will be an intern from March to June 2017 at the Institute. Up to now he has been working mostly on the launch of the Institute’s new E-journal JASS and he will be continuously assisting the other researchers and projects. Nicklas has acquired a Bachelor’s degree in International Studies from Roskilde University and will be majoring in Conflict and Security studies at the University of Kent this fall. He has previously worked on publications concerning peace building and the implementation of peace agreements and has volunteered for various organisations promoting a peaceful coexistence.