Laura Wise is a Research Associate with the Political Settlements Research Programme, and a member of the team behind the PA-X Peace Agreements Database, a dataset of all peace agreements globally from 1990 to 2018.

Laura’s research explores the intersections between minority and territorial politics in the context of peace processes and post-conflict societies. She focuses on sub-national political settlements, peace agreements and peace processes (especially in Bosnia and Herzegovina, 1992-1995 and Presevo Valley, 2000-2001), ethnopolitics in post-conflict societies, and kin-state politics in borderlands, with a particular interest in Southeastern Europe.

Her work has been published in various academic journals and online outlets, including Nationalism and Ethnic Politics, Sudosteuropa, Transconflict and the Dangerous Women Project. She has also worked as a researcher for the UN Women project 'Enhancing Women’s Leadership for Sustainable Peace in Fragile Contexts in the MENA Region', supporting women engaged in peace processes in Syria, Yemen, Iraq, and Libya, and the British Academy project 'Negotiating Inclusion in Times of Transition'. She is currently part of a team working to develop a smartphone app for gender equality advocates in mediation processes. 

Laura holds a BSc Econ in International Politics and the Third World from Aberystwyth University and an MA in Comparative Ethnic Conflict from Queen's University Belfast. She was the 2011/2012 recipient of the International Politics Finalists' Dissertation Prize from Aberystwyth University, for her work 'Moral quandaries of the International Committee of the Red Cross in the Bosnian war between 1992 and 1995'.

She has previously been awarded a three-year entrance scholarship by Aberystwyth University, an Emily Sarah Montgomery Travel Scholarship by Queen's University Belfast, a JoinEU-SEE Penta Scholarship by the Erasmus Mundus Action 2 Programme, and numerous research support grants. 

She is currently a member of the Political Studies Association Ethnopolitics Specialist Group, the International Studies Association, the European International Studies Association, and the University of Edinburgh’s Global Justice Academy and Cultures of Peace and Violence Network.

• Peace agreements and peace processes
• Minority rights and kin-state politics
• Sub-national political settlements
• Peacemaking and conflict management
• Southeastern Europe