Dr Brandon Hamber is the Research Co-ordinator of INCORE, a United Nations Research Centre for the Study of Conflict at the University of Ulster. He is also a Senior Lecturer at the University.

He was born in South Africa and currently lives in Belfast. In South Africa he trained as a clinical psychologist and holds a Ph.D. from the University of Ulster. He was also co-founder of the Office of Psychosocial Issues based at the Free University, Berlin. He was also a Research Associate of the Belfast-based think-tank, Democratic Dialogue (2001-2006) and an Honorary Fellow at the School of Psychology at the Queen's University in Belfast (2001/2002).

Prior to moving to Northern Ireland, he co-ordinated the Transition and Reconciliation Unit at the Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation in Johannesburg. He is is a Board member of the South African-based Khulumani Victim Support Group. He works mainly in the area of violence, reconciliation, transitional justice and trauma, and co-ordinated the Centre's project focusing on the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission. He was a visiting Tip O'Neill Fellow in Peace Studies at INCORE in 1997/1998. He was also the recipient of the Rockefeller Resident Fellowship (1996) and was a visiting fellow at the Centre for the Study of Violence in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

He has consulted to a range of community groups, policy initiatives and government bodies in Northern Ireland and South Africa. He has undertaken consulting work and participated in various peace and reconciliation initiatives in Liberia, Mozambique, the Basque Country and Sierra Leone, among others.

He has lectured and taught widely, including, on the International Trauma Studies Programme at Colombia University, New York; the Post-War and Reconstruction Unit, University of York; the Psychosocial Training Programme with the Group for Community Action, University of Madrid, and at the University of Ulster.

He has written extensively on the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission, the psychological implications of political violence, and the process of transition and reconciliation in South Africa, Northern Ireland and abroad. He edited the book entitled ast Imperfect: Dealing with the Past in Northern Ireland and Societies in Transition, which was published by INCORE/University of Ulster. He is completing another book entitled Treating Transitional Societies: Justice, Reconciliation, and Mental Health to be published by Springer in 2008.

Other present and past areas of research and interest include community psychiatric and psychological care, human rights and mental illness, violence prevention strategies and mental health policy development.

He also enjoys writing poetry and short stories. His creative work has been published in New Contrast and one of his short stories was selected for the WriteAgain online workshop sponsored by Penguin Books. Currently, he is seeking publication of a collection of short stories called Cachaça Days. He is also a regular columnist for Polity and Engineering News writing the column Look South.


Qualifications: BA (Hons) MA (Clin. Psych) Ph.D.