Albert C. Cano is a PhD candidate in International Relations at ÐÓ°ÉÂÛ̳ and a Visiting Researcher in the at Queen’s University Belfast while carrying out fieldwork in Northern Ireland. He served as Editor and Associate Editor of for Vol. 52 and 53. His research is funded by an ÐÓ°ÉÂÛ̳ PhD Studentship and he has been awarded a Phelan US Centre Summer Research Grant which covered his 2024 field research in the US on Irish American diaspora and the transnational contributions to the peace process in Northern Ireland.
In the past he has been invited as guest lecturer on Northern Ireland and the Troubles, his thesis subject, for Michigan State University students to a summer programme for . He has also delivered a lecture on ‘Authoritarian Peacebuilding’ for IR349/422. Professionally, he has been Research Analyst at , and held positions as a Research Assistant at the research project 'Socioeconomics of Islamist Radicalisation in the West' (SOCIR) under Dr Steffen Herzog (hosted at the department of Government at ÐÓ°ÉÂÛ̳); and at the ERC-funded research project ‘States, Nationalism, and the Relationship between Ethnic Diversity and Public Goods Provision’ (), hosted by the Institut Barcelona Estudis Internationals (IBEI). Finally, he has participated in the inter-university research Cluster of Excellence , hosted by Freie Universität Berlin, during his Erasmus+ there.
As a result of this engagement, he published his Master’s thesis as a SCRIPTS about Chinese peacebuilding. Additionally, he has co-edited (with and ) the Vol. 52 Millennium Special Issue ‘Remapping the Critical: Imagining Anti-Hierarchical Futures in International Studies’, as well as co-written the Introduction to the Special Issue.
He holds an MSc in International Security from IBEI, during which he undertook an exchange programme in Political Science at Freie Universität Berlin. He also holds MAs in Contemporary Philosophy and Pedagogy, and BAs in Philosophy and English Studies, from the Universitat de Barcelona.
Research topic
Liberal Peacebuilding, Transgenerational Trauma, and National Identity Formation in Post-Brexit Northern Ireland
Drawing on Poststructuralist and Critical IR Theory, and particularly theorising Lacanian IR, his research critically intervenes in the intersection among liberal peacebuilding practices, transgenerational trauma, and national identity formation. The empirical research problem being the so-called ‘Ceasefire Generation suicides’, his project problematises the interplay of mental health and peace in Northern Ireland. Thus, he intends to apply this political-psychological theory-building to peacebuilding efforts in Northern Ireland from 1998 to the present, showcasing the role of Brexit in exacerbating ethnonational and traumatic polarisations.
Teaching experience
- 2023-2024: IR349 Conflict and Peacebuilding (ÐÓ°ÉÂÛ̳)
- 2024-2025: IR374/494 Conflict and Peacebuilding (ÐÓ°ÉÂÛ̳)
Academic supervisor
Mark Hoffman
Research Cluster affiliation
Security and Statecraft Research Cluster
Theory/Area/History Research Cluster