Elisa is a post-doctoral research fellow with the PeaceRep Global Fragmentation project at the University of St Andrews. She contributes to the creation of the Mediation Events and Negotiators Database (MEND)—a global database of third-party mediation in violent conflict. In September 2025, she will take up the post of an Assistant Professor and Ad Astra Fellow in Environmental Politics at University College Dublin’s School of Politics and International Relations.
Her research examines the climate-conflict nexus, focusing on how environmental shocks intersect with migration, conflict, and peace processes. Her work spans climate adaptation laws, fisheries, conflict prediction, economic reintegration in peace agreements, and urban violence dynamics. Her publications have appeared in journals including Journal of Peace Research, Review of International Political Economy, Nature Climate Action, and Environmental Policy and Governance.
Elisa actively engages with policy audiences through her work as a data and modeling consultant for organizations including the World Wildlife Fund, University of Denver, and IOM UN Migration. She has presented her research at widely including the Political Economy of Climate and Environment (PECE) workshop, the International Summer Course on (Im)mobilities Summer School, the “Anthropocene” Ringvorlesung Lecture Series, and the Solutions to Environmental Problems (STEP): Climate Action series. She has also contributed to policy briefs and reports for PeaceRep and other international organizations.
Elisa holds a PhD in Political Science from Loyola University. Previously, she was a “Natural Resources as Objects of Conflict” fellow at Universität Basel.