Team

Kristina Kironska

Head of Myanmar Studies Center

Kristina is a socially engaged interdisciplinary academic, with experience in election observation, research, advocacy, and activism. She serves as Assistant Professor at the Palacky University Olomouc (Co-Coordinator of EUVIP) and also as Co-Director of the think tank Central European Institute of Asian Studies (CEIAS), a dissemination partner of EUVIP. She specializes in international relations and human rights in Southeast and East Asia (with a special focus on Myanmar and Taiwan). She is the author of several books and articles on these topics (see: orcid.org/0000-0002-1761-4004), and Deputy Editor of the International Journal of China Studies (IJCS). She is fluent in eight languages.

Contact: kristina.kironska@upol.cz

Alfred Gerstl 

Senior Research Fellow

Alfred Gerstl is head of EUVIP and Associate Professor at the Department of Asian Studies at Palacky University in Olomouc (Czech Republic). Furthermore, he is president of the Central European Institute of Asian Studies (CEIAS), a transnational think tank. Alfred taught at various universities in Australia, Austria, the Czech Republic, Germany and Russia. He is an International Relations specialist with a focus on the Indo-Pacific, notably Southeast Asia including ASEAN, and especially interested in security cooperation (AUKUS, Quad), hedging strategies, the EU’s role in the region and China’s Belt and Road Initiative.

Contact: alfred.gerstl@upol.cz

Federica Cidale

Research Fellow

Federica Cidale is a PhD student in International relations and Asian studies at Palacký University Olomouc in the Czech Republic. Her work in the EUVIP project is focused on Myanmar, its society and its politics, with a particular emphasis on the most recent coup. Her research delves into the growing influence of cyber technology on international politics. Her main interests are Japan and its domestic politics, East Asian security, and ASEAN.

Contact: federica.cidale@upol.cz

Yu Mon Htay

Intern

Yu Mon Htay is an Erasmus student at Palacký University Olomouc, currently on a 5-month exchange scholarship since February 2024. A Myanmar national, she actively supports the Yadanabon Student Union at Mandalay Yadanabon University, where she was a Master of Science student in computer science. Yu Mon joined Myanmar's nationwide Civil Disobedience Movement (CDM) against the coup of 2021. In 2022, she fled Myanmar and she moved across several Southeast Asian countries, including Thailand, Malaysia, and Laos, before being granted the Erasmus exchange scholarship to the Czech Republic. Her current research focuses on the Chinese mafias along the Myanmar border.

Contact: htayyu00@upol.cz