International Relations Faculty

Jill Adler, JD, is the director of the East-West Parliamentary Practice Project (EWPPP), an independent non-profit organization headquartered in Amsterdam. The EWPPP has developed and implemented capacity building programs for parliaments and civil society organizations in emerging democracies throughout eastern/southeastern Europe and Eurasia since its establishment in 1990.

Adler is an adjunct professor at Webster Leiden Campus, in the Department of International Relations, as well as Dutch universities, and served for many years on the board of the Netherlands-America Fullbright Center. Adler currently serves on the boards of several nonprofits, including the Albanian-American Development Foundation, (AADF), Kosovo Institute for Development Policy (INDEP) and the American University in Kosovo (A.U.K).

Adler is the recipient of the Albanian Medal of Appreciation from the President of Albania as well as the Hungarian Cross of Honor. Adler received her Doctor of Law (JD) from Georgetown University Law Center.

Until recently, Abraham “Bram” Boxhoorn was the director of the Netherlands Atlantic Association ("Atlantische Commissie"), a cross-political party organization in The Hague. He organized programs on transatlantic security issues, such as the role of NATO in the Euro-Atlantic area and NATO-EU and EU-US relations. From 1983-1996 he read European history and international relations at the University of Amsterdam. He received his PhD in History from the University of Amsterdam in 1992.

Boxhoorn is currently Adjunct Professor of International Relations and History at Webster University, Leiden Campus. His fields of specialization are the history of European international relations and transatlantic studies. His latest publication is a book he co-authored with Giles Scott-Smith, entitled “The Transatlantic Era (1989–2020) in Documents and Speeches” (Routledge, 2022).

Ernani Contipelli is a Professor at Webster University - Campus Leiden and Tashkent, the United International Business Schools (UIBS), and the Central American Institute of Public Administration. He holds two post-doctorate degrees in Comparative Politics and a PhD in Public Law. With extensive academic experience across various countries, he has published numerous works focusing on his research interests, which analyze sustainability and circularity by engaging business and social/political actors.

Recently, Contipelli published the book "Introduction to Circular Economy," which serves as a practical guide for understanding circular principles, challenges, and opportunities. This book blends theoretical concepts with real-world examples to assist in the transition from a linear to a circular economy. Currently, he is focused on researching the new EU regulations on sustainability and their impact on business, society, and the environment.

Doreen Kiggundu-Modin, LLM, is a lawyer specializing in all areas of public international law, including international criminal law, international human rights law and humanitarian law. She also works as an adjunct lecturer in Law at Jönköping University, International Business School (JIBS) in Sweden, where she teaches commercial law and provides guest lectures in human rights and international law. She has worked for the prosecutor, the judges and the defense teams at the international criminal and hybrid courts in the Hague. She has collaborated with the Office of High Commissioner for Human Rights in Geneva on some capacity-building projects.

As a legal practitioner, Kiggundu-Modin started her career as a legal intern at the UNHCR and UNDP office in Kampala, Uganda in 1999 and in 2003, before briefly joining the Appeals Chamber of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) in The Hague, Netherlands. In 2005, she joined the International Criminal Court (ICC) and worked as a legal assistant in the Office of the Prosecutor on the first ICC trial in the case Prosecutor versus Thomas Lubanga and later on, worked for the defense team of Said Gadafi on the Admissibility Challenge issue before the ICC Appeals Chamber. She then served as a legal officer to Trial Chamber II judges of the Special Court for Sierra Leone (SCSL) for six years. In that capacity, she assisted the judges in a wide range of tasks, including in the drafting of the trial and sentencing judgments in the case of the Prosecutor versus Brima etal (AFRC case) and worked on a high-profile case of Prosecutor versus Charles Ghankay Taylor (Taylor case), and also worked on enforcement of sentences, cooperation agreements and the completion strategy of the court.

Kiggundu-Modin gained private practice experience when she worked as legal assistant at one of U.K.’s leading law firms, Temple Garden Chambers. Her work focused mainly on development of the legal framework in support of criminal justice systems and anti-corruption regime, gender mainstreaming in strategic processes, capacity assessment of justice systems in post-conflict countries, advocating for victims right to redress and enforcement of human rights.

In 1999, Kiggundu-Modin worked on refugee and human rights issues at an NGO Refugee Law Project in Kampala, Uganda where she assisted 32 refugees in integrating in society without government intervention, and collaborated with UNHCR on the status determination of asylum seekers. She is a consultant for the International Legal and Development Consultancy (ILDC) and specializes in the provision of technical assistance and policy advice on international law, human rights and development.

Kiggundu-Modin is a member of the Uganda Law Society (ULS), International Criminal Court Bar Association (ICCBA) and International Bar Association (IBA).

Piotr Perczynski, PhD, earned his graduate degrees in International Relations and Political Science from Warsaw University and was awarded scholarships at Oxford University, Leiden University and University of Amsterdam. He was a postdoctoral researcher on political theory at Leiden University (1998-2001) and senior lecturer at the European Institute of Public Administration (2006-2009). He has also served as a head of Political Cabinet of the Deputy Prime Minister, as a national coordinator for Performance Budget (statutory authority) and a Vice-Ambassador of Poland to the Netherlands (2012-2016). Currently, he is a lecturer on politics and international relations and is doing research on the work of Machiavelli and Castiglione.

Daniel Russell, LLM, has lectured at Webster Leiden Campus since 2006, in the department of International Relations. Courses taught include Public International Law, Negotiation, Diplomatic History, Comparative Politics, World Systems Since 1500, International Affairs, Politics in the Industrialized World and Conduct of Foreign Policy. Russell graduated from Holy Cross College, has law degrees from Leiden University and the University of Louvain, and did postgraduate work at New York University and the Hague Academy of International Law. He worked on several research projects for the Leiden law faculty, notably in the fields of energy, environmental law, and air and space law, and for the past twenty-five years has lectured at both the bachelor’s and master’s level at Webster Leiden Campus, Nyenrode and The Hague Universities. He has been a judge at the Telders Moot Court, International Court of Justice for the past twenty years and is a member of the Royal Dutch Society of International Law.