Celestina Atom

Celestina Atom is a postgraduate research student in Politics and International Relations at Teesside University, UK, with a strong academic background and evolving expertise in the areas of armed conflict, radicalisation and deradicalisation, violent extremism, and the post-conflict processes of disarmament, rehabilitation, and reintegration (DRR). She holds a BSc in International Relations (First Class Honours) from Landmark University, Nigeria, and an MA in Diplomacy, Law and Global Change from Coventry University, UK. 

Her doctoral research explores the lived experiences and perceptions of Nigerian security personnel involved in the Operation Safe Corridor programme, a government-led deradicalisation and reintegration initiative for former Boko Haram combatants. Drawing on Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) and fieldwork conducted at the Mallam Sidi DRR camp in Gombe State, Celestina investigates how military actors function not only as enforcers of peace but also as agents of social rebuilding and transitional justice.

Alongside her research, she has over three years of teaching and academic supervision experience, currently serving as a Graduate Teaching Assistant and MSc Research Supervisor at Teesside University. She has supported modules such as Diplomacy and Peacekeeping in Practice, Drivers of Armed Conflict, and Responsibility to Protect (R2P) and Justice, and has taught conflict management and peacekeeping to secondary-level students through The Brilliant Club.

Celestina’s broader research interests lie at the intersection of peacebuilding, security governance, and local agency in post-conflict contexts, with particular focus on West Africa. She is increasingly engaging with the gendered dimensions of conflict.