Sebastian Paalo is a lecturer at the Department of History and Political Studies, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology-KNUST (Ghana). He obtained his Ph.D. in Political Science and International Studies from the University of Queensland (Australia). Sebastian is a Member of the Board of Directors for the International Peace Research Association (IPRA) Foundation, the Assistant Director for Research at the Institute for Research and Policy Integration in Africa (IRPIA), and a Fellow for energy policy research at the Brew-Hammond Energy Centre, KNUST. Sebastian’s publications and policy engagements focus on Governance, International Peace and Security, and International Relations. He has worked on several projects, the latest being his collaborative policy research with Chatham House on Forest Governance in Africa, and the Social Science Research Council (SSRC) APN Individual Fellowship project titled Voice, Space, and Structure: Women’s Agency and Peacebuilding in Ghana and Sierra Leone.

Editorial and peer review experience

Regular journal peer reviews:

• African Affairs
• African Security
• Third World Quarterly
• African Security Review
• Peace and Conflict Studies
• African Conflict & Peacebuilding Review
• African Journal on Conflict Resolution
• Peace and Development Studies
• Politics & Policy
• Journal of Student Affairs in Africa
• Contemporary Journal of African Studies (CJAS)
• Cogent Arts & Humanities etc.

Regular grant application reviews:

• The International Peace Research Association Foundation (IPRA Foundation) Grants.
• KNUST Research Fund (KReF)

Selected post-doctoral research grant awards and projects

2024/2025   The Social Science Research Council (SSRC) African Peacebuilding Network (APN): Individual Research Fellowship, for the project, “Ambiguous Empowerment? A Feminist Critical Peace Reading of Women’s Empowerment in Peacebuilding, Ghana and Sierra Leone”. PI.

2023  Chatham House Africa Porgramme on Forest Governance in Africa, project titled, “Net-zero’s nature knot: A tug of war with rural realities”. Project completed. Co-investigator.

2022/2023   7th KNUST Research Fund (KReF) Award for the project, “Enhancing inclusive local governance through economic interventions for women: A case of Ghana”. Project completed. Co-investigator.

Selected recent conferences, seminars, and workshops

Paalo (June 2025). The European Conference on African Studies (ECAS) themed African, Afropolitan, and Afropean Belongings and Identities, Prague, Czech Republic. Chairing a panel, Changing Geopolitics, Violence, and Conflict Resolution in Africa: Emerging Challenges and Prospects for Peace, and presenting a paper, “Changing geopolitics, human security, and sustained peace in post-COVID Africa,” June 25-28, 2025.

Paalo (July 2025). The 7th Global Conference on Women's Studies (7th GCWS), presenting a paper, “Voice, Space, and Structure: Women’s Agency and Peacebuilding in Ghana and Sierra Leone,” Copenhagen, Denmark, July 25-27, 2025.

Paalo, S. A. (2024). Conference on Re-imagining Africa: Prospects and Opportunities, University of Witwatersrand, South Africa, paper presented: “Optimizing youths' contribution to sustainable peace in Africa: A decolonial reading of youth peace-building in Northern Ghana,” April 18-20, 2024.

Paalo, S. A. (2023). Research Workshop: Annual Institute for Qualitative and Multi-Method Research, the Maxwell School, Syracuse University, Certificate acquired, June 20-30, 2023.

Banchani, S. J-P. and Paalo, S. A. (2023). Workshop on The Evolution of African Regional Organizations, Georgetown University Qatar (Doha), paper presented: “The Community of Sahel-Saharan States (CEN-SAD),” January 29-30, 2023.