Varona Martínez, Gema

Gema Varona Martínez (Madrid, 1969) is Director of the Basque Institute of Criminology/ Kriminologiaren euskal Institutua (University of the Basque Country-Euskal Herriko Unibertsitatea). She was for ten years President of the Basque Society of Victimology, from January 1st 2014 until june 15th 2024.

Doctor in Law, Diploma in Criminology and Master in Legal Sociology. Lecturer in English Criminal Policy and Victimology at the Faculty of Law (UPV/EHU), co-directs the postgraduate course "Working with victims" (UPV/EHU) and is co-editor of the Journal of Victimology/Journal of Victimology.

Principal researcher in several projects, among them, in addition to those on interpersonal and political violence, currently one of the Ministry of Science on restorative justice in damages against ecosystems and animals. She is the author of monographs, book chapters and articles in specialised journals (most recent publications in: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2794-2239 ; https://dialnet.unirioja.es/servlet/autor?codigo=732899 and https://cvn.fecyt.es/editor/cvnOnline/0000-0002-2794-2239 ).

In June 2024 the international network of Restorative Encounters on Political Violence, promoted by the Laboratory of Theory and Practice of Restorative Justice, coordinated by Gema Varona at the IVAC, together with other universities and foreign organizations, has been awarded with the 7th Restorative Justice Award of the European Forum for Restorative Justice.

Gema Varona was elected as a Jakiunde Fellow in November 2023.