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Patricia RaunView profile

Professor

• Communicating Science
• Arts Leadership
• Theatre Arts
• +4 more

Patricia (Patty) Raun is the Alumni Distinguished Professor of Theatre Arts at Virginia Tech and Founding Director of the Center for Communicating Science. She holds a B.F.A. from the University of Nebraska and an M.F.A. from Penn State University, with additional training at Harvard University's American Repertory Theatre and the Alan Alda Center for Communicating Science. Her work bridges arts and sciences, emphasizing communication across disciplinary and societal divides. As Director of the Center for Communicating Science since 2017, Raun has led over 300 global workshops and collaborations with institutions like the NSF and Nature Conservancy. Her leadership includes a decade as Founding Director of the School of Performing Arts, overseeing construction of the $116M Center for the Arts and managing budgets exceeding $7.5M. Research focuses on acting, voice/text techniques, and science communication. Key contributions include her keynote 'Let Your Life Speak: The Art of Connecting Across Difference' and over 200 acting roles. Awards include Virginia Tech’s highest teaching and leadership recognitions, alongside major grants totaling $18M for pandemic preparedness and agricultural communication initiatives. Professional roles include VASTA President (2010–2012), NAST Board Member (2015–2017), and accreditation evaluator for theatre programs nationwide. She is a Fellow of the Center for Leadership in Global Sustainability since 2013.

María Dolores Conesa LareoView profile

Professor

• Ethics
• Anthropology
• Philosophy of Education
• +3 more

María Dolores Conesa Lareo is a Professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of Navarra's Faculty of Education and Psychology (FEP). She holds a PhD in Philosophy from the University of Navarra (2008) with a thesis on Levinasian thought titled Transcendence, Time and Finitude in the Philosophy of Emmanuel Levinas , supervised by Dr. Lourdes Flamarique Zaratiegui. Her research focuses on ethics, anthropology, and philosophy of education, particularly exploring postmodern digital society's ethical and anthropological challenges. Key areas include identity-difference dialectics, digital-era human vulnerability, and the interplay between education and cultural transmission. She is a member of the interdisciplinary research group Education, Citizenship and Character (GIECC) and serves on the editorial board of EUNSA and the scientific council of Estudios sobre Educación . Notable projects include developing tools for socio-emotional evaluation in education through collaborations with AHIA SL, and promoting civic competence via the Parlamento Cívico initiative. Her work bridges philosophy, education, and digital humanities, emphasizing reflective education in tech-driven environments and ethical responses to postmodern societal transformations. Recent research highlights include analyzing digital screen culture's impact on human cognition and redefining educational excellence through ethical frameworks.

• Intercultural Philosophy
• Chinese Thought
• European Ontology
• +5 more

François Jullien is a renowned French philosopher, Hellenist, and sinologist currently serving as Professor at Université Denis Diderot Paris-VII . He has held prestigious roles such as director of the Institut de la pensée contemporaine and the Center Marcel-Granet , as well as the Chair on Otherness at the Fondation Maison des Sciences de l'Homme (FMSH). His work bridges Western and Chinese philosophical traditions, rethinking universality beyond ethnocentric and relativistic frameworks. Key affiliations: Université Denis Diderot Paris-VII, Vita-Salute San Raffaele University (2017 lectures), FMSH Focus areas: Intercultural philosophy, deconstruction of European ontology, ethics, and aesthetics Notable awards: Hannah Arendt Prize (2010), Grand prix de philosophie (2011) Jullien’s research interrogates the gap between cultures to explore how Chinese thought destabilizes Western assumptions about universality, identity, and ethics. His intercultural methodology rejects direct comparison, instead using the ‘exterior’ of Chinese philosophy to critique and reinvigorate European concepts of strategy, beauty, and effectiveness. His translated works have sparked global dialogues, particularly in analyzing silence, intimacy, and the ‘resource’ of the Other. His 15 most recent articles (as per provided data) reveal a trajectory from early studies on Chinese aesthetics to later works grappling with ontological shifts and intercultural ethics . Themes include the deconstruction of logos , the philosophy of the gap , and the dialectization of art and philosophy . Scientific Awards : Hannah Arendt Prize for Political Thought (Germany, 2010) Grand prix de philosophie (Académie française, 2011)

Melanie WeirichView profile

Professor

• Phonetics
• Sociophonetics
• Language Variation
• +3 more

Prof. Melanie Weirich holds the Heisenberg Professorship for Speech Science and Phonetics at Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena. She is Co-PI of the DFG-funded project C02 'Variation in Situated Interaction' within the Collaborative Research Center 1412 'Register'. Her research focuses on phonetic variation, sociophonetics, and the interplay of biological and social factors in speech production and perception. She has held academic positions at the University of Konstanz and Humboldt University Berlin, and her work bridges experimental phonetics with sociolinguistic inquiry. Education: PhD (2012) in Phonetics from Humboldt University Berlin; Master's (2006) in Phonetics and German as a Foreign Language from University of Trier. Research Interests: Phonetic register variation, gender and voice perception, acoustic-phonetic analysis in child/adult-directed speech, and the role of hormones in vocal expression. Her projects include longitudinal studies on parental speech and cross-cultural comparisons of phonetic variation. Publications & Awards: Over 50 peer-reviewed articles and book chapters, including key contributions on twins' speech and gendered voice perception. Recipient of the Heisenberg Professorship (2021) and DFG grants for studies on vocal gender representation and parental speech variability. Teaching: Courses on sociophonetic data analysis, experimental methods in phonetics, and linguistic variation. Active in developing innovative data collection tools like the Plapper app for self-recording.

Elisa PassoniView profile

Research Fellow

• (Socio)phonetics
• Experimental phonetics
• Bilingualism
• +5 more

Elisa Passoni is a Research Fellow in the Department of Linguistics at Queen Mary University of London, part of the School of Languages, Linguistics and Film. She holds a PhD in linguistics and specializes in experimental (socio)phonetics, focusing on bilingual speech production and its sociolinguistic dimensions. Her work integrates methodologies from experimental phonetics, psycholinguistics, and sociolinguistics to explore how bilinguals modulate pitch range and other phonetic features to align with linguistic norms and express identity. Her research interests include bilingualism, L2 acquisition, L1 attrition, and the role of individual variation in speech. She employs advanced statistical techniques to analyze phonetic data and has contributed to understanding the impact of social factors on linguistic behavior. Her studies frequently involve cross-linguistic comparisons, such as investigating Venetian influence on Cretan Greek intonation and pitch range differences in Japanese-English bilinguals. Elisa has published in top-tier journals like Language and Speech and presented at international conferences such as the International Congress of Phonetic Sciences. Her work highlights the interplay between physiological, psychological, and societal influences on speech, emphasizing how bilinguals navigate multiple linguistic systems to convey identity and meaning. Current research trends in her publications focus on urban linguistic variation, perceptual phonetics, and methodological innovations in speech analysis. Elisa is affiliated with Queen Mary’s Experimental Linguistics Research Group and actively contributes to collaborative projects in sociophonetics and bilingualism. She has no listed academic awards but has secured research grants for projects investigating pitch range dynamics in bilingual populations.

Madeleine ClewsView profile

Research Fellow

• Post-colonial Englishes
• Historical Sociolinguistics
• Australian English
• +4 more

Madeleine Clews is an Adjunct Research Fellow at the School of Social Sciences, The University of Western Australia, and a current PhD candidate specializing in historical sociolinguistics with a focus on Western Australian English development. Her academic qualifications include: B.A. Honours in English, University of Saskatchewan (1983) Graduate Diploma in Primary Health Care Research & Evaluation, The University of Western Australia (1999) CELTA in TESOL, Melbourne Training Associates (2016) Clews' research centers on post-colonial Englishes, particularly the historical evolution of Australian English in Western Australia. Her work examines phonological variation, lexical development, and Aboriginal English influences within colonial contexts. She combines historical sociolinguistic methods with corpus analysis to investigate how settler communities shaped regional dialects, while maintaining expertise in ESOL teaching through her CELTA certification and practical experience at UWA's Centre for English Language Teaching. Her publication record (2020-2025) reveals consistent focus on Western Australian English formation, analyzing phonological shifts, lexical borrowings, and Aboriginal language influences through historical documents and corpus linguistics. Key themes include nineteenth-century dialect development, bicultural language contact, and the indigenization processes in Australian English. Her research recognition includes: Susan Kaldor Scholarship (2024) UWA Grand Challenges - Making a Difference grant (2022) Clews secured the UWA Grand Challenges grant for interdisciplinary work addressing cultural diversity in educational contexts. While currently a PhD candidate without formal advisees, her teaching role at UWA's Centre for English Language Teaching involves direct student mentorship in research methodologies and academic skills development.

Shahin NasiriView profile

Lecturer

• Political Philosophy
• Migration and Citizenship
• Phenomenology
• +4 more

Shahin Nasiri is a Lecturer in Political Philosophy at the University of Amsterdam's Faculty of Humanities, Department of Philosophy. His research focuses on social and political philosophy, migration and citizenship, phenomenology, critical race theory, and theories of freedom. He also holds a faculty position at Wageningen University's Communication, Technology, and... (see profile). His work critically examines state violence, refugee rights, and Iranian revolutionary history. Key projects include studies on the 1981 Iranian massacre, refugee subjectivity, and repressed voices of the Iranian Revolution. He has co-edited collections like *The Repressed Voices of the Iranian Revolution* and contributed to debates on human rights universality. Nasiri's research bridges philosophy with historical analysis, addressing topics like legal foundations of theocracy, political uprisings, and colonial legacies. He maintains an active public presence through media commentary on Iranian politics and migrant rights.

Rachel TomkoView profile

Associate Professor

• Cannabis Use Disorder
• Substance Use Disorders (SUD)
• Clinical Trial Methodology
• +3 more

Rachel Tomko is an Associate Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC), part of the Addiction Sciences Division. She holds a PhD in Clinical Psychology from the University of Missouri and completed postdoctoral training at MUSC/Ralph H. Johnson VA Medical Center. Her clinical work focuses on cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) and dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) for young adults with emotional regulation challenges. Dr. Tomko’s research centers on improving substance use disorder (SUD) treatment outcomes by addressing individual differences in treatment response. Key areas include gender/sex differences in cannabis use disorder (CUD) remission, hormonal influences on addiction, and translational clinical trial methodology. She leads studies using ecological momentary assessment (EMA) to capture real-time data on substance use patterns and develops technology-enhanced tools for objective measurement (e.g., smartphone monitoring, biochemical verification). Active projects include a study on progesterone’s role in CUD remission among 224 adults and a pilot testing algorithm-based smoking cessation recommendations. Her work emphasizes personalized medicine approaches, leveraging predictive models to tailor treatments based on individual characteristics. She collaborates on studies examining cannabis use in cancer patients, tobacco-cannabis co-use, and microbial associations with substance use. Dr. Tomko’s grants and collaborations involve MUSC, NIH-funded initiatives, and VA partnerships. She co-leads the MUSC Cannabinoid Research Collaborative and the Youth Collaborative for substance use research. Her methodologies prioritize ambulatory assessment, remote monitoring, and biomarker integration to enhance trial rigor and real-world applicability.

Yvonne Pratt-JohnsonView profile

Professor

• Second Language Acquisition
• Bilingualism
• Literacy Development
• +5 more

Yvonne Pratt-Johnson is a Professor of Education (TESOL) at St. John's University's School of Education, specializing in the Department of Education Specialties. She holds advanced degrees from Stony Brook University, Georgetown University, and Teachers College, Columbia University. Her research focuses on second language acquisition, bilingualism, and culturally responsive pedagogy, particularly concerning dialect-different learners and English-based creoles. She has led Fulbright-Hays-funded projects to Vietnam and India, emphasizing teacher cultural immersion. A former Interim Dean and Department Chair, she has also contributed to U.S., New York State, and NYC educational policy. Education: B.A., Spanish/Education, SUNY Stony Brook M.S., Spanish/Linguistics, Georgetown University M.A. & M.Ed., TESOL, Teachers College, Columbia University Ed.D., Spanish Education/TESOL, Teachers College, Columbia University Awards: 2013 Sigma Delta Phi 'Educator of the Year', multiple Fulbright-Hays Awards Research Contributions: Over 20 peer-reviewed articles and book chapters across five continents, focusing on inclusive education, language policy, and global teacher training.

Patrick L. KohlView profile

Research Fellow

• Social Insect Ecology
• Animal Behavior
• Honeybee Conservation
• +3 more

Dr. Patrick L. Kohl is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Department of Population Genomics in Farm Animals at the University of Hohenheim (Walter Benjamin Program, DFG). His research focuses on the ecology, evolution, and behavior of social insects, particularly honeybees (Apis spp.), with an emphasis on understanding wild-living populations' dynamics and the impacts of domestication. He completed his doctoral studies in Biology at the University of Würzburg (2019–2023), funded by the German Federal Environmental Foundation, where he investigated wild honeybee colony demographics and parasite burdens in Germany. His academic journey includes a Master's in Biology (University of Würzburg, 2015–2018), with a thesis on alpine pollination ecology, and a Bachelor's in Biosciences (University of Münster and Universidad de Granada, 2011–2014), focusing on honeybee drone production. He conducted comparative behavioral studies on Asian honeybees at India's National Centre for Biological Sciences (2015–2018). Dr. Kohl's current project, funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG), explores genomic signatures of modern beekeeping practices in Apis mellifera. This work investigates whether domestication pressures have driven functional genetic differences between wild and managed populations, impacting fitness and conservation strategies. His publications span topics like honeybee communication (waggle dance analysis), parasite ecology, and habitat preferences, with a focus on Central European forests and semi-natural landscapes. He has contributed to high-impact journals such as Proceedings of the Royal Society B , Oecologia , and Trends in Ecology & Evolution . Scientific contributions include identifying reduced parasite loads in feral colonies and demonstrating how landscape features influence overwintering survival. His work bridges evolutionary biology, applied ecology, and conservation policy, emphasizing the need for sustainable apiculture practices.

Allegra CattaniView profile

Research Fellow

• Developmental Psychology
• Language Development
• Bilingualism
• +3 more

Dr. Allegra Cattani is a Visiting Senior Research Fellow and Baby Lab Manager at the School of Psychology (Faculty of Health) at the University of Plymouth. She holds a Ph.D. and is a Chartered Psychologist (CPsychol), Associate Fellow of the British Psychological Society (AFBPsS), and Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (Fellow HEA). Her research focuses on developmental psychology, particularly language development in monolingual and bilingual children, psychosocial development in individuals with learning disabilities, and the creation of assessment tools for early language acquisition. She teaches courses such as 'Language Development in Typical and Atypical Populations' and 'Psychology for Health Studies.' Dr. Cattani’s work contributes to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), emphasizing quality education and good health. Her research includes studies on the impact of parental education on toddlers’ language skills, cross-linguistic comparisons of naming errors, and the validation of assessment tools like the Words in Game (WinG) test. She has also explored cultural responses to pain in children and the integration of robotics in psychological practice. Her recent publications (2024–2017) highlight advancements in bilingual language assessment, the role of language exposure in vocabulary development, and computational models explaining cognitive processes in children. Dr. Cattani collaborates internationally, adapting language assessment tools for Arabic dialects and addressing challenges in assessing EAL (English as an Additional Language) children in the UK. As Baby Lab Manager, she oversees projects investigating early childhood development, particularly in bilingual populations. Her work bridges academic research and practical applications, influencing clinical practices and educational policies.

• Cognitive Linguistics
• Corpus Linguistics
• Sociolinguistics
• +4 more

Iván Tamaredo Meira is an Assistant Professor in the Department of English Studies: Linguistics and Literature at Complutense University of Madrid (UCM). He holds a BA and MA from the University of Santiago de Compostela and a PhD from the same institution, defended in 2018. Prior to UCM, he held positions at the University of Vigo (2019–2020), University of Salamanca (2020–2021), and was a postdoctoral researcher at Santiago de Compostela (2018–2019). His research focuses on quantitative studies of morpho-syntactic variation in World Englishes (e.g., British English, Indian English, Singapore English), linguistic complexity, and communicative efficiency. Key themes include internal/external factors influencing syntactic alternations and how complexity-efficiency dynamics shape language production in contact varieties. His publications (2015–2021) explore pronoun omission, relative clause structures, legal discourse evolution, and corpus-based methodologies. Notable works include monographs on complexity-efficiency trade-offs and edited volumes on applied linguistic research. His work often integrates corpus linguistics with variationist sociolinguistics. Research Groups: VLCG profile (linked via ResearchGate/ORCID) Supervision: No current PhD students but welcomes proposals in his listed research areas. Awards: None explicitly mentioned. He contributes to interdisciplinary projects like the Corpus of Historical English Law Reports (CHELAR) and has collaborated with institutions across Spain in legal and sociolinguistic corpus development.

• Speech Variation
• Phonetics
• Child-Directed Speech
• +5 more

Dr. Sonja Schaeffler is a Reader in Speech Variation at Queen Margaret University (QMU), Edinburgh, within the Division of Speech & Hearing Sciences in the School of Health Sciences. She serves as the Academic Coordinator for Research Culture and Doctoral Studies for the School of Health Sciences and is a full member of the Research Centre for Clinical Audiology, Speech & Language (CASL). Her educational background includes an M.A. in Phonetics (with German Linguistics and Psycholinguistics as minor subjects) from Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich and a PhD in Psychology from the University of Stirling, supervised by Professor Vera Kempe. Dr. Schaeffler's research focuses on the 'when, how and why' of speech variation, exploring the fine-phonetic and articulatory details of intentional and unconscious speech variation. Her work spans the interdisciplinary borderland between Phonetics and Psychology, examining intra- and interindividual differences in cognitive processing, oro-motor skills, attitude, motivation, and personality that may facilitate or impede speech variation. Her current projects include research on speech registers (particularly child-directed speech), adaptations of articulatory settings in bilinguals, variations in silent speech preparation, and accent variation in Scotland. Analysis of her recent publications reveals a strong focus on the cultural evolution of child-directed speech, bidialectal speech adaptations, and the psychological and social implications of speech variation. Her work frequently employs advanced methodologies including ultrasound tongue imaging and acoustic analysis to investigate subtle articulatory movements and their perceptual consequences. Member of the British Association of Academic Phoneticians (BAAP) Member of the ESRC Peer Review College Dr. Schaeffler has successfully secured multiple research grants including SFC and UKRI Talent and Research Stabilisation Funding (2022) as Principal Investigator for research on the cultural evolution of Child-Directed Speech. She has supervised numerous PhD students including Ciera Haggar, Irina Brodskaya, and Janet Coulson, with research topics spanning accent adaptation, ultrasound tongue imaging for 'second accent' training, and articulatory reaction times. Her research group on 'Accent Variation in Scotland' collaborates with Prof Jim Scobbie (QMU), Prof Jennifer Smith (Glasgow University), and PhD student Janet Coulson. She actively promotes Open Science principles in research development and champions the 'Students as Researchers' approach in PhD training, aligning with the Higher Education Academy's framework.

Katerina T. FrantziView profile

Professor

• Digital Language Resources
• Corpus Linguistics
• Language Teaching
• +5 more

Katerina T. Frantzi is a Professor of Informatics – Corpus Linguistics at the Department of Mediterranean Studies, School of Humanities, University of the Aegean. She directs the Laboratory of Informatics, the Interdepartmental Postgraduate Program on language analysis/teaching, and the "Chess in Primary Education" program at the Continuing Education Center. Educated via a Bachelor’s in Informatics & Telecommunications (National and Kapodistrian University of Athens) and a Ph.D. in Computational Linguistics (Manchester Metropolitan University, collaboration with University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology) Her research spans digital language resources , corpus linguistics , political/legal discourse , and language teaching . She pioneered the C-value method for term recognition, applied globally with over 2000 citations. Recent publications focus on stylistic analysis, dialectology, and sociolinguistic applications of corpora. Notable awards include the INFOTERM Certificate for outstanding research in terminology and a State Scholarship for foundational work at NCSR "Democritus". She has coordinated interdisciplinary projects like CLARIN:EL , Greece’s national language technology infrastructure.

Reem Abou-SamraView profile

Adjunct Professor

• Islamic Exceptionalism
• Islamic Statehood
• Exegetical Analysis of the Quran
• +14 more

Reem Abou-Samra is an Adjunct Faculty Instructor in the Islamic Studies department within the College of Humanities, Arts & Social Sciences at the University of Detroit Mercy. She is a researcher, activist, and teacher with expertise spanning multiple disciplines related to Islamic studies, political science, and American identity. Her educational background includes: Ph.D. in Political Science from Wayne State University M.A. in Political Science from Wayne State University M.A. in Classical Modern Languages, Literatures, and Cultures from Wayne State University B.A. in Political Science from the University of Massachusetts Dr. Abou-Samra's research focuses on Islamic Exceptionalism , using exegetical approaches to analyze classical and contemporary resources. She explores identity and the role different identity groups play in creating multiple narratives of Islam, as well as issues of disempowerment and problematic framing of Muslims throughout history. Her areas of expertise include: Islamic Statehood - the state of Madina and evolution into Empires Islamic Exceptionalism - the Ummah - inclusion and exclusion Exegetical Analysis of the Quran Identity in America; Americanness; Patriotism Islamophobia - throughout history to today Oral History Methodology Political Science, Political Thought, American Politics, World Politics Dr. Abou-Samra uses an interactive discussion and dialectical approach to teaching through the lens of agency and structure to help students find their own power and agency to shape their most immediate surroundings. She is the current co-chair of the Religious Studies panel at the annual Michigan Academy of Science, Arts, and Letters and served as the 2022 President of the organization. Outside of her academic work, Dr. Abou-Samra is a Spoken Word artist with published collections including "Fractured: Between Truth and Lies" and "just: enough".