Find Academic Supervisors

• Global South Studies
• Latin American Literature
• Film Studies
• +5 more

Sebastian Thies is Professor and Chair for Ibero-American Literary and Cultural Studies at the University of Tübingen, where he has been employed since October 2012. He serves as Vice Director of the Interdisciplinary Centre for Global South Studies (ICGSS) and coordinates the BMBF/DAAD thematic network 'Futures under construction in the Global South'. His academic journey began with a PhD in Hispanic Studies from the University of Osnabrück in 2000, followed by positions at the University of Bielefeld where he progressed from Junior Professor for Hispanic Literary and Media Studies to Full Professor for Inter-American Studies. Thies' research focuses on Global South Studies, with particular emphasis on Latin American literature, film, and media. His work explores subjectivity formations, entangled temporalities, and political communication across borders. He has directed significant research initiatives including the doctoral studies program 'Entangled Temporalities in the Global South' and has co-edited major reference works such as The Routledge Handbook for Global South Studies on Subjectivities (2024). His extensive publication record demonstrates a consistent engagement with transnational cultural phenomena, particularly examining how Latin American cultural production intersects with global political and social dynamics. Thies frequently collaborates with international scholars, reflecting his commitment to transdisciplinary and transregional approaches to cultural analysis. Project Leader: Research Training Network 'Entangled Temporalities in the Global South' Vice Project Leader: Thematic network 'Literary Cultures of the Global South' Associated Investigator: BMBF-Area Studies Project 'The Americas as a Space of Entanglement' Project Leader: Research Group 'E Pluribus Unum? Ethnic Identies in Processes of Transnational Integration' Thies actively supervises doctoral students through the Interdisciplinary Centre for Global South Studies and has established collaborative networks across Latin America, particularly with institutions in Mexico and Colombia. His current research agenda focuses on 'Futures under construction in the Global South' and continues to explore the intersections of cultural production, political communication, and subjectivity formation in transnational contexts.

Takako FujiokaView profile

Associate Professor

• Auditory Perception
• Neural Oscillations
• Auditory-Motor Coupling
• +5 more

Takako Fujioka is an Associate Professor of Music at Stanford University, affiliated with the Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics (CCRMA). Her research focuses on the neural mechanisms underlying auditory perception, auditory-motor coupling, and music-supported therapy for neurorehabilitation. She holds a Ph.D. in Physiology from the Graduate University for Advanced Studies, Japan, and M.Sc./B.Eng. degrees in Electrical Engineering from Waseda University. Her work combines neurophysiological techniques such as MEG and EEG to study brain plasticity in development, aging, and stroke recovery. Notable contributions include investigating how music influences motor and cognitive recovery in stroke patients, as well as exploring the neural basis of musical perception through rhythmic synchronization and pitch discrimination studies. Supported by awards from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research during her postdoctoral work at the Rotman Research Institute, her research bridges clinical neuroscience and music cognition. Dr. Fujioka’s expertise spans auditory neuroscience, neurorehabilitation, and technology-assisted music therapy. She has pioneered studies on tactile mapping for cochlear implant users and networked music performance systems, emphasizing cross-modal perception and human-technology interaction. Her findings contribute to both theoretical understanding of auditory processing and practical applications in medical and educational settings. Awards: Canadian Institutes of Health Research Awards (postdoctoral phase) Labs/Teams: CCRMA, Stanford Music Perception Laboratory, Rotman Research Institute collaborations Key Themes: Neuroplasticity, Music-Mediated Rehabilitation, Auditory-Motor Integration, Multisensory Processing Her recent work examines aging-related changes in binaural hearing and the role of beta/gamma oscillations in rhythmic processing. She advocates for translational research that connects neural mechanisms with real-world therapeutic interventions.

Adam Yuet ChauView profile

Professor

• Chinese Religion and Ritual
• Ritual Theory
• State-Society Relations
• +7 more

Professor Adam Yuet Chau is a Fellow and Director of Studies at St John's College and holds the Professor of the Anthropology of China position at the Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, University of Cambridge . His academic journey includes training at Stanford University (PhD in Anthropology, 2001) and teaching roles at Oxford and SOAS before joining Cambridge in 2008. Focus on Chinese religions and their social dimensions Specializes in ritual theory and cultural transformations Develops comparative frameworks for understanding religious practices His research spans religion under socialism , hosting in political/religious contexts , and ritual polytropy . Recent projects include editing Chinese Religious Culture in 100 Objects and analyzing 'spheres' (界) in Chinese society . Publications like Miraculous Response (2006) and Religion in Contemporary China (2011) establish him as a key figure in religious anthropology. Current and past PhD/MPhil students explore topics from temple festivals in Taiwan to religious subjectification . He actively reviews for leading presses (Cambridge, Oxford, Harvard) and journals ( Ethnos , Modern China ), and participates in international academic workshops.

Ewan JonesView profile

Associate Professor

• Poetics
• Embodied cognition
• Computational approaches to intellectual history
• +8 more

Dr. Ewan Jones is Associate Professor in Nineteenth-Century Literature at the University of Cambridge's Faculty of English and a Fellow at Downing College, where he serves as Director of Studies for Part II. He completed his BA, MPhil, and PhD at King's College, Cambridge, and was previously Thole Research Fellow at Trinity Hall. His educational background includes comprehensive training in English literature at Cambridge, with specialization in nineteenth-century literary studies. His academic journey reflects deep engagement with both traditional literary scholarship and innovative computational approaches to textual analysis. Dr. Jones's research concentrates on poetics, embodied cognition, and computational approaches to intellectual history. His work fundamentally questions how we understand 'close reading' not as interpretation but as a specific cognitive practice. He explores how aesthetic phenomenology can illuminate historical reading communities, develops pedagogical routines to de-habituate standard attention modes, and seeks constructive engagement between computational analysis and traditional reading practices. His scholarship bridges literary studies with cognitive science, demonstrating how rhythm, attention, and cognition intersect in literary form. His research trajectory shows increasing focus on attentional practices in reading, with recent work examining group attention practices and rhythm in Victorian poetry. The computational dimension of his work has grown steadily, moving from individual textual analysis to large-scale corpus studies through projects like the Concept Lab. Fulbright Scholar Leverhulme Research Fellowship (2021/22) on 'Close Reading as Attentional Practice' Residential fellow at the Swedish Collegium of Advanced Study Visiting fellow at Ludwig Maximilian Universität Visiting fellow at Pomona College Dr. Jones supervises doctoral work on diverse topics including 'radical conservatism' in Victorian poetry, queer theory and historical poetics, Wagner reception in Anglophone poetry, morphogenetic conceptions of form, and metre and exact measurement. His interdisciplinary collaborations include work with Phyllis Weliver on digitizing Tennyson manuscripts and with Peter de Bolla on computational concept analysis projects that have secured significant research funding. He has developed innovative teaching approaches that integrate cognitive science with literary analysis. He co-founded and participates in the Concept Lab, an interdisciplinary project developing open-source computational resources for historical dataset analysis. This initiative has fostered collaborations across humanities and computer science disciplines, creating tools that bridge traditional literary scholarship with digital methods. His work with the Princeton Prosody Archive demonstrates his commitment to building scholarly infrastructure for rhythm and meter studies.

Julie OrlemanskiView profile

Associate Professor

• Medieval Literature
• Medical Humanities
• History of Science
• +6 more

Julie Orlemanski is an Associate Professor and Director of Graduate Studies in the Department of English Language and Literature at the University of Chicago. She holds a Ph.D. and MA from Harvard University (2010) and a BA from the University of Georgia (2004). Her scholarly work bridges late medieval literature with contemporary theoretical debates in literary criticism, the history of science, and the philosophy of fictionality. Harvard University - Ph.D. and MA (2010) University of Georgia - BA (2004) Her research focuses on medieval medical discourse, the poetics of literary personhood, and the historiography of fiction. She is currently completing Making Literary Persons: A Poetics of Voice in Chaucer , which explores Chaucerian narratology, and developing a book on Bernard of Clairvaux's Sermons on the Song of Songs , considering how medieval writing virtualized embodied speech. Her 2019 monograph Symptomatic Subjects examines medical causation in pre-modern literature. Julie serves as Book-Review Editor for Exemplaria: Medieval, Early Modern, Theory (2025–) and has edited special issues on trans-regional medieval studies. Her recent publications analyze medieval fictionality, personification, and the ethical stakes of literary voice. She has presented at the English Institute Annual Conference and organized graduate research symposia.

Ruth HollidayView profile

Professor

• Cultural Sociology
• Body Studies
• Cosmetic Surgery
• +6 more

Professor Ruth Holliday holds the position of Professor of Gender and Culture at the University of Leeds since 2006, where she has also served as Director of Studies for the Centre for Interdisciplinary Gender Studies, Director of Research and Innovation, and Director of Recruitment and Admissions for the School of Sociology and Social Policy. Previously, she worked at Staffordshire University and Birmingham City University, and served as a Visiting Professor at the University of Technology Sydney (UTS). Her research expertise spans cultural sociology, body studies, material culture, medical tourism, and gender relations, with a focus on low fertility and East Asian cultural contexts. Her academic qualifications include a PhD in Sociology and a BA in Electronics and Management Science. She has contributed to over 50 articles and 7 books, including the award-winning Beautyscapes (2019), which explored global cosmetic surgery tourism and won the Foundation for the Sociology of Health and Illness Book Prize in 2020. Her work on kitsch aesthetics and visual methodologies has also been influential, particularly in understanding class, gender, and race through taste politics. Ruth’s current research projects include studying low fertility cultures’ impacts on gender identities and a project on the cultural meaning of the penis in gender construction. She teaches modules such as Theorizing Gender and Contested Bodies at the MA level, emphasizing critical approaches to gender and embodiment. Key Projects: ESRC-funded 'Building Capacity in Visual Research' and collaborative work on medical tourism in East Asia and Europe. Awards: 2020 Foundation for the Sociology of Health and Illness Book Prize. Supervision: Active in mentoring PhD students researching the body, intimacy, and low fertility in China and Korea. Her interdisciplinary approach bridges sociology, cultural studies, and visual methodologies, with a commitment to ethnographic fieldwork and global comparative analysis.

Dotun AyobadeView profile

Assistant Professor

• African/Black Performance Theory
• African Popular Culture
• Performance Ethnography/Historiography
• +3 more

Dotun Ayobade is an Assistant Professor of Performance Studies and Black Studies at Northwestern University. His research focuses on how embodied popular culture shapes community, justice, and activism in postcolonial West Africa, particularly examining the interplay of aesthetics and social performance in Nigeria. He holds a joint appointment across disciplines and has taught at the University of Texas at Austin and Brown University prior to Northwestern. His academic interests include African/Black Performance Theory, African Popular Culture, and the intersection of performance with postcolonial politics. He is currently completing a book on Nigeria’s Afrobeat Queens, analyzing their role in Fela Kuti’s music subculture, under contract with Indiana University Press. This work has earned him prestigious awards, including the University of Texas Continuing Fellowship and Brown University’s Salomon Award. His scholarly contributions span peer-reviewed journals like Dance Research Journal and Journal of African Cultural Studies , with articles exploring topics such as sonic embodiment in Nigerian music and the spatial poetics of protest. He also engages with public discourse through platforms like Africa is a Country , addressing issues like neoliberalism and cultural netizenship. Ayobade’s work bridges performance ethnography, gender studies, and postcolonial theory, emphasizing the agency of marginalized voices in shaping cultural narratives. His research integrates interdisciplinary methods to unpack how performance mediates between individual creativity and collective socio-political realities in Africa and its diasporas.

Anil SethView profile

Professor

• Cognitive Neuroscience
• Computational Neuroscience
• Consciousness Science
• +12 more

Professor Anil Seth is a leading cognitive and computational neuroscientist at the University of Sussex, where he holds a professorship in the School of Engineering and Informatics. He is Director of the Sussex Centre for Consciousness Science and Co-Director of the CIFAR Program on Brain, Mind, and Consciousness and the Leverhulme Doctoral Scholarship Programme. His research bridges neuroscience, psychology, philosophy, and AI to investigate the biological basis of consciousness and selfhood. His research interests include: Predictive processing approaches to perception Virtual and augmented reality in self-experience studies Mathematical modeling of perception and emergence Machine learning applications in subjective perception modeling Interoception and selfhood Neural mechanisms of conscious experience The recent publications reflect a strong focus on consciousness, neural dynamics, predictive models, and interdisciplinary approaches. Trends include the use of computational modeling, neurophenomenology, causal analysis, and the ethical implications of emerging neurotechnologies. His work increasingly integrates large language models and data-driven methods for analyzing subjective experience. His scientific awards include: Segerfalk Award Perspectives Award Highly Cited Researcher (Web of Science, 2019–2022) Royal Society Michael Faraday Prize (2023) Seth has secured substantial research funding from the European Research Council (ERC), EPSRC, Wellcome Trust, CIFAR, and the Sackler Foundation. He has supervised numerous research projects and doctoral students through interdisciplinary programs. He leads the Dreamachine project and has been an Engagement Fellow with the Wellcome Trust. He serves on editorial boards including Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B and is Editor-in-Chief of Neuroscience of Consciousness . He leads a multidisciplinary research group at the Sackler Centre, bringing together psychologists, mathematicians, neuroscientists, computer scientists, and philosophers. His team conducts innovative research using virtual reality, neuroimaging, and computational modeling to explore the nature of consciousness and self.

Sophie OldfieldView profile

Professor

• Urban Studies
• Cities of the Global South
• African Urbanism
• +7 more

Sophie Oldfield is Professor and Chair of the Department of City and Regional Planning at Cornell University's College of Architecture, Art, and Planning. She is internationally recognized for her research on cities in the Global South, with a particular focus on African urbanism, informality, governance, and collaborative planning. She previously held a joint professorship at the University of Cape Town and the University of Basel from 2016 to 2021. Ph.D., Geography, University of Minnesota M.A., Geography, Syracuse University Her research interests center on urban studies in the Global South , especially African cities, where she investigates informality, housing struggles, participatory planning, and the epistemologies of urban knowledge production . She is deeply committed to collaborative and community-engaged research, challenging traditional academic boundaries between the university and community. Her work emphasizes fieldwork, theory, and practice, and explores how urban governance shapes everyday life in marginalized settlements. Her recent publications reflect a strong trend toward co-produced knowledge, feminist urban praxis, and critical urban theory from southern perspectives . She frequently examines how urban theory can be reimagined through partnerships with communities, activists, and practitioners. Her scholarship spans interdisciplinary areas including geography, planning, urban studies, and social policy. Society of South African Geographers Fellowship (2020) Distinguished African Scholar, Cornell University (2018) British Academy Newton Advanced Fellow (2015–2018) University of Cape Town Social Responsiveness Award (2014) Mandela Mellon Fellow, Harvard University (2010) She has supervised and collaborated with numerous students, particularly through participatory research projects such as Building Bit-by-Bit , which involved master’s students from the University of Cape Town and the University of Basel. She has secured significant research funding through fellowships and institutional support. Her work is closely tied to initiatives like the African Centre for Cities and the Critical Urbanisms program at the University of Basel . She continues to be an active voice in rethinking urban scholarship through collaboration, equity, and southern epistemologies.

Apala DasView profile

Research Fellow

• 20th-century global anglophone literatures
• modernist poetry and poetics
• postsecularism studies
• +4 more

Dr. Apala Das is a Research Fellow at Bilkent University, specializing in 20th-century global anglophone literatures, modernist poetry and poetics, and postsecularism studies. Her academic work bridges postcolonial theory, South Asian literatures, and political theology within transnational frameworks. Her educational background includes a PhD from the University of Toronto, completed in 2024. Dr. Das's research centers on modernist asceticism as a critical lens for examining literary experiments by figures like Rabindranath Tagore, Hilda Doolittle, Aurobindo Ghose, and May Sinclair. She investigates how these writers negotiated ascetical ideals within colonial and postcolonial contexts, connecting literary form to biopolitics, secular citizenship, and ethno-nationalist ideologies. Her approach synthesizes postcolonial ethics, comparative literature, and political theology to analyze transnational modernist aesthetics. Her publications from 2018-2024 reveal consistent engagement with mobility, hybridity, and spiritual dimensions across literary traditions. Early work analyzed mobility in ethnography and Romantic-era travel, evolving toward contemporary meta-minimalist fiction and systematic studies of asceticism in global modernism. Dr. Das has received significant recognition for her scholarship: Ontario Graduate Scholarship (awarded twice) Chancellor Jackman Junior Fellowship from the Jackman Humanities Institute, University of Toronto Khashu Award for Tagore Studies from the Institute for South Asia Studies, UC Berkeley As a recent PhD graduate, she has not yet taken on formal graduate advising roles. Her research has been supported by competitive doctoral grants including the Ontario Graduate Scholarships and Chancellor Jackman Junior Fellowship, with current work funded through the Bilkent University/British Institute at Ankara Joint Fellowship. Dr. Das is actively developing her book manuscript "Modernist Asceticisms: Discipline, Form, and the Postsecular in the Transnational Twentieth Century" while participating in academic initiatives like the 2024 book launch for "Mind and Embodiment in Late Victorian Literature".

Cangbai WangView profile

Professor

• Transnational migration
• Chinese diasporas
• Migration-related museum studies
• +3 more

Cangbai Wang is a Professor of Migration, Heritage and Language at the University of Westminster and co-founder of HOMELandS (Hub On Migration, Exile, Languages and Spaces). He holds a PhD in Asian Studies from the University of Hong Kong (2003) and previously worked as a Post-doctoral Fellow/Honorary Assistant Professor at the University of Hong Kong and Visiting Lecturer at City University of Hong Kong. Academic focus: Transnational migration, Chinese diasporas, cultural heritage Co-Director of HOMELandS since 2014 (elevated to Research Centre in 2023) External Examiner for 20 institutions including University of Birmingham (2024), University of Cambridge (2020), and Nanyang Technological University (2024) His research explores the intersection of migration and material culture , emphasizing how diasporic communities negotiate identity through heritage practices. Recent work examines museum representations of Chinese diasporas and language dynamics in multicultural London. He has led the AHRC-funded Global Diasporic Chinese Museums Network Initiative (2023-2025) and contributed to policy discussions on diaspora engagement with Chinese municipal governments. Key publication: Museum Representations of Chinese Diasporas (Routledge 2021) and Negotiating Identities, Language and Migration in Global London (Multilingual Matters 2024). Supervised PhDs include Denise Kwan’s The talking of objects: migratory experiences and Chinese women in UK (2020) and Xiao Ma’s ongoing London Chinatown: heritage making and diasporic identities . Active in academic leadership: Co-editor: Routledge Research on Museums and Heritage in Asia Editorial board: Social Transformations in Chinese Societies (since 2024) International editorial board: Chinese Overseas Review (since 2020) UKRI FLF Peer Review College member

Ato QuaysonView profile

Professor

• African Literature
• Postcolonial Literature
• Shakespeare Studies
• +10 more

Ato Quayson is the Jean G. and Morris M. Doyle Professor of Interdisciplinary Studies and Professor of English and African and African American Studies at Stanford University, where he also chairs the Department of African and African American Studies. He previously held professorships at New York University (2017–2019) and the University of Toronto (2005–2017), where he was inaugural director of the Centre for Diaspora and Transnational Studies and became a University Professor (2016), the university's highest honor. His academic journey includes a B.A. (First Class Honors) in English and Arabic from the University of Ghana (1989) and a Ph.D. in English from the University of Cambridge (1995). He held a Junior Research Fellowship at Wolfson College, Oxford, and was a Reader in Commonwealth and Postcolonial Literature at Cambridge (1995–2005), concurrently directing the Centre for African Studies and serving as Pembroke College Fellow. Quayson’s research explores postcolonial literature, urban studies, disability studies, and cultural theory. His work bridges global and local contexts, with notable publications such as Oxford Street, Accra (Urban History Association Prize) and Tragedy and Postcolonial Literature (Warren-Brooks Prize). He co-edits the Cambridge History of Postcolonial Literature and chairs initiatives like Contours: The Cambridge Literary Studies Hour . His accolades include fellowships from the Ghana Academy of Arts and Sciences (2006), the Royal Society of Canada (2013), the British Academy (2019), and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (2023). He has also served as President of the African Studies Association (2019–2020). Quayson curates the YouTube channel Critic.Reading.Writing , discussing literature and urban studies, and teaches courses on global Black diaspora studies and Toni Morrison’s work. His current projects include Accra Chic: A Locational History of Fashion and studies on exile in African literature.

• Gender Studies
• Media Studies
• Postfeminism
• +7 more

Rosalind Gill is a prominent Professor at Goldsmiths, University of London, with a distinguished career spanning gender studies, media studies, and cultural studies. Her extensive publication record demonstrates leadership in critical analyses of postfeminism, neoliberalism, and digital culture. Gill's research interests focus on the intersections of gender, media, and neoliberal subjectivity, with particular attention to postfeminist discourse, digital culture, embodiment, and creative labor. Her work critically examines how contemporary media cultures shape gendered subjectivities, with significant contributions to understanding the 'postfeminist sensibility' as a dominant cultural framework. She has pioneered research on the affective dimensions of neoliberalism, particularly how it shapes women's experiences of confidence, self-care, and embodiment in digital environments. Analysis of Gill's recent publications reveals a consistent scholarly trajectory examining the psychological and affective dimensions of contemporary culture. Her work increasingly focuses on digital embodiment, social media practices, and the 'editable self,' exploring how visual culture and digital technologies reshape bodily experiences and self-perception. Gill's research demonstrates a sophisticated understanding of how neoliberal imperatives intertwine with postfeminist discourse to create new forms of gendered subjectivity. Gill has produced significant scholarly collaborations, particularly with researchers like Shani Orgad, Julia Coffey, and Akane Kanai. Her influential book 'Confidence Culture' (2022, co-authored with Orgad) offers a critical analysis of how confidence has become a moral imperative within contemporary neoliberal feminism. Her academic contributions extend to professional activities, including submissions of evidence to UK Parliamentary committees on employment rights, demonstrating her engagement with policy-relevant research. Gill's work consistently bridges theoretical sophistication with attention to contemporary social issues, making significant contributions to feminist scholarship and cultural studies.

Simidele DosekunView profile

Assistant Professor

• Gender and Media
• Race and Ethnicity
• African Studies
• +7 more

Dr Simidele Dosekun is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Media and Communications at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE). She serves as Programme Director for the MSc Global Media and Communications (LSE and Fudan) and MSc Global Media and Communications (LSE and UCT). Her research focuses on African women's experiences of gender, race, and power in global contexts, particularly through the lens of media and cultural studies. Education: PhD in Gender and Cultural Studies from King’s College London. Research Interests: Gender and Media, Postfeminism, Black Feminist Thought, African Cultural Studies, Qualitative Research Methodologies, Representation in Global Media. Publications: Author of Fashioning Postfeminism: Spectacular Femininity and Transnational Culture (2020), co-editor of African Luxury: Aesthetics and Politics (2019). Recent work explores intersections of feminism and capitalism, transnational beauty practices, and discourses around gendered violence. Professional Roles: Programme Director (MSc Global Media Programmes), Editorial Board Member (Feminist Media Studies), and frequent contributor to academic conferences on African feminisms.

Nadia GuessousView profile

Associate Professor

• Transnational Politics of Gender and Sexuality
• Religion and Secularism
• Affect, Power and Subjectivity
• +3 more

Nadia Guessous is an Associate Professor and Chair in the departments of Arabic, Islamic, & Middle Eastern Studies and Feminist & Gender Studies at Colorado College. Her research focuses on transnational feminist theory, postcolonial/decolonial thought, and critical Muslim/MENA studies. She explores themes such as secular feminism in Morocco, affect and power, and the decolonization of knowledge. Her current book project, The Tragedy of Progress , examines the intersection of postcolonial secular feminism and the legacies of colonial modernity in Morocco. Education: PhD in Anthropology, Columbia University (2011) MA in Anthropology, Columbia University (2001) BA in Media and Cultural Studies, University of Massachusetts Amherst (1996) Research Interests: Transnational politics of gender/sexuality Religion and secularism Memory, embodiment, and affect Decolonial methodologies Awards & Fellowships: Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow, Rutgers University (2012–2014) Recipient of multiple teaching awards at CC Teaching & Mentorship: Known for interdisciplinary courses like Critical Feminist Methodologies and Gender & Sexuality in the Modern Middle East Former Visiting Lecturer at Amherst College, Columbia/Barnard, and Princeton