Dr. Kyla Walters is an Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology at Sonoma State University. Her research focuses on gender, labor, and education policy, particularly exploring issues of inequality in retail work, sexual harassment in industries, and resistance to charter school expansion. She holds a Ph.D. from the University of Massachusetts-Amherst. Current research includes an interview-based study on beauty appraisals during pregnancy and childbirth, conducted with Sonoma State sociology students. Her work has been published in journals like Sociology of Race and Ethnicity and Hospitality & Society , as well as in the book Walking Mannequins (University of California Press, 2022). She has also contributed to policy analyses on teacher union resistance to educational reforms.
Prof. Paula-Irene Villa Braslavsky holds the Chair of Sociology/Gender Studies at Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (LMU), Faculty of Social Sciences. She is on sabbatical during Summer Semester 2025 but continues research supervision and colloquia. Her research focuses on intersections of racism, sexism, and neoliberalism, with notable works like The Future of Difference and Top Girls . She co-edits the journal Gender Salon and leads projects on gender studies, queer theory, and postfeminism. Her academic contributions span monographs, anthologies, and journal articles addressing global social movements, anti-genderism, and body politics. Key themes include critical analysis of contemporary gender regimes, decolonial theory, and the sociocultural implications of neoliberalism. Her work frequently bridges theory and activism, emphasizing intersectional approaches to systemic oppression. Publications include edited volumes on #MeToo, fat studies, and the sociological analysis of bodies, reflecting her commitment to interdisciplinary research. She maintains an active academic presence through her website LMU Gender Studies and Academia.edu .
Dr. Jeni Mitchell is a Lecturer in the Department of War Studies at King’s College London, affiliated with the School of Security Studies under the Faculty of Social Science & Public Policy. She specializes in future war studies, space security, and the evolution of rebellion, serving as co-director of the Future Threats Lab within the Centre for Science & Security Studies. Her work emphasizes human-centric approaches to analyzing existential threats and their societal impacts. Her education includes a PhD from King’s College London, where her doctoral research focused on civilian victimization by non-state armed groups. She has held positions at Chatham House, the Brookings Institution, and the Middle East Institute. Teaching responsibilities include MA modules on future warfare, spacepower, and insurgency, while she also directs the MA International Relations and War program. Mitchell’s research explores future threat perceptions (particularly in space), futures research methodologies, and the intersection of war, genocide, and utopian ideologies. Her methodological innovations, termed ‘future-crafting,’ employ creative formats like films and games to model conflict scenarios. Notable collaborations include work with the Freeman Air and Space Institute and King’s Wargaming Network. Recent publications address Ukraine’s apocalyptic imaginary, space-based threat analysis, and refugee-warrior dynamics. Her research group activities include the Environmental Security research group and contributions to widening participation initiatives like the 2024 Summer School in international security.
Elisabeth Jean Wood is a Professor of Political Science at Yale University and holds a concurrent professorship at the Santa Fe Institute. Her research focuses on political violence, particularly sexual violence during war, civil war dynamics, and social movements. She is renowned for her work on insurgent transitions in South Africa and El Salvador, as well as her analysis of variation in wartime sexual violence. Wood has authored influential books including Forging Democracy from Below (2000) and Insurgent Collective Action and Civil War in El Salvador (2003). Her recent work examines the Myanmar military's sexual violence against the Rohingya, emphasizing ideological motivations and institutional frameworks. Wood teaches courses on comparative politics, political violence, and qualitative research methods at Yale. She serves on editorial boards for Politics and Society , American Political Science Review , and the Contentious Politics series. Her research emphasizes ethical fieldwork practices and transparency in qualitative studies, addressing challenges in conflict zones. Her work bridges theoretical contributions with policy implications for understanding and preventing conflict-related atrocities.
Catherine Butler is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and Programme Director of the DClinPsy Programme at the University of Bath's Department of Psychology. She holds external examiner roles at Cardiff University, University College London, and others. Her academic journey includes a Doctor of Clinical Psychology from the University of East London, an MBA from the Open University, and advanced training in Systemic Supervision at the University of Exeter. Her research focuses on Inclusion, Whiteness, Gender and Sexual Minorities, Intersectionality, and Systemic Therapy, with contributions to anti-racism and climate crisis studies. Key projects include exploring systemic therapy supervision, validation of therapeutic scales, and shared learning courses with clinical psychology trainees. Dr. Butler’s scholarly work addresses topics such as gender dysphoria in neurodivergent populations, relapse experiences in addiction therapy, and systemic training in clinical psychology programs. She has been recognized for her contributions through awards like the Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. Her professional activities include roles on the British Psychological Society committee, conference presentations, and advisory roles in academic and clinical settings. She has supervised 18 doctoral students and led projects funded by UK charities such as the Association for Family Therapy.
Professor Tamsin Bradley is a leading academic in International Development Studies at the University of Portsmouth, affiliated with the School of Area Studies, Sociology, History, Politics and Literature. Her research focuses on ending violence against women and girls, social inclusion, and harmful cultural practices. She holds a PhD from SOAS, University of London, and has held roles at institutions like the University of East Anglia and London Metropolitan University before joining Portsmouth in 2011. She was promoted to Professor in 2017. Her work is supported by grants from the British Academy, ESRC, and AHRC. Bradley is also a Fellow of the Royal Anthropological Institute. She currently supervises two PhD students on ESRC-funded projects and collaborates with organizations like Plan International and Stop Domestic Abuse. Her research integrates applied social anthropology with policy-relevant outcomes, addressing issues such as FGM, breast ironing, and gender-based violence in South Asia and Africa. Education: Bachelor's in Politics and Study of Religion (SOAS, 1996) MA in Social Anthropology of Development (SOAS, 1997) PGCE (University of Cambridge) PhD (SOAS, 2006) Research Focus: Ending violence against women and girls, harmful cultural practices, gender and social inclusion in South Asia/Africa, humanitarianism in conflict zones. Key Grants: £300k from British Academy (2018) for the 'Art Heritage, Resilience and Humanitarianism in South Sudan' project. External Roles: Council member of British Association of South Asian Studies (2014–2016), Editorial Board member of African Identities . Media Availability: Actively engages with media on gender-based violence and development topics. Bradley’s work bridges academic research and practical solutions, emphasizing community-led approaches. Her recent publications highlight intersections between culture, conflict, and gendered violence, with a focus on marginalized communities in South Sudan, Sudan, and South Asia.
Tina Dacin is a Professor of Strategy and Organizational Behavior at the Smith School of Business, Queen's University, Canada. She holds the Stephen J.R. Smith Chair and serves as Director of the Community Impact Research Program. Her roles include former Director of the Smith School’s Centre for Social Impact, former University Senate member, and former Chair of the Principal’s Innovation Fund Committee. She co-founded the Community of Social Innovation Chair and holds affiliations with the Academy of Management and Informs. Education: Ph.D. (1993) in Business Administration from the University of Toronto and M.A. in Psychology from the University of New Brunswick. Research focuses on cultural heritage, social innovation/entrepreneurship, strategic alliances, and globalization. Key themes include custodianship, tradition preservation, place-making, and institutional dynamics. Recent work explores craft-based ventures, place-sensitive organizational practices, and institutional renewal in crises like the Detroit water wars. Awards: None explicitly listed, though her chair position reflects academic distinction. Teaching includes courses on global social impact and analytics/ethics policy. Labs/Teams: Leadership in the Community Impact Research Program and the Scotiabank Centre for Customer Analytics.
Lorena Sosa is an Associate Professor at the Faculty of Law, Economics and Governance, Utrecht University, specializing in International and European Law. She is affiliated with the Netherlands Institute of Human Rights (SIM) and the research program Family & Law (UCERF). Her roles include membership of the management board of the Center for Global Challenges, Director of Education at UGlobe since 2022, and a community-engaged learning ambassador for her faculty since 2023. Education: PhD (cum laude) in Law from Tilburg University (2015), LL.M. in International Public Law (cum laude, National University of Córdoba), and a law degree from the same institution. Prior to Utrecht, she held positions at the University of Buenos Aires, University of Turku, and others. Research focuses on intersectional discrimination, gender-based violence, and human rights law. Key areas include the Istanbul Convention, feminist legal frameworks, and trans rights in criminal procedures. She employs socio-legal methods and collaborates with international organizations like the EU, Council of Europe, and UN. Publications span topics like femicide, domestic violence, and transgender experiences. Recent works include contributions to the Routledge International Handbook on Femicide and Feminicide (2023) and Preventing and Combating Violence Against Women (2023). Awards include the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellowship (2018), VENI Grant (2020), and the Max van der Stoel Award (2015) for her PhD on intersectionality in violence against women frameworks. Teaching includes courses on human rights law at Utrecht’s Legal Research Master, PIL Master, and University College Utrecht. She advises on projects related to victim rights, gender diversity, and empirical legal studies.
Professor Beatrice Heuser is a distinguished academic in the Department of Politics within the School of Social & Political Sciences at the University of Glasgow. Her career spans multiple prestigious institutions across Europe, including King's College London, University of Reading, and visiting professorships at Sciences Po Paris, Bundeswehr University Munich, and MGIMO. She maintains significant affiliations with major strategic research institutes including Chatham House, RUSI, IFRI, and IRSEM. Education: BA from Bedford College London, MA from LSE, DPhil from Oxford (St Antony's/St John's), Habilitation from University of Marburg Professional Experience: Former Director of Studies at German Bundeswehr's military history research office, NATO Headquarters consultant, and extensive teaching across European institutions Her research centers on strategic studies with particular focus on the cultural dimensions of warfare, nuclear strategy, and the historical evolution of strategic thought. Key research areas include strategic culture, military exercises as political instruments, laws of war development, and European defense policy. Her work bridges historical analysis with contemporary security challenges, examining how cultural narratives shape strategic decision-making from antiquity to the nuclear age. Professor Heuser's recent publications demonstrate consistent scholarly output across strategic theory, military history, and contemporary security issues. Her work shows particular emphasis on the conceptual foundations of strategic culture, historical analysis of warfare evolution, and practical applications to modern security challenges including nuclear deterrence and asymmetric warfare. The interdisciplinary nature of her research connects political theory, historical analysis, and security studies. She actively supervises graduate students in strategic theory, nuclear strategy, insurgency studies, and defense policy-making within NATO/EU contexts. Her teaching portfolio includes War and International Relations, Defense Policy, and Strategic Theory courses.
Dr. Md Manjurul Ahsan serves as a Research Assistant Professor in the Department of Industrial & Systems Engineering at the University of Oklahoma, where he develops AI-driven solutions for healthcare diagnostics and advanced manufacturing optimization. His work bridges theoretical AI advancements with practical industrial and medical applications. Education: Ph.D. in Industrial and Systems Engineering, University of Oklahoma M.S. in Industrial Engineering, Lamar University B.S. in Industrial and Production Engineering, Shahjalal University of Science and Technology Research Focus: Dr. Ahsan specializes in Artificial Intelligence with technical depth in Machine Learning , Deep Learning , and Computer Vision to solve critical challenges in healthcare diagnostics and additive manufacturing . His research emphasizes Explainable AI to enhance model trustworthiness and deployment efficiency across Cyber-Physical-Social Systems, with significant contributions to Aerospace and Defense applications. Publication Trends: Recent work (2023-2025) reveals a strategic expansion from core manufacturing applications into medical AI (diffusion models for diagnostics), cultural preservation (NLP for Dravidian languages), and geopolitical AI analysis. His publications consistently address data imbalance challenges while advancing digital twin integration in quality control systems. Scientific Recognition: GCOE Dissertation Excellence Award (2023) International Student Scholarship (2022) Outstanding Academic Achievement in Engineering (2022) IEEE IEMCON Best Paper Award (2020) Netti Vincent Boggs Engineering Excellence Award (2020) Research Leadership: As director of the Sooner Additive Manufacturing Laboratory , Dr. Ahsan leads cross-disciplinary teams developing real-time monitoring systems using FARO arms and CMM metrology. His postdoctoral work at Northwestern University (2023-2024) advanced AI deployment frameworks, resulting in 60+ peer-reviewed publications with multiple papers ranking in engineering's top 1% for citations.
Mark de Rond is Professor of Organisational Ethnography at Cambridge Judge Business School and Fellow of Darwin College, University of Cambridge. His work focuses on immersive ethnographic studies of human behavior in extreme contexts including war zones, high-stakes sports, and controversial social movements, revealing how individuals navigate challenging circumstances through compromise and sensemaking. His educational background includes a DPhil from the University of Oxford alongside advanced degrees in management and economics, photojournalism, documentary photography, biography, creative nonfiction, and prose fiction. This multidisciplinary training informs his unconventional methodological approach. De Rond's research centers on extreme context ethnography, examining how pressure-cooker environments expose fundamental organizational dynamics. His work spans military medicine (Camp Bastion fieldwork), elite sports (Cambridge Boat Race), Amazon river expeditions, and controversial practices like paedophile hunting. Key contributions explore negotiation, conflict resolution, serendipity, institutional persistence, and the emotional toll of fieldwork, often employing innovative methods like enactive ethnography and linguistic analysis of digital communities. His recent publications reveal a growing focus on digital vigilantism and the societal implications of extreme practices, with increasing interdisciplinary reach across organizational studies, criminology, medical anthropology, and sociology. The work demonstrates methodological creativity through linguistic analysis of Facebook groups, embodiment studies in extreme environments, and dream-based reflexive techniques. Scientific recognition includes: BEST ARTICLE AWARD FOR 2016 Favorite MBA Professor honors from Poets & Quants (2021, 2022) Guinness World Record for first unsupported Amazon row De Rond advises MBA students and delivers executive education to top law firms (Slaughter and May, Allen & Overy), professional services (McKinsey, KPMG), corporations (Sky, BT, Diageo), and NGOs (UNICEF, NHS). His negotiation training from Harvard Law School informs both academic work and university mediation practice. Current research involves collaborative teams studying paedophile hunting (featured in Sundance-nominated documentary Predators ) and high-performance sports organizations, with fieldwork requiring deep immersion in challenging environments. His research methodology involves embedded collaboration with diverse teams including medical personnel in conflict zones, elite rowers, and controversial activist groups, often pushing methodological boundaries through photojournalism and creative nonfiction approaches.
Prof. Neslihan YETKİNER is the current Dean of İzmir University of Economics and a member of the TÜBİTAK SOBAG Advisory Board. She holds a PhD in Linguistics from Groningen University (Netherlands) and has served as a research assistant at Hacettepe University and part-time lecturer at London University. Her academic career spans over two decades, with expertise in Translation Studies, Pragmatics, and Corpus-based Translation. Education: BA (Summa Cum Laude) and MA in Translation from Hacettepe University; PhD in Linguistics from Groningen University. Administrative Roles: Dean since 2023, previously Head of the Department (2006–2009). Research Interests: Focus on translation theory, critical discourse analysis, children’s literature, and cultural studies. Her work explores themes like censorship in children’s books, translator prefaces, and intercultural adaptation. Her recent articles address topics such as the impact of the pandemic on the translation industry, liminality in folk tale translations, and community interpreting professionalism. She has led three TÜBİTAK-funded projects on translation and literary analysis. Prof. YETKİNER has received multiple awards, including the TÜBİTAK Scientific Publication Encouragement Award (2012–2017), and has advised PhD student Hamide Çakır. She is actively involved in academic administration and contributes to national and international conferences.
Prof. Dr. Ulrike Freitag is a distinguished scholar in Islamic Studies and social history of the Arab world, holding a Professorship at Freie Universität Berlin and serving as Director of the Leibniz-Zentrum Moderner Orient (ZMO) . Her work bridges urban history, transregional Islamic networks, and Arabian Peninsula studies within Indian Ocean and Red Sea contexts. Education : PhD in Islamic Studies (Freiburg, 1991), Habilitation (Bonn, 2002) Research : Focus on Ottoman urban violence, Saudi state formation, Hadhrami diaspora, and historical urbanism in Jeddah Her supervision of PhD projects spans topics from Moroccan Sufi sanctußen to Yemeni Jewish communities. Recent scientific awards include fellowships at Leiden University and Käthe-Hamburger Kolleg. She contributes to public discourse through Tagesspiegel op-eds and international conferences.
Dr. Damian Vergara Bracamontes is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Gender and Women's Studies at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. His work bridges Latinx Studies, Critical Prison Studies, and Queer/Trans of Color Critique, focusing on migration, gendered violence, and resistance frameworks. Education: Ph.D. in American Studies, Yale University (2020) WGSS Certificate, Yale University (2017) M.A. in American Studies, Yale University (2017) B.A. in Ethnic Studies (Magna Cum Laude), University of California San Diego (2013) A.A. in Social and Behavioral Sciences, San Diego City College (2010) Vergara Bracamontes' research interrogates the intersections of Latinx migration, carceral systems, and queer/trans identities in the 20th-21st centuries. His publications and workshops address: Critical responses to immigration enforcement Queer kinship as resistance Decolonizing trans studies Community-based defense strategies Chicano movement historiography Scientific Awards: 2019 Public Scholar Award (Yale University) for societal impact of academic research As an educator, he has been recognized on the Teachers Ranked Excellent list since 2021, teaching courses on intersectional power structures, policing, and queer theories.
Philip Schlesinger is a Professor in Cultural Theory at the University of Glasgow and holds roles at CREATe, a Centre for Regulation of the Creative Economy. He previously held the inaugural Chair in Cultural Policy at Glasgow (2007–present), directed the Centre for Cultural Policy Research (CCPR) until 2013, and led the Stirling Media Research Institute. His research focuses on digital platforms’ regulation, cultural policy, and the interplay between expertise and power in governance. Collaborations span institutions like the London School of Economics, Complutense University of Madrid, and the European University Institute. His work critiques the 'post-public sphere' and explores neo-regulation frameworks for digital platforms, emphasizing UK policy dynamics. Key publications include analyses of generative AI governance, platform power, and the creative economy’s global orthodoxies. He has held fellowships at the Nuffield Foundation, European University Institute, and Maison des Sciences de l’Homme in Paris. As a leader in cultural policy research, Schlesinger has advised on UK film policy, media transitions, and digital challenges. His interdisciplinary approach bridges sociology, media studies, and law, addressing topics like public service media, creative industries, and transnational cultural frameworks. Ongoing projects include policy responses to AI and platform regulation, reflecting his commitment to shaping evidence-based cultural and digital policies.
