Joel Andreas is a Professor of Sociology at Johns Hopkins University since 2003, serving as Program Director of the East Asian Studies Program. His research focuses on political contention, social inequality, and social change in contemporary China. He holds a PhD in Sociology from UCLA and teaches social theory, political sociology, and courses on Chinese society. He has held visiting positions at universities including the University of Sydney, Hong Kong University, and Ningxia University. His work examines labor movements, rural land policies, and class dynamics in China. Recent research includes analyses of staff-worker congresses, rural land dispossession, and the persistence of militarism in U.S. policy. He critiques market reforms and explores the legacy of the Cultural Revolution. Andreas has contributed to debates on China’s transition to capitalism and the decline of socialist systems. His publications span topics from urbanization to state coercion in rural development. He maintains an active role in academic exchanges and policy-relevant research on China’s socio-political landscape.
Professor David A Palmer is a distinguished academic jointly appointed by the Hong Kong Institute for the Humanities and Social Sciences and the Department of Sociology at the University of Hong Kong, where he has been teaching since 2008. His interdisciplinary work bridges anthropology, sociology, religious studies, and Sinology, establishing him as a leading scholar in Chinese religious studies and transnational religious movements. Palmer's educational background includes a PhD in Anthropology of Religion from Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes (Sorbonne, Paris), an MPhil in Clinical Psychology/Medical Anthropology from University of Paris-VIII, and a BA in Anthropology and East Asian Studies from McGill University. His scholarly contributions span multiple disciplines with particular emphasis on Chinese religious traditions and their global manifestations. His research interests focus on the anthropology and sociology of spirituality and religion, especially Daoism and Chinese religion; religion in modern and contemporary China; inter-Asian and transnational religious circulations; Baháʼí Faith; civil society, volunteering, philanthropy, community engagement; and cultural and religious interactions on the Belt and Road. His work examines how religious traditions navigate modernity, state power, and globalization, with particular attention to the Belt and Road Initiative's cultural dimensions. Palmer's publications reveal a consistent focus on understanding Chinese religious traditions within broader theoretical frameworks of social theory, civil society, and transnational religious networks. His articles demonstrate how Chinese religious practices and institutions both adapt to and shape contemporary social and political contexts, with particular attention to the intersections of spirituality, modernity, and state-society relations. Joseph Levenson Award of the Association for Asian Studies PROSE award of the American Publishers' Association Francis L.K. Hsu Award of the Society for East Asian Anthropology Edward Bruner Prize for the best book in Anthropology of Tourism HK Research Grants Council RGC Research Fellowship (2021-2025) HK Research Grants Council Humanities and Social Sciences Prestigious Fellowship (2019) Palmer currently leads multiple significant research projects including 'Global China, Local Cultures: Chinese Modernity and Soft Power on the Belt and Road' (RGC Research Fellowship, 2021-2025), 'Infrastructures of Faith: Religious Mobilities on the Belt and Road' (CRF, 2019-2023), 'Rituals and Manuscripts of the Lanten Yao (Laos)' (GRF, 2021-2024), and 'Religious Cosmopolitanism in China, 1895-1927' (GRF, 2021-2024). He leads the 'Asian Religious Connections' research cluster at HKIHSS, co-convenes the 'Culture, Community and Social Equity' research cluster in the HKU Faculty of Social Sciences, and serves as co-convenor of the HKU Anthropology Research Network. As President of the East Asian Society for the Scientific Study of Religion, he plays a key role in advancing scholarly understanding of religion in the region.
University of California, Los AngelesUnited States
Ching Kwan Lee is a Professor of Sociology at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). Her work focuses on global and comparative issues, including labor politics, political sociology, decolonization, and the dynamics of Chinese capitalism. She is renowned for her trilogy on Chinese labor and global expansion, including Gender and the South China Miracle , Against the Law , and The Specter of Global China . Lee has also authored groundbreaking studies on Hong Kong’s decolonization struggles and African-China relations. Education: PhD in Sociology from the University of California, Berkeley. Research Interests : Globalization and its social impacts Comparative labor movements and protest dynamics Decolonization and postcolonial state formations Sino-African economic and labor relations Hong Kong’s political trajectory and transnational activism Her recent work explores resistance to 'global China,' including mass mobilizations in Hong Kong documented in Forever Hong Kong: A Global City’s Decolonization Struggle (2025). She co-edits the Cambridge Elements in Global China and leads the Global Hong Kong Studies @UC initiative. Awards & Recognition : 2024 Distinguished Career in Political Sociology Award Multiple book prizes for The Specter of Global China Fellowships at Stanford’s Center for Advanced Study and Princeton’s Institute for Advanced Study Grants & Initiatives : Lead researcher on NSF grants studying platform capitalism and labor in China Initiated comparative projects on Brazil, India, China, and South Africa ( Southern Interregnum ) Co-editor of volumes on Hong Kong’s Umbrella Movement and global labor studies
Rhenish Friedrich Wilhelm University of BonnGermany
Gül Şen is a Senior Lecturer and Privatdozentin at the Institute of Oriental and Asian Studies, University of Bonn, and also serves as a Lecturer at the University of Heidelberg. Her academic work focuses on premodern Ottoman history, historiography, and the dynamics of dependency, particularly in maritime contexts such as galley slavery and war captivity. She is actively involved in major research programs including the DFG-Priority Program 'Transottomanica' and the Bonn Center for Dependency and Slavery Studies. Her research areas include: Premodern Ottoman historiography and narrative strategies Legitimacy of rule and political transitions Maritime unfree labor and galley slavery War captivity and captivity narratives in the 18th century Dependency and asymmetrical power relations in the early modern Mediterranean Her recent publications reveal a strong thematic trend centered on the interplay between narrative construction and social power, particularly in contexts of slavery and captivity. She investigates how historical actors used storytelling to assert legitimacy, cope with crises, and negotiate identity. Her work bridges literary analysis with social history, offering nuanced understandings of agency within systems of dependency. She frequently collaborates with leading scholars like Stephan Conermann and contributes to major edited volumes and series in Ottoman studies. Her scientific awards include: DAAD Award for outstanding academic achievements (2012) Postdoctoral Scholarship from the Fritz Thyssen Foundation (2012–2013) Postdoctoral Fellowships at the Annemarie Schimmel Kolleg (2015–2016, 2018–2019) Postdoctoral Scholarship from the University of Bonn (2019–2020) She has supervised numerous B.A. and M.A. theses at the University of Bonn and Heidelberg and has secured third-party funding, including a DFG project (€192,000) from 2016–2018 and Fritz Thyssen Foundation grants. She is co-editor of the 'Ottoman Studies' and 'Otto Spies Memorial Series' book series, and holds leadership roles in the Society for Turkic, Ottoman and Turkish Studies (GTOT) and the International Association for Ottoman Social and Economic History (IAOSEH). Her academic activities are deeply embedded in collaborative and interdisciplinary research environments. She is affiliated with the Bonn Center for Dependency and Slavery Studies and contributes to the DFG-Priority Program 'Transottomanica,' where she examines mobility dynamics and captivity narratives. Her work is supported by a strong network of international collaborations and editorial engagements.
Professor Jamie Peck is a University Killam Professor and Professor of Geography at the University of British Columbia, Faculty of Arts, Department of Geography. He holds the prestigious title of Distinguished University Scholar at UBC and maintains significant international academic affiliations including Visiting Professor at Oxford University's School of Geography and the Environment, Honorary Professorial Fellow at the University of Manchester, and Honorary Professor at the University of Nottingham. Peck received his PhD in Geography from the University of Manchester in 1988 following his BA (Hons) in Geography from the same institution. His distinguished academic career spans positions at the University of Manchester (1989-2000), University of Wisconsin-Madison (2000-2008), and his current position at UBC where he has been a central figure in economic geography and interdisciplinary social science. As an institutional political economist, Professor Peck's research critically examines the spatial dimensions of economic processes, with particular attention to how global phenomena like neoliberalization are constituted through local practices. His work bridges economic geography, urban studies, political economy, and social theory, consistently challenging conventional understandings of market processes and statecraft. Recent research focuses on Chinese state capitalism, especially the Greater Bay Area and Hong Kong's evolving political status, alongside methodological innovations in conjunctural analysis as demonstrated in his 2023 book Variegated Economies . His scholarly output reveals a sustained engagement with the variegated nature of capitalist development across different spatial contexts. Recent publications demonstrate a sophisticated methodological approach combining institutional analysis with extended case methods, emphasizing historical context and spatial specificity while challenging universalizing theoretical claims. His work on Chinese political economy represents a significant departure from conventional Western-centric analyses. University Killam Professor (2025) Lauréat Prix International de Géographie Vautrin Lud ("Nobel de Géographie") (2023) Corresponding Fellow of the British Academy Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada Clarivate Highly Cited, Social Sciences (2014-2024) Distinguished University Scholar, UBC (2017-present) Canada Research Chair in Urban & Regional Political Economy (2008-2022) Professor Peck has supervised numerous doctoral students whose dissertations examine diverse topics including global urban solutions industries, US-Mexico border economies, Rio de Janeiro's 'PACification' processes, and China's experimental economic zones. His supervision approach emphasizes theoretically sophisticated empirical work that connects local case studies to broader political economic processes. His Canada Research Chair position supported extensive research on urban and regional political economy, while his current Killam Professorship funds ongoing work on Chinese political economy and conjunctural analysis methodologies. While not formally affiliated with a specific laboratory, Professor Peck is deeply engaged with multiple scholarly networks through his editorial leadership as Managing Editor of EPA: Economy & Space and co-editor of the Economic Transformations book series. His role as Convenor of the Summer Institute in Economic Geography demonstrates his commitment to fostering scholarly exchange and theoretical development in economic geography as a discipline.
Emily Hannum is a Professor of Sociology and Education at the University of Pennsylvania's College of Arts & Sciences, where she also serves as Associate Dean for Social Sciences. She is affiliated with the Population Studies Center, Center for the Study of Contemporary China, Graduate School of Education, and Penn Development Research Initiative. Education: PhD in Sociology from University of Michigan (1998) Research Focus: Poverty and child welfare, gender and ethnic stratification, sociology of education Projects: Gansu Survey of Children and Families, climate-environment-childhood inequalities in LMICs Workshops: Co-organizer of Penn Education and Inequality Workshop Her research explores childhood poverty in China, demographic impacts on education systems, and climate risks affecting children's welfare. She investigates environmental hazards, educational disparities, and family separation effects across China, India, and low/middle-income countries. Recent publications analyze educational expansion in East Asia, climate crisis impacts on child health, and gender disparities in Latin America. She directs longitudinal studies on rural poverty and collaborates on cross-national projects related to environmental and educational equity. Scientific awards include the Stanley I. Sheerr Term Professorship in Social Sciences.
David Glovsky serves as Assistant Professor of History and African and African American Studies within Harvard University's Faculty of Arts and Sciences, focusing on 19th-20th century West Africa with regional expertise in Senegal, Gambia, Guinea-Bissau, and Guinea. His research examines borderlands through lenses of mobility, citizenship, and alternative geographies, challenging state-imposed borders with community-driven spatial narratives. His educational foundation includes a B.A. in History and Human Geography from Dartmouth College and a Ph.D. in African History from Michigan State University. Prior academic appointments include the Department of Africana Studies at University at Albany and the Department of History at Boston University, following Peace Corps service in southern Senegal that redirected his career from sports media into academia. Glovsky's research program centers on social justice-oriented historical narratives of marginalized West African communities, particularly Fulbe populations. His work synthesizes oral histories and archival research across six nations to analyze how borderland residents construct fluid geographies that transcend colonial/postcolonial boundaries. Key themes include migration as resistance , gendered border experiences , and Islam's role in transnational community formation , with methodological innovation in spatial history and decolonial approaches. Analysis of his nine recent publications (2019-2023) reveals consistent engagement with West African borderland resilience , demonstrating how communities maintain cross-border networks despite state fragmentation. His work bridges historical scholarship and contemporary migration debates , employing interdisciplinary frameworks from anthropology, geography, and postcolonial theory to document alternative spatial organizations that challenge Western cartographic traditions. ACLS Fellowship supporting book project Borderlanders: Popular Geographies, Mobility, and Belonging in West Africa Glovsky actively mentors graduate students interested in African history, emphasizing pathways for underrepresented scholars into U.S. academia. His research has received competitive external funding including the ACLS Fellowship, while his collaborative work on the NEH ‘Ajamī Project advanced accessibility of Pulaar manuscripts through digitization and multilingual translation. He maintains strong community ties with West African scholars and institutions, particularly in Senegambia. Though not leading a formal laboratory, Glovsky collaborates with international research teams across West Africa on borderland studies and manuscript preservation, working closely with scholars in Kolda (Senegal), Dakar, and Guinea-Bissau to document community histories through participatory methodologies.
Royal Holloway, University of LondonUnited Kingdom
Katherine Brickell is Professor of Human Geography at Royal Holloway, University of London (RHUL), where she serves as Research Lead for the Department of Geography. She is editor of the journal Gender, Place and Culture and former Chair of the RGS-IBG Gender and Feminist Geographies Research Group. Her work spans social, political, development, urban and legal geography with a feminist orientation. Brickell's research centers on three interconnected themes: home and home unmaking, labor precarity, and feminist legal geographies. Her longstanding interest in the domestic sphere and home unmaking aims to reaffirm the home as a political entity. Her monograph Home SOS: Gender, Violence and Survival in Crisis Ordinary Cambodia brings together 15 years of research on domestic violence and forced eviction. Since 2017, she has conducted collaborative work in London and Dublin on modular housing for homeless families. She has also led significant research on labor conditions in Cambodia, including the ESRC-DFID funded 'Blood Bricks' project (2016-2019) studying climate change impacts on rural families migrating to brick kilns. Her recent publications reveal a strong focus on debt, microfinance, and climate vulnerability in Cambodia, with multiple 2022-2024 articles examining how over-indebtedness intersects with social reproduction and climate adaptation. Her work consistently applies feminist lenses to understand spatial dimensions of power, particularly in Southeast Asia. Brickell has published in top journals including Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers , Progress in Human Geography , Antipode , and Annals of the American Association of Geographers . Gill Memorial Award (2014) Philip Leverhulme Prize (2016) Times Higher Education Research Project of the Year (2020) Brickell has supervised numerous doctoral students and mentored postdoctoral fellows working on topics including remittances during COVID-19, climate mobilities, moral geographies of garment work, and women's experiences with domestic violence. Her research has been funded by ESRC-DFID, UKRI GCRF, and the Urban Studies Foundation, among others. She collaborates extensively with colleagues in Cambodia and across Europe, with current projects examining climate resilience, credit-taking, and nutrition in Cambodia and South India, as well as the economic impacts of the pandemic on Cambodian garment workers.
Claire Célérier is an Associate Professor of Finance at the Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto, where she holds the Canada Research Chair in Household Finance. Her academic career spans prestigious institutions including the University of Toronto (where she advanced from Assistant to Associate Professor between 2016-2022) and the University of Zurich (2014-2016). She maintains an affiliation with the People's History Lab and actively contributes to academic discourse through conference organization including 'Race, Equity and Public Policy' (2023) and 'Banks, States and the People' (2024). Dr. Célérier's research explores how finance can benefit households through multiple lenses including behavioral economics, asset pricing, and financial history. Her work investigates innovation in finance, diversity and inclusion impacts, and historical perspectives on financial systems. She has developed significant expertise in household finance, banking, and the intersection of finance with social issues, particularly racial disparities in financial markets as demonstrated in her award-winning research on the Freedman's Savings Bank. Her scholarly output shows a clear trajectory from foundational work on security design and investor behavior toward increasingly socially relevant research on financial inclusion, racial equity, and household financial decision-making. Recent publications demonstrate her growing focus on historical contexts of financial systems and their contemporary implications, particularly regarding marginalized communities. Canada Research Chair in Household Finance (2024) Bank of Canada Governor's Award (2022) University of Toronto Top 5% Merit Award (2021) Petro Canada Young Innovators Award Program (2021) Multiple Rotman School of Management Teaching Awards (2019-2021) Ieke van den Burg Prize for Research on Systemic Risk (2015) Dr. Célérier has successfully secured substantial research funding including Insight Development Grants (CAD 54,500), Connaught Research Grant (CAD 10,000), and the Marianne and Marcus Wallenberg Foundation Grant (EUR 400,000). She mentors several PhD students including Andrada Bilan (2020), Alexey Vasilenko (2023), and Purnoor Tak (Expected 2026), and has supervised numerous master's theses at both University of Toronto and University of Zurich. Her service contributions include Rotman School of Management MBA program committee, executive committee, seminar coordination, and faculty recruiting committee.
Panos Ipeirotis is a Professor at the Leonard N. Stern School of Business at New York University, affiliated with the Department of Technology, Operations, and Statistics. He also serves as the George A. Kellner Faculty Fellow and is associated with the Center for Data Science and Computer Science departments at NYU. PhD in Computer Science (Columbia University, 2004) MSc in Computer Science (Columbia University, 2001) BSc in Computer Engineering & Informatics (University of Patras, 1999) His research spans crowdsourcing, machine learning, human-AI collaboration, online labor markets, and social media analytics. He pioneered human-machine loop systems that combine human and machine intelligence to achieve superior outcomes. His work has applications in data quality assurance, visual media search (e.g., Google Project Glass), and economic valuation of user-generated content. Recent publications focus on algorithmic fairness in hiring systems, occupational segregation analysis, and theoretical advancements in crowdsourcing consensus mechanisms. Earlier work includes foundational studies on data quality in crowdsourcing platforms, economic impacts of product reviews, and query optimization for text-centric tasks. 2015 Lagrange Prize in Complex Systems NSF CAREER Award SIGKDD Test of Time Award (2020) Multiple Best Paper awards (WWW 2011, KDD 2008, SIGMOD 2006) He has received significant grants, including a $1.5 million Google Research Grant (2013) for integrating crowdsourcing with machine learning algorithms. His work bridges computer science, economics, and social psychology, with implications for policy-making and business strategy.
Max Planck Institute for Intelligent SystemsGermany
Celestine Mendler-Dünner is a Principal Investigator at the ELLIS Institute in Tübingen, co-affiliated with the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems and the Tübingen AI Center. She leads the Algorithms and Society research group, focusing on machine learning in social contexts and the role of prediction in digital economies. Her work bridges theoretical machine learning with practical societal impact, developing tools for safe, reliable, and equitable AI ecosystems. Her educational background includes a PhD from ETH Zurich in collaboration with IBM Research, followed by an SNSF postdoctoral fellowship at UC Berkeley hosted by Moritz Hardt. She was previously a group leader at the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems before joining the ELLIS Institute. Mendler-Dünner's research spans several interconnected themes including performative prediction (where predictions change the behavior they aim to predict), algorithmic collective action (how participants can steer AI systems toward common goals), and the role of LLMs in social science research. Her work combines theoretical foundations with practical implementations, addressing challenges in interactive machine learning, optimization in dynamic environments, and context-specific evaluation of AI systems. She particularly examines how algorithmic predictions mediate services and platforms at societal scale, exploring concepts of economic power in digital markets. Her publication record shows a clear evolution from system-aware machine learning algorithms (including foundational work on IBM Snap ML) toward increasingly sociotechnical questions at the intersection of machine learning, economics, and policy. Recent work focuses on measuring performative power in digital economies, evaluating LLMs as risk scores, and developing frameworks for algorithmic collective action in recommender systems and labor markets. Among her notable recognitions are the ETH Medal for her dissertation, the IBM Research Division Award, the Fritz Kutter Award, and the IBM Eminence and Excellence Award. She is an ELLIS Scholar, a fellow of the Elisabeth-Schiemann-Kolleg, and affiliated with several prestigious research programs including the International Max Planck Research School for Intelligent Systems and the Max Planck ETH Center for Learning Systems. ETH Medal (dissertation award) IBM Research Division Award Fritz Kutter Award IBM Eminence and Excellence Award SNSF Early Postdoc Mobility Fellowship Mendler-Dünner actively mentors the next generation of researchers, advising PhD student Patrik Wolf and supervising research interns including Joachim Baumann, Haiqing Zhu, and Anna Badalyan, as well as Master's student Dorothee Sigg. She serves as core faculty for the International Max Planck Research School and associated faculty for the Max Planck ETH Center for Learning Systems. Her group has secured significant research funding through fellowships and institutional support, enabling work on projects like Powermeter (measuring search engine influence) and Snap ML (resource-efficient machine learning library with over 1 million PyPI downloads). She leads the Algorithms and Society research group, which examines machine learning as part of broader sociotechnical ecosystems. The group explores human-population interactions with algorithmic systems and incorporates these insights into learning system fundamentals. Current projects include investigating economic incentives in digital platforms, developing tools for systematic LLM evaluation in social science contexts, and creating frameworks for collective action in algorithmic systems. Mendler-Dünner also co-organizes the Algorithmic Collective Action workshop at NeurIPS 2025, demonstrating her leadership in emerging research directions at the AI-society interface.
Junfu Zhang is a Professor of Economics and Department Chair at Clark University. His research focuses on applied microeconomics, particularly urban and regional economics, with an emphasis on urbanization in China, entrepreneurship, regional development, and racial housing segregation. He holds a B.A. from Renmin University of China (1993), and M.A. and Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins University (1999, 2001). Prior to joining Clark in 2006, he was a research fellow at the Public Policy Institute of California and a Brookings Institution fellow (2000–2001). He has been an IZA Research Fellow since 2007 and served as President of the Chinese Economists Society (2019–2020). Education: B.A., International Economics, Renmin University of China, 1993 M.A., Economics, Clark University, 1997 M.A., Economics, Johns Hopkins University, 1999 Ph.D., Economics, Johns Hopkins University, 2001 Research Interests: Dr. Zhang's research explores urbanization dynamics in China, including land use policies, housing tenure systems, and economic segregation. His work also addresses entrepreneurship, high-tech industrial clusters, and the economic impacts of urbanization. Recent studies include analyses of land regulation, Super Bowl economic effects, and gender competition in labor markets. Recent Research Trends: His articles reflect a focus on China's socio-economic challenges, such as urban land policies, housing wealth effects, and regional development disparities. Collaborative projects with institutions like IZA and CES highlight interdisciplinary engagement. Awards and Affiliations: IZA Research Fellow (2007–present) Former President, Chinese Economists Society (2019–2020) Advising and Grants: No specific grant or student advising details are listed, though his research often involves collaborative teams. His work is supported by institutional affiliations and academic networks. Labs and Teams: No dedicated labs are mentioned, but his research engages interdisciplinary teams focusing on urban economics and regional policy.
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.
Swantje Falcke is an Assistant Professor in Economic and Social History at Utrecht University's Department of History and Art History. As part of the College of Humanities, her research focuses on migrant integration, naturalization, and the interplay between environmental change and migration patterns. Areas of Expertise: Migration and Societal Change, Pathways to Sustainability, In-Equality Studies Academic Background: PhD in Economics (2017) at Utrecht University, Post-Doc in Political Science at Maastricht University Her interdisciplinary work examines: Education-labor market mismatches among Dutch migrants Impact of German citizenship law reforms on naturalization Long-term effectiveness of refugee integration policies Environmental change effects on migration dynamics Scientific recognition includes: Duncan Black Award (2014) for political economy research NWO XS grant (2024) for environmental migration studies Her publications demonstrate methodological rigor, combining longitudinal analysis, policy evaluation, and empirical economic testing.
Diane E. Austin is a Professor and Director of the School of Anthropology at the University of Arizona. She also serves as a Research Anthropologist at the Bureau of Applied Research in Anthropology (BARA). Her work focuses on environmental anthropology, particularly community dynamics in industrial and environmental contexts, with a strong emphasis on social justice and collaborative research. She has over 25 years of experience leading interdisciplinary projects in the U.S., Mexico, and Gulf Coast regions. Austin's research spans diverse areas including Native American communities, U.S.-Mexico border sustainability, Gulf Coast oil industry impacts, and urban food systems in arid regions. She has pioneered long-term partnerships with tribal organizations, federal agencies, and community groups, earning recognition such as the University Distinguished Outreach Professor (2008) and Distinguished Director (2023). Her recent work highlights longitudinal studies on the Deepwater Horizon oil spill's social effects, binational environmental initiatives in Nogales, and community-based approaches to disaster resilience. She coordinates BARA's internship and post-baccalaureate programs, supporting hundreds of students in applied anthropological research. Awards: Partners in Conservation Award (2010), Border Research Partnership Award Finalist (2012) Leadership Roles: Chair of the Good Neighbor Environmental Board, Member of the Gulf Research Program Advisory Board Key Projects: Southern Paiute cultural preservation, Gulf Coast oil industry studies, Nogales reforestation initiatives Austin’s teaching includes courses on ethnographic methods, data analysis, and mixed-methods research. She actively engages in policy advocacy, contributing expert testimony in legal proceedings related to environmental disasters and labor rights.
