Professor of Sustainable Development, University of Worcester Alan is an interdisciplinary geographer and human ecologist with research interests in sustainable development and social-ecological systems, especially in the global south. Much of Alan's work has focused on the importance of wetland environments at the community level, where he has explored how local knowledge, social capital, nature-based solutions and common property resource institutions contribute to sustainable management strategies that produce win-win outcomes for both local peoples’ livelihoods and wetland ecosystem services. Alan has been involved in various participatory action research and consultancy projects, ranging from ESRC-funded research examining the role of local institutional arrangements in wetland management in Ethiopia, to work undertaken for the FAO that led to the development of global Guidelines for Wetland-Agriculture Interactions. He has worked with the NGO Self Help Africa in Malawi and Zambia to develop and disseminate a climate-resilient ‘Functional Landscape Approach’ for wetland and catchment management, and in Malawi he works with sustainable agriculture NGO Tiyeni. As well as informing wetland policy-making and management practice, this work has contributed to food security and built sustainable and resilient livelihoods in many parts of sub-Saharan Africa. Alan has co-authored two editions of ‘Africa: Diversity and Development’, which has become a key text in geography, international development, and African studies courses around the world. He also co-authored the Routledge book ‘Wetland Management and Sustainable Livelihoods in Africa,' which sets out a new agenda for wetland management in the 21st century.
Associate Professor of English, Florida State University Alisha Gaines is the Timothy Gannon Associate Professor of English and affiliate faculty of African American Studies at Florida State University. She holds a 2009 PhD in English and a certificate in African and African American Studies from Duke University. From 2009-2011 she held a Carter G. Woodson postdoctoral fellowship in African American and African Studies at the University of Virginia. As a Co-Founder and Co-Humanities Director of the Evergreen Plantation Archaeological Field School, in 2024, Alisha won a Community Engaged Research Partnership Grant for her work on plantation tourism in Louisiana's River Parishes. Alisha's first manuscript, "Black for a Day: White Fantasies of Race and Empathy," was published with UNC Press (Spring 2017). The project rethinks the political consequences of empathy by examining mid-to-late twentieth and twenty-first century narratives of racial impersonation enabled by the spurious alibi of racial reconciliation. "Black for a Day" constructs a genealogy of mostly White liberals who temporarily "become" Black under the alibi of racial empathy. An award-winning educator, her interdisciplinary teaching interests include African American literature, Black Study, narratives of passing, Black Southern Studies, media and performance studies, and Black queer theory. A student of Black Souths, Alisha is currently writing her second manuscript, "Children of the Plantationocene," on Black American origin stories, what we collectively inherit from the plantation, and slavery reenactments.
Professor in Exercise Science, James Cook University Professor Anthony Leicht is an experienced academic who has been involved in teaching, administrative, accreditation and research activities within the fields of sport and exercise science, and cardiovascular physiology for the past 25 years. He is the Academic Head of Sport and Exercise Science and Chair of the Human Research Ethics Committee at James Cook University. He currently teaches 1st and 2nd year undergraduate students and has published >300 teaching/research outputs. He has been an invited reviewer for >60 international journals and numerous national/international funding agencies. He is a Fellow of Exercise and Sports Science Australia. the European College of Sport Science and Sports Medicine Australia (SMA). He has been a SMA member since 2000 and is currently a longstanding Associate Editor of SMA’s Journal of Science and Medicine in Sport.
Assistant Professor of Communication Arts, University of Waterloo Adan is a queer/trans/disabled scholar and white settler living on treaty territory belonging to the Six Nations of the Grand River and the traditional home of the Neutral, Anishinaabe, and Haudenosaunee peoples. Adan works at the intersection of queer feminisms, disability justice, and digital media, with specializations in video game studies, critical design, automedia, and digital storytelling. Adan is also a creative writer and the author of The Girl of Hawthorn and Glass (2020) and The Boi of Feather and Steel (2021), published with Dundurn Press.
Researcher, Cirad Anna is an ethnoecologist working at Cirad. Her work explores human and environmental interactions in the context of agrobiodiversity, farmer management practices and climate change resilience and vulnerability.
Assistant Professor of Marketing, University College Dublin Dr. Anshu Suri is the UCD Garfield Weston Assistant Professor of Marketing at the Michael Smurfit Graduate Business School, University College Dublin. She earned her PhD in Marketing from HEC Montréal (University of Montreal) and holds an MBA from the State University of New York (SUNY) at Buffalo. Dr. Suri's research is centered on understanding consumer responses in the face of brand and service failures, shedding light on critical aspects of consumer behavior. Her scholarly pursuits extend to the realms of consumer-technology interaction and the sharing economy, contributing to a deeper comprehension of contemporary market dynamics. Her research has been featured in prominent business journals, including the Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, the International Journal of Research in Marketing, Psychology & Marketing, and the Journal of Business Research, among others. Dr. Suri's insights have also been shared on a global stage, with presentations at international conferences such as the American Marketing Association (AMA) and the Association for Consumer Research (ACR). Prior to her academic career, Dr. Suri gained valuable industry experience as a marketer, both in the United States and India. This practical background enriches her academic work, providing a holistic perspective on marketing and consumer behavior.
