PhD candidate, UNSW Sydney Brian currently serves as Senior Refugee Protection Advisor at Act for Peace. He is also an Affiliate of the Kaldor Centre for International Refugee Law at the University of New South Wales. Brian is undertaking a PhD looking at ‘Building New State Asylum Systems from the Ground Up in Asia’. He has worked on refugee protection in Asia, mostly as a practitioner, since 2008. As an attorney, he has represented hundreds of asylum claimants in both UNHCR and government systems. Brian has engaged with a number of governments in the Asian region with the setup of new, and strengthening of existing, asylum systems. Brian has also conducted research with UNHCR, to develop tools and guidance to support the transition of some of its functions from UNHCR to a new State asylum system and on RSD backlog prevention and reduction. Brian also supports the work of local non-governmental organizations and refugee-led initiatives, and is a founding member of the Asia Pacific Refugee Rights Network.
Monash University Bronwyn is part of the Body Image & Eating Disorders Research Group at Monash University. She holds a Bachelor of Applied Science in Psychology (RMIT University), a Bachelor of Applied Science Honours degree in Psychology (RMIT University), and a Master of Psychology (Clinical) (University of Tasmania). Bronwyn is a registered psychologist and currently works part-time in private practice.
PhD student studying human-saltwater crocodile conflict, Charles Darwin University I began the worldwide crocodilian attack database (previously known as CrocBITE, now known as CrocAttack) in September of 2010 and I have been a member of the IUCN since 2012. I have worked extensively in the field of human-crocodile conflict mitigation and management, particularly in Indonesia, where I worked on projects in 2015 and 2017. I have been the lead author on three peer-reviewed papers in academic publications, as well as numerous articles in Crocodile Specialist Group proceedings and newsletters. I graduated from California State University, Channel Islands in 2019 with a degree in biology and began a PhD looking at human-saltwater crocodile conflict range-wide at Charles Darwin University here in Darwin, Australia in March of this year. I will be conducting field work predominantly in Papua New Guinea, since I already have a wealth of data from other regions thanks to my 13 years of research.
Professor of History Emeritus, College of Charleston Bernard E. Powers Jr. has worked in higher education for approximately forty years. For twenty-six years he was a professor of history at the College of Charleston teaching courses in American, African American, and African diasporic history. In 2018 he became the College’s founding director of the Center for the Study of Slavery in Charleston. His first book, Black Charlestonians: A Social History 1822-1885, was designated an “Outstanding Academic Book” by Choice Magazine. Powers is a co-author of We Are Charleston: Tragedy and Triumph at Mother Emanuel, which contextualizes the city’s racially motivated murders of 2015. Most recently he has edited 101 African Americans Who Shaped South Carolina. He has published book chapters and journal articles and is currently researching black Methodism in South Carolina. Bernard Powers has appeared in African American oriented documentary films, including most recently the PBS production, The African Americans: Many Rivers to Cross and Emanuel: the Untold Story of the Victims and Survivors of the Charleston Church Shooting. Dr. Powers has served as a board member or consultant to several historic preservation organizations. He was the founding president of the Charleston Chapter of the Association for the Study of African American Life and History. In 2019 that organization recognized his commitment to “research, writing, and activism in the field of African American life and history” with the Carter Godwin Woodson Scholars Medallion. Bernard Powers earned the Ph. D in American history at Northwestern University and has been a board member for the International African American Museum since its inception and once served as its interim CEO and president.
Ph.D. Student in Sociology, West Virginia University Bernard is a fifth-year PhD student. He received his BA in sociology with a minor in computer science from Duquesne University in 2018, and his MA in sociology from West Virginia University in 2020. He currently works as a Graduate Research Assistant in the SOCA department. His broad interests include, but are not limited to, the sociology of religion, the sociology of mental health, crime and deviance, religious victimization, sociological theory, and group dynamics.
