Staff Attorney, State Democracy Research Initiative, University of Wisconsin-Madison Emily Lau is a Staff Attorney with the State Democracy Research Initiative. She joins the Initiative after earning her law degree from Yale Law School. While in law school, Emily was an intern at the San Francisco City Attorney's Office in the Complex and Affirmative Litigation Team and a student in the San Francisco Affirmative Litigation Project clinic, helping the San Francisco City Attorney's Office litigate cases under the California Unfair Competition Law. She was also an editor on the Yale Journal of Law and Feminism and a member of the First Generation Professionals board. Before law school, Emily worked in the California Governor's Office in the Brown and Newsom administrations.
Distinguished Professor of Social Policy, School of Social Work, Arizona State University Elizabeth Lightfoot is Director and Distinguished Professor of Social Policy at the Arizona State University School of Social Work, the largest school of social work in a research university in the United States. Lightfoot’s research centers on disability policy and services, with a focus on the intersections of disability with child welfare, aging, disparities, and abuse. She has conducted numerous projects investigating the interactions of parents and children with disabilities in the child welfare system and her research findings have been used as evidence the creation of national policies involving disability. Before coming to ASU, she was the Global Distinguished Professor at the University of Minnesota School of Social Work for 23 years. At Minnesota she directed the PhD Program for 15 years, developed new MSW tracks in community practice, international social work, and health, disability and aging, and established an MSW field placement in Namibia. She also has been a Fulbright Scholar for sabbatical years in both Namibia and Romania. She is a member of the American Academy of Social Work and Social Welfare, has received the Group for the Advancement of Doctoral Education’s Educational Leadership award, and has received university and college wide awards for international engagement, educational leadership, and teaching. She has served as the President of the Group for the Advancement of Doctoral Education in Social Work and has been on the board of both the Society for Social Work and Research, the Council of Social Work Education, and the American Academy of Social Work and Social Welfare. She enjoys teaching doctoral classes in research methods and social policy and MSW courses in disability, policy and macro practice, she has advised 25 PhD students, and she has mentored students and faculty around the world. She consults often with PhD programs in the United States and around the world on establishing and improving social work doctoral education.
Professor of International Law and Director, Sydney Centre for International Law, University of Sydney Emily Crawford is a Professor at the University of Sydney Law School, where she teaches and researches in international law, international humanitarian law, and international criminal law. She has published widely in the field of international humanitarian law, including three monographs (The Treatment of Combatants and Insurgents under the Law of Armed Conflict (OUP 2010), Identifying the Enemy: Civilian Participation in Hostilities (OUP 2015) and Non-Binding Norms in International Humanitarian Law: Efficacy, Legitimacy and Legality (OUP 2021)) and two textbooks (International Humanitarian Law (with Alison Pert, 3rd edition, CUP 2024) and Public International Law (co-edited with Alison Pert and Ben Saul, CUP 2023). She is Director of the Sydney Centre for International Law at the University of Sydney, and a co-editor of the Journal of International Humanitarian Studies. In recognition of her outstanding contribution to international law research, she was awarded the Max Planck-Cambridge Prize for International Law in 2023.
PhD Candidate in Public Health, The University of Queensland I am a PhD candidate in public health at the University of Queensland, dedicated to advancing equitable access to health for all, with a particular focus on weight-inclusive approaches to health. My work is driven by both my academic background and personal experiences, including lived experience of weight stigma, disordered eating, and body image concerns. I aim to contribute to a public health system that supports individuals of all sizes in achieving health and well-being. I hold a Master of Public Health from the University of Sydney, completed in 2021, and have extensive experience in public health research. My contributions include work on the COVID-19 response in NSW and research roles at the University of New South Wales and the National Centre for Immunisation Research and Surveillance (NCIRS). Currently, I apply my research expertise and lived experience at the National Eating Disorders Collaboration (NEDC), where I focus on improving the system of care for people affected by eating disorders, disordered eating, and body image concerns.
Professor, Department of Sociology and Social Anthropology, Dalhousie University Dr. Fitting is a social anthropologist who researches labour migration and the political economy of food.
Senior Research Fellow, Faculty of Law, Bournemouth University Dr Ellie Smith is Senior Research Fellow at the Mass Grave Protection, Investigation and Engagement project at Bournemouth University. She is a lawyer and victimologist with 20 years’ experience of interdisciplinary research design, conduct and management in the field of international human rights, humanitarian and criminal law, relating to both conflict and post-conflict justice contexts, within both academia and practice, with a focus on working with victims
