Assistant Professor, School of Communications, Dublin City University Eileen Culloty is an Assistant Professor in the School of Communications and deputy director of the DCU Institute for Media, Democracy, and Society. Her research interests concern disinformation, media literacy education, and public media. Her book, co-authored with Jane Suiter, Disinformation and Manipulation in Digital Media (2021) was published by Routledge. Eileen coordinates the Ireland Hub of the European Digital Media Observatory and is co-chair of Media Literacy Ireland, the national association of media literacy facilitated by Coimisiún na Meán. She is also an member of the working-group developing the National Counter Disinformation Strategy, the EDMO working-group on media literacy standards, Meta's working group on Digital Citizenship, and the steering group of iHealthFacts. Eileen is currently involved in the following projects: Local Media for Democracy (European Commission), TeamLit: Teacher education in digital and media literacy (EMIF), ProMS: Promoting Media Literacy and Youth Citizen Journalism through Mobile Stories (Creative Europe). She previously worked on H2020 Provenance and led a Broadcasting Authority of Ireland project investigating the diversity of public service media during Covid-19, the implementation of EU Code of Practice on Disinformation during Covid-19, and a Science Foundation Ireland outreach project on vaccine misperceptions. Eileen's research has been published in Journalism, European Journal of Communication, Environmental Communication, Digital Journalism, and Critical Studies on Terrorism. Her co-authored paper on social media and political communication was awarded 3rd place in the International Communication Association's Top Three Faculty Papers for 2018. She has a PhD in communication studies from DCU. Her research interests include public good aspects of media including the impact of disinformation and its countermeasures, public interest news and media, public understanding of media (media literacy), and policy responses to changes in the media environment.
Professor of Ethnic Studies, Colorado State University Dr. Ernesto Sagás is Professor of Ethnic Studies at Colorado State University. He has a Ph.D. in political science from University of Florida with a concentration in Latin American studies. Dr. Sagás is the author of Race and Politics in the Dominican Republic, as well as articles on race and politics, democracy and authoritarianism, immigration policies, and other topics. In addition, he has co-edited three books: The Dominican People: A Documentary History; Dominican Migration: Transnational Perspectives; and Dominican Politics in the Twenty First Century: Continuity and Change. He is also a political analyst for Univisión Colorado, commenting on issues ranging from U.S. domestic politics and elections to foreign affairs, and he is frequently interviewed by local, national, and international media outlets in both English and Spanish. During 2022, Dr. Sagás was a Fulbright U.S. scholar in La Paz, Bolivia. Currently, he is working on a book about democracy and authoritarianism in the Hispanic Caribbean.
Assistant Professor of Sociology, University of Hawaii at Hilo Alaska-grown sociologist interested in qualitative research, with expertise in social psychology, emotions, and the culinary industry. Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University of Hawai'i at Hilo. And a co-creator and co-host of The Social Breakdown, the sociology podcast nobody wants, but everybody needs.
Lecturer of Media Studies, University of Colorado Boulder I graduated from the University of Colorado Boulder in 2023 with my PhD in media research and practice. My dissertation asks if music streaming services helped or hurt economic opportunities for music professionals, using a political economic lens and quantitative methods to measure the impact of technology on opportunity in media. This project is being reworked into a book-length manuscript. I also have an M.A. in American Studies from Columbia University and a B.S. in sociology from SUNY Old Westbury. My research has ranged from cultural sociology; hip hop and music studies; political economy; media and labor economics; and pedagogy.
Program Manager at the Jan Serie Center for Scholarship and Teaching, Macalester College Ebony Aya is a recent PhD graduate of the University of Minnesota in Curriculum and Instruction, with minors in Culture and Teaching and African American and African Studies. In her work she focuses on the experiences of Black women in higher education. She is also a program manager for the Jan Serie Center at Macalester College where she teaches and facilitates programming that focuses on faculty development. Additionally, Ebony is the founder of the Aya Collective and recently launched the Aya Collective’s first anthology, Let the Black Women Say Ase’ (2022), in addition to authoring the Gospel According to a Black Woman (2020) and Incomplete Stories: On Loss, Love, and Hope (2023).
Leverhulme Early Career Fellow in the School of History, Archaeology and Religion, Cardiff University I am a historian of food and early modern religion. As a Leverhulme Early Career Fellow at Cardiff, my research project is entitled 'Eating Exchanges: Food and Religious Encounter in the Early Modern World'. I aim, by exploring moments in which food was exchanged between people of different faiths, to better understand cross-cultural encounter: the divisions, inequalities, and friendships that shaped the early modern world. A focus on food exchange also helps to break down the Christian-centric interpretations of significant early modern processes including the Reformations, colonialism, and globalisation. My major research case studies are situated in the northeast coast of early America and the metropolitan city of Venice. I am currently converting my PhD thesis into an academic book entitled The Reformation of Food, which exposes the role of food and eating in the division between Protestants and Catholics through the comparative case studies of England and Italy. My other major area of research is the history of food waste; my trade book Waste Not: A Kitchen History of Leftovers is under contract with Head of Zeus. With Katrina Moseley, I am editing a special issue of Global Food History, which is entitled 'Histories of Food Waste and Sustainabiltiy'. My research in food history speaks to a wider audience and I am regularly involved in public-facing history initiatives and media interviews. Each day, as @historyeats on Instagram, I share food history facts, artwork, and objects to a wonderful community from across the world.
