PhD candidate, Media and Communication, University of Leeds Jenessa Williams (she/her) is a PhD Candidate in the School of Media and Communication at the University of Leeds. Her research specialisms are in music, race, gender, internet cultures and social media activist movements such as #BlackLivesMatter and #MeToo. She began her doctoral research in October 2019, exploring the issue of ‘problematic’ music fandom in the wake of the #MeToo movement and questioning how music fans attempt to reconcile with morally-transgressive art/artists. Within this study, Jenessa explicitly compares and contrasts online discussion within Hip-Hop and Indie/Emo communities, illustrating how race, gender and social convention intersect with perceptions of victim believability, social retribution/rehabilitation and cancel culture. Alongside academia, Jenessa also works as a music and culture journalist, and has been published by the likes of the Guardian, NME, Readers Digest, Alternative Press, Rolling Stone UK, DIY, Gal-Dem and the BBC.
Visiting professor, College of Europe I hold a PhD in social and political sciences, awarded in 1998, by the European University Institute. Previously, I studied political science at the Institut d’Etudes Politiques in Aix-en-Provence where I specialized on the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region while learning Arabic. I have lived and worked in Jordan, Morocco and Tunisia. Currently, I am a Senior Research Fellow at the European Neighbourhood Policy Chair of the College of Europe (Natolin Campus) where I direct the Natolin Academy of Migration while teaching and developing research on how migration affect bilateral and multilateral patterns of cooperation. I am also a research associate at the Tunis-based Research Institute on the Contemporary Maghreb (IRMC). As of February 2020, I will direct the Chair on Migration Studies at the Institute for Advanced Studies IMéRA, Aix-Marseille University. My publications and major interests focus on the expansion of international regulatory systems and bilateral/regional patterns of cooperation, and on the diffusion and internalization of norms and practices pertaining to the “governance” of international migration, especially with reference to MENA and African countries. Prior to this, I was part-time professor at the Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies (European University Institute, Florence) where I supervised and managed interdisciplinary research projects on migration policies and developed field surveys mobilizing EU and non-EU partner institutions (in North and sub-Saharan Africa, the Mediterranean and the Caucasus). I have also worked for the International Training Centre of the International Labour Organisation (ITC-ILO). I have served as a consultant to the European Parliament (LIBE Committee) on readmission policies and human rights observance in the EU. I have also cooperated with the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) and the OECD Sahel and West Africa Club (SWAC). Finally, I am a member of the scientific committee of the Laboratory of Critical Studies on Forced Migration based at the University of Milan (Italy). For more: https://www.jeanpierrecassarino.com/
Assistant Professor of Physics and Astronomy, Michigan State University I am currently an assistant professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at Michigan State University, primarily working on NASA Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) mission. My research focuses on understanding how planets form and evolve by studying circumstellar disks and exoplanets. I received my PhD in Physics from the Department of Physics and Astronomy at Vanderbilt University in 2016. In 2010, I completed my Bachelors of Science in Astrophysics and Psychology at Rutgers University and I received my Master of Science in Applied and Engineering Physics from George Mason University in 2012.
Postdoctoral Research Fellow, University of Montana Dr. Jamie Peeler is a landscape ecologist dedicated to tackling forest conservation challenges in a more fire-prone world. Her interest in fire was originally sparked while working abroad in South Africa’s savannas. After returning to the United States, Jamie pursued research technician positions within hardwood forests in Minnesota, forested wetlands in Florida, and conifer forests in the Pacific Northwest. She experienced fire in many forms while working in these different ecosystems, including its potential to reshape forests dramatically. Her firsthand experiences ultimately inspired questions on fire, spatial pattern, and resilience that shaped her work in graduate school. In 2021, Jamie completed her PhD in Geography from Penn State University. She is currently completing a postdoctoral fellowship as a NatureNet Science Fellow with The Nature Conservancy and University of Montana.
Psychologist and Faculty Member, Toronto Metropolitan University I am an Instructor at the University of Toronto's Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, where I teach graduate students in the Department of Applied Psychology & Human Development. I am also at Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU), providing therapy to students, training psychology residents and practicum students, and consulting with faculty and staff on complex student issues. Between 2010 and the early part of 2022, I've have been a member of the University's Student Case Management Team which assists in supporting students of concerns and those students in conflict with the University's conduct and sexual violence policies. While on that team, I've provided risk assessments and disciplinary counselling to students who have been found to have caused harm. I'm also an Associate of Possibilities Seeds, a social change consultancy dedicated to gender justice and equity, since 2018. As an Associate of Possibilities Seeds, I've provided leadership and scholarship in their community of practice with respect to people who have caused harm, and created a number of policy response and support tools for effectively responding to campus sexual and gender-based violence for Canadian Post-Secondary Institutions. Prior to coming to TMU and since 2000, I've provided clinical support in a variety of social service and criminal justice settings, and apply an integrated, inclusive and positive psychology approach to the work I provide.
Senior Lecturer in Modern European (Russian) History, Cardiff University I am a history of modern Russia and the Soviet Union, focusing on the relationship between Leninist ideology and political violence, and the intellectual history of Soviet state violence. I am the author of a monograph on violence in Lenin's political thought (Routledge, 2012), and I have published articles in academic journals such as Slavic Review and Historical Research.
