Professor Comparative Politics, University of Maryland Jóhanna Kristín Birnir is a Professor in the department of Government and Politics and the director of GVPT Global Learning. Jóhanna studies the effect of identity (ethnicity, religion, gender) on contentious political outcomes (elections and violence), and has done extensive fieldwork in the Andes, South-East Europe and Indonesia. Jóhanna´s first book "Ethnic Electoral Politics" (Cambridge University Press) examines the relationship between political access and minority strategic choice of peaceful electoral participation, protest or violence against the state. Her most recent book (with Nil Satana) "Alternatives in Mobilization: Ethnicity, Religion and Political Conflict" (Cambridge University Press in 2022), examines the relationship between identity (ethnicity and religion) and minority peaceful and violent political mobilization. Jóhanna´s articles on identity and politics are published in numerous academic journals including the American Political Science Review, American Journal of Political Science, Comparative Political Studies, Journal of Peace Research, Journal of Conflict Resolution, Party Politics, Latin American Research Review , Studies in Comparative International Development, and Journal of Global Security Studies. Her research has been supported by the National Science Foundation, The National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism, Folke Bernadotte Academy and the Global Religion Research Initiative among others.
Tutor in Creative Arts, Macquarie University Dr Janet Gibson is a theatre and performance studies scholar interested in the theatre of real people and new Australian work, especially that dealing with ageing and dementia and LGBTQI+ issues. Her book titled 'Dementia, Narrative and Performance: Staging Reality, Reimagining Identities' was published in 2020 by Palgrave Macmillan. She has taught media and communication across various tertiary education institutions for over 25 years; she managed a Communication program at a university college in Sydney for 15 years. She is a trained actor ( Uta Hagen, HB Studios, New York). She has worked in fringe theatre in New York and Sydney, including working in the first Tectonic Theater Project production of 'Women in Beckett' at Theater for the New City New York under the direction of Moisés Kaufman ( of 'The Laramie Project').
Senior Research Fellow, University of Otago Dr Jennifer Summers is an Epidemiologist, Statistician and Medical Historian. PhD, AKC, DHMSA, FRHistS, PGDPH, PGCAP, BSc, CStat, FHEA, MRSNZ
PhD Candidate in English Literature, University of Bristol I am an AHRC-funded English Literature PhD student working with the University of Exeter and University of Bristol. I completed my Undergraduate Degree in English Literature and Comparative Studies at the University of Warwick in 2012. I completed my Master's Degree in Education at the University of St Mark and St John, Plymouth, in 2017, while working full-time in schools. I have seven years experience teaching English in rural comprehensive secondary schools in Somerset - with three years as Head of Department for English and Drama. I am a singer-songwriter and poet drawing inspiration from rural life and experience past and present. I was a semi-finalist in the BBC Radio 2 Young Folk Award in 2011. I contributed to the BBC Radio 4 Documentary 'Dorset Rewritten' in 2014.
Professor, Department of History, L’Université d’Ottawa/University of Ottawa Professor Grabowski's research includes the issues surrounding the extermination of the Polish Jews as well as the history of Jewish-Polish relations during the 1939-1945 period. He is the author of several monographs, including Hunt for the Jews. Betrayal and Murder in German-Occupied Poland (Indiana University Press, Bloomington & Indianapolis, 2013) which won the Yad Vashem International Book Prize in 2014. Professor Grabowski has recently completed a project dealing with the involvement of the Polish “Blue” and criminal police in the Holocaust. His forthcoming research focuses on the open ghettos in the Generalgouvernement. A recipient of the 2014 Faculty of Arts Professor of the Year Award, he teaches survey courses and graduate and undergraduate seminars on the history of the Holocaust.
