Lecturer, Development Studies, The University of Melbourne Matthew Mabefam is a lecturer in development studies at the School of Social and Political Sciences. He completed his PhD in anthropology and development studies at the University of Melbourne. He also holds an M.Phil. and BA (Hons) degrees, both from the University of Ghana. Matthew's research focuses on the politics of international development, inequality, religion and neoliberalism, political economy, migration and wellbeing. Overall, his research examines mainstream development models and their applicability in developing contexts and highlights some of the emerging tensions. In short, his work contributes to the decolonisation of development epistemes, knowledge and practices. Matthew's regional focus is Africa (Ghana) and African diaspora. Increasing public engagement with development issues and displaced people's wellbeing is at the core of the global agenda. Matthew is highly engaged in public and scholarly activities through sharing his research outputs in media, seminars, conferences and academic publications. Highlights include his weekly appearances on Africa Media Australia as a panellist. Matthew is also passionate about community development. As a result, he initiates and participates in community-led activities, engages in consultancies, mobilises resources and provides mentoring opportunities to school children of low socio-economic backgrounds. He has prior working experience with grassroots NGOs in Ghana.
Post-doctoral Researcher, King's College London Dr. Marina Miron holds a post-doctoral research position at the War Studies Department, King's College London. Her research focuses on examining the information warfare strategies employed by Russia and China. Dr. Miron is actively involved in a research project funded by the British Academy in collaboration with Prof. David V. Gioe. This project explores effective countermeasures that the Western world can adopt in response to these strategies. Her research encompasses the theoretical aspects of information warfare and its practical implications, particularly in domains such as space, cyberspace, and the electromagnetic spectrum.
Director, The Poche Centre for Indigenous Health Faculty of Medicine and Health, University of Sydney Associate Professor Michelle Dickson is a Darkinjung/Ngarigo academic and Director of The Poche Centre for Indigenous Health, a research flagship centre in the Faculty of Medicine and Health, University of Sydney. She lives and works on Gadigal land (Sydney, New South Wales, Australia). A/Prof. Dickson has worked in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health and wellbeing service delivery and health professions education for over 30 years. She was formerly Deputy Head of School and previous Academic Program Director of the Graduate Diploma in Indigenous Health Promotion. In 2021 the Public Health Association of Australia (PHAA) awarded her for contribution to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Public Health. A/Prof. Dickson focuses on privileging Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander ways of knowing, being and doing in education, research, health and wellness. Her research partnerships include First Nations researchers and communities nationally and internationally.
Director of the Center for Work and Democracy, Arizona State University Michael McQuarrie is a sociologist at Arizona State University where he directs the Center for Work and Democracy and acts as an Associate Professor in the School of Social Transformation. The main purpose of his work at the Center for Work and Democracy is to address the exclusion of working people from the polity and the marginalization of their voices in their communities and workplaces. In particular, the Center is concerned with the institutional, organizational, and political dimensions of marginalization and empowerment. McQuarrie’s own research concerns are protest and politics, governance, organizations, civil society, and political culture. He is currently conducting ethnographic research in George Floyd Square, the autonomous zone at the site where George Floyd was murdered on May, 25, 2020. Other projects include: place and politics, urban governance, social movement repertoires, and the politicization of care. McQuarrie teaches classes on populism and right-wing authoritarianism, social movements, social change organizations, political sociology, urban sociology, and care and social solidarity. He has conducted qualitative research around the world, including in New York, Cleveland, Mumbai, London, Berlin, Nottingham, and Minneapolis. Prior to arriving at Arizona State, he held appointments at the London School of Economics and Political Science, and the University of California, Davis. McQuarrie has a Ph.D in sociology from New York University and a Masters in history from Duke University. Prior to starting his doctoral work at NYU, he worked as a labor organizer in West Virginia, Ohio, and New York, and he worked as a community organizer in the South Bronx.
Professor of molecular physics, Stockholm University Mats Larsson is Professor of Physics at Stockholm University and director of the AlbaNova University Center in Stockholm, which is a joint scientific center between the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) and Stockholm University. He serves on the Nobel Committee for physics since 2016. His research interests are laboratory astrophysics and its importance to astrochemistry, free electron laser research targeting small molecules, and, more recently, molecular chirality and chiral interaction. He chairs a Nobel Symposium on Chiral Matter during 2020, with Dmitri Kharzeev as one of the co-chairs.
Snow Medical Fellow & CSL Centenary Fellow, Burnet Institute Dr Michelle Boyle is a Snow Medical Fellow & CSL Centenary Fellow at the Burnet Institute, Melbourne. Her research aims to understand how the immune response protects from malaria, and to use this knowledge to develop better vaccines for malaria. She is particularly interested in how chronic infections, like malaria, disrupts the immune response. The overall goal of her research is to develop her drugs to improve protection from malaria in children.
