Associate Professor of African Literature, Ghent University I am the author of the book African Literature in the Digital Age and the principal investigator for YorubaPrint – a Starting Grant project funded by the European Research Council. I am currently an associate professor of African literature at the Faculty of Art & Philosophy, Ghent University. I am attached to the Department of Language and Culture, within the African Studies group. I was previously an assistant professor of literary and cultural analysis at the University of Amsterdam, in the Netherlands. I also recently held a diaspora fellowship at the English Department, University of Ghana, Accra, Ghana, which was funded by Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa (Codesria). I have a PhD in African studies from the University of Birmingham, UK (2012), and after my PhD, I worked at the University of Leeds (UK), University of Bayreuth (Germany) and University of Bremen (Germany). Back in 2001, I trained as a journalist at the University of Westminster, London, UK, after which I had various stints as a journalist with BBC News Online, the Christian Science Monitor (USA), The Guardian (UK), The Independent (UK), and a few other news media outfits. I am also currently the publishing editor of an online magazine – The New Black magazine.
Professor of Environmental Science and Director, Water Resources Research Center, University of Arizona Sharon B. Megdal, Ph.D. is Director of The University of Arizona Water Resources Research Center (WRRC), a Cooperative Extension center and a research unit in the College of Agriculture, Life & Environmental Sciences. Other primary titles are Professor and Specialist in the Department of Environmental Science, C.W. & Modene Neely Endowed Professor, and Distinguished Outreach Professor. Sharon Megdal aims to bridge the academic, practitioner, and civil society communities through water policy and management research, education, and engagement programs. The geographic scope of Dr. Megdal’s work ranges from local to international. Applied research projects include analysis of water management, policy, and governance in water-scarce regions, groundwater recharge, and transboundary aquifer assessment. She is the lead editor of the book, Shared Borders, Shared Waters: Israeli-Palestinian and Colorado River Basin Water Challenges and she has guest edited several special journal issues. Dr. Megdal teaches the graduate course “Water Policy in Arizona and Semi-arid Regions”. In 2020, she was awarded the Warren A. Hall Medal for lifetime achievement in water resources research and education by the Universities Council on Water Resources. Sharon Megdal serves as on the Board of Governors for the Kasser Joint Institute for Food, Water, and Energy Security, is an ex officio member of the Leadership Team for the Colorado River Basin Water & Tribes Initiative, and recently served as a member of the University of Arizona Presidential Advisory Commission on the Future of Agriculture and Food Production in a Drying Climate. In May 2023, she was appointed to Governor Hobbs’ Water Policy Council. Recent professional service includes serving for 12 years as a popularly elected Director for the Central Arizona Project, the Board of Directors for the American Water Resources Association, and Board President for the International Arid Lands Consortium. Dr. Megdal has served on numerous Arizona boards and commissions, including the Arizona Corporation Commission, the State Transportation Board, and the Arizona Medical Board. She holds a Ph.D. degree in Economics from Princeton University. Dr. Megdal’s full CV, along with her policy columns and Reflections essays, can be found at https://wrrc.arizona.edu/director.
Associate Professor School of Built Environment, University of Technology Sydney Song received his Bachelor of Civil Engineering degree in 1991 from Southeast University, China and completed his PhD in Property Studies in 2009 from Massey University, New Zealand. His PhD thesis has been included in the Dean's List of Exceptional Doctoral Theses. In 2011, Song won the prestigious national Property Institute of New Zealand Academic Award. In 2013, Song was invited to Tsinghua University, China for a scholar visit of 3 months. In 2017, Song left school of economics and finance at Massey University and joined UTS in the school of built environment. He teaches property finance, investment and financial analysis subjects at UTS. Song has widely published his research work in top academic journals, including Journal of Banking and Finance, Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Urban Studies, Cities, Housing Studies, Journal of Regional Science, Regional Science and Urban Economics, Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, Journal of Housing Economics, Journal of Real Estate Research, International Journal of Strategic Property Management, Journal of Property Research, Journal of Property Investment and Finance, and Journal of Real Estate Portfolio Management. He is the board director of Global Chinese Real Estate Congress and currently on the editorial board of Pacific Rim Property Research Journal and International Journal of Housing Markets and Analysis.
PhD Candidate, Interdisciplinary Centre for Conservation Science, University of Oxford I am a post-growth economist broadly focused on themes of ecological compensation, no net loss/net gain, environmental and conservation psychology, social justice, and human well-being. I am particularly interested in (i) improving the effectiveness of incentive-based conservation instruments such as payment for ecosystem services and biodiversity offsetting, (ii) developing conservation strategies that can lead to the desired outcomes from both nature and people perspectives, and (iii) understanding the socio-psychological mechanisms behind human attitude and behaviour towards the environment.
Director of Strategy and Policy, UCL Research, Innovation & Global Engagement, UCL Sarah Chaytor is Director of Strategy & Policy for UCL Research, Innovation & Global Engagement. She was a co-founder and is currently co-Chair of UPEN, the Universities Policy Engagement Network; leads the £10 million Capabilities in Academic-Policy Engagement project; and is Co-Principal Investigator and Strategic Engagement Director for the International Public Policy Observatory. She is also a Co-Director of the Research on Research Institute. Sarah established and oversees UCL’s flagship academic-policy engagement initiative, UCL Public Policy, to connect UCL research to public policymaking. She works closely with the Vice-Provost (Research, Innovation and Global Engagement) on the strategic management of UCL’s research and innovation agenda and the coordination of activities across the portfolio. She has a particular focus on external stakeholder engagement and research policy, as well as institutional strategic initiatives.
Lecturer in the School of Geography, Archaeology and Environmental Studies, University of the Witwatersrand Dr Sarita Pillay Gonzalez is a lecturer in Human Geography at the School of Geography, Archaeology and Environmental Studies (GAES) at Wits. Sarita was awarded her PhD through the School of Architecture & Planning (SoAP) at Wits in 2022, undertaking fieldwork in Johannesburg and Bangalore. Her research interests in real estate development and the multifarity of the state in the built environment were inspired by her time as a researcher, community organiser and popular educator in affordable housing campaigns in Cape Town from 2016 to 2018. Prior to this, as a Fulbright scholar, Sarita received her Masters in Urban & Regional Planning from the University of Minnesota focused on Spatial Justice & Political Economy.
