Community Engaged Research Scholars

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William Ackah

SENIOR LECTURER, BIRKBECK UNIVERSITY OF LONDON (UNITED KINGDOM)
William Ackah is a Senior Lecturer in Black and Community Geographies at the Department of Geography and the Programme Director for Community Development and Public Policy and Community Leadership. He is currently the Chair of the School Ethics Committee and Chair of the Decolonising the Academy Collective. Ackah has a PhD in Government from the University of Manchester and was a 2016-17 Fulbright research scholar at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary, where he conducted research on the impact of gentrification on African-American church congregations. He is also the Chair of the Transatlantic Roundtable on Religion and Race, an international organization that aims to address injustices faced by people of African descent around the world. Ackah is the co-editor of Religion, Culture and Spirituality in Africa and the African Diaspora, and his most recent work is “The Politics of Pan-Africanism” in R. Rabaka ed (2020) The Routledge Handbook of Pan-Africanism.

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Sooriya Arya

MASTER’S STUDENT, AMERICAN UNIVERSITY OF CENTRAL ASIA (KYRGYZSTAN)
Sooriya Arya is a graduate of the International Comparative Politics from the American University of Central Asia and a current Masters's student in the Journalism and Mass Communication department. She worked for the Welfare Association for the Development of Afghanistan, UNESCO, the US embassy project in Kabul, and Azym Business Consultancy. Following her graduation in 2019, she worked as a specialist at the Independent Directorate of Local Governance Department (IDLG) in the Presidential Decrees follow-up department. She has notably been involved in the NITAR project in Afghanistan as a Coach and Resource Person since 2019 and is the co-founder of Capacity for Afghanistan (C4A). She is interested in working with children and women. She has concepts about issues related to social entrepreneurship, developing cultural corridors, developing e-learning systems for underprivileged students, and improving communication tools for women, that will enable the world citizens to have a voice in this digital world.

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Diana Ordoñez Castillo

PhD CANDIDATE, UNIVERSIDAD DE LOS ANDES (COLOMBIA)
Diana is a PhD candidate in Development Studies at Universidad de Los Andes in Bogotá, Colombia. She holds a BA in Industrial Design (2002), and an MSc in Social Studies of Science (2019). 
As a researcher, she studies the relationship between museology, memory, emotions, gender, and peacebuilding, from feminist and social studies of science perspectives. Her doctoral thesis “Community-based museums of memory in Colombia: perspectives from emotions, women and peacebuilding” is based on a participatory approach to studying two communitarian museums in the Colombian Caribbean. Currently, she is ‘Museums for Peace’ Co-PI, a creation-research project that designs an exhibition that travels through areas of the country affected by armed conflict, promoting dialogue between academia and memory initiatives on the role of community museums as instruments of social change.

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Jelena Ćeriman

RESEARCH FELLOW, UNIVERSITY OF BELGRADE (SERBIA)
Jelena Ćeriman is a Research Fellow at the Institute for Philosophy and Social Theory of the University of Belgrade, Serbia. Her research work focuses on comparative interdisciplinary studies on family practices, social assistance, and minority rights in Southeast Europe. Special aspect of her work is put on the examination of how gender interacts with social background, with particular attention on policy application of research data.

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Elaine Chan

LECTURER, INTERNATIONAL MEDICAL UNIVERSITY (MALAYSIA)
Dr. Elaine Chan is a senior lecturer/researcher at Institute of Research, Development and Innovations, International Medical University (IMU). She earned a PhD in Pharmacognosy from Monash University Malaysia. Her desire to serve the community has also driven her to lead numerous community projects to translate research in community settings. She published 24 papers in acclaimed scientific journals. Over the years, she has won numerous awards such as Leaders in Innovation Fellowships Programme Royal Society of Engineering, UK (2021); IMU Core Value Award (2021); IMU Partnership Excellence in Community Service (2020) and the IMU Leadership in Community Service (2020). With her passion in artificial intelligence (AI), she is actively setting up the Malaysia diabetic cohort, developing new algorithms for computer vision in digital pathology, driving initiative for new policy and guidelines for digital pathology in Malaysia as well as creating new digital solutions for healthcare digital transformation initiatives.

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Koching Chao

ASSISTANT PROFESSOR, NATIONAL SUN YAT-SEN UNIVERSITY (TAIWAN)
Koching Chao is Assistant Professor at Si Wan College, National Sun Yat-sen University (NSYSU), Taiwan. She obtained her doctoral degree in the History of Art at the University of York, UK. Her research interest lies in Western art and architectural history, as well as viewers’ perception of visual arts. She has been NSYSU’s representative in OSUN’s Civic Engagement initiative since 2020. In 2021, she received OSUN’s Engaged Learning Course Development Grant. In 2022, she has been selected as Engaged Faculty Scholar Award (EFSA) with her research project “Participatory Art and Civic Identity in Post-industrial Kaohsiung, Taiwan.” By cooperating with Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts, this project aims to explore ways to empower undergraduate students’ aesthetic literacy and civic awareness through action-oriented art classes.

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Alberto Fierro

POSTDOCTORAL FELLOW, CENTRAL EUROPEAN UNIVERSITY (AUSTRIA)
Alberto Fierro is an OSUN postdoctoral fellow at the Democracy Institute. His postdoc project explores alternative paths to knowledge production and challenges the boundaries between scholarship and activism. Alberto holds a Ph.D. from Doctoral School of Political Science, Public Policy and International Relations, Central European University. Since 2018, he has collaborated with the Brazilian social movement MTST. His dissertation focuses on militant and participatory approaches to research. He has published in Millennium: Journal of International Studies and International Journal of Politics, Culture, and Society.

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Alžbeta Brozmanová Gregorová

ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR, MATEJ EL UIVERSITY (SLOVAKIA)
Alžbeta Brozmanová Gregorová is an associate professor at the Faculty of Education, Matej Bel University in Slovakia. In 2017, she became the vice-dean for international cooperation, public relations, and third mission. She specializes in volunteering, service-learning, and the nonprofit sector in Slovak conditions, and has authored several publications, research studies, and articles on these topics. Since 2013, she has been the coordinator of the service-learning strategy at MBU. Alžbeta is also a recognized expert and advocate for volunteering, serving as the president of the Platform of Volunteer Centers and Organizations since 2011. She is a Fulbright program graduate, a member of the Government Council for Nongovernmental Organizations, and a member of the Board of Directors of the European Association on Service-learning in Higher Education and the Service-Learning Network for Central and Eastern Europe.

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Sameh Hallaq

ASSISTANT PROFESSOR, AL-QUDS BARD COLLEGE 
Sameh Hallaq is an assistant professor in the economics program at Al-Quds Bard College, Al-Quds University. Dr. Hallaq is a Research Associate at Levy Economics Institute at Bard College, New York (USA). He obtained his PhD in economics at the University of Wuppertal, Germany, in 2019. His research focuses on the effect of conflict on human capital accumulation and labor market outcomes.

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Rebekka Mirjam Hölzle 

PhD CANDIDATE, BIRKBECK COLLEGE (UNITED KINGDOM)
Rebekka Mirjam Hölzle has been involved in migrants’ rights activism in the UK, France, Germany, and Greece and currently works within community organizing, engagement, and advocacy with migrant communities in London. Her PhD project at the Birkbeck psychosocial studies department makes use of participatory methodologies to explore how migrant women negotiate and resist the UK’s hostile environment’s policies in the everyday, using a critical feminist and decolonial framework.

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Martina Jordaan

HEAD OF COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT AND POSTGRADUATE STUDENTS AT THE UNIVERSITY OF PRETORIA (SOUTH AFRICA)
Martina Jordaan is Head of Community engagement and postgraduate students at the University of Pretoria, Mamelodi campus. She holds a doctorate in History and a Masters degree in Development Studies. She is a qualified teacher and was trained for the early childhood development phase and intermediate phases. Her research interest is in community engagement, service learning, and e-community engagement. She is a co-author of published chapters in books and articles in accredited journals and has presented various papers at national and international conferences. She received numerous prestigious awards between 2001 and 2009 such as District Tshwane South Director’s Award, Marketing Advancement & Communication in Education (MACE) Excellence Award, University of Pretoria Community Engagement Award, etc. 

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Nidah Kaiser

PhD CANDIDATE, SOAS, UNIVERSITY OF LONDON (UNITED KINGDOM)
Nidah is a PhD candidate at SOAS, University of London, researching the modalities of anti-Muslim violence in India along with the emergence of an ethno-religious, majoritarian state. Her research engages with marginalized communities in Uttar Pradesh, and effectively is a study of and by Muslims in India. She is also a Graduate Teaching Assistant at King's College, London, teaching Political Islam, and a Research Assistant on the project: ‘Muslims in India in a Time of Hindu Majoritarianism’. Nidah is a qualified physiotherapist with a master's degree in physiotherapy from King's College as well as previous clinical experience in Mumbai and London. She is also a national-level basketball athlete in India.

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Nurzhamal Karamoldoeva

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, AMERICAN UNIVERSITY OF CENTRAL ASIA (KYRGYZSTAN)
Nurzhamal Karamoldoeva is an Executive Director at the Center for Civic Engagement of the American University in Central Asia (AUCA CCE), who oversees different civic engagement projects initiated by students and faculty. Nurzhamal initiates and administers meaningful civic engagement interventions through collaborations with partners of CCE that include both state and non-governmental organizations as well as individual activists on various topics of SDGs. Being an award-winning documentary filmmaker, she teaches at two departments of AUCA: TV, Film and Media Arts (TCMA) and Journalism and Mass Communications (JMC).

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Peter Kirira

DEPUTY VICE-CHANCELLOR, ADMINISTRATION, PLANNING AND INSTITUTIONAL ADVANCEMENT, MOUNT KENYA UNIVERSITY (KENYA)
Dr. Kirira is the acting Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Administration, Planning and Institutional Advancement at Mount Kenya University. He is an accomplished researcher with interest in drug research with a focus on malaria and cancer projects. Since 2017, Dr. Kirira has implemented numerous research projects on quality of water in collaboration with Partners for Care (PFC), as well as the Nutritional Feeding (Plumpy'Nut®) Programme in Kenya. Dr. Kirira has over 30 peer reviewed publications, holds three patents, and has won over 10 individual and consortium grants. Dr. Kirira was featured in the 2022 AD Scientific Index of the Kenya Top Scientists. He has supervised numerous postgraduate students, serves as a peer reviewer for scientific journals, and is an external examiner for postgraduate theses at various universities in Kenya. Through his research, Dr. Kirira has helped to develop his students’ passion for civic engagement, leading some to choose volunteerism for a year after graduation.

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Carol Montealegre

MASTER’S STUDENT, BARD COLLEGE (UNITED STATES)
Carol Montealegre is an artist working in performance, installation, and video. She joins the program from Bogotá, Colombia. Carol’s research interests include experimental film and performance art as mediums for human emancipation. She is the Artistic Director at Liminal Art Collective.

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Joseph Oloba

LECTURER, SCHOOL OF BUSINESS, LIVINGSTONE INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY (UGANDA)
Joseph Oloba is a Lecturer at the School of Business, LivingStone International University (LIU) in Budaka, Uganda. Since 2021, he has facilitated the introduction of new recordkeeping systems at Harding Christian Academy, Jinja. He founded Fellows Analytics, a network providing data and recordkeeping services. He also established ikopaFARM, which aims to improve African farming communities' economic progress through VSLA Training, Loans, and Research. Joseph consulted with Wise Choices for Life and worked with CRDI, training community leaders on business planning and financial literacy from 2018-2021. He has served as the Treasurer for the Research & Grants Committee and Technical Advisor on Curriculum Design and Development since 2018.
He has assisted more than 50 Masters Graduates and more than 5 PhDs as a research Data Analyst. Over the years, he has also assisted several universities in curriculum design, evaluation of teaching and learning, as well as the design of students’ transcripts. His vision is to witness financially successful farming communities in Africa.

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Fernando Ona

CLINICAL ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR, PUBLIC HEALTH AND COMMUNITY MEDICINE, TUFTS UNIVERSITY (UNITED STATES) 
Fernando is an environmental epidemiologist and medical anthropologist. His research interests are primarily with refugees, internally displaced populations, asylum seekers, and ultra-poor populations living in informal settlements. At Tufts, Fernando supports the dual-degree PA/MPH and BA/MPH programs, and teaches in the Tufts University Prison Initiative at Tisch College. He currently is a part-time psychotherapist with the Boston Center for Refugee Health and Human Rights at Boston Medical Center. Fernando is also a Dean's Fellow in the M.Div. Chaplaincy program at Boston University, School of Theology where he is pursuing a certificate in Religion and Conflict Transformation and in the process of seeking ordination. In Fall 2020, Fernando will start his D.Min. as Whitney M. Young, Jr. Fellow at Boston University School of Theology.

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Jazmín Puicón

ASSISTANT PROFESSOR OF HISTORY, BARD EARLY COLLEGE (UNITED STATES)
Jazmín Puicón is an Assistant Professor of History at Bard Early College in Newark, NJ. She is a historian of modern Latin America with a specialization in Women’s and Gender History. Her research focuses on popular democracy, Afro-Colombian women, and working-class culture in urban Colombia. Dr. Puicón has received grants from OSUN, the Mellon Foundation, the Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies (NYU), and the International Education Fund Grant (Union College-NY) to conduct research in Colombia on oral history and political violence.
She has received recognitions from the NAACP and the State of New Jersey's Amistad Commission as well as awards and prizes for her work and contribution such as the Mildred Barry Garvin Prize and Rutgers University School of Graduate Studies’ Excellence in Outreach and Service Award.  She was previously a teaching fellow at the Pulitzer Center and the Honors College at Rutgers University-New Brunswick and is currently an OSUN CLASP fellow.

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Rouslan M. Rakhimov

ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR, AMERICAN UNIVERSITY OF CENTRAL ASIA (KYRGYZSTAN)
Rouslan M. Rakhimov is Associate Professor of Anthropology, Technology and International Development program at the American University of Central Asia in Bishkek, Kyrgyz Republic. His research interests include pastoral societies of Kyrgyzstan (history, nature, tourism); transnationalism; migration in Central Asia and Russia, gender and performance. He is a co-author of OSUN research 3-year on Rural Sustainability (CORUSUS) together with CEU, WITS, and AUB. He is currently working on gender images in contemporary art (OSUN engaged research fund). 

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Bernadett Sebály

PhD CANDIDATE, CENTRAL EUROPEAN UNIVERSITY (AUSTRIA)
Bernadett Sebály is pursuing her Ph.D. in political science and public policy at the Central European University (CEU) in Austria. Her dissertation focuses on the relationship between movement structures and policy impact in the Hungarian housing movement. Bernadett is dedicated to co-creating the history of organizing in Eastern Europe and shaping the self-representation of civil society in the region. She has led participatory action research with the European Community Organizing Network and the School of Public Life. She is building a resource bank of Hungarian protest events along with CEU Democracy Institute. She is proud to have helped build the first community organizing program in Hungary, coordinated Civilizáció, a Hungarian network of CSOs during a period of repressive government measures, and co-founded and organized in The City Is For All, a cross-class housing group. She has a master’s in public policy from CEU and cultural anthropology from the University of Miskolc, Hungary. She has published articles on housing, disability rights and organizing. 

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Jarkyn Shadymanova

ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR, AMERICAN UNIVERSITY OF CENTRAL ASIA (KYRGYZSTAN)
Jarkyn Shadymanova is an Associate Professor at the Department of Sociology, American University of Central Asia. She holds a PhD degree in Sociology. Her research interests include gender studies, qualitative and quantitative research methods, and sustainable consumption practices. Jarkyn was a research fellow of The Global Dialogues & Women’s Empowerment in Eurasian Contexts Feminist Mentoring (WEF) Fellowship Programme. She was a postdoctoral researcher at the Sociology Consumption and Household Group, Wageningen University and Department of Anthropology, University of Amsterdam. Jarkyn is an author and co-author of numerous articles in peer-reviewed journals and book chapters on social issues.  Jarkyn also received several fellowship grants such as “Gendering the Youth: Representations of Gender in Contemporary Kyrgyzstan Media,” and “Building Academic and Teaching Excellence in the Discipline of Sociology in Central Asia.”

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Asifa Sultana

PROFESSOR, BRAC UNIVERSITY
Asifa Sultana is a child language researcher specializing in Bangla-speaking children's language development. She develops intervention frameworks for language difficulties and explores mother tongue-based education in Bangladesh. She has also been part of international research projects and won grants to carry out her research. Her research is published in reputed international journals and renowned publishing houses. In collaboration with researchers globally, she connects her research on Bangla to the global body of work in the areas. She is currently working as a Professor at the Department of English and Humanities, Brac University, Bangladesh.

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Olga Tarabashkina

ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR, AMERICAN UNIVERSITY OF CENTRAL ASIA (KYRGYZSTAN)
Olga Tarabashkina is a Lecturer at American University in Central Asia (Kyrgyzstan), where she teaches sociology and research methods to undergraduate and graduate students. Her research interests lie in applied social psychology, particularly in sustainable behavior and persuasive communication. Her current work focuses on social norms, message framing, and the importance of social norms in fostering sustainable behavior.

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Joseph Viscomi John

LECTURER, BIRKBECK UNIVERSITY OF LONDON (UNITED KINGDOM) 
Dr. Joseph John Viscomi is a historian and anthropologist who specializes in the Mediterranean region from the late 18th century until the present. Dr. Viscomi’s research and teaching focus on migration, environments, political change, and temporality. As a scholar raised in an Italian American enclave in the Philadelphia and South Jersey area, he is keen to study the history of migration sideways from perspectives of departure, absence, and entropy. He joined Birkbeck College in 2018 and is now the programme director of the MA in European History and the Birkbeck director of the Raphael Samuel History Centre. He is also a member of the executive committee for the Association for the Study of Modern Italy (ASMI) and serves on the convening committee for the Institute for Historical Research’s Modern Italian History Seminar. 

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Inga Winkler

ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR, CENTRAL EUROPEAN UNIVERSITY (AUSTRIA)
Dr. Inga Winkler is an Associate Professor in International Human Rights Law at the Central European University in Vienna, Austria. She takes a socio-legal approach to her research bridging institutional protection and socio-cultural dimensions of human rights, global policy and grassroots movements, and critical reflection and practical application. She is the co-editor of the field-defining Handbook of Critical Menstruation Studies, founder and director of the Working Group on Menstrual Health & Gender Justice, and co-chair of a standing Seminar on Menstruation and Society at Columbia University. Her current work focuses on the use and misuse of human rights in the global menstrual movement and the potential of human rights from below.