ADEM FERIZAJ
Adem Ferizaj is an independent scholar whose work focuses on the Balkans, Orientalism, and migration. He is the author of the 2018 European Islamophobia Report on Kosovo and the 2019 academic article “Othering Albanian Muslim Masculinities: A Case Study of Albanian Football Players”, published in the journal Occhialì – Rivista sul mediterraneo islamico. He completed his trilingual (German, French, and English) BA in political science and sociology and an MA in international relations at Sciences Po Paris, and publishes in Albanian, German, French, and English. Email: adem.ferizaj@sciencespo.fr
ALEXANDROS SAKELLARIOU
Alexandros Sakellariou teaches sociology at the Hellenic Open University and is a postdoctoral researcher at Panteion University of Athens. He earned his PhD in sociology from the Department of Sociology of Panteion University. He has extensive research experience in large-scale EU projects. Since 2011 he has been working on young people’s socio-political engagement and well-being, the evaluation of innovative social policies, and radicalisation. His scientific interests include, among others, sociology of religion, sociology of youth, politics and religion, religious communities in Greek society, youth activism and civic participation, right-wing extremism, radicalisation, and qualitative research methods. He is a board member of the Hellenic League for Human Rights. Email: sociology.panteion@gmail.com
ALI HUSEYINOGLU
Ali Huseyinoglu was born in Komotini, Greece. After completing primary education at the bilingual (Turkish and Greek) school in his hometown, he continued secondary and higher education in Istanbul and Ankara. Huseyinoglu received his BA and MSc from the Department of International Relations, Middle East Technical University (METU), and his PhD from Sussex University. Since 2013, he has been working as an assistant professor in the Balkan Research Institute at Trakya University, in Edirne, Turkey. His main research interests include human and minority rights, Turkish-Greek relations, the Muslim Turkish minority of Western Thrace, the the Greek Orthodox (Rum) minority in Turkey, Islam, and Islamophobia in Europe. Email: alihuseyinoglu@trakya.edu.tr
AMANI HASSANI
Amani Hassani is a Danish anthropologist with a PhD from Concordia University, Canada. She is an urban ethnographer who combines anthropology, sociology, and geography in the study of Muslim minorities living in the Global North. Her recent research compares the experiences of young Muslims in Denmark and Canada, exploring issues of racialisation, social mobility, and urban life in a transatlantic perspective. She is also an active member of the Centre for Danish-Muslim Relations (CEDAR), a Danish NGO that seeks to raise awareness and address Islamophobia and anti-Muslim racism in Denmark. Email: hassani.amani@gmail.com
AMINA EASAT-DAAS
Amina Easat-Daas is an Early Career Academic Fellow at De Montfort University, Leicester, UK, where she lectures in politics. Her research interests include the study of Islamophobia and in particular gendered Islamophobia, the effective countering of Islamophobia, Islam in Europe, anti-racism studies, and Muslim political participation in francophone Europe. Her forthcoming manuscript is entitled Muslim Women’s Political Participation in France and Belgium (Palgrave Macmillan). Alongside her academic scholarship, Easat-Daas has regularly worked with and presented her work, among others, at the OSCE-ODIHR, the European Parliament, and the Council of Europe. Easat-Daas also engages with media on Muslim-related current affairs. Email: amina.easat-daas@dmu.ac.uk
AMINA SEMSOVIC
Amina Šemsović has a BA (University of Novi Pazar) and an MA (University of Kragujevac) in English Language and Literature. Her civic activism earned her a scholarship for the European Regional Master’s Programme in Democracy and Human Rights (joint degree) at the University of Bologna and the University of Sarajevo. After her graduation in 2016, she gained extensive experience in the field of human rights through numerous training programs, projects, and summer schools. In 2018, she was awarded the Fellowship at the Office of High Commissioner for Human Rights. As a representative of the Bosniak and Muslim minority in Serbia, she spent a month in Geneva, where she participated in several UN bodies including the 11th session of the Forum on Minority Issues. Email: amina_sems@hotmail.com
AMINA SMITS AKILMA
Amina Smits Akılma is a PhD candidate at the Department of Islamic Studies, Institute of Social Sciences at Istanbul 29 Mayıs University, Istanbul. She graduated from the Institute of Alliance of Civilizations at Fatih Sultan Mehmet Foundation University in Istanbul, where she wrote a critique on Edward Said’s Orientalism in light of Ottoman-European relations as her thesis. Born and raised in Belgium, she graduated there from the Department of Islamic and Arabic Studies, Faculty of Arts at the Catholic University Leuven. Smits Akılma’s fields of study and research interests are Orientalism, Occidentalism, Islamophobia, Islamic religious education (especially in non-Islamic countries), Islamic theology (Kalaam), and sociology of religion. Besides Dutch as her native language, she speaks Turkish and English on a native level, and reads French and Arabic. Email: aminasmits@gmail.com
ANA FRANK
Ana Frank received her PhD from the Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Ljubljana in 2013. From 2007 to 2014, she worked as a researcher on several European projects at the Peace Institute, a renowned NGO in Ljubljana, Slovenia. Between 2005 and 2007, she was a visiting student in Turkey at the University of Istanbul and at Ankara University. She complemented her studies at the University of Lodz, Poland, and Florida International University, USA. In 2012-2013, she conducted a research at Sabancı University in Istanbul for her PhD thesis entitled “The Influence of the Europeanisation Context on Religious Discourses in Gender Equality and Intimate Citizenship Policies in Turkey”. Her fields of research and academic interest are international relations, policy analysis, political studies, gender studies, religious studies, cultural studies, Orientalism and postcolonial studies, discourse analysis, nationalism, discrimination, Europeanisation, Turkey, and Islam. Her book Feminism and Islam: Turkish Women between the Orient and the West (Slovenian and English language editions) was published by the Peace Institute in 2014. She works as a freelance researcher. Email: afrankica@yahoo.com
ANNA PIELA
Anna Piela is a visiting scholar at Northwestern University in Evanston, USA. She has previously worked as a research consultant with the Muslim Women’s Council, Bradford. In 2010, she was awarded a PhD in Women’s Studies by the University of York, UK. Her monograph titled Wearing the Niqab: Fashioning Identity among Muslim Women in the UK and the US is out in 2020. She has recently published an article on the niqab in the UK in the Journal of American Academy of Religion. She is also contributing to a research project on the identities of Polish female Muslim converts in the UK and Poland, recently funded by the Polish National Centre for Science (NCN). Her first monograph titled Muslim Women Online: Faith and Identity in Virtual Space, and several of her articles for academic journals including New Media and Society, Feminist Media Studies, HAWWA: Journal of Women in the Middle East and Islamic Cultures, and Contemporary Islam focus on gender, Islam, and online communities. She recently contributed a chapter about Poland to the Routledge Handbook on Religion and Journalism.
ANTONIA ROBERTA SIINO
Antonia Roberta Siino has a PhD in Sociology and Social Research from the University of Bologna and was a visiting student at the Department of Sociology, University of Oxford. Siino has been working for a long time on the study of organized crime (specifically mafia-type organizations) and its interactions with civil society, and conducting empirical research based both on qualitative and quantitative methods. She has published articles, both in Italian and English, in academic journals such as the Sociological Review and Sicurezza e Scienze Sociali Journal. Email: antoniasiino8@gmail.com
ARISTOTLE KALLIS
Aristotle Kallis is a professor of modern and contemporary history at Keele University, UK. His research interests revolve around fascism and the contemporary radical/far right in transnational terms, with a particular focus on the ‘mainstreaming’ of extreme views and on the processes that facilitate taboo-breaking language and behaviour. He has published extensively on the history of fascism and the radical right; on the rise of far-right extremism in Greece and Germany; on the mainstream-extremism nexus with regard to a number of key themes in the ideology of the far right including nationalism, sovereignty, and attitudes to particular groups of ‘others’; and on Islamophobia and anti-Semitism. He has provided written and oral evidence to committees of the UK Parliament and participated with international NGOs in international forums such as the UN Human Rights Council, the European Parliament, the Council of Europe, and the OSCE/OHDIR. He is the author of the chapter on Islamophobia in the Oxford Handbook of the Radical Right (OUP 2018), and co-editor of the report Violent Radicalisation and Far-Right Extremism in Europe (Hedayah and SETA, 2018). Email: aristotlekallis@gmail.com
AURORA ALI
Aurora Ali is a human rights activist based in Madrid and director of the Spanish Muslim Association for Human Rights (Asociación Musulmana por los Derechos Humanos – AMDEH). Having studied international administration and languages and with extensive labour experience in the trading and legal sectors in Geneva, Madrid, and Cairo, in 2015, Ali started her specialization in human rights and anti-Muslim hatred in Spain at the Citizens Platform against Islamophobia (PCCI) and the Observatory of Islamophobia in the Media. In 2018, she co-founded AMDEH, where she is currently in charge of a research project on securitization. Email: amderechoshumanos@gmail.com.
AZIZ NAZMI SAKIR
Aziz Nazmi Şakir (PhD, History of Sciences, Istanbul University) earned his BA and MA from the Arabic Philology and Turkic Studies Departments of St. Kliment Ohridski, University of Sofia respectively. Since 2001 he has been a faculty member at the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences and School of Languages at Sabanci University, Istanbul. Şakir is currently lecturing at New Bulgarian University, Sofia and Okan University, Istanbul. Besides his academic research dedicated to the Ottoman heritage in the Balkans and Bulgaria’s Muslims, he is an accomplished writer and translator with more than thirty translations of poetry and prose to his credit. Email: azizshakir@yahoo.com
BOGDAN GHENEA
Bogdan Ghenea is a research consultant specialising in human rights, migration/asylum, employability, and labour markets. He holds a Master’s degree in European and Romanian Politics from the University of Bucharest. Since 2010, he has written multiple shadow reports on racism and discrimination for the European Network Against Racism (ENAR) and has collaborated with the Asylum Research Centre on writing country and thematic reports. Ghenea has provided research and expert advice on employability and labour markets for clients such as Airbus and Total. Email: bogdan.ghenea@gmail.com
EGERT RUNNE
Egert Rünne is the executive director of the Estonian Human Rights Centre. He is the Estonian project manager of the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights research network FRANET. Currently, Rünne is also involved in various studies related to the Roma community and their well-being in Estonia and Europe. Email: egert.rynne@humanrights.ee
ENES BAYRAKLI
Enes Bayraklı earned his BA, MA and PhD from the Department of Political Science at the University of Vienna, and conducted research for his PhD thesis at the University of Nottingham in Britain between 2009 and 2010. He took office as a deputy director at Yunus Emre Turkish Cultural Center in London in 2011-2013. Mr. Bayraklı also served as the founding director of Yunus Emre Turkish Cultural Centers in Constanta and Bucharest during the period of August-December 2012. Mr. Bayraklı has been a faculty member in the Department of Political Science and International Relations at the Turkish German University in Istanbul. Currently he is also the director of European Studies at SETA foundation. His fields of research include the Islamophobia in Europe, Far right movements in Europe, Transformation of Turkish Foreign Policy, Foreign Policy Analysis, German Politics and Foreign Policy. Email: ebayrakli@setav.org
ENRIQUE TESSIERI
Enrique Tessieri is a sociologist and former journalist who writes and researches immigration topics. As a journalist, Tessieri worked in countries like Finland, Spain, Italy, Argentina, and Colombia writing on topics including human rights, business, and foreign investment. Tessieri is editor of Migrant Tales, a community blog he founded in 2007. He is chairperson and founder of the Anti-Hate Crime Organisation Finland and vice president of Rom-Mikkeli, an association founded in 2015 to further the rights of the Roma minority of Mikkeli, a city located in Eastern Finland. Tessieri works at Otava Folk High School near the city of Mikkeli, and is an advisor for the Master in Conflict, Peace and Security at the Open University of Catalonia. Email: editor@migranttales.net
FARID HAFEZ
Farid Hafez, PhD (Political Science, University of Vienna), is a political scientist and non-resident senior researcher at Georgetown University’s “The Bridge Initiative” at the School of Foreign Service. He defended his habilitation thesis on “Islam Politics in the Second Republic of Austria” at the University of Salzburg in 2019. In 2017, he was a Fulbright visiting professor at the University of California, Berkeley and in 2014, he was a visiting scholar at Columbia University, New York. Since 2010, he has been the editor of the Islamophobia Studies Yearbook, and since 2015 the co-editor of the European Islamophobia Report. Hafez has received the Bruno Kreisky Award for the “Political Book of the Year” for his anthology Islamophobia in Austria (co-edited with John Bunzl). He has more than 100 publications in leading journals such as Politics and Religion, Patterns of Prejudice, and German Politics and Society. His latest publications are Islamophobia in Muslim Majority Societies (Routledge, co-edited with Enes Bayrakli, 2019) and Feindbild Islam. Über die Salonfähigkeit von Rassismus (Islamophobia. On the Acceptance of Racism. Böhlau, 2019). Email: farid.hafez@sbg.ac.at
GABI GOBL
Gabi Gőbl received her MA degree in sociology from Eötvös Lóránd University (ELTE), Budapest. She has worked in various non-governmental organizations in Hungary as a project manager before joining the Center for European Neighborhood Studies at the Central European University as program coordinator in October 2013. Since 2015, she has been involved in various international research projects, including the EU’s Erasmus+ Jean Monnet program and the Austrian Future Fund, researching the so-called migration and refugee crisis with a specific focus on the Hungarian aspect. Email: goblg@ceu.edu
GIEDRE BLAZYTE
Giedrė Blažytė is a researcher at Diversity Development Group and the Lithuanian Social Research Centre, Institute for Ethnic Studies. Her scientific interests lie in contemporary migration issues related to the topics of family migration, migration and gender, integration of beneficiaries of international protection, irregular migration, and fundamental rights. As a project executor and independent expert, Blažytė has been involved in different projects and (migration) research on a national and international level. Blažytė holds a PhD in social sciences (sociology). Email: giedre@diversitygroup.lt
HIKMET KARCIC
Hikmet Karčić is a researcher at the Institute for Islamic Tradition of Bosniaks in Sarajevo. He has a BA and LL.M. from the Faculty of Law, University of Sarajevo, and a PhD in Political Science and Sociology from the International University of Sarajevo. Previously, Karčić worked at the Missing Persons Institute of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Center for Advanced Studies (CNS) in Sarajevo, and was the project coordinator for “Mapping of Detention Camps in Bosnia and Herzegovina 1992-1995” at the association Tranzicijska pravda, odgovornost i sjećanje (TPOS). He was also the editor of Remembering the Bosnian Genocide: Justice, Memory and Denial (Institute for Islamic Tradition of Bosniaks, 2016). He is the author of several research articles on the subject of war crimes and memorialization, and has produced two documentaries related to the former. Email: karcic@iitb.ba
IVAN EJUB KOSTIC
Ivan Ejub Kostić is a PhD candidate at the Faculty of Political Sciences, University of Belgrade, Serbia. He graduated from the Department of Oriental Studies, Arabic Language and Literature at the Faculty of Philology, University of Belgrade. He holds a Master’s degree in Islamic Studies awarded by the same department. In the academic years 2011-2013, he was a lecturer at the Faculty of Media and Communications at Singidunum University, Belgrade, where he taught the courses “Middle Eastern Culture and History” and “Orientalism and Occidentalism.” He is one of the founders of the Balkan Centre for the Middle East, and became its managing director in 2013. He has co-authored the book Persecuted Islam (2013), and edited Religion, Belief and Civic Identity and the textbook Contemporary Islamic Thought (2019). He is a member of the editorial board of the academic periodical Journal for Religious Sciences – Kom and a regular contributor to the Yearbook of Muslims in Europe published by Brill. He is also a member of the board of the European Muslim Network seated in Brussels and chief editor of the regional online platform Algoritam – Contemporary Islamic Thought and Culture. Kostić has written numerous academic papers and articles in the field of Islamic studies, and is a regular contributor to leading media outlets in the country and the region on issues related to nationalism and religion, Balkan Muslims, and the Middle East and Islam. Email: kostici2000@yahoo.co.uk
JAMES CARR
James Carr lectures in the Department of Sociology, University of Limerick, Ireland. In 2016, he published the book Experiences of Islamophobia: Living with Racism in the Neoliberal Era (London and New York: Routledge) which focused on anti-Muslim racism in Ireland. Carr has published research with the Immigrant Council of Ireland, supported by the Open Society Foundations, entitled Islamophobia in Dublin: Experiences and How to Respond. He has authored the European Islamophobia Report submissions on Ireland for 2015-18, and, among others, has been the contributor to the Yearbook of Muslims in Europe for Ireland in the same period. Email: james.carr@ul.ie
JOZEF LENC
Jozef Lenč is an assistant professor at the Department of Philosophy and Applied Philosophy at the Faculty of Arts of the University of Ss. Cyril and Methodius in Trnava, Slovakia. His research focuses on the relationship of religion and politics, especially in regards to political parties, Islam, and Islamic philosophy. Lenč is a commentator of Slovak and international politics, especially regarding the Middle East. He has co-authored the book Young Migrants in the Slovak Society (2012) and is the author of the book Religion in Politics and the Position of Religious Political Parties (2016). Email: jozef.lenc@ucm.sk
LEONARD FAYTRE
Léonard Faytre graduated from Sciences Po Paris University with degrees in both political science (BA) and urban policy (MA). After moving to Istanbul in 2013, he continued his studies and completed a second MA in argumentation theories (münazara) at the Alliance of Civilization Institute (Ibn Khaldun University) in 2018. His research focuses on political theory, French foreign affairs, and French immigration policy. Besides French, he speaks English, Turkish, and Arabic. Currently, Faytre works as a research assistant at the European Studies Department of SETA (Istanbul Office). Email: l.faytre@gmail.com
LIINA LAANPARE
Liina Laanpere is a lawyer at the Estonian Human Rights Centre and participates as a legal expert in the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights research network FRANET. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Law from Tartu University and a Master’s degree in International Human Rights Law from University College Cork, Ireland. Email: liina.laanpere@humanrights.ee
NADA DOSTI
Nada Dosti holds an MA in English teaching from the University of Tirana, Albania, and finished her studies (MA) in journalism at the Faculty of Media and Communication, University of Ankara, Turkey. With an experience of ten years already as a journalist and an activist trying to be a voice for Muslim women in Albania by writing articles, Dosti responds publicly to Islamophobic attacks in media – especially on the topic of the hijab – by giving interviews and participating in public debates. She is the founder of Muslimania.al, a portal dedicated to Muslim women that promotes success stories, challenges Islamophobia, and gives a voice to Muslim women to share their concerns and opinions. Email: nada.dosti@gmail.com
NADIA JONES-GAILANI
Nadia Jones-Gailani is assistant professor of gender studies at the Central European University. She received her doctorate degree in 2013 from the University of Toronto in Gender and Women’s History. Her monograph Transnational Identity and Memory Making in the Lives of Iraqi Women in Diaspora is forthcoming in 2020 in the Gender and History Series of the University of Toronto Press. Email: jonesn@ceu.edu
NEJRA KADIC MESKIC
Nejra Kadic Meskic is the executive director at the Center for Cultural Dialogue and an associate at the Islamic Community in Croatia. She graduated from the School for Economics and Business of the University of Sarajevo. She has nine years of experience as a program and campaign leader in the fields of human rights, culture of dialogue, migrants and youth, and gender equality including the political and implementational level. She is familiar with the issues of human rights in Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina as she has worked in the NGO sector in both countries. In 2019, she completed the KAICIID Fellowship program in interreligious and intercultural dialogue. In 2013, Kadic Meskic received an award from the BIH Parliament for her contribution towards the achievement of gender equality. She has experience in project management, event management, as well as in public relations and marketing. She is the author and co-author of strategic documents related to the improvement in the implementation of human rights. Kadic Meskic is also a trainer on teamwork and leadership in educational programs for youth. Email: nejra.kadic.sa@gmail.com
OLIVER WACKERLIG
Oliver Wäckerlig studied sociology and religious studies at the University of Zurich. He worked as a research associate and assistant at the Department of Religious Studies, where he also received his doctorate. At the University of Zurich, he was involved in various empirical projects in religious studies, practical theology, and criminology. Since 2018 he has been working at the Swiss Pastoral Sociological Institute (SPI). His research interests include Islamophobia, religion and the public sphere, religion and the media, and religion and health. His latest publication is Vernetzte Islamfeindlichkeit (Transcript, 2019) on the transatlantic network of anti-Muslim groups. Email: o.waeckerlig@skalderberg.ch
ORHAN CEKA
Orhan Ceka is a PhD candidate in the Law and Politics Program at the University of Graz, working on the governance of Islam in the Balkans. Ceka has an MA degree in Democracy and Human Rights from the University of Bologna/Sarajevo with a focus on the identity of Balkan Muslims. He conducted studies for his MA on public policy at Sabanci University, Istanbul. Ceka has worked at the Southeast European University, the Centre for Southeast European Studies (CSEES) at the University of Graz, and Sabanci University, and was the director of the Liberal Alternative Institute in Tetovo, North Macedonia. His research interests focus on the fields of politics of religion, identity politics, Balkan Muslims, and religious institutions, movements, and organizations. Email: orhanceka@yahoo.com
SELMA MUHIC DIZDAREVIC
Selma Muhič Dizdarevič is a sociologist with a degree in political philosophy. She works as a teacher and researcher in the fields of public and social policy, immigration and integration, civil society, and gender and human rights at Charles University, Faculty of Humanities, Prague and is a board member of the Czech Helsinki Committee. Her projects include areas such as the political participation of refugees and asylum seekers; the role of non-governmental organizations in the integration of minorities in the Czech Republic; and the inclusion of Muslim women into the Czech job market. She was a Fulbright visiting scholar at the University of California, Berkeley. Email: selmamuhdiz@gmail.com
SARA EZABE MALLIUE
Sara Ezabe Malliue is a lawyer. She holds a Master of Advocacy degree and is currently reading for a Master in Human Rights Law & Practice at the University of Malta. She completed a leadership course at the University of Cambridge, UK as a recipient of an award by Queen Elizabeth II. Ezabe Malliue has been researching hate speech online and conducted a research project entitled “Negotiating Peace in the Ambit of Freedom of Speech” (ELSA, Malta 2016) to highlight the importance of creating policies to tackle hate speech. She is the co-founder of the campaign “Redefining Us” which was created with the aim of combating discrimination and hate speech, and to raise awareness about religious and ethnic minorities in Malta. For this, she was awarded the Young Impactful Politician Award by the Junior Chamber International (JCI) Malta. Ezabe Malliue contributes to a local newspaper where she shares her reflections on being a Maltese Muslim and on other issues faced by minorities. Email: saraev96@gmail.com
SOFIA A. RAGOZINA
Sofia A. Ragozina is a research fellow at the Institute of Oriental Studies, Russian Academy of Sciences, and a lecturer at the National Research University Higher School of Economics. She is the managing editor in the peer-reviewed academic journal State, Religion and Church in Russia and Worldwide (Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration). Her doctoral thesis examined the image of Islam in Russian media. Ragozina’s professional interests include Muslim studies, sociology of Islam, and discourse analysis. Email: sofyaragozina@gmail.com
VEMUND AARBAKKE
Vemund Aarbakke is an assistant professor at the Department of Political Sciences, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece. He holds a PhD in history from the University of Bergen, Norway where for many years he was associated with the Centre of Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies. His publications are mainly related to minorities and Islam in the Balkans, but occasionally he also pursues issues related to his native Norway. Email: vaarbakk@polsci.auth.gr