SPEAKER BIOGRAPHIES Adrian, Melanie Merkx, Gilbert W. Akıncı, Özgül Napoli, Grace Anderson, Lisa Noorda, Sijbolt Axworthy, Lloyd Picq, Manuela L. Becker, Jonathan Prewitt, Kenneth Buess, Matthias Provost, René Campbell, Bonnie Quinn, Robert Catoni, Karolina Rafiee, Maryam Cheung, Alvin Riseth, Inga Marie Nymo Cukier, Wendy Rumbley, Laura E. DeBrabander, Firmin Sarmento, Simone Dejonckheere, Kris Shahin, Emad de Lange, Ella Sharom, Azmi Des Rosiers, Nathalie Shattuck, John du Pont, Yannick Sheldon, Barbara Egner, Marit Stewart, Penni Epstein, Irving Stimpson, Catharine R. Gonzo, Farai Stone, Geoffrey R. Guldvog, Ragnhild Oien Tokuzlu, Lami Bertan Haberkorn, Tyrell Valentini Di Girolamo, Fabio Luigi Habib, Adam Webster, Ben Hartmann, Pamela Wilson, John K. Himbara, David Winichakul, Thongchai Jowi, James Otieno Wong-Arthichart, Rackchart Lewis, Shaundra Wordsworth, Stephen Mathur, Chandana Yenigün, Halil İbrahim Martel, Émile Ziadeh, Radwan Mégret, Frédéric Melanie Adrian’s work critically examines the tensions which arise when a general religious right is applied in a specific context and what this application signifies for national identity and cultural norms. She looks in her writing at minority rights and their manifestation in relationship to international and national human rights norms and respect for national values. Her book, Religious Freedom at Risk: The EU, French schools, and Why the Veil was Banned, takes up these issues in France and the wider European context. Dr. Adrian holds her Ph.D. in Social Anthropology and the Study of Religion from Harvard University (USA), an M.A from Essex University (U.K), an A.M from Harvard University (USA), and a B.A from the University of Waterloo. (Canada). Dr. Adrian is currently on faculty in the Department of Law and Legal Studies at Carleton University in Ottawa. Özgül Akıncı received her BA in Psychology from Bogazici University (2006) and MA in Cultural Studies from Sabancı University (2010). Currently lives in İstanbul and working on the completion of her PhD dissertation which she pursued in the Interdisciplinary Graduate Studies Program at the University of British Columbia. Her research areas are performance studies, feminist theatre practice, labour, women's theatre in Turkey and sex work studies. Lisa Anderson is an American political scientist and the former President of the American University in Cairo (AUC). A specialist on Middle Eastern and North African politics, Anderson served as the President of AUC from 2011 to 2016 and as Provost from 2008 to 2010. Prior to joining AUC, Anderson served as the James T. Shotwell Professor of International Relations at Columbia University, the dean of Columbia's School of International and Public Affairs, the chair of the political science department and the director of the Middle East Institute. She is member emerita of the board of Human Rights Watch, where she served as co-chair of Human Rights Watch/Middle East, and serves on the Boards of the School of Public Affairs of Sciences Po in Paris and the Hertie School of Governance in Berlin, as well as the International Advisory Council of the World Congress for Middle East Studies. She is also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. Lloyd Axworthy is a Canadian politician, statesman, and academic. He served as Minister of Foreign Affairs in the Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Jean Chrétien. Following his retirement from parliament, he served as president and vice-chancellor of the University of Winnipeg from 2004 to 2014 and is currently chancellor of St. Paul's University College, an affiliated institution of the University of Waterloo. Axworthy is Chair of the Advisory Committee for the Americas Division of Human Rights Watch, serves on the advisory council of USC Center on Public Diplomacy and of Fair Vote Canada, and is an endorser of the Genocide Intervention Network and International Student Exchange, Ontario. He is the President of the World Federalist Movement-Institute for Global Policy, and serves as the Chair of the Scholars at Risk Ambassadors Council. In December 30, 2015, Axworthy was promoted to Companion of the Order of Canada, the highest grade of the honour Jonathan Becker is the Vice President for Academic Affairs and Director, Center for Civic Engagement at Bard College. He is also an associate professor of political studies specializing in Russian and eastern European politics, media and politics, and education reform. Jonathan arrived at Bard in 1997. For a decade, Jonathan has overseen the academic development of Bard’s international partnerships, including those in Russia, Kyrgyzstan, and the West Bank. He also played a central role in founding Bard’s Globalization and International Affairs Program in New York City; Bard’s debate and Model United Nations teams; and election.bard.edu, which registers students to vote, facilitates student internships with local officials, and has fought voter suppression efforts in Dutchess County. Prior to coming to Bard, he served as assistant vice president of the Central European University in Budapest and as the European director of the Civic Education Project. Matthias Buess was born in Basel, Switzerland. After having lived in several places throughout the country, he enrolled at the University of Bern for 4 years of Law studies. He then moved to Geneva in order to get his MA of Arts in Political Science. Following his graduation, he did an internship at the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (conflict prevention department), worked as a teacher and translator and later joined the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (human security department). For 8 years, he has been working at the the International Relations Office of the University of Lausanne (Switzerland), where he is in charge of bilateral agreements for Europe, North and South America and Africa, strategic partnerships, SAR and research projects with specific countries. He also represents the University at Conferences (NAFSA, EAIE, UNICA). Bonnie Campbell is a professor of political economy at the Department of Political Science at the University of Quebec in Montreal (UQAM) where she is Director of the Centre interdisciplinaire de recherche en développement international et société (CIRDIS) and also the Director of the Research Group on Mining Activities in Africa (Groupe de recherche sur les activités minières en Afrique). She was a member of the Advisory Group named by the federal government for the National Roundtables on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and the Canadian Extractive Sector in Developing Countries (2006-2007) and from 2007 to 2011 was a member of the International Study Group of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) on the revision of mining regimes in Africa. Professor Campbell has written extensively on issues related to international development, development assistance, governance and mining and is the author of many journal articles, and author, editor or co-editor of fourteen volumes including, Regulating Mining in Africa: For whose Benefit? (Nordiska Afrikainstitutet (NAI), Uppsala, Sweden, 2004) ; Mining in Africa. Regulation and Development (Pluto, London, IDRC, Ottawa and NAI, Uppsala, 2009) ; Pouvoir et régulation dans le secteur minier : leçons à partir de l’expérience canadienne (Presses de l’Université du Québec (PUQ), Quebec, 2012); and Modes of Governance and Revenue Flows in African Mining (International Political Economy Series, Palgrave Macmillan, Basingstoke, Hampshire, UK, 2013). Professor Campbell is a Member of the Royal Society of Canada since 2012. Karolina Catoni is the coordinator for the Scholars at Risk Network- Sweden Section. She has been working in various fields of internationalization of higher education for the past 13 years. She currently holds a position as International Relations Officer at the University of Gothenburg and is the project manager for Scholars at Risk within the University of Gothenburg. Karolina has a master of philosophy in political science from Lund University, Sweden. Alvin Y.H. Cheung will be starting his JSD studies at NYU, focusing on the use of law by authoritarian regimes, in September 2016. Alvin holds degrees from NYU (LL.M. in International Legal Studies, 2014) and Cambridge (M.A. 2011), and has worked in Hong Kong as a barrister and as a lecturer in Law & Public Affairs at Hong Kong Baptist University. Alvin has written and presented extensively about constitutional developments in Hong Kong for academic, specialist, and lay audiences. His writing has appeared in publications such as the Brooklyn Journal of International Law, ChinaFile, and the South China Morning Post. He has also been quoted by media organizations such as Al-Jazeera and the Associated Press. Wendy Cukier is currently the Vice President of Research and Innovation Ryerson University leading the effort to become Canada’s first Ashoka Changemaker Campus and a range of initiatives aimed at advancing UN Millenium Development Goals, and is a collaborator on the European Union’s Social Innovation Driving Force of Social Change (SI-DRIVE) research project which brings together researchers from 26 countries. Wendy has recently been named the incoming President and Vice Chancellor of Brock University in St. Catharines. She is a co-founder of Lifeline Syria, a citizens group committed to advancing the private sponsorship of 1000 Syrian Refugees in the Greater Toronto Area. She also led the development of the Ryerson University Lifeline Syria Challenge which was established to mobilize the University Community to sponsor 10 families. Firmin DeBrabander is professor of philosophy at the Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore, Maryland. He is author of the book Do Guns Make us Free? (Yale University Press, 2015), which offers a critique of the gun rights movement in America, an analysis, and a new line of attack against the powerful gun lobby. DeBrabander has written extensively on the gun rights movement and America's gun culture, as well as on other social and political topics, in a variety of publications, including the New York Times, the Baltimore Sun, the Washington Post, the Atlantic, the New Republic, Salon, and Common Dreams.