Dr. Abdulmajeed Bolade Hassan-Bello is a professor at Department of Religious and Cultural Studies at University of Uyo in Nigeria. He teaches various courses including Islamic doctrines & theology, Islamic jurisprudence, religion & human relations, religion & cultural changes. He has written numerous books and journal articles including “Islamic Doctrines and Theology” and “Islam and Conception of Islamic State”.

Casey Higginbotham's research work focuses on international relations and global security. He completed his Bachelors in Political Science focused on Global Politics, in 2015. Mr. Higginbotham's studies in France sparked his interest in international conflict and security studies which he is currently pursuing through his research work.

Caterina Perlini did her Masters from King’s College London, Department of War Studies. She also worked at the European Union Delegation to the United Nations in New York and reported about the Security Council’s resolutions on Syria and Libya.

Cody Pajunen’s research focus is transnational terrorism and the psychological basis of political violence. He also follows Turkish and Iraqi politics, and writes about group dynamics, insurgencies, and irregular warfare.

Christopher P. Davey is a graduate of Utah Valley University's Peace and Justice Studies programme and the Joint European programme of Human Rights and Genocide Studies at Kingston University. He was also PhD researcher in Peace Studies at the University of Bradford, and an associate research fellow at the John and Elnora Ferguson Centre for African Studies. Christopher's research areas include: genocide in central Africa, colonial and imperial legacies of genocide in British history.

Farinaz Aryanfar is a Dutch-Iranian researcher focusing on conflict analysis in the Middle East. She has a Bachelor’s degree in Middle Eastern studies from Leiden University, and a Master’s degree in Global Affairs from Gothenburg University. As an active analyst in media, she received the ‘Most in the News Women’ prize in the Netherlands in 2009. Ms. Farinaz has presented her papers at several conferences including World Congress for Middle Eastern Studies (2014). She also thoroughly studied the polarization threat of European societies as an effect of Islamic extremism (2015-2016).

Dr. Fadi Elhusseini is a political and media advisor. He is a senior fellow at the Centre on Governance, University of Ottawa and an associate fellow researcher (ESRC) at the Institute for Middle East Studies Canada. Elhusseini is an advisory board member of the New Arab Foundation. He holds a PhD in International Relations (Turkey and the Arab World) from the University of Sunderland in Britain.

Grace Blakeley’s research area is conflict in central Africa, particularly the nexus of conflict that has arisen around north eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, South Sudan and the Central African Republic. She completed her MSc degree in African Studies at Oxford University. In her thesis on the second Congo war, Ms. Blakeley analysed numerous sub-conflicts in DRC after personally visiting the Ituri region of the DRC for her research. She also interned at the European Parliament and spent some time volunteering as an administrator of a charity called The Child's Trust.

Katarzyna Jędrzejczyk-Kuliniak is an Associate professor at the General Tadeusz Kosciusko Military Academy of Land Forces, Department of National Security Affairs. She has graduated from University of Wroclaw Faculty of Social Science. Ms. Katarzyna’s Doctoral Thesis focused on ‘Cultural Values and the Processes of Globalisation, within Muslim and Sinoconfucian Civilizations.’ She is also the author of numerous articles about Islam civilization, International Relations and security including a course book, “World religions and International Security”.

Katty Alhayek is a scholar and activist from Syria. She completed her PhD in Communication at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and also served as a research assistant at the UN Women. Her research interests center around themes of gender, conflict, activism, media and new technologies. Ms Alhayek is a former Open Society Foundations fellow and holds Master’s degrees in International Affairs and Media Studies. Her areas of interest include: Peace and Conflict, Restorative Justice, International Politics.

Linda Hewitt did her Bachelors in Arabic Studies from Berlin where her research focused on homosexuality in Arabic-Islamic societies and the Middle East. She completed her Master’s degree from Lund University, Sweden at the Centre for Middle Eastern Studies. She also held an in-depth study on "How some Muslims are managing the balance between traditional religious and modern values in their everyday life", based on narratives of Ismaili Muslims living in Germany.

Lorna Balie did her Bachelors in Political Science, Philosophy and Economics from the University of Stellenbosch. She completed her Masters in Peace and Conflict Studies at the European Peace University in Austria where her thesis focused on the impact of peace education on youth in South Africa. Lorna completed her PhD in Education at the Centre for International Teacher Education at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology.

Mattie Lanz worked at Center for Maghreb Studies in Tunis. She attended Middle East Technical University and currently lives in Ankara, Turkey.

Robert Vessels currently works as a Military and Veteran Volunteer Coordinator at Sierra Club. He was also part of 4th Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division. He studied Middle Eastern Studies/Arabic at UC Berkeley.