Conference Chair and Committee

Steering Committee

Prof. Shahana Rasool

Department of Social Work and Community Development
University of Johannesburg
South Africa

Dr. Obakeng Kagola

Lecturer Early Childhood Development
Faculty of Education, Nelson Mandela University
Republic of South Africa

Profile

Obakeng Kagola is a lecturer in Early Childhood Development at the Faculty of Education, Nelson Mandela University. His research interests include gender and sexuality in early childhood education, inclusive education, men and masculinity studies, participatory visual methodologies as a research design and pedagogy, and social justice issues in education. Obakeng obtained his PhD from the University of the Free State (South Africa) with a dissertation titled “A participatory visual exploration of nurturing masculinity amongst Eastern Cape-based Xhosa male foundation phase teachers.” In connection with his research, Obakeng won the award for emerging researcher of the year in 2022 for the Faculty of Education at Nelson Mandela University. Currently, he serves as a member of the Faculty’s Research Ethics Committee and Postgraduate Studies Committee. Kagola has published and served as a reviewer for several local and international journals, including the African Journal of Career Development, Educational Research for Social Change, Journal of Education, and Gender Questions, among others. He has also served as a guest editor in journals such as the African Journal of Career Development, contributing to a special edition titled ” Gender diversity and sexual orientations in the South African workplace” (see Diale, Brown, & Kagola, 2023). Obakeng is currently supervising Master’s and Doctoral students in the field of education, focusing specifically on gender, sexuality, and inclusion in the early years of learning. Additionally, he is involved in community engagement projects aimed at developing comprehensive sexuality education books and manuals for visually impaired learners in South Africa. He is also involved in a national Teacher Pedagogy Study, through the Teaching, Teacher and Teacher Education for Equitable and Quality Learning (TTTEQL) consortium in partnership with the National Education Collaboration Trust (NECT), The study seeks to explore routines and processes in South African classrooms by examining teacher pedagogy and its influences on learning in relation to teacher beliefs and values, teacher identity, teacher development, and teacher support mechanisms.

Prof. Anthony Brown

Stellenbosch University
South Africa

Profile

Prof. Victoria J. Collis-Buthelezi

University of Johannesburg, South Africa
Member of the Advisory Council
Association for Global Political Thought
Harvard University, USA

Profile

Assoc Prof. Evi Eliyanah

Associate Professor in Gender Studies and Director of Office of International Affairs,
Universitas Negeri Malang, Indonesia

Profile

Assoc Prof. Evi Eliyanah is an Associate Professor in Gender Studies and Director of Office of International Affairs, Universitas Negeri Malang. Part of her responsibilities as Director of OIA, she has been working intensively with the Indonesian Ministry of Education Culture Research and Technology in developing Kemitraan Negara Berkembang (KNB) Scholarship, which offers potential international students opportunities to study in one of the reputable universities in Indonesia. She has been involved in the management of student and academic exchange, research collaborations, and other internationalization programs.

Dr. Li-Li Chen

Department of Political Science,
Faculty of Social Sciences,
Universidade Nacional Timor Lorosa’e , Timor-Leste

Profile

Dr. Li-Li Chen is a scholar and current lecturer at the Department of Political Science, Faculty of Social Sciences, Universidade Nacional Timor Lorosa’e of Timor-Leste. She has a Ph.D. from the University of Florida in 2018. Her research interests include the dynamics of gender and peacekeeping, gender and development, as well as politics in Southeast Asia with a particular focus on Timor-Leste. Her publications can be accessible on the Diplomat, E-ir, Devpolicy, and Neon Metin, etc

Prof. Margaret Cerullo

Professor of Sociology and Feminist Studies at Hampshire College, USA

Profile

Margaret Cerullo is a Professor of Sociology and Feminist Studies at Hampshire College, USA. She holds a B.A. in Philosophy from the University of Pennsylvania, a B.Phil. in Politics from the University of Oxford, and an M.A. in Sociology from Brandeis University.
Her academic interests include social and political theory, with a particular focus on feminist and queer theory, the sociology of culture, and social movements.

Dr. Halimah DeShong

Senior Lecturer and Head of the IGDS:NBU,
The University of West Indies,
Jamaica

Profile

Dr. Halimah DeShong is a Senior Lecturer and Head of the IGDS:NBU. She is an experienced feminist researcher, published in the areas of gendered and gender-based violence, feminist methodologies, anti-colonial feminisms, qualitative interviewing and analysis. She is the co-editor (with Professor Kamala Kempadoo) of Methodologies in Caribbean Research on Gender & Sexuality (2020) and is currently completing another book length manuscript on violence, the coloniality of gender and change. Her scholarly work appears in a wide range of peer-reviewed academic journals and books. She is joint editor of four special issues on Feminist Methodologies; Men and Masculinities; and Gender, Sexuality and Feminism in the Caribbean. Dr. DeShong has advised Caribbean governments on gender-based violence policies and laws, is the author of the Saint Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG) National Gender-based Violence Action Plan and has jointly designed a GBV/HFLE curriculum for post-secondary school students in SVG (with Dr. Tonya Haynes). She was also the lead researcher and author of the qualitative component of the UN Women/CARICOM/Caribbean Development Bank Women’s Health Survey on violence against women in Grenada.
Dr. DeShong served as an Ambassador and Second Deputy Permanent Representative at the Permanent Mission of the Government of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines to the United Nations. She was SVG’s expert, during the country’s two-year tenure (January 2020 to December 2021) on the United Nations Security Council on Women, Peace and Security; Children and Armed Conflict; Youth, Peace and Security; and the Protection of Civilians. In addition to this, she also covered the situations in Mali, Somalia, Guinea-Bissau, and West Africa and the Sahel.

Assoc Prof. Panagiotis Pentaris

Director of Research Studies for the Department of Social,
Therapeutic and Community Studies at Goldsmiths University of London,
UK

Profile

Panagiotis Pentaris is an Associate Professor of Social Work & Thanatology, with international education and practice experience in disaster work and end of life care.
Panagiotis is the Director of Research and Research Studies for the Department of Social, Therapeutic and Community Studies at Goldsmiths University of London, UK, where he is also acting as Deputy Head.
His work has focused on death, dying, bereavement, religion, belief, gender and sexual diversity, and disaster social work. He is the founding leader of the Thanatology Research Lab at the University of London, and his research has explored aspects of death and dying in social science and social policy internationally.

Conference Converner

Conference Secretariat

Conference Coordinator

Scientific Reviewers

The Scientific Committee consists of the experts in the field from many different countries in the world. The Committee Members evaluate your abstracts and provide insights to improve those further. According to the final decision given by them, you would be able to process further tasks for attending the conference.

If you would like to be considered to serve on the Scientific Committee, please submit the Official Reviewer Application.

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