Daniella Arieli (Israel)

Daniella Arieli is a social-anthropologist living in Israel. She is interested in encounters between people, ideas and lives, and believes in the good in all people. Her recent studies include fieldwork amongst expatriates in Beijing, and action research with Jewish and Palestinian citizens in Israel.

Rasha Azoni (Palestine)

Rasha Azoni is a Palestinian woman who comes from the Muslim village of Jaljulia, Israel and is a member of a family of the 1948 Arabs. She earned her bachelor’s and first master’s degree at Bar Ilan University, where she graduated with honors. She wrote her master’s thesis on the Socialization Process and Gender Identity among Arab (Muslim and Christian) Women who Studied in the Israeli Educational System. For five years, she worked as an educational counselor in an Arab high school in the mixed cities of Ramla/Lod and then earned a second master’s from Wheelock College, Boston. She is currently enrolled at Hartford Seminary, Connecticut.

Raisa Barash (Russia)

Raisa Barash was born in Sevastopol (Crimea) and graduated from the Moscow State University in Political Science (the diploma thesis was devoted to the problem of Irredentism in the context of the South and North Ossetia relationship). A PhD Candidate in Political Science (Moscow State University, Dissertation topic –“The phenomenon of divided ethnonational groups: politological analysis”) she currently is a scientific officer in the Department of socio-economic research, the Institute of Sociology, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow. She is interested in the problem of divided ethnonational groups, phenomena of separatism and irredentism, and the construction of a civic nation in multiethnic communities. She has translated and adapt foreign-language papers on ethnic problems into Russian language.

Pam Blood (Canada)

Pam Blood “Piikaaksin”, her traditional Blackfoot name, is from the Blood Tribe/Kainai First Nation located in southern Alberta, Canada. She studied journalism arts at the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology in Calgary, Alberta and received her B.A. (Political Science) at the University of Lethbridge. She has worked as a research assistant on various studies regarding First Nations issues (Persons with Developmental Disabilities and voting practices). She is currently the project coordinator for the Blood Tribe Cultural Awareness Project which is addressing racism and discrimination in the Lethbridge area. She currently advises with the City of Lethbridge’s ‘Coalition of Municipalities Against Racism and Discrimination’ team that designed an action plan to address related problems in the area.

Shaban Darakchi (Bulgaria)

Shaban Darakchi (Shabby) was born in Gotse Delchev, Bulgaria and is a PhD student at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences. He is currently working on a project called “Dynamic in notions about gender and sexuality among Bulgarian Muslims” and has involved in projects for interethnic initiatives since high school. This had a huge influence on his professional development and in 2003 he chose to study Sociology. After receiving a bachelor's degree, he got accepted in a Master program focused around issues of sociological research and public policies. In 2009 defended a Master thesis named “Sexuality as a sociological problem: Sexuality and Politics”. Two specializations in Spain and Sweden and publications devoted to gender issues and their relationship to religion and politics. He is a sworn sociologist and a big fan of a healthy lifestyle. “My job and my hobby are the same thing—it is my passion”

Berlanti Elhaj (Israel)

Berlanti Elhaj is of Arab Nationality, born and living in Jaffa City in Israel. She is working as a Supervisor of Social Science and Citizenship curriculum in Arab Schools for the Ministry of Education and is a Lecturer on Education and Democracy at Beit Berl Teachers College, and is National Counselor on Values Education, Multiculturalism and Education for Coexistence, Civic Education Department. She holds a M.A. Degree in Educational Administrative Policies, from The Hebrew University in Jerusalem, and has a B.Ed Degree in Social Science Education and Citizenship Studies, from Beit Berl College, and a B.A Degree in Social Sciences and Humanities, from The Open University In Tel-Aviv. She is married to Afif and a mother to Arwa, Omar, and Raged.

Mădălina Ene (Romania)

Mădălina Ene joined PACT Foundation’s field team in March 2009, as a community facilitator for a Phare 2006 project - Community Based Organizations, Centers for Community Mobilization. In November 2009, Mădălina took over the coordination of PACT Foundation’s project Promotion of debates on Social Inclusion in support of the reinforcement of the Open Method of Coordination on Social Inclusion in Romania and she joined the management team of PACT Foundation, as Programs Manager. She has been working in the field of European financed programs since 1999; she coordinated the European Voluntary Service of the Youth European Program, and worked as an expert for the national project of the Ministry of Education - Access to Education for disadvantaged groups. Through the latter program, she offered consultancy services to school inspectorates, school managers and local and county public authorities, for the implementation of county grants. Mădălina has direct expertise in the field of social inclusion, having gained it particularly between 2003 and 2005, while coordinating the Family type center for orphan children “Hope for Tomorrow” of Saint Stelian Association.

Simon Omaada Esibo (Uganda)

Simon Omaada Esibo is a member of the Pluralism Knowledge Programme (PKP) National Steering Committee in Uganda. He is the Uganda Martyrs University PKP contact person. Esibo is fluent in English and Kiswahili. He holds BA Honours from the University of Zimbabwe and MA in Peace and Conflict Studies from Makerere University (Uganda). Currently, Esibo teaches in the Department of Good Governance and Peace Studies in Uganda Martyrs University.

Victor Friedman (Israel)

Victor J. Friedman is Associate Professor of Organizational Behavior and co-chair of the Action Research Center for Social Justice, The Max Stern Yezreel Valley College, Israel. My life's work is helping individuals, organizations, and communities learn, especially under conditions of uncertainty and conflict, through "action science" – theory building, experimentation and critical reflection in everyday life. Currently my focus is on social entrepreneurship as a means of promoting social inclusion and on the development of the idea of “social space” as an actionable construct. I am co-author of a book entitled Demystifying Organizational Learning, Associate Editor of the Action Research Journal, and serve on the board of the Campaign for Middle East Peace: Now is the Time. I hold a B.A. in Middle East studies from Brandeis University, an M.A. in cross-cultural psychology from Columbia University, and an Ed.D. in counseling, consulting and community psychology from Harvard University.

Anastasia Grib (Russia)

Anastasia Grib is a Ph.D. candidate in Islamic Art and Anthropology in St. Petersburg, Russia.  She has graduated from the Russian Academy of Arts and the Graduate School (Aspirantura) of the State Hermitage Museum.  Anastasia’s research focus is the material culture of the Qur’an (calligraphy, ornaments, Qur’anic boards); she is the executive editor of the web-based Guide to Islamic Calligraphy (khatt.ru).  In the past Anastasia, has worked as an art critic, a curator, a journalist, and a press-attaché to the Mikhailovsky Opera and Ballet Theater in St. Petersburg.  

Paul Gwese (Zimbabwe)

Father Paul Gwese is an Anglican priest in Zimbabwe who is currently a vicar in a Parish of more than 800 parishioners. Besides being a theologian, the Reverend Father Paul is also a Holder of a Masters in Conflict Resolution from the University of Bradford in the United Kingdom. He is a Chevening scholar as well as an Interaction Fellow which is run by the British Council. Father Paul is currently coordinating the social justice and development programs for the Anglican Diocese of Harare (C.P.C.A).His main areas of ministry have been within the realm of human rights and peace building especially amongst the grassroots in Zimbabwe which is currently experiencing serious political and socio economic turmoil despite the formation of an inclusive government .He works as a part time consultant for other civic organizations in Zimbabwe.

Hamza Karcic (Bosnia and Herzegovina)

Hamza Karcic is Assistant Lecturer in International Relations and PhD candidate at the Faculty of Political Science, University of Sarajevo. He received his B.A. in Political Science and International Relations from Bogazici University, M.A. in International Relations and European Studies from the Central European University and an M.A. from the Walsh School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University.

Sergey Kozin (Russia)

Sergey Kozin is the Editor-in-Chief of Germenevtika Press, an independent publisher in religious studies and theology operating out of Tver, Russia. He is also completing his Ph.D. in Biblical Studies at Drew University in the United States.  In the past, Sergey has been  an assistant to a member of the Russian Senate, a religious worker in the U.S., and a director of international programs at a college in St. Petersburg.  He and his wife, Anastasia Grib, currently reside in St. Petersburg.

Adriana Lubenova (Bulgaria)

Adriana Lubenova is director of ate-lie “Iconography” at the Holly Metropolitan Church of Plovdiv and scientific secretary at “University Center for Christian Art and Culture”, Plovdiv University “Paisii Hilendarski”. Graduated: bachelor’s degree in sculpture from George Mason University, USA; Master’s degree in Orthodox Painting from the Academy of Music, Dance and Fine Arts, Plovdiv; Master’s degree in Theology at Plovdiv University “Paisii Hilendarski”. Post-Graduate Studies in: Iconography, Theology and Symbolism, Drawing, Technique and Technology in Orthodox painting. Intern for UNESCO specializing in restoration and conservation of cultural monuments. Member of the “Association of the Bulgarian Schools Abroad” and ICCM. Currently enrolled in the PhD program at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences/ Institute of Art Studies and completing Master’s program in Conservation and Restoration, at the Shumen University “Episkop Konstantin Preslavski”. Works in the area of iconographic and theological research of antique and medieval mosaics. Leader of segment ‘Iconography’ of the scientific project ‘The Christian cultural-historical heritage as a leading factor for establishing and preserving the national identity’.

Iva Lucic (Bosnia and Herzegovina)

I was born in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina. Currently, I live in Uppsala, Sweden. After I got my M.A. from Uppsala University, I got accepted as a PhD researcher at the Department of History, Uppsala University. My research is located within three intersecting fields: religion, nation-building processes and socialism. I am primarily interested in the policy of nation-building of Muslims in Socialist Yugoslavia.

Najiyah Martiam (Indonesia)

She currently serves as the coordinator of public education in the master program of Center for Religious and Cross-cultural Studies (CRCS) of Gadjah Mada University, Indonesia. She obtained her Master degree in religious studies from the center and her bachelor degree from food technology department of the same university. Previously she worked in an NGO concerns on Reproductive Health, Sexuality and HIV/AIDS prevention as program coordinator of media and training development, and at the same as freelance religion tour guide in a traveler café in Yogyakarta. Her main interest topics are Sufism and Art, gender and spirituality, and science and religion.

James W. McCarty III (United States of America)

James W. McCarty III is Director of the Ethics and Servant Leadership Program at Oxford College of Emory University. He is also a doctoral student in Religion (Ethics and Society) at Emory University with concentrations in "Religious Practices and Practical Theology" and "Religion, Conflict, and Peacebuilding." His research interests are in the relationship between theology and social change, nonviolence, and reconciliation processes in post-conflict societies. Prior to his studies at Emory, James earned an M.A. in Ethics from Claremont School of Theology and a B.A. in Religion from Pepperdine University. Beyond his studies, James has served as a minister at Normandie Church of Christ and managed a homeless shelter in Los Angeles, CA. In addition to his work in Los Angeles, he has been involved in justice and reconciliation ministries in Uganda, Kenya, and India.

Siti Sarah Muwahidah (Indonesia)

Siti Sarah Muwahidah is a first-year doctoral student in Religion at Emory University, with study concentration on religion, conflict and peacebuilding. She received an MA in Religious Studies from Florida International University, in the United States and another MA in Religious Cross-Cultural Studies from Center for Religious and Cross-Cultural Studies, Gadjah Mada University, Indonesia. She has been actively engaged in and has also managed human rights, interfaith and peacebuilding programs among the various elite and grassroots groups especially during her work in MAARIF Institute for Culture and Humanity, Jakarta. She is a Fulbright Presidential Fellow (2010) and Asian Public Intellectual Fellow (2009). Her research interests include: interfaith dialogue, religion and peacebuilding, Islam and human rights, religion and science, religion and ecology, as well as women and religion. 

Maximiano Ngabirano (Uganda)

Maximiano Ngabirano is a Senior Lecturer in the Institute of Ethics and Development Studies at Uganda Martyrs University. He holds a PhD in theology from The Catholic University of Leuven. At Uganda Martyrs University, he heads a Department of Good Governance and Peace Studies and teaches Ethics, Religion and Development. He is involved in various research fields. Currently, he is in a team conducting research on diversity, marginalization and pluralism in Uganda.

Pontian Godfrey Okoth (Uganda)

Pontian Godfrey Okoth is Professor of History and International Relations at the East African School of Diplomacy, Governance and International Studies, Uganda Martyrs University, Kampala, Uganda, and former Vice Chancellor, Lugazi University. He received the BA (Hons) degree in History and the Concurrent Diploma in Education from Makerere University in 1978, the M.A. in History from the University of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, in 1980, and the Ph. D. in History from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) in 1987.Okoth has also been visiting scholar at institutions of academic excellence such as Nuffield College, University of Oxford, the Brookings Institution in Washington D.C., the American Studies Center, Hyderabad, India, and the American Studies Center, Salsburg, Austria. He has also received such prestigious awards as the Fulbright Scholarship, the Indian Council for Cultural Relations Award, and the Carnegie Corporation of New York Research Award, among others, and his research interests and teaching include diplomatic history, foreign policy, international conflict management and peace studies. He is married with four children.

Violeta Periclieva (Bulgaria)

Violeta Periclieva is born in Sofia, Bulgaria. She has a Bachelor’s degree in Bulgarian philology and Master’s degree in Ethnology and Cultural anthropology, both from Sofia University. Currently she is a PhD student at the Institute for Ethnology and Folklore Studies with National Ethnographic Museum, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences. Her PhD thesis is on folk religiousness in the Balkans, a comparative study of Bulgaria, Croatia and Macedonia. She has taken part in two projects of the Municipality of Petrich, Bulgaria – “Cross-border Partnerships for Sustainable Tourism: Integrated Approach for Development of Sustainable Tourism within the Cross-border Area of the Municipalities of Petrich, Bulgaria and of Serres, Greece” and “Cross-border Cultural Interactions for Common European Future – Petrich, Bulgaria and Strumica, Macedonia”. Her previous studies are on the holy places in the Municipality of Petrich and they are the basis for her Master’s thesis, recently published as a book (Holy Places in the Town of Petrich).

Lyubomir Pozharliev (Bulgaria)

I have Bachelor’s degree on Sociology from Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridksi”. In 2006 I got the Rector’s award for prominent student. During my studies I was elected as a chair of the Association of the Sociology Students at Sofia University (2006-2008). In 2008 I was elected as a chair of the European Sociology Students Association and I am holding this position still. I had been a human rights activist for the Bulgarian Helsinki Committee in the period 2007-2009 and have several publications in their journal “Objective”. Together with the Helsinki Committee and ASSSU we organized a conference dedicated on the memory of the renaming of the Bulgarian Turks in 1980s. After graduating I was working as an assistant researcher in qualitative methods in the Bulgarian office of the GFK Market Research Institute. I have three publications on social inequalities in Bulgarian academic journals. At the moment I am doing my MA in “Comparative History of Central and Eastern Europe” at Central European University, Budapest. My research interests include nationalism, human rights and rights of ethnic minorities and social inequalities.

Aluysius Budi Purnomo (Indonesia)

I am a diocesan priest at the Archdiocese of Semarang, Indonesia. I was ordained as a Roman Catholic priest on July, 8, 1996. I hold my Licentiate of Theology Contextual from Pontifical Faculty of Theology “Wedabakti” Yogyakarta in Indonesia. I have a special experience as a domestic missionary at North Sumatra (Indonesia) as a Staff and Rector of St. Peter Major Seminary at Pematangsiantar. It’s very special for me for two reasons. Firstly, at the time, I was the youngest priest served seminarians among eleven other senior priests, but the six bishops of Sumatra Region trust me to be a Rector. Secondly, it’s a cross-cultural experience of mine. I was born as a Javanese ethnicity, but served in Batak ethnicity and in our Seminary, there were so many seminarians (almost 40 per cent at the time) came from Flores with their uniqueness in ethnicity as well. Since September 2004, I found Monthly Catholic Magazine “INSPIRASI, Lentera yang Membebaskan” (“INSPIRATION, Liberatif Light”) in interreligious and ecumenical perspective, and also serve as Chief Editor. Since May 2008, I serve as the Chief of Commission for Interfaith Affairs at the Archdiocese of Semarang, Central Java and Yogyakarta, Indonesia. Playing saxophone and singing are two of the things that make me happy in doing interreligious dialogue. I call it “interreligious saxophone” due to I’ve played it in so many interreligious events for Muslim, Hindu, Buddha, Konghucu and Christian in Indonesia. Since 1999 up to now, more than 60 books are published in Indonesia. As a journalist, I also write some opinion articles at some daily newspapers especially at the Jakarta Post (in English), Kompas, Investor Daily and Suara Merdeka (in Indonesian).

Sahadete Sopjani (Kosovo)

I am Sahadete Sopjani and I come from Kosovo. I have a BA degree in Philology Faculty, department of German Language and Literature. I studied for about 2 years in Zarkka University of Jordan, Arabic language and Islamic fields. For the moment my occupation is translating, from different languages such as from German and English. At the time I am a member of board of the NGO Yvesa in Prishtine, Kosove, were I am very active. I am a writer as well, published several articles on society issues as well as artistic writings like poetry and others.

Marthen Tahun (Indonesia)

Marthen Tahun completed his M.A from the Center for Religious and Cross-cultural Studies (CRCS), a graduate School of Gadjah Mada University Yogyakarta, Indonesia, in 2007. His master thesis analyzes the aspect of religion in the Ambon Conflict, 1999-2002. In 2008-2010 he joined the American Friends Service Community (AFSC) Indonesia for a social integration project among local people in West Timor (Indonesia) and the ex-refugees groups from East Timor (the former Rimor Leste) living in the West Timor. Then he became a research staff member of CRCS Gadjah Mada University Yogyakarta, Indonesia since 2010. At the moment Marthen is a member of the coordinating team for a research of the growing Pentecostal Charismatic movement in Indonesia, a two years research in five different cities in Indonesia.

Ruby Tetteh (Ghana)

My desire is to seek the wellbeing of persons to enable them lead a fulfilling and higher quality of life. This has influenced my aspirations in life as a Development Professional and a Public Policy Expert. I hold a Masters in Development Studies and Public Policy from the Institute of Social Studies, The Hague and Central European University, Budapest respectively. I have worked in various capacities to improve the lives of persons as well as proposed policy choices in improving the standards of small and medium enterprises and made inputs into Ghana’s Trade Policy that have had significant impact on Ghana’s economy. Specifically, I engage in policy, program development and project implementation in the areas of migration, business and industrial development. Additionally, my career has revolved around research, volunteering, customer care and broadcast journalism.

Wening Udasmoro (Indonesia)

Wening Udasmoro received her PhD in Gender Studies from University of Geneva, Switzerland in 2005. She obtained her Master degree in the same field from the same university. Previously, she obtained a Master degree in literature and got her undergraduate degree in French literature from Gadjah Mada University, Indonesia. Currently, Wening Udasmoro is the Associate Director of the Indonesian Consortium for Religious Studies, an International PhD program organized by three universities; Gadjah Mada University, Sunan Kalijaga Islamic State University and Duta Wacana Christian University. She also teaches in several Master and Doctorate programs at Gadjah Mada University, such as in the Department of Literature, Media and Cultural Studies and Anthropology. Her main interest of research is on gender studies, religion and identity, politics of reproduction and critical discourse analysis.

Alla Zakharchenko (Ukraine)

Alla Zakharchenko is Associate Professor at the Department of International Relations, Odesa Mechnikov National University, where she teaches Middle East Politics. She also works for the Regional Branch of the National Institute of Strategic Studies in Odesa as Leading Research Fellow with the expertise in Israeli Studies. She holds a Ph.D in Political Science from the Institute of World Economy and International Relations, Kyiv, Ukraine (2006). Zakharchenko specializes in problems of security in the Middle East, with particular interests to the Arab-Israeli conflict. She has frequently traveled to Israel and the USA, conducting research at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Tel-Aviv University, University of South Carolina and Brandeis University. She has published widely in the area of conflicts in the Middle East, American policy toward the region, Israeli politics, etc., including the book: The Arab-Israeli Conflict: Problems of Resolution (Odesa, 2009). Zakharchenko has received scholarships to support her research from U.S. Department of State, the Schusterman Center for Israeli Studies, among others. Her current research focuses on interfaith dialogue and ethnic relations. She is also working on academic course “Religion in World Affairs” for her Department.

Mariya Zhelyazkova (Bulgaria)

Mariya Zhelyazkova holds a MA degree in English Philology from Sofia University, Bulgaria. After more than twenty years of teaching English to high school and university students she switched to social work and for four years was part of an international organization introducing alternative social services for institutionalized children. The training she received in this job made her sensitive to social, cultural and ethnic issues of whose existence she was not aware and confirmed her belief that education can be the answer to many problems. She believes in continuing education and life-long learning and is currently doing a training course in psychological and social counseling. Last year she switched back to education and now works as an in-service teacher trainer. She has a soft spot for cooperative learning and student empowering. She is particularly interested in what motivates and demotivates both students and teachers. Her other interests include books – reading them, owning them, sharing them, discussing them; and traveling. She lives in Stara Zagora, Central Bulgaria, and misses her two grown-up children who live abroad.

Krasimir Asenov (Bulgaria)

Krasimir Asenov lives and works in Plovdiv, an ancient city and a cultural capital of Bulgaria. He worked as a volunteer and a leader of an NGO in the field of ethnic minorities and religious communities. He participated in many forums and trainings in England, Cyprus, Turkey, Greece and others. Krassimir holds an MA in Crisis Management and Conflict. Currently he is preparing a doctorate on the emergence and development of ethnically segregated urban areas, the interaction of their inhabitants with other ethnic groups, with state institutions, and local authorities. Up till now his research work dealt with the processes of ethnic and religious self-determination and how it’s perceived and represented by media and society at large. He studied the health, educational and residential status of people of various ethnic origins in Plovdiv and Plovdiv region, as well as their incomes, rate of criminality and development prospects. Currently, he is Head of the Department of Demographics, Religious and Ethnic Issues at the Municipality Plovdiv.

Anver M. Emon (United States of America / Canada)

A native Californian, Anver M. Emon joined the Faculty of Law at the University of Toronto in 2005 and is Associate Professor of Law. Professor Emon's research focuses on premodern and modern Islamic legal history and theory; premodern modes of governance and adjudication; and the role of Shari'a both inside and outside the Muslim world.  His general academic interests include medieval intellectual and religious history; law and religion; legal history; and legal philosophy. He teaches Tort Law and offers specialized seminars on Islamic legal history, gender and Islamic law, and law and religion. Additionally, he supervises graduate students in advanced research in Islamic law and history. The author of Islamic Natural Law Theories (Oxford University Press, 2010), Professor Emon is the founding editor of Middle East Law and Governance: An Interdisciplinary Journal, and sits on the editorial board of The Journal of Law and Religion.

Simeon Evstatiev (Bulgaria)

Simeon Evstatiev holds a Ph.D. in Arabic and Islamic History (2000) from St. Kliment Ohridski University of Sofia where he currently is Associate Professor of Arabic and Islamic History at the Department of Arabic and Semitic Studies. His main areas of interest and publications include: Islamic intellectual currents, Arabic historical thought, religious and political movements in the Arab world, ‘public Islam’, and interactions between Christians and Muslims in Europe and the Middle East. Simeon Evstatiev has led and participated in a number of research and educational projects on national and international level. He visited and gave papers and lectures at various conferences and workshops in Europe, the Middle East, India and the United States. In 2003, with other academics and intellectuals, Simeon Evstatiev established the Center for Intercultural Studies and Partnership in Sofia where he had served as Research Director until 2008. Afterwards, together with a group of colleagues from different disciplines, he founded Sofia University’s Center for the Study of Religions where he leads the ongoing large-scale international research project “Religion and the Public: Interdisciplinary Approaches (2010–2012)”. The international memberships of Simeon Evstatiev include: Union Européenne des Arabisants et Islamisants (UEAI); The European Association for Middle Eastern Studies (EURAMES); Deutsche Morgenländische Gesellschaft (DMG); Deutsche Arbeitsgemeinschaft Vorderer Orient für gegenwartsbezogene Forschung und Dokumentation (DAVO).

Silvio Ferrari (Italy)

Ferrari is Professor at the Law Faculty of the Universita degli Studi di Milano and president of the International Consortium for Law and Religious Studies. He is one of the experts on the legal status of Islam in Europe. He is a frequent contributor to journals, workshops and conferences dealing with these and other legal issues, spanning the civil and canon law traditions. His many publications include: Islam and European Legal Systems (edited with A. Bradney, Aldershot, 2000), Musulmani in Italia (Bologna, 1996), Law and Religion in post-Communist Europe (Leuven, 2003).

Shlomo Fischer (Israel)

Fischer will be teaching next year in the department of Sociology and Anthropology at Tel Aviv University and in the School of Education of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He was awarded his Ph.D. degree in June 2007 from the Department of Sociology and Anthropology in Hebrew University. His edited book (together with Adam Seligman), The Burden of Tolerance: Religious Traditions and the Challenge of Pluralism was published (in Hebrew) by the Van Leer Jerusalem Institute and by HaKibbutz HaMeuchad in 2007. Fischer has worked in the field of education for the past 25 years. In the past 10 years he has worked in the field of religion, democracy and tolerance. From 1996-2007 he has been the founder and executive director of Yesodot—Center for Torah and Democracy which works to advance education for democracy in the State Religious school sector.

Zahava Fischer (Israel)

Zahava Fischer was born in 1949 in Israel. She holds a B.A in Law and Philosophy. Since 2000 she has been an elected member of the Har-Nof Neighborhood Council. She is an active member in the Jewish Orthodox feminist organization "Kolech" in which she served on the Board of Directors for two years. In 1995 she published a book of poetry and she is currently an active contributor to Israeli newspapers writing about literary and women's subjects. She is married to Shlomo and is the mother to five children and grandmother to three.

Marie-Claire Foblets (Belgium)

Marie-Claire Foblets is professor of Anthropology and of Law at the Universities of Leuven (Louvain) and Antwerp. She has held various visiting professorships both within and outside Europe. For several years she served as Head of the Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology at the Catholic University of Leuven. She currently chairs the Institute for Migration Law and Legal Anthropology at the Law Faculty in Leuven. She has done extensive research and published widely on issues of migration law, including the elaboration of European migration law after the Treaty of Amsterdam (multi-layered governance), citizenship/nationality laws, compulsory integration policies, anti-racism and non-discrimination. In the field of legal anthropology, her research focuses on cultural diversity and legal practice, with special interest in the application of Islamic family law in Europe, and more recently in the accommodation of cultural and religious diversity under State law (see inter alia Foblets, M.-C., Les familles maghrébines et la justice en Belgique. Anthropologie juridique et immigration, Paris, Karthala, 1994; Foblets, M.C. (ed.), Familles ­ Islam ­ Europe. Le droit confronté au changement, Paris, L'Harmattan, 1996 (coll. 'Musulmans d'Europe’); Foblets, M.-C. (ed.) Femmes marocaines et conflits familiaux en immigration. Quelles solutions juridiques appropriées?, Antwerp, Maklu, 1998; FOBLETS, M.C. (with J.Y. CARLIER), Le nouveau Code marocain de la famille. Son application en Europe, Brussels, Bruylant (2005); Foblets, M.C., Recht op maat. Culturen in de rechtbank. [Culture(s) in the courtroom. Justice made to measure], Antwerp, Maklu (forthcoming). In 2001 she was elected member of the Royal Academy of Sciences and Arts (Flanders/Belgium). She is also an honorary member of the Brussels bar.

Gülgün S. Gaigadjova (Bulgaria)

Gaigadjova was born in Gotze Delchev region (Valkosel) in Bulgaria. She is a Bulgarian Muslim (Pomak). She holds a BA degree in history from the South Western University in Blagoevgrad and has studied for her MA degree on ‘History of the Balkans between Two Civilizations – Christianity and Islam’, in the Sofia University. From 1998 till 2004 she studied in the Kingdom of Jordan, where after learning Arabic for two years, she graduated Islamic Theology. As of 2005 she thought a secondary school students course on Koran in Haskovo. In 2008 – 2009 she thought comparative religions in “Paisii Hilendarski” Secondary School in Haskovo. She is married and a mother of three.

Petko Hristov  (Bulgaria)
Petko Hristov is Associate Professor and Senior Researcher in Ethnology and Anthropology at the Institute of Ethnology and Folklore Studies with Ethnographic Museum at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences. He was Associate Professor of Ethnology at the Southwestern University “Neofit Rilski” in Blagoevgrad, Southwestern Bulgaria. Hristov is author of over 60 articles in various international journals and collections in Bulgaria and abroad and co-editor of four collections in Bulgaria, Serbia and Germany. His book “Communities and Celebrations: The Sluzba, Slava, Sabor and Kourban in South Slavic Villages in the First Half of 20 Century” (Sofia, 2004) was awarded as the best academic achievement in Humanities from the Union of Bulgarian Scientists in 2007. Hristov has taken part in a number of international projects for research in Bulgaria and the Balkans, including field-work in Bulgaria, Croatia, Macedonia and Serbia. His scholarly interests include traditional institutions and norms of behavior, family and kin relationships, traditional social aspects of the gender roles, rituals and identity, labor mobility and the socio-cultural dimensions of different forms of migrations.

Louis Join-Lambert (France)

Louis was born in France and studied Political Science and Economics in Paris four decades ago. With his German wife, he joined the International ATD Fourth World Movement founded by Joseph Wresinski. They have since remained committed to this unique “community” which emerges at grassroots level from the companionship of some of the most marginalized and excluded families with their fellow-citizens. These initiatives have a tangible international dimension, offering the opportunity to share life experiences, ideas and projects, to discover similarities across borders and understand how meaningful and necessary is the contribution of the poorest people in all fields of human development: political, cultural, spiritual. As a full time member of this Movement, Louis has been engaged in collaborative studies with a number of universities on topics that include illiteracy, income, work, health and Human Rights. When the Berlin wall fell, his family moved into what was East Germany (GDR). In ways that allow East and West to learn from one another, he has until recently been committed to establishing links with impoverished populations involved in similar initiatives in Central and Eastern Europe.

Alexei Kalionski (Bulgaria)

Kalionski is a historian with a PhD from the University of Sofia, Bulgaria, who has specialized in demography, pre-modern Russian, and Ottoman past. His lecture courses at the University of Sofia include history and culture of Muslim and Christian nomads in the Ottoman Empire, contemporary minority groups in South Eastern Europe, and Russian historiography. He has been engaged in many research projects combining archival and anthropological perspectives. Besides a number of articles and studies published in several languages, his publications include two books on Balkan nomads and Muslim community in Bulgaria (The Yuruks. Sofia, Prosveta, 2007; The “Revival Process”. Muslim Communities and the Communist Regime: Politics, Reactions and Consequences. Sofia, CIELA, 2008, in Bulgarian). He is also editor of the electronic magazine Anamnesis and a member of the Educational Committee of the Center for Democracy and Reconciliation in South-East Europe (CDRSEE).

Daniela Kalkandjieva (Bulgaria)

Daniela Kalkandjieva is Bulgarian scholar whose research is focused on the history of Orthodox churches and societies in Eastern Europe. She has MA in History and Archival Studies from Sofia University St. Kliment Ohridski (1988) and PhD in History from the Central European University in Budapest, Hungary (2004). Since 2004 she has worked on various national and international projects at the Scientific Research Department of Sofia University. Her major publications are: “A Comparative Analysis on Church-State Relations in Eastern Orthodoxy: Concepts, Models and Principles,” Journal of Church and State (2011,doi: 10.1093/ jcs/csr012); “The Bulgarian Orthodox Church and the ‘Ethics of Capitalism’, ”Social Compass, Vol. 57 (1), (2010); “The Bulgarian Orthodox Church and the Cold War” in: Eastern Christianity and the Cold War (Routledge, 2009), “‘Secular Orthodox Christianity’ versus ‘Religious Islam’ in Postcommunist Bulgaria,” Religion, State and Society, Vol. 36, No. 4 (December 2008), etc. She is also author of the monograph The Bulgarian Orthodox Church and the State, 1944-1953, based on extensive archival research and published in Bulgarian in 1997.

Figen Kelemer (Turkey)

Figen is a Turkish Roma woman who graduated from Thrace University Economical and Administrative Science. She lived for 2 years in China and 3 years ago came back to Turkey to start work with EDROM (Edirne Roma Association) as a Project Manager. She has been working with EDROM since 2009.  During her working life she visited a lot of places in Europe and USA and also had the chance to meet with different kinds of people all over the world. Now she wants to mobilize and organize the Roma women and youth.

Elizabeta Koneska (Macedonia)

Elizabeta Koneska is an ethnologist and curator in Museum of Macedonia. She graduated from the Department of Ethnology on the Faculty of Philosophy at the Belgrade University and has a Master’s degree at the Department of History of Art at the Mimar Sinan University in Istanbul, Turkey. Since 1985 she has worked at the National Museum of Macedonia. The topics of research and scientific interest include Coppersmith and Tinsmith crafts; Traditional food; Slavic Orthodox community in Istanbul; Turkish and other Muslims ethnic and religious community’s; and ethnically mixed relationships in Macedonia. Since 1994 work on visual ethnography, author of about twelve ethnological-documentary films and has written more than 30 articles and text for tree photography-monographs. As well, she has participated at the Internationals Conferences, Film Festivals and other cultural and scientific manifestation and has two awards for films.

Iva Kyurkchieva (Bulgaria)

Iva Kyurkchieva is an associate research fellow at the Institute of Ethnology and Folklore Studies with Ethnographic Museum – Bulgarian Academy of Science since 2003. Her major interests are in the area of interrelations between the ethnic groups in Bulgaria, the ethnic processes in our time and anthropology of sport. She is an author of articles in the field (Discrimination as a Social Practice - Bulgaria 2008-2010 (2010) in co-authorship, Minority Rights, Inter-Ethnic and Inter-Religious Relations in Municipalities with Diverse Population Regions (2008) in co-authorship, Minorities and European Integration: A Case Study on Muslim Minorities (Turks and Muslim Bulgarians) in the SCR of Bulgaria (2007) in co-authorship, Football and Political Symbolism in Bulgaria in the 1980s and 1990s (2007), as well as of the monographic work The World of Bulgarian Muslims from the Teteven Region – Transition to Modernity (2004). She lives in Sofia with her husband and daughter.

Asher Maoz (Israel)

Asher Maoz is the Founding Dean of the Law School at the Peres Academic Center named in honor of President Shimon Peres. He teaches Constitutional Law, State and Religion, human rights and family law at Tel-Aviv University. Maoz holds the degrees LL.B. & LL.M. both summa cum laude (Hebrew U.), M. Comp.L. (Chicago), J.S.D. (Tel-Aviv U), Doctor Honoris Causa (Ovidius U., Romania). He is founding Editor-in-chief of "Law, Society and Culture"; Former editor, Tel-Aviv University Law Review.; Member of the Scientific Board, Review Dionysina; Co-chair, Joint Working Group, Freedom of Religion, Multiculturalism & Minorities Rights, Canada-Israel Legal Cooperation Programme; Member of the International Academic Council of The International Academy for Jewish Leadership; Member, Commission for Codification of the Succession Law.; Academic Advisor to the Knesset Constitution, Law and Justice Committee on adopting a constitution for the State of Israel; Member, Public Council, Israel Democracy Institute.; Senior fellow, International Advisory & Research Council, Inter-University Center for Legal Studies & Center for Terrorism Studies; Headed the Law Commission for Journalists’ Privileges; Member of the Committee for Drafting a Constitution for Israel; Headed the Taubenschlag Institute, Tel-Aviv University; Was Board member, Ispac, International Scientific & Professional Advisory Council of the U. N. Crime Prevention & Criminal Justice. Taught at several universities in the United States, Europe and Australia. Author of dozens of academic publications 

Mila Maeva (Bulgaria)

Mila Maeva graduated in Ethnology from Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski” in 2002. In 2005 she obtained PhD in Ethnography from Ethnographic Institute and Museum, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences. Her first book Bulgarian Turks-Emigrants in Turkey (Culture and Identity) is published in 2006. She specialized in Ege University, Turkey (2002), the University of Warwick (Center for Research of Ethnic Relations), United Kingdom (2007) Pittsburgh University, USA (2009), and University of Manchester, United Kingdom (2010- 2011). She was a fellow of Exchange Progamme of British Council (2007). M. Maeva is an author of numerous articles on culture and identity of Muslim (especially Turkish) population in Bulgaria, Turkey and FYROM. At present she is a researcher at the Balkan Ethnology Department, Institute of Ethnology and Folkloristic Studies with Ethnographic Museum, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences. She is working now on the issues of Bulgarian emigration to Great Britain and France in the last 20 years.

Alexey Pamporov (Bulgaria)

Alexey Pamporov is Chief Research Officer at the Open Society Institute – Sofia and a Head Assistant Professor at the Society and Knowledge Research Institute (Bulgarian Academy of Sciences).  He holds an MA degree in Cultural Anthropology (2001) and PhD degree in Sociology (2005). He teaches courses on Romany Everyday Culture in the Anthropology Department of the New Bulgarian University and in the Culture Studies Department of Sofia University, as well as Sociology of the Family in the Sociology Department of Sofia University. His research and publications focuses on the Social distances and ethnic stereotypes towards minorities in Bulgaria (2009), Patterns of family formation: Marriage and fertility timing (2008), The Romany Everyday Life (2006), and on different issues in the field of qualitative methods:  The use of vignette techniques (2009), qualitative sampling (2008), and observation (2007). He is married and has a daughter. 

Dobrinka Parusheva (Bulgaria)

Dobrinka Parusheva is Associate professor in theory and history of culture at the University of Plovdiv and part-time senior research associate at the Institute of Balkan Studies, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences in Sofia. She has published widely in the field of modern and contemporary South East European history. Her research interests include social history of politics, political culture and political
caricature, urban history, anthropology of everyday life.

Borislava Petkova (Bulgaria)

Borislava Petkova was born in Plovdiv, Bulgaria. She holds a PhD degree and is a senior lecturer in Folklore and assistant professor in Anthropology of Religion in the Paisij Hilendarski University of Plovdiv. She was a member of the Institute for Critical Social Studies and organized more than 20 international conferences. Petkova is involved in various research projects, the last of which is on history of Bulgarian families and dispositions of historical family memory.

Desislava Petrova is a human rights activist. She has been the public voice of the Bulgarian LGBT community and struggled for equal rights since 2000. Desislava has been involved in work groups for development of new laws, national plans and proposals for changes in the Bulgarian and EU legislation (Amendment of the Bulgarian Penal Code and development of the Bulgarian Act for Protection against Discrimination, development of the Law for Registered Partnership). During the years, she has worked on a number of projects and campaigns on diversity, antidiscrimination, intercultural dialogue, ethnic minorities and disability rights. She is also an environmentalist. Since Jan 2010 she works as coordinator of the "Campaigns and Communications Programme" of the Bulgarian Helsinki Committee - an independent non-governmental organisation for the protection of human rights.

Tania Reytan - Marincheshka (Bulgaria)

Tania was born in Plovdiv, Bulgaria. She lived and studied in Bulgaria, Russia and USA. She holds an MA in International Relations and a PhD in Political Philosophy and has specialized in International Law, Philosophy of Law, Social Anthropology and Human Rights. In the 1980’s and 1990’s she was a human rights activist. She created and directed till 2001 a joint UNHCR/BHC program and network on “Refugees’ and Migrants’ Protection”. In 1998-2000 Tania created and is still involved with an inter-religious and intercultural network. Since 2001 till today, she performs field and scholarly research, publishes and teaches. She was a scholar-in-residence at HBI, Brandeis University, MA, USA; lectured at Sofia University and was a visiting professor at Utica College, NY, USA. She is a member of the European ‘Bet Debora’ movement and organized the Fifth ‘Bet Debora’ Conference in Sofia, Bulgaria, in 2009. She is a 2009 & 2010 ISSPRL Fellow. Tania has two daughters and a grandson and lives in Sofia.

Bella Rosner (United States of America)

Bella Rosner has practiced acupuncture in a variety of settings for the past 16 years. Her background is in Public Health, and she has focused much of her work addressing public health issues such as health care in medically underserved communities, HIV disease, and substance abuse. She is a member of Acupuncturists Without Borders, an organization that provides acupuncture in disaster areas in the US and abroad. She also worked on a team that trains healthcare workers in Uganda in acupuncture techniques that are effective in the treatment of symptoms related to HIV/AIDS and malaria. Bella has been married to Saul Schapiro for the past 38 years and has two adult children. She was an ISSRPL Fellow in Istanbul, Turkey in 2007.

Schapiro has been an attorney in Boston, Massachusetts, for over 35 years, representing individual clients and governmental agencies in particular in the field of housing and urban development. He had also served as a Board Member for 20 years and President of the Board of Camp Ramah in New England for 7 years - a Jewish educational institution under the supervision of the Jewish Theological Seminary. For the last four years his firm has served as the corporate attorney for the ISSRPL. He has recently taken the position of the General Counsel for a mutual fund located in Washington, DC, that invest union pension funds and pension monies from public employee pension plans in housing projects across the United States. The program has multiple objectives notably including securing a competitive return on investment, facilitating the construction and/or rehabilitation of affordable housing for low and moderate income and middle class working families and creating jobs for union workers. Since 2007 he has worked with the ISSRPL in developing the facilitation components of the school.

Maria Schnitter (Bulgaria)

Maria Schnitter was born in Velingrad, Bulgaria. She studies, specializes and teaches in Plovdiv (Bulgaria), Freiburg, Würzburg, Berlin (Germany), Vienna (Austria), Florence and Venice (Italy). The main issues in her researches are The Middle Ages, history of everyday life, history of worship, cultural and religious interactions, contacts and conflicts at the Balkans during  the pre-modern age and nowadays, the role of religion in the postmodern world. Her major publications are devoted to the Orthodox ritual practices (‘Folklore Eroticon’. Vol. VI. Old Bulgarian Texts. Confession Regulations. Sofia, ROD, 1998, 200 p.; ‘The Christened Body’. - In: Altera academica I (2007), 1, 27-39 etc.); She also takes part in a project connected with research and publishing of the Glagolitic monuments, financed by Austrian Science Fund (“The Sinaitic Glagolitic Sacramentary (Euchologium) Fragments”, since 1993). Maria Schnitter is one of the creators of the Department of Ethnology (1995) and first Dean of the Faculty of Philosophy and History of the Paissiy Hilendarski University of Plovdiv (since 2004). She has a son.

Seligman is Professor of Religion at Boston University and Research Associate at the Institute for Culture, Religion and World Affairs there. He has lived and taught at universities in the United States, in Israel, and in Hungary where he was a Fulbright Fellow from 1990-1992. He lived close to twenty years in Israel where he was a member of Kibbutz Kerem Shalom in the early 1970s. His books include The Idea of Civil Society (Free Press, 1992), Inner-worldly Individualism(Transaction Press, 1994), The Problem of Trust (Princeton University Press, 1997),Modernity’s Wager: Authority, the Self and Transcendence (Princeton University Press, 2000) with Mark Lichbach Market and Community (Penn State University Press, 2000), Modest Claims: Dialogues and Essays on Tolerance and Tradition(Notre Dame University Press, 2004) and with Robert Weller, Michael Puett and Bennett Simon, Ritual and its Consequences: An Essay on the Limits of Sincerity(Oxford University Press, 2008). His work has been translated into over a dozen languages. He lives in Newton, Massachusetts with his wife and two daughters.

Evgenia Troeva-Grigorova (Bulgaria)

Evgenia Troeva-Grigorova is a Researcher at the Department “Historical Ethnology” at the Institute of Ethnology and Folklore Studies with Ethnographic Museum, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences. Her research is focused on issues of religion, memory, identity, migration and ethnicity. She is the author of two books and a number of articles dealing with different aspects of the inter-ethnic/inter-religious relations, the cultural memory and the religious identity of Muslim Bulgarians.

Toby Alice Volkman (United States of America)

Toby Volkman is director of Policy Initiatives at the Henry Luce Foundation in New York, where she is responsible for the Henry R. Luce Initiative on Religion and International Affairs. Prior to joining the Luce Foundation, she directed Special Projects at the Ford Foundation International Fellowships Program, and served as a program officer at the Ford Foundation, where she developed an initiative to revitalize the field of area studies. She worked for many years as director of the South and Southeast Asia Programs at the Social Science Research Council, and has also been deputy provost at the New School (both in New York City). A cultural anthropologist with a PhD from Cornell University, Toby has written about Indonesia, ethnographic film, and the globalization of kinship through transnational adoption. Her recent edited volumes include Cultures of Transnational Adoption (Duke 2005) and Origins, Journeys and Returns: Social Justice in International Higher Education (SSRC 2009). Earlier work focused on ritual and social change in Tana Toraja (highland Sulawesi, Indonesia) and on international tourism in that area.

Rahel Wasserfall (United States of America / France)

Wasserfall is the principal at Educational Evaluation Advisors International and a visiting research associate with the Women Studies Research Center at Brandeis University. She has broad experience in the evaluation of educational programs in complex multilingual and cross cultural settings. Her previous assignments include: Director of Evaluation and Liaison to Schools for The Center for the Advancement of Hebrew Teaching and Learning Inc (HATC); Senior Research Associate with Education Matters, Inc and the Mandel Center for Jewish Education at Brandeis. She is an anthropologist with a PhD from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, who has wide experience in three different continents. She has widely published in the area of gender and is the editor of Women and Water: Menstruation in Jewish Life and Law (UPNE, 1999). With her move to Boston, Wasserfall shifted her interest to Jewish education. She was the Special Coordinator at JCDS (Boston Jewish Community Day School) in which capacity she directed the AISNE accreditation process. She was the Director of Evaluation for Hebrew at The Center, Inc (HATC). She also co-authored (with Susan Sevitz) a study on Jewish pluralism in a local day school. She has wide experience in qualitative evaluation and is the yearly evaluator of the ISSRPL. She is also a committed yoga practitioner and teacher, having completed teacher training in the Iyengar tradition.

Nayden Yotov (Bulgaria)

Meglena Zlatkova (Bulgaria)

Meglena Zlatkova is an Assistant professor at the Department of Ethnology, University of Plovdiv, Bulgaria. She was graduated as M.A. in Ethnology at the same university. Her Ph D research “Ethnosociology of the city” explores the postsocialist Plovdiv as a Bulgarian and Balkan city in transition. She is a lecturer in Urban Ethnology, Visual anthropology, Ethnosociology and Fieldwork. Her main research and teaching interests are in the fields of identities and boundaries, space and communities, local - global and networks, gift exchange and social capital. Her current research activities are on Migrations between Bulgaria and Turkey, Roma as urban inhabitants and Local heritage and networks.