David L. Carr, PhD
University of California Santa Barbara: Geography
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David L. Carr is an Associate Professor of Geography at the University of California Santa Barbara. His most recent publications include a co-edited volume Handbook of Human Dimensions of Environmental Change (2009), Population, Health, and Environment: An evaluation of WWF?s USAID and Johnson & Johnson-supported projects (2008), and ?Migration and Tropical Deforestation: Why Population Matters? in Progress in Human Geography (2008).
Omar Farouk PhD
Hiroshima City University: Comparative Politics
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Omar Farouk is Professor of Comparative Politics in the Faculty of International Studies/Graduate School of International Studies at Hiroshima City University. He completed his Bachelor of Arts with First Class Honors at the University of Malaya and his PhD in Government and Politics at the University of Kent at Canterbury. He has taught at Hiroshima Shudo University, Yamaguchi University, Leiden University, and the University of Wisconsin (Stephens Point). He has been an International Election Observer in Thailand, Nepal, and Afghanistan. His most recent publications include Hiroshima and Peace co-co-authored with Carol Rinnert and Inoue Hiroshi, Islam at the Margins: The Muslims of Indochina co-edited with Hiroyuki Yamamoto, Population Movement Beyond the Middle East: Migration, Diaspora and Network co-authored with Akira Usuki and Yamagishi Tomoko, Islam and Civil Society in Southeast Asia co-edited with Mitsuo Nakamura and Sharon Siddique and The Dynamics of Islamisation, Arabisation and Localisation in the Malay World.
Joan Ferrante, PhD
Northern Kentucky University: Sociology
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Joan Ferrante is a Professor of Sociology at Northern Kentucky University. She is well-known for her globally-oriented book Sociology: A Global Perspective (2007). She has also co-authored Social Construction of Race and Ethnicity in the United States (2000).
Antonio Fiori, PhD
University of Bologna: Comparative Politics
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Antonio Fiori is The Korea Foundation Endowment Chair and Professor of Political Science and Comparative Politics at the University of Bologna in Bologna, Italy. His most recent publications include "The Dynamics of Welfare Policy-Making in South Korea: Social Movements as Policy Entrepreneurs," (with Sunhyuk Kim), in Asian Social Work and Policy Review, vol. 5, pp. 61-78. 2011 "La Cina in Africa: un primo bilancio" (China in Africa: a Close Examination), in G. Calchi Novati (a cura di), La base del triangolo. L'Asia e i rapporti Sud-Sud nel mondo globale (Asia and South-South Relations in the Global World), Roma: Carocci (forthcoming). 2011 "I costi della riunificazione" (Reunification Costs in Korea), Atlante di Geopolitica, Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana (forthcoming). 2011 "Lo sviluppo del programma nucleare nordcoreano" (The Development of North Korean Nuclear Program), Atlante di Geopolitica, Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana.
Theodore Karasik, PhD
Institute for Near East and Gulf Military Analysis (INEGMA): Middle Eastern Affairs
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Theodore Karasik is currently the Director of Research and Development at the Institute for Near East and Gulf Military Analysis (INEGMA) in Dubai, UAE and Beirut, Lebanon. He is also an Adjunct Lecturer at the Dubai School of Government where he teaches graduate level international relations. Dr. Karasik is also a Lecturer at Middlesex University Dubai where he teaches Social Science. Karasik was a Senior Political Scientist in the International Policy and Security Group at RAND Corporation. From 2002-2003, he served as Director of Research for the RAND Center for Middle East Public Policy. He has worked on Central Asian, Russian, Caucasian and Arabian Peninsula issues for 20 years regarding security and terrorism questions including transnational terrorist groups, clan structures and politics, and criminal organizations. Since 9/11, Dr. Karasik has also concentrated on terrorist targeting and tactics regarding critical infrastructure in the United States, Europe, and the GCC states. While working for a RAND client, he developed a new field of study entitled "Saudiology" that explored the nexus between the ruling elites, clerics, and tribes. He is also working closely with the security sector of numerous countries and institutions on innovation and strategic thinking. He is a military analyst on al-Jazeera International and is frequently interviewed by The National, Reuters, Trends News Agency, and AFP.
Ronald Kephart, PhD
University of North Florida: Anthropology
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Ronald Kephart is Associate Professor in the Department of Anthropology at the University of North Florida, where he teaches courses in linguistics, Spanish, and anthropology. His interests include the structure of Caribbean Creole languages and their use in education, race and ethnicity issues, and human evolution. He is the author of ?Broken English?: The Creole Language of Carriacou (Peter Lang, 2000), and a co-author of Meeting Anthropology Phase to Phase (Carolina Academic Press, 2000). He has also published a number of articles on the use of Creole English in literacy education.
Carool Kersten, PhD
Kings College London: Religious Studies
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Carool Kersten is a lecturer in Islamic Studies at King's College London. His research interests include Islam in global and transnational contexts, the intellectual history of the contemporary Muslim world, Islam in Southeast Asia, and theory and methods for the study of religions. Before his move to London, he was a faculty member at the Center for International and Graduate Studies at Payap University in Thailand. Prior to that he worked in various corporate functions in Saudi Arabia. He has a PhD in the study of religions from the School of Oriental and African Studies in London, an MA (cum laude) in Arabic Language and Culture from Radboud University Nijmegen (The Netherlands), and a certificate in Southeast Asian Studies from Payap University'.
Joseph Chinyong Liow, PhD
Nanyang Technological University in Singapore: S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies
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Joseph Liow is an Associate Professor of Political Science and Associate Dean at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He is a member of S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, an important think-tank in Asia. His most recent publications include Islam, Education, and Reform in Southern Thailand: Tradition and Transformation ( 2009); Piety and Politics: Islamism in Contemporary Malaysia (2009); Order and Security in Southeast Asia: Essays in Memory of Michael Leifer (2005); The Politics of Indonesia-Malaysia Relations: One Kin, Two Nations (2005); ?Political Islam in Southeast Asia: One Ummah, Many Narratives? (with Rohaisa Asi), Harvard Asia Pacific Review, (2008). ?Islamic Education in Southern Thailand: Negotiating Islam, Identity, and Modernity? in Robert W. Hefner (ed.), Making Modern Muslims: The Politics of Islamic Education in Southeast Asia (2008).
Gordon Mathews, PhD
Chinese University of Hong Kong: Anthropology
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Gordon Mathews is a Professor in the Department of Anthropology at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. He has written What Makes Life Worth Living? How Japanese and Americans Make Sense of Their Worlds (1996) and Global Culture /Individual Identity: Searching for Home in the Cultural Supermarket (2000), and co-authored Hong Kong, China: Learning to Belong to a Nation (2007); he has co-edited Consuming Hong Kong (2001) and Japan?s Changing Generations (2004).
Goran Mirascic, PhD
Economic Policy Advisor for the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina: Political Economy
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Goran Mirascic is an Assistant Professor, Faculty of Economics at University Sarajevo School of Science and Technology & Assistant Professor, Faculty of Economics at Open University "Apeiron" Travnik. He is also Economic Policy Advisor to the Vice President of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Dr. Mirascic has done an extensive research on international financial institutions and coordination of macroeconomic policies on the international level. He has published number of articles covering political economy, macroeconomic stabilization, economic globalization, eurozone, and international financial institutions. He is currently analyzing implications of Greek crisis on the monetary union. Dr. Mirascic serves as an Economic Policy Advisor to the Vice President of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Gyan Pradhan, PhD
Eastern Kentucky University: Economics
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Gyan Pradhan is Chair and Professor, Department of Economics at Eastern Kentucky University. He has taught at the University of New Hampshire, Westminster College, Washington University in St. Louis, and Berea College. He has been a consultant with the World Bank and other international organizations. His recent publications include “Another empirical look at the theory of overlapping demands” (with D. Dhakal & K. Upadhyaya), Economia Internazionale/International Economics (2011); “Another empirical look at the Kuznets Curve” (with R. Bhandari & M. Upadhyay), International Journal of Economic Sciences and Applied Research (2010); “Exchange rate volatility and foreign direct investment: evidence from East Asian countries,” (with D. Dhakal, D. Nag & K. Upadhyaya), International Business and Economics Research Journal (2010); “Trade, foreign direct investment and economic growth in selected South Asian countries” (with D. Dhakal & K. Upadhyaya), Indian Journal of Economics and Business (2010); “Nepal’s civil war and its economic costs,” Journal of International and Global Studies (2009); “Nepal and Bhutan: economic growth in two Shangri Las” (with D. Dhakal & K. Upadhyaya), International Journal of Social Economics (2009); “Remittances and economic growth in developing countries” (with M. Upadhyay & K. Upadhyay), European Journal of Development Research (2008).
Archanya Ratana-Ubol, PhD
Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, International Higher Education
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Archanya Ratana-Ubol is Associate Professor at Non- formal Education Division in the Department of Educational Policy, Management and Leadership, Faculty of Education at Chulalongkorn University. She earned her MA and PhD at the University of Missouri St. Louis. Her specialty is Non-formal education and has been a consultant on developing life-long learning and education throughout the rural and urban areas in Thailand. She has published numerous books and articles on these topics. Her most recent book is Action Learning: From Theory to Practices in Non-formal Education and Informal Education. She has been engaged in reforming education at all levels, including higher education in Thailand.
Chaiwat Satha-Anand, PhD
Thammasat University, Bangkok: Political Science
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Chaiwat Satha-Anand is Professor of Political Science at Thammasat University in Bangkok. His research interests include religions and nonviolence/violence and nonviolent security policies. Some of his works have been translated and published in Arabic, Bahasa Indonesia, Italian, German, Japanese and Korean. His most recent books include: (as editor) Imagined Land?:Solving Southern Violence in Thailand (Tokyo University of Foreign Studies, 2009); Essays on the Three Prophets: Nonviolence, Murder and Forgiveness (Abrahamic Interfaith Group, University of Otago, 2011) He is now Chair of the Strategic Nonviolence Commission, Thailand Research Fund and Senior Research Fellow with the Toda Institute for Global Peace and Policy Research.
Richard Wilk, PhD
Indiana University: Anthropology
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Richard Wilk is a Professor of Anthropology at Indiana University. He has written Economies and Cultures: Foundations of Economic Anthropology (1996), Household Ecology: Economic Change and Domestic Life Among the Kekchi Maya of Belize (1991), and co-authored Ethnic Minorities in Belize: Mopan, Kekchi and Garifuna (1990), Globalization and the Environment (2002), Fast Food/ Slow Food: The Cultural Economy of the Global Food System (2006), and The Environment in Anthropology (2005)
Hui Faye Xiao, PhD
University of Kansas: East Asian Language and Literature
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Hui Faye Xiao is Assistant Professor in the Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures at the University of Kansas. Her recent publications have appeared in Journal of Chinese Cinemas, Modern Chinese Literature and Culture, Journal of Contemporary China, and Gender and Modernity in Global Youth Cultures. Currently she is finishing a book entitled Family Revolution in Post-Revolutionary China: Divorce in Literature and Visual Culture, 1980-2010 (under contract with the University of Washington Press).
Imtiyaz Yusuf, PhD
Assumption University, Bangkok: Religious and Islamic Studies
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Imtiyaz Yusuf, PhD (Religion, Temple University, Philadelphia), is the program director, Department of Religion, Graduate School of Philosophy and Religion, Assumption University, Bangkok, Thailand, where he specializes in religion with a focus on Islam in Thailand and Southeast Asia. He is a visiting professor at the Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding (Georgetown) and holds the position of Malaysia Chair of Islam in Southeast Asia. Among his publications are Religion, Politics and Globalization:Implications for Thailand and Asia (2009); Faces of Islam in Southern Thailand (2007); Understanding Conflict and Approaching Peace in Southern Thailand (2006); ?The Thai Muslims and the Participation in the Democratic Process: The Case of 2007 Elections,? Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs 29, no. 3 (Sept. 2009); ?The Southern Thailand Conflict and the Muslim World,? Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs 27, no. 2 (Aug. 2007); and ?Dialogue between Islam and Buddhism through the Concepts of Tathagata and Nur Muhammadi,"International Journal of Buddhist Thought and Culture 5 (Feb. 2005).
Zhiqun Zhu, PhD
Bucknell University, International Relations
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Dr. Zhiqun Zhu is John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Chair in East Asian Politics and Associate Professor of Political Science and International Relations at Bucknell University in Pennsylvania, USA. His research and teaching interests include International Relations theory, East Asian political economy, and Chinese politics and foreign policy. His recent books include New Dynamics in East Asian Politics: Security, Political Economy, and Society (Continuum, 2012), Global Studies: China (13th and 14th editions, McGraw-Hill, 2011, 2009); China’s New Diplomacy: Rationale, Strategies and Significance (Ashgate, 2010); The People’s Republic of China Today: Internal and External Challenges (World Scientific Publishing, 2010); Understanding East Asia’s Economic “Miracles” (Association for Asian Studies, 2009); and US-China Relations in the 21st Century: Power Transition and Peace (Routledge, 2006).
