If you would like to write for us, read the guidance on our ‘How to Contribute to the Hub’ page.
Gustavo de Carvalho
Gustavo de Carvalho is a Senior Researcher at the South African Institute of International Affairs (SAIIA) and a PhD Candidate in International Relations at the University of Witwatersrand. His research examines the Global South agency in contemporary international politics. His participation at ISA 2025 was made possible through institutional support from SAIIA and a conference grant from the Global Souths Colloqium Fund.
Read his article: Global IR’s Unfinished Revolution: Empire of Theory, Periphery of Practice
Saltanat Kydyralieva Kaplan
Dr. Saltanat Kydyralieva Kaplan is a postdoctoral researcher specialising in history and political psychology, as well as a final-year clinical psychology student at the Moscow Institute of Psychoanalysis. Her research interests span multiple disciplines, including the psychology of political behaviour, the psychoanalytic analysis of posters, mental health literacy, and psychological barriers to seeking professional help. As an intern psychologist, Saltanat adopts a psychoanalytic approach while incorporating cognitive-behavioural therapy and eclectic therapy techniques into her practice. She is also a columnist for Manas TV in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, and a guest contributor to various magazines in Istanbul, Türkiye.
Read her article: Experienced by Many: Mental Health Struggles During my PhD
Camila Andrade
Dr. Camila Andrade is a Research Fellow at the Institute for Pan-African Thought and Conversation (IPATC), University of Johannesburg. She is conducting postdoctoral research in Political Science and International Relations at the Federal University of Paraíba (UFPB – Brazil). Camila earned her PhD in Political Science from the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS – Brazil), with part of the Doctorate at the Universidad Nacional de Rosario (UNR – Argentina); an MS in International Relations at the Federal University of Santa Catarina (UFSC – Brazil), with field research in Rwanda. She created @camilaafrika (Instagram, YouTube) a community for democratising of African Studies. Her main research interests are African International Politics, Global South Studies and Black Feminisms.
Read her article: Navigating Academia from the Margins: An Afro-Latin Brazilian Woman’s Journey
Yue Zhou (Joe) Lin
Dr Yue Zhou (Joe) Lin is a Higher Education Academy Fellow (FHEA) and a Lecturer in Politics and International Relations at the School of Sociology, Politics, and International Studies (SPAIS), University of Bristol. Lin has led the Political Economy of China (BSc unit) and China’s International Relations (MSc unit). Before Bristol, Lin lectured across the Departments of European & International Studies (EIS) and Political Economy (PE) at King’s College London. In February 2019, Lin passed his PhD in International Political Economy (IPE) with no correction. During his PhD, Lin delivered seminars on qualitative research methods (case study and ethnography) at Goldsmiths, University of London. read his full bio at the bottom of his article.
Read her article: Does China’s Belt-and-Road Initiative (BRI) Provide the Conditions for Solidarity and Delinking?
Frank Okyere Osei
Frank Okyere Osei is a researcher, educator, and peacebuilding practitioner with nearly two decades of experience in atrocity prevention and peacebuilding in fragile contexts. A doctoral student at Binghamton University and Senior Fellow at the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre (KAIPTC) in Ghana, his work focuses on bridging global norms like the Responsibility to Protect (R2P) with local implementation strategies, particularly in Africa.
Read her article: 20 Years of R2P: Moral Responsibility through an African Lens
Kividi Koralage
Kividi Koralage is a graduate of Edith Cowan University (ECU) in Sri Lanka, specialising in International Business. She is currently pursuing an LLB and an International Relations program at Aberystwyth University in the UK. A CIMA passed finalist and an alumna of the Bandaranaike Centre for International Studies (BCIS), her academic and professional journey is driven by a deep interest in development, law, and global economic systems.
Read her article: From Colonialism to COVID-19: Why Global Health Remains Unequal
Eve Kanram
Eve is the journals manager at Pluto Journals, working to publish our variety of social science journals and manage their promotion. Eve also coordinates projects at the Pluto Educational Trust.
Read her article: Exploring the Pluto Journals Collection with Eve Kanram
Dr. Zarnigor Khayat
Dr. Zarnigor Khayat is a postdoctoral researcher in Computational Linguistics and an adjunct associate professor at Webster University in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. She is passionate about self-identity of marginalised groups, education, cultural studies, and empowering women through academic and professional development.
Zarnigor is an alumni of U.S. Embassy sponsored self-defense camp for women and girls in Tashkent and a mentee in the USTA mentorship program.
Read her article: Juggling Motherhood, Mental Health, and my PhD
Mohammad Yaghi, Hanaa Almoaibed and Silvia Colombo
Mohammad Yaghi is a researcher with expertise in Middle East politics and the internal and foreign relations of the Gulf States. His research covers Palestinian political institutions, social and Islamic movements, sectarianism in Arab media, and the politics of authoritarian regimes in the Middle East.
Hanaa Almoaibed is a scholar specialising in education, youth and women’s issues in Saudi Arabia and the Gulf States, with research interests in work, education/skills and sustainability. She is active in the think tank sector as Consulting Fellow at Chatham House in London and Nonresident Senior Fellow at the Atlantic Council.
Silvia Colombo is a researcher and Faculty Advisor in the Research Division of the NATO Defense College (NDC) in Rome. She is also Associate Fellow at the International Affairs Institute (IAI), where she formerly led the Mediterranean and Middle East Programme. Her research focuses on contemporary politics in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), EU and US foreign policies, and NATO’s role in the region’s conflicts.
Read their article: Foreign Aid of Gulf States – Continuity and Change: a TWQ Special Issue
Bethlehem Attfield
Bethlehem is a PhD candidate at Birmingham University in the Department of Modern Languages, researching the translation of African-language literature. Her translation of an Amharic novel written by Yismake Worku; The Lost Spell, was published by Henningham Family Press in March 2022, and was shortlisted for 2022 TA First Translation Prize by Society of Authors.
Read her article: Translating African Realities with Indigenous Perspectives and Digital Archives
Nancy Owusuaa
Nancy Owusuaa is a final-year PhD candidate at the Institute of African Studies, University of Ghana, Legon. Her research investigates the reimagining and utilisation of Akan Adinkra symbols in digital spaces within contemporary Ghana and beyond, with a focus on how young people integrate these symbols into their daily communication through technology.
Read her article: ‘Navigating Adinkra’s Evolution in the Digital Age: A PhD’s Perspective‘
Gulzat Botoeva and Sofya du Boulay
Gulzat Botoeva is a Senior Lecturer in Criminology, Sociology and Social Policy at the University of Swansea.
Sofya du Boula is a Political Scientist and a Senior Lecturer at the International Alatoo University.
Read their article: ‘USTA Mentorship Programme: Empowering Central Asian Researchers’
Saba Khan
Saba Khan is a visual artist whose multimedia works traffic in the language of memorial, monument and expeditions around water bodies. She founded an artist-run-space Murree Museum Artist Residency, the collective Pak Khawateen Painting Club, taught at the National College of Arts, Lahore and is now an Associate Lecturer at Associate Lecturer at Chelsea College of Art.
Read her article: ‘End of the Indus: An Artistic Exploration of a Decaying Delta’
Noha Atef
Noha Atef is a media scholar, educator, and consultant from Egypt. After a journalism career, she transitioned to research, focusing on digital humanities and media studies. Noha is currently a Lecturer at the University of Galway in Ireland.
Silas Udenze
Silas Udenze is a scholar activist from Enugu State, Nigeria and an interdisciplinary postdoctoral researcher at the Open University of Catalunya. His research interests cut across social movements, digital activism and memory, digital ethnography, African studies, and qualitative methods.
Read his article: ‘Digital Activism and Memory at ECREA 2024’
Umtul Aleem Kokab
Umtul Aleem Kokab is a final year doctoral candidate at the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi, India, Her research project engages with the conceptual framework of performance by placing it in the everyday register of the Ahmadi community (a Muslim minority sect excommunicated by the global Islamic community for their religious beliefs) in India.
Read her article: ‘Understanding the Everyday Experiences of the Ahmadi Community‘
Rajashri Kamat
Rajashri Kamat is a fourth-year undergraduate law student from Mumbai in India. Her research interests lie in bridging the gap between the Global South and the various realms of customary international law as well as understanding how imperialism and colonialism of the past and present have destabilised areas of the Global South.
Read her article: ‘Understanding the Everyday Experiences of the Ahmadi Community‘
Laila Sumpton
Poet, editor, performer and educator, Laila Sumpton, works on creative writing projects that explore human rights issues. She co-founded the arts and education organisation Poetry Vs Colonialism and is an associate artist with intergenerational charity Magic Me.
Read her article: ‘Living in Limbo – Platforming Refugee Stories‘
Bélén Villegas Plá
Bélén did her PhD at the University of York (UK) analysing distributive policies in Latin America from a dependent development perspective. She is currently a researcher and lecturer at the Universidad de la República in Montevideo, Uruguay.
Read her article: ‘How does Dependency Theory intersect with Feminist Economics?‘
Ching-Chang Chen and Astrid H.M. Nordin
Ching-Chang Chen is Professor of the Department of Global Studies and Director of the Global Affairs Research Centre, both at Ryukoku University, Japan. He is a co-author of China and International Theory: The Balance of Relationships (Routledge, 2019).
Astrid H. M. Nordin holds the Lau Chair of Chinese International Relations at the Lau China Institute, King’s College London, UK. She is the author of the monograph China’s International Relations and Harmonious World (Routledge, 2016).
Read their article: ‘Political healing in East Asian International Relations: A TWQ Special Issue’
Ginbert Permejo Cuaton
Ginbert Permejo Cuaton examines social policy issues on disasters, displacements, and climate actions in Southeast Asia, specialising in the Philippines. He is a Research Assistant Professor at the Department of Sociology and Social Policy at Lingnan University of Hong Kong.
Read his article: ‘Exploring Resettlement in Disaster Risk Reduction and Climate Adaptation’
Tatiana Sanchez Parra and Sanne Weber
Tatiana Sanchez Parra is currently Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions Fellow in the School of Social and Political Science at the University of Edinburgh. Her first book, Born of War in Colombia: Reproductive Violence and Memories of Absence, was published by Rutgers University Press in the spring of 2024.
Sanne Weber is Assistant Professor in Peace and Conflict Studies at the Radboud University Nijmegen. Her book Gender and Citizenship in Transitional Justice: Everyday Experiences of Reparation and Reintegration in Colombia was published in June 2023 with Bristol University Press.
Read their article: ‘New TWQ Special Issue Addresses Gender-based Violence in Latin America’
Li Li
Li Li is an Associate Professor, Global Agriculture (CIDGA)/China Institute for SSC in Agriculture (CISSA) at the China Agricultural University (CAU) and a China-US Fulbright Scholar (2011-2012). Since 2023, Li is also working as a Research Fellow, at the Institute of Development Studies (IDS) in the the U.K.
Read her article: ‘How is China’s South-South Cooperation addressing SDGs? Insights from Li Li‘