Bodour Al Qasimi is President of the International Publishers Association (IPA). A trailblazer in the global publishing scene, Al Qasimi is pushing IPA’s agenda on the freedom to publish and intellectual property rights. As CEO and founder of Kalimat Publishing Group, she has been an avid advocate of the role of books and literacy to enlighten children. She also chaired the committee of Sharjah World Book Capital 2019, an honor awarded by UNESCO.

Khalfan Belhoul is the Chief Executive Officer of the Dubai Future Foundation. Belhoul brings more than a decade of experience as a driving force in transforming businesses and organizations across both the government and private sectors in Dubai, contributing to the city’s economic diversification and growth.

Dr. Afra Atiq is an Emirati scholar, teaching artist, and award-winning poet whose research focuses on mapping the Arab literary ecosystem. She holds a Ph.D. in Media and Creative Industries from the United Arab Emirates University and is the founding member of Untitled Chapters, a collective of female Emirati writers.

Dr. Obaid Al Ketbi is an expert in homeland security and military affairs. He held numerous roles within the UAE Armed Forces throughout his career, and served as the UAE’s Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to Australia from 2015 to 2018.

Dima Issa is a Senior Lecturer of Mass Media and Communication at the University of Balamand in Lebanon. Her research has focused on the relationship to popular media among diasporic audiences.

Dima Nasser is a Ph.D. candidate in Comparative Literature at Brown University, working on the intersections of modern visual art and poetry in Beirut in the second half of the 20th century. She is also an academic and literary translator between Arabic and English, and the co-editor of the literary anthology, Arab Women Voice New Realities.

Joe Y. Batikh is a Ph.D. Candidate in Sustainability Management at the University of Waterloo in Canada, where his research focuses on climate change and global security. He is the Head of the Energy & Water Knowledge Hub at the International Committee of the Red Cross, and a visiting scholar at the American University of Sharjah in the UAE.

Dr. Sonia Ben Jaafar currently serves as the CEO of the Abdulla Al Ghurair Foundation, one of the largest privately funded philanthropic education initiatives in the region. She is also a Chairperson of the Global Councils on the SDGs and holds a Ph.D. in Educational Leadership from the University of Toronto.

Dr. Shahd Alshammari is an Assistant Professor of Literature at the Gulf University for Science and Technology in Kuwait. She teaches English literature and short story writing, and her research focuses on disability studies and illness narratives.

Badr Jafar is an Emirati businessman, Founder of the Pearl Initiative, and Founding Patron of the Center for Strategic Philanthropy based at the University of Cambridge, and the Strategic Philanthropy Initiative based at NYU Abu Dhabi.

Manar Alhinai is the Editor-in-Chief of Sekka, a leading independent media company dedicated to art, culture, literature, and opinions from the Arab world. She is also the co-founding director of the Khaleeji Art Museum.

Sharifah Alhinai is the co-founding director of the Khaleeji Art Museum and the managing editor of Sekka. She is a graduate of The School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, and the University of Oxford.

Tom J. Abi Samra is a Ph.D student in Near Eastern Studies at Princeton University, where he studies Arabic literature. An active translator, his work has appeared in various journals and magazines such as ArabLit Quarterly and Asymptote, among others. He holds an M.A. in Comparative Literature from Dartmouth College and a B.A. in Literature from New York University Abu Dhabi.

Salma Abdulkader is an M.A. student in Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Chicago. She holds a B.A. in Political Science and International Relations from the Dominican University of California. Salma’s research focuses on the relationship between colonial governance, early postcolonial state building, and Arab nationalism in North Africa.

Nada Ammagui is a writer, researcher, and analyst interested in contemporary art, culture, heritage, museums and museum education, anthropology, and digital humanities in the Gulf. She is currently pursuing a Master of Arts in Arab Studies at Georgetown University and is also a Research Associate at the Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington (AGSIW).

Mouadh Elarbi is a fourth-year student at Bard College Berlin, pursuing a Bachelor of Arts in Economics, Politics, and Social Thought. His research focuses on migration policy, civil society, and nation-building in Tunisia, as well as food and energy security in Southwest Asia and North Africa.

Manal Ataya is the Director-General of the Sharjah Museum Authority and Advisor for Museums to HH Sheikh Dr. Sultan Bin Mohammed Al Qasimi, Ruler of Sharjah. She is a museum professional with close to 20 years of senior executive experience in museum development, cultural heritage management, and cultural diplomacy. Ataya was awarded the Order of Art & Letters by the Republic of France in 2018 and and the Order of Merit from the Republic of Germany in 2022 for her contributions to culture.

Dr. Ida Zilio-Grandi is the Director of the Italian Cultural Institute in Abu Dhabi for the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation. She holds a Ph.D. in ‘Studies on the Middle East and the Maghreb from the advent of Islam to the contemporary age’ at the University of Naples “L’Orientale.”

Sophie Mayuko Arni is a curator, editor, and founder of Global Art Daily where she oversees a digital publication on the art scenes of Dubai, Tokyo, and other cities. Sophie graduated with a B.A. in Art & Art History from New York University Abu Dhabi and graduated from the Graduate School of Global Arts at Tokyo University of the Arts.

Insun Woo is a writer, researcher, and current student at New York University Abu Dhabi (NYUAD), where she is pursuing a Bachelor of Arts in Art & Art History and a minor in Arabic. Her interest lies in contemporary art curation, arts education, and youth empowerment.

Luca Ceresani is a former non-resident fellow in Fiker Institute’s Europe Program. He is a master’s student in International Security Studies and holds a BA and MA in Middle East Studies. Luca formerly worked in the framework of EU Operation EUNAVFOR MED and Italy’s migration reception facilities.

Seo-Hee Hong is a writer, researcher, and student at New York University Abu Dhabi, currently pursuing a Bachelor of Arts in Economics and a minor in Creative Writing. Her research uses historical and comparative institutional analysis to explore how colonization shaped past and current patterns of environmental degradation in former colonies.

Spyridon Litsas is a Professor of International Relations Theory at the University of Macedonia in Greece and a Professor of Homeland Security at Rabdan Academy in the United Arab Emirates. He is currently writing his new book about Smart States theory and the United Arab Emirates.

Jeyhun Alizade is a Ph.D. candidate in Politics at Princeton University. His research focuses on how crime and immigration affect party strategy and elections in advanced democracies. He holds a B.A. and an M.A. in Political Science from Freie Universität Berlin.

Kilian Wirthwein Vega is a former nonresident fellow at Fiker Institute’s Europe Program. He is also a consultant covering EU politics at Teneo. He holds an MSc in Conflict Studies from the London School of Economics and an MSc in Global Governance and Diplomacy from the University of Oxford.

Salila Kulshreshtha is a visiting Assistant Professor of History and Art and Art History at New York University Abu Dhabi. She is the author of “From Temple to Museum: Colonial Collection and Uma Mahesvara Icon in Middle Ganga Valley” and co-editor of “The Routledge Handbook of the Hindu Temple: Materiality, Social History and Practice.”

Aseel AlYaqoub is an artist, researcher, and writer based in Kuwait. Her work explores the interplay between geographic identities, collective memories, and sociopolitical hierarchies. She holds an M.F.A from Pratt Institute, New York, and a B.A. from Chelsea College of Art and Design in London.

Lara Arafeh is a Brooklyn-based independent art curator and researcher. She is the director of the NY Cultural Majlis. Her work focuses on contemporary art and decolonial feminist theory. Lara is a graduate of Central Saint Martins London and received her masters from Sotheby’s Institute London.

Juliana Khalaf Salhab is a Beirut-based specialist in Modern and Contemporary Middle Eastern and Islamic Art and currently serves as the co-director of the Beirut Museum of Art (BEMA). She co-founded BAKS Art Advisory in 2014, a regional arts consulting firm specializing in art institution and collection management.

Maie F. El-Hage is an architect, art historian, journalist, and curator. She holds a Master of Arts degree in Art History and Theory from the University of Essex (UK). Her research and publications cover contemporary artists and art exhibitions, and she has reported from Beirut, Dubai, New York, and Istanbul.

Nour Asalia is a Syrian artist, writer and researcher, who holds a doctorate in Aesthetics of Plastic Arts from the University of Paris VIII. She is the main researcher in the project of Modern Art Syria Archive by the Atassi Foundation, and co-editor of the journal published by the Foundation. She also cooperates with the Mathaf (Arab Museum of Modern Art in Qatar) within the framework of the Encyclopedia.

Tom Fletcher CMG is the Principal of Hertford College, Oxford University. He is a former UK Ambassador, Visiting Professor at New York University, and No 10 Foreign Policy Adviser.

Dr. Kupchan is Professor of International Affairs in the School of Foreign Service and Government Department at Georgetown University, and Senior Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations.

Harold James, the Claude and Lore Kelly Professor in European Studies at Princeton University, is Professor of History and International Affairs at the Woodrow Wilson School, and an associate at the Bendheim Center for Finance.

Alice Hill is the David M. Rubenstein senior fellow for energy and the environment at the Council on Foreign Relations. Her work at CFR focuses on the risks, consequences, and responses associated with climate change.

Sultan Sooud Al Qassemi is an Emirati columnist and researcher on social, political and cultural affairs in the Arab Gulf States. He is the Founder of Barjeel Art Foundation.

Joseph Sassoon is Professor of History and Political Economy at Georgetown’s Center for Contemporary Arab Studies and holds the al-Sabah Chair in Politics and Political Economy of the Arab World. He is also a Senior Associate Member at St Antony’s College, Oxford.

Georgi Derluguian has been a Professor of Social Research at the New York University in Abu Dhabi since 2011. He has worked at various universities in the United States and Europe: Binghamton, Cornell, Bordeaux, Michigan, and Northwestern.

Farid Al-Salim is an Associate Professor of Middle East and Global Studies at the American University in Dubai (AUD). He specializes in the contemporary history and politics of the Middle East and the wider Islamic world.

Adam Ramey is an Associate Professor of Political Science and Director of the Computational Social Science Lab at New York University Abu Dhabi. His research primarily focuses on exploring the impact of legislators’ ideologies and personalities on their behavior.

Rana Tomaira is a lecturer and research scientist in the Social Science division at NYU Abu Dhabi. She holds a Ph.D. in City and Regional Planning, and a Master’s degree in Architecture, both from the University of California at Berkeley.

Dr. Karin von Hippel is the Director-General of the UK’s Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), a defense and security think tank headquartered in London. She is a renowned strategist in international and diplomatic affairs, having previously worked for the United Nations and the European Union in Somalia and Kosovo.

Dr. Shareefa Abdullah Al-Adwani is an Associate Professor of Political Science at the Department of International Relations at the American University of Kuwait (AUK). She also serves as Department Chair of the Department of International Relations and the Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences

Layla AlAmmar is an Assistant Professor of English Literature at the American University of Kuwait. She earned a PhD in Arab women’s fiction and literary trauma theory. She has written for The Guardian, LitHub, the Times Literary Supplement, ArabLit Quarterly, The New Arab, GQ Middle East, NewLines Magazine, and The Markaz Review.

Martin Puchner is the Byron and Anita Wien Professor of English and Comparative Literature at Harvard University. His prize-winning books and anthologies range from philosophy to the arts. He is a member of the European Academy and has received numerous awards, including a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Cullman Fellowship, the Berlin Prize, the Humboldt Prize, and the Massachusetts Book Award.