Speakers

Panel One

Narratives of Repair: Imagining Sustainable Digital Futures

Prof. VORA, Kalindi
Professor and Chair of Ethnicity Race and Migration,
Professor of Women’s Gender and Sexuality Studies,
Professor of American Studies,
Yale University

Kalindi Vora is a Professor and Chair of Ethnicity Race and Migration, and Professor of Women’s Gender and Sexuality Studies and of American Studies with an affiliate appointment in History of Science and Medicine at Yale University. She is the author of Life Support: Biocapital and the New History of Outsourced Labor (winner of the 2018 4S Bernal Prize), Surrogate Humanity: Race Robots and the Politics of Technological Futures (co-authored with Neda Atanasoski, 2019); Re-Imagining Reproduction: Surrogacy, Labor and Technologies of Human Reproduction; and Technoprecarious (with the Precarity Lab).

Dr. GANESH, Maya Indira
Senior Research Fellow,
Leverhulme Centre for the Future of Intelligence (LCFI),
University of Cambridge

Maya Indira Ganesh is Associate Director (Research Partnerships), co-director of the Narratives and Justice Program, and a Senior Research Fellow at the Leverhulme Centre for the Future of Intelligence (LCFI) at the University of Cambridge, UK. Maya has a Drphil in Cultural Studies from Leuphana University, Lüneburg, Germany. Her doctoral work took the case of the ‘ethics of autonomous driving’ to study the implications of ethical decision-making and governance by algorithmic/AI technologies for human social relations, and argued for a conception of AI technologies as situated in distinct infrastructural and social environments. Maya’s research at CFI builds on this by focusing on AI in public and with different kinds of publics in the design and development of technology.  She draws on varied theoretical and methodological genres, including feminist scholarship, media studies, and science and technology studies. She is also an invited speaker, curatorial advisor, and writer with arts and cultural organizations in Europe, and on the Internet. Prior to academia, Maya spent over a decade as a researcher and activist working at the intersection of gender justice, security, and digital freedom of expression.

Dr. HUSSEN, Tigist Shewarega
Postdoctoral Researcher,
Hub for Decolonial Feminist Psychologies in Africa,
Department of Psychology,
University of Cape Town

Tigist Shewarega Hussen (PhD) works in the Women’s Rights Program (WRP) at the Association for Progressive Communication (APC). She is the Feminist Research Lead in the Feminist Internet Research Network (FIRN) project. She is also a postdoc researcher at the Hub for Decolonial Feminist Psychologies in Africa, Department of Psychology, at the University of Cape Town. Her research interest focuses on the exploration of a digital Pan-African constellation of feminist activism for social justice across the continent.

Panel Two

Journalism and Sustainable News Media 

Prof. ALLAN, Stuart
Interim Head in the School of Law and Politics,
Professor of Journalism and Communication,
School of Journalism, Media and Culture (JOMEC),
Cardiff University

Stuart Allan is a Professor of Journalism and Communication in the School of Journalism, Media and Culture at Cardiff University, UK. He has published widely, including co-authoring Conflicting Images: Histories of War Photography in the News (Routledge, 2024), and editing the second edition of The Routledge Companion to News and Journalism (Routledge, 2023). He serves on editorial boards for several international peer-reviewed journals, and his books have been translated into numerous languages. Current research projects include enquiries into visual journalism, with particular interests in professional and citizen photo-reportage of war, conflict and crisis.

Prof. LUQIU, Luwei Rose
Associate Professor and Associate Head,
School of Communication,
Hong Kong Baptist University

Luwei Rose Luqiu, an Associate Professor at Hong Kong Baptist University’s School of Communication, researches censorship, propaganda, and social movements in authoritarian regimes, specializing in China. A seasoned journalist with 20 years of experience and a 2007 Nieman Fellow at Harvard University, she combines practical insights with academic rigor. Luqiu holds a Ph.D. in Mass Communication from Pennsylvania State University and a bachelor’s in Philosophy from Fudan University. Her book Propaganda, Media, and Nationalism in Mainland China and Hong Kong (2018) analyzes Chinese propaganda strategies. “Covering the 2019 Hong Kong Protests” (2021) examines journalistic challenges during the protests. She also co-authors “Wolf Warrior Diplomacy and China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs” (2024), exploring China’s evolving foreign policy, and “Reporting Sexual Violence and #MeToo in Asia” (2025), providing perspectives from Hong Kong, Mainland China, and Taiwan.  Her research contributes significantly to understanding the region’s media, politics, and social change.

Panel Three

Empowering Societal Change through Public Relations: Advancing Social Impact in Sustainability, CSR, and ESG Communication

Prof. IHLEN, Øyvind
Professor,
Department of Media and Communication,
University of Oslo

Øyvind Ihlen is a Professor at the University of Oslo, Norway. He has authored or co-authored over 170 articles, chapters, and books, including the edited volumes Public Relations and Social Theory (2018) and Handbook of Organizational Rhetoric and Communication (2018). Ihlen has led two large cross-disciplinary research projects on the COVID-19 pandemic and is involved in the EU Horizon project PREPSHIELD, the COST network Alerthub, and the Crisis Communication Think Tank – International (CCTT). He is a former President of the European Public Relations Education and Research Association (EUPRERA) and the in-coming vice-chair of the Public Relations Division of the International Communication Association (ICA).

Prof. DHANESH, Ganga S.
Associate Professor,
Department of Communication,
University of Maryland

Ganga S. Dhanesh, PhD (National University of Singapore), is an Associate Professor in the Department of Communication at the University of Maryland. Her extensive research on corporate social responsibility (CSR) and strategic communication is shaped by her experience in corporate and nonprofit sectors. Her work has been published in leading journals such as American Behavioral Scientist, Business Horizons, Journal of International Management, Management Communication Quarterly, Journal of Public Relations Research, and Public Relations Review. Recognized as one of the most productive scholars in CSR-related public relations research according to a recent bibliometric analysis, she has received multiple research awards. She serves as Associate Editor for Journal of Communication Management and is on the editorial boards of Business Horizons, Public Relations Review, and Journal of Public Relations Research. She actively consulted for global organizations and led Zayed University’s partnership with the UAE chapter of the Unstereotype Alliance, a UN Women initiative.

Panel Four

Communicating Sustainable Advertising and Market Differentiation

Prof. CHAN, Yee Kwong Ricky
Associate Dean (Education) and Professor,
Division of Business and Hospitality Management,
College of Professional and Continuing Education of The Hong Kong Polytechnic University

Prof. Ricky Chan is the Associate Dean (Education) and Professor of the Division of Business and Hospitality Management at the College of Professional and Continuing Education of The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU CPCE). Ricky’s research interests lie in green consumption, consumer ethics, and environmental strategies. He is included on Research.com’s list of Best Business and Management Scientists (the world’s top 1%). Since 2020, he has also been included on Elsevier BV/Stanford University’s list of the top 2% scientists in the world across all disciplines. He is currently serving as a Detailed Assessor for the Australian Research Council.

Prof. KIM, Yewon
Assistant Professor of Marketing,
Graduate School of Business,
Stanford University

Yewon Kim is an Assistant Professor of Marketing at Stanford University Graduate School of Business. She received her PhD in marketing from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business and her MS in marketing from Seoul National University. She received her BA in art history from Washington University in St. Louis.

Panel Five

Sustainability and the Future of Work on Digital Platforms

Prof. ABIDIN, Crystal
Professor of Internet Studies,
School of Media, Creative Arts and Social Inquiry,
Curtin University

Prof. Crystal Abidin is an anthropologist and ethnographer of internet cultures, especially in the Asia Pacific region. She is Professor of Internet Studies at Curtin University, Director of the Influencer Ethnography Research Lab (IERLab), and Founder of the TikTok Cultures Research Network (TCRN). Her forthcoming books arising from her recently concluded ARC DECRA Fellowship (DE190100789) are TikTok and Youth Cultures (Emerald); Provoking Online Drama: How Attention Economies are Changing (with Jin Lee, Bloomsbury); Child Influencers: How Children Become Entangled with Social Media Fame (Polity); and Intercultural Influencers: Global Arbiters of Norms and Nuance (Polity). Reach her at wishcrys.com.

Prof. VAN DOORN, Niels
Associate Professor,
New Media and Digital Culture,
University of Amsterdam

Niels van Doorn is an Associate Professor of New Media and Digital Culture at the University of Amsterdam. He recently completed an ERC–funded research project (Platform Labor), which examined how digital platforms are transforming labor and social reproduction in cities impacted by waves of welfare reform and decentralized governance frameworks. He is a founding editor of the forthcoming journal Platforms & Society (Sage Open Access), and sits on the editorial board of Work, Employment & Society. Niels holds a PhD in Communication Science from the University of Amsterdam (Amsterdam School of Communication Research, 2010). Before joining the UvA’s Department of Media Studies in 2012, he spent two years as a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Political Science at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. The research conducted there resulted in his first book, Civic Intimacies (Temple UP, 2019).

Panel Six

Data and Sustainability

Prof. CONTRACTOR, Noshir
Jane S. & William J. White Professor of Behavioral Sciences, McCormick School of Engineering & Applied Science, School of Communication, Kellogg School of Management,
Director, Science of Networks in Communities (SONIC) Research Group,
Northwestern University

Noshir Contractor is the Jane S. & William J. White Professor of Behavioral Sciences in the McCormick School of Engineering & Applied Science, the School of Communication and the Kellogg School of Management and Director of the Science of Networks in Communities (SONIC) Research Group at Northwestern University. He is also the former President of the International Communication Association (ICA). Additionally, he is the host of a podcast series titled “Untangling the Web,” where he engages in conversations with thought leaders to explore how the Web is shaping society, and how society in turns is shaping the Web. Professor Contractor has been at the forefront of three emerging interdisciplines: network science, computational social science and web science. He is investigating how social and knowledge networks form – and perform – in contexts including business, scientific communities, healthcare and space travel.  His research has been funded continuously for 25 years by the U.S. National Science Foundation with additional funding from the U.S. National Institutes of Health, NASA, DARPA, Army Research Laboratory and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Prof. PAN, Jennifer
Sir Robert Ho Tung Professor of Chinese Studies,
Professor of Communication,
Senior Fellow, Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies,
Professor, by courtesy, of Political Science and of Sociology,
Stanford University

Jennifer Pan is a political scientist whose research focuses on political communication, digital media, and authoritarian politics. She is the Sir Robert Ho Tung Professor of Chinese Studies, Professor of Communication and (by courtesy) Political Science, and a Senior Fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute. Prof. Pan’s research uses experimental and computational methods with large-scale datasets on political activity to answer questions about the role of digital media in authoritarian and democratic politics, including how political censorship, propaganda, and information manipulation work in the digital age and how preferences and behaviors are shaped as a result. Her work has appeared in peer-reviewed publications such as the American Political Science Review, American Journal of Political Science, Journal of Politics, Political Communication, and Science.

Prof. ZHU, Jian Hua Jonathan
Chair Professor,
Department of Media and Communication,
Department of Data Science,
City University of Hong Kong

Prof. Zhu teaches new media theory (diffusion, use, and impact), quantitative methods (survey, experiment, content analysis, statistical analysis), and new technologies (Internet, multimedia, and database). Most recently, he teaches a university general education (GE) course on social network analysis for media, business and technological applications. His current research projects involve the growth of online social networks, sustainability of social media, diffusion and use of social computing, and internationalization of communication research, among others. He coordinates a Web Mining Lab, in which a group of postdoctoral fellows, doctoral students, research assistants, and occasional visitors carry out interdisciplinary projects. His publications in SCI/SSCI journals, along with citation and collaboration information, are compiled by ResearcherID.com.

Panel Seven

Cultures of Technology and the Politics of Sustainability

Prof. BOJADŽIJEV, Manuela
Professor and Head,
Department Integration, Social Networks and Cultural Lifestyles,
Berlin Institute for Empirical Integration and Migration Research,
Humboldt University of Berlin

Prof. Bojadžijev is the Head of the Department Integration, Social Networks and Cultural Lifestyles, at the Berlin Institute for Empirical Integration and Migration Research, Humboldt University of Berlin. Her work focuses on the study of globalized and digital cultures as well as migration from a global perspective. In addition to conceptual, methodological and epistemic questions of migration research, she is interested in the “dispute over migration” in migration societies and how social changes are narrated, lived and contested in and through modes of representation of migration and flight. She also investigates current transformation processes of mobility and migration as well as racism, in interplay with changes in work and everyday life through digitalization and logistics, predominantly in urban spaces and in geopolitical constellations.

Prof. GEORGIOU, Myria
Professor and Head of Department,
Department of Media and Communications,
London School of Economics and Political Science

Myria Georgiou is a Professor in the Department of Media and Communications at LSE. Professor Georgiou researches and teaches on migration and urbanisation in the context of intensified mediation. Adopting a comparative and interdisciplinary approach, she is committed to putting the human of the urban, transnationally connected world at the core of her research. Her more recent books include The Digital Border (with L. Chouliaraki, NYU Press, 2022) and Being Human in Digital Cities (Polity Press, 2023).

Prof. ONG, Jonathan Corpus
Professor of Global Digital Media,
Director of the Global Technology for Social Justice Lab,
College of Social & Behavioral Sciences,
University of Massachusetts Amherst

Jonathan Corpus Ong is Professor of Global Digital Media and Director of the Global Technology for Social Justice Lab (GloTechLab.net) at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. He is the author of 3 books and over 20 journal articles in digital politics, global media studies, and the sociology and anthropology of aid. He is the co-author of the pioneering study “Architects of Networked Disinformation”, which applies an ethnographic approach to studying the hierarchy of human workers behind disinformation campaigns in the Philippines. A public intellectual with a record of policy advocacy and community-driven applied research, Jonathan writes for Time and The Guardian, and co-hosts a “disinformation whistleblowers” podcast called “Catch Me If You Can”, ranked Top1% Most Followed by Spotify in 2022.