Bionotes

Amalia Sabiescu is a Research Associate in the Institute for Media and Creative Industries at Loughborough University London. Prior to joining Loughborough University, Amalia held postdoctoral research positions at RMIT University (Australia, working from Spain), Coventry University (UK), and University of Lugano (Switzerland). Her current research interests are in the fields of communication for development, social and digital inclusion of under-served communities, and digital interventions in cultural and creative practice. She conducted qualitative and participatory research studies in diverse socio-cultural contexts in Europe (e.g. Switzerland, Italy, Romania) and South Africa, where she examined social and cultural factors in the appropriation and use of communication technologies by diverse groups, ranging from under-served communities to creative industries professionals. Issues of voice, agency in technology usage, collaboration, co-creation, creative engagement with digital media, and narrative forms of expression are important topics in her research, transcending disciplinary boundaries

Licínia Simão is assistant professor at the School of Economics, University of Coimbra, teaching in International Relations, where she is currently the Coordinator for the Master Programme in International Relations - Peace, Security and Development Studies. She is also a researcher at the Centre for Social Studies, where she is involved in several research projects on the post-Soviet space. Licínia holds a PhD in International Relations (specialisation in European Studies), from the University of Coimbra, with a thesis on European foreign and security policy for the South Caucasus. She has held researching and teaching positions at the Centre for European Studies at Carleton University (Ottawa, Canada) the OSCE Academy (Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan) and at the Centre for European Policy Studies (Brussels). From 2010 to 2012 she was a visiting professor at the University of Beira Interior (Covilhã, Portugal). Her research interests include foreign policy analysis and security studies, with a focus on European foreign policy and the former-Soviet space. Her most recent publication is the edited book with Remi Piet on "Security in Shared Neighbourhoods - Foreign Policy of Russia Turkey, and the EU" (Palgrave Macmillan, 2016).

Oscar Hemer is Professor in Journalistic and Literary Creation at Malmö University, Sweden, and co-director of the binational research centre Örecomm. He holds a Dr Philos degree in Social Anthropology and is also a literary writer. His research interests are in the crossroads of Creative Writing and Anthropology

Sofia José Santos is Visiting Assistant Professor in International Relations at the Faculty of Economics, University of Coimbra, researcher at OBSERVARE, Autonomous University of Lisbon, and Associate Researcher at the Centre for Social Studies, University of Coimbra. Previously she was also journalist and editor at Rede Angola, Communications Coordinator and researcher at Promundo-Europe and consultant for Promundo-US and Voices for Change Nigeria. She holds a PhD and a MA in International Politics and Conflict Resolution from University of Coimbra and a degree in International Relations from the same university. She has been working on topics relating media and international relations, media and masculinities, and media and the epistemologies of the south. She is also interested in big data, privacy and digital politics.

Tina Askanius is a senior lecturer in media and communication studies at Malmö University. Prior to joining Malmö University, Tina held a postdoctoral research positions at Lund University in the international research project Media Experiences(2013-2016). Her research interests and expertise are in the area of media, civic cultures and political activism. Within this broad area, a strand of her work involves digital media, online publics and extreme-right discourse and movements in Europe. In January 2018, she starts working in a new project called Digital radicalization, analogue extremism? (MAW, 2018-2022). This project seeks to understand the relationship between online discourses of violent extremism, extremists’ autobiographies, and records of criminal offending in both the takfiri and extreme-right movements.

Thomas Tufte is Professor in Media and Communication at University of Leicester, co-founder andco-director of the bi-national research centre Orecomm – Centre for Communication and GlocalChange, currently being transformed into the Voice and Matter Alliance, VMA. Professor Tufte also serves as senior research associate to University of Johannesburg, South Africa (2013-). Tufte has for the past 25 years worked extensively on the role of communication in articulating citizen engagement and social change, mainly as a researcher, but also as a consultant and practitioner. His most recent books are Comunicacion para el cambio social. La participacion y el empoderamientocomo base para el Desarrollo mundial (Icaria, Barcelona, 2015), Voice & Matter –Communication, Development and The Cultural Return, co-edited with Oscar Hemer (Nordicom,2016), and Communication and Social Change – a Citizen Perspective (Polity Press, May 2017).