Prof Thomas Hylland Eriksen, University of Oslo

Thomas Hylland Eriksen (1962) is Professor of Social Anthropology at the University of Oslo and PI of the ERC Advanced Grant project ‘Overheating’. The author of many books in different genres, his academic research, which began with fieldwork on identity and society in Mauritius in 1986, has largely concerned cultural dynamics and social identities in complex societies, and his books in this field include Ethnicity and Nationalism: Anthropological Perspectives (2010/1993) and Common Denominators: Ethnicity and the Politics of Compromise in Mauritius (1998). He has also published on globalization, e.g. Globalization: The Key Concepts (2014/2007), as well as basic textbooks in anthropology – Small Places, Large Issues(2014/1995) and What is Anthropology? (2017/2004), and a book about public anthropology, Engaging Anthropology (2006). His latest book is an introduction to the anthropology of accelerated change, Overheating (Pluto Press 2016).

Prof. Lino Briguglio, University of Malta

Professor Lino Briguglio is the Director of the Islands and Small States Institute of the University of Malta and a member of staff of the Economics Department of the same University. He is known internationally for his seminal work on the "Vulnerability Index" which was published in World Development in 1995, which led to a world-wide interest and to many quantitative studies on economic vulnerability. He has also pioneered work on the measurement of economic resilience, in a paper published in Oxford Development Studies in 2009. He has acted as consultant to various international organisations on studies and reports relating to small states. He served as Lead-author for the IPCC Third, fourth and fifth assessment reports on climate change and together with other Scientists Prof Briguglio contributed to the 2007 award of the Nobel Peace prize to the IPCC.

Francis Nyamnjoh, University of Cape Town

Prof. Janki Andharia

Professor Janki Andharia has over 30 years of experience in the field of social development, community organization and disaster studies. Her areas of work focus on democratic and  participatory development, addressing diverse forms of marginalization and vulnerability. She has been involved in policy work and has had a long association with grassroots organizations. She has been teaching at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) for over three decades and was Head, Department of Urban and Rural Community Development before moving on as Chairperson of the then newly created Centre for Disaster Management in 2006. Professor Andharia provides policy advice to governments and has also successfully led several international missions to forge collaborations between TISS and other Universities and offered special lectures. Prominent among these was – a partnership with the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, Geneva which now offers an on-line course in disaster management. She was editor of a working paper series, and  is now the series editor with Springer for their new series on Disaster Studies and Management. She has published extensively and is also involved in a number of international research collaborations. Professor Andharia serves on the Board of several organizations.