Farida Shaheed is a leading scholar and activist, she has dedicated her career to advancing gender equality, human rights, and social justice. Previously serving as the UN Special Rapporteur on cultural rights (2009–2015), she has worked extensively at the intersection of education, democracy, and decolonial practices. Through her research, advocacy, and policy work, she continues to champion inclusive and transformative change for marginalized communities worldwide.

Srila Roy studied at St. Stephen’s College and the University of Warwick, where she earned her PhD. Her research explores gender, sexuality, violence, and transnational feminist politics, with a focus on India and South Africa. Roy is a public intellectual, engaging in media and academic collaborations. In 2022, she was the Hunt-Simes Chair at the University of Sydney and received the ISA’s inaugural Global South Feminist Scholar Award.

Sindisa Monakali is a Marxist activist scholar from South Africa who believes in education for liberation. He is the current national chairperson of Equal Education which is a movement of learners, teachers, parents, and community members working towards equality and quality education in the South African Education system through analysis and activism. Sindisa is also a student activist at the University of the Western Cape under EE Society. Currently, he is pursuing his master’s degree at the University of the Western Cape and his research focus is on De-Occupy: Histories and Futures of the Land Question in South Africa.

Paul Gready is the Co-Director of the Centre for Applied Human Rights (CAHR) at York University and UNESCO Chair on Protecting Human Rights Defenders and Expansion of Political Space. His work focuses on universities as sites of protection and activism, transitional justice, the arts and human rights, and the development of human rights cities. He founded CAHR in 2007 and is a co-editor of the Journal of Human Rights Practice. With over thirty years of experience, including work with Amnesty International and other human rights organizations, Gready is committed to advancing interdisciplinary approaches in human rights practice.

Dr. Nadine Naber is a distinguished scholar and activist at the University of Illinois Chicago, where she serves as a professor in the Gender and Women's Studies Program and the Global Asian Studies program. She holds a PhD in Cultural Anthropology from the University of California, Davis, and is an acclaimed scholar recognized for her work at the intersections of transnational feminisms, critical race studies, and Arab American experiences, as exemplified in her acclaimed book Arab America: Gender, Cultural Politics, and Activism (NYU Press, 2012) and several co-edited volumes. As part of her activism for social justice, Dr. Naber has co-founded initiatives such as the Arab American Cultural Center at UIC and the non-profit Mamas Activating Movements for Abolition and Solidarity (MAMAS).

Omar Barghouti is a Palestinian human rights defender, co-founder of the Palestinian-led Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement, and recipient of the 2017 Gandhi Peace Award. He holds a B.Sc. and an M.Sc. in Electrical Engineering from Columbia University, NY, and is pursuing a PhD in Philosophy (ethics) at the University of Amsterdam. He is the author of, BDS: The Global Struggle for Palestinian Rights (Haymarket: 2011). His commentaries and views have appeared in the New York Times, the Guardian, among others.

Alejandro Mantilla is a doctoral candidate in Philosophy. He is currently Head of the Office of Interinstitutional Relations at the Universidad Pedagógica Nacional and a professor in the Department of Political Science at the Universidad Nacional de Colombia. The National Pedagogical University educates teachers who, instead of coexisting with imposed international provisions, are able to propose structural alternatives. The university fosters an ethic of care focused on respect, responsibility, affection, and solidarity, while supporting collective efforts to understand and transform unjust, corrupt, or human rights-violating social realities. Alejandro has advised peasant, trade union, and human rights organizations. He is a member of the Permanent Group of Alternatives to Development promoted by the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation. In recent years, he has conducted research on the Colombian and Latin American political context, as well as on the political turn in analytical philosophy.

Enes Hocaoğulları is the Coordinator of International Advocacy and Fundraising at ÜniKuir and the Youth Delegate representing Türkiye at the Council of Europe. ÜniKuir advocates for youth and LGBTI+ rights in Turkey. Enes contributes to social impact initiatives with the Entrepreneurship Foundation and supports UN-level advocacy with the Swedish Federation for LGBT Rights.

Karl Tristan Butalid is an activist from the Philippines. He worked as a full-time volunteer teacher among Indigenous Peoples' schools located in remote communities and conflict areas in the Philippines. As a teacher-activist, he fights for the Indigenous Peoples' right to education within their broader struggle to defend their ancestral land and right to self-determination. Currently, he is studying Global Development at the University of Agder in Norway as a Student-at-Risk scholar.

Eva Maria Fjellheim is a Southern Saami scholar, writer, journalist, and cultural worker committed to supporting environmental justice, Indigenous peoples' rights, and decolonial struggles. Through her research, Fjellheim explores wind energy on Saami reindeer herding landscapes as a form of green colonialism and advocates for decolonial approaches in academia and society in general. She has broad experience working with Indigenous peoples’ issues, movements, and human rights defenders in Latin America. In both contexts, she focuses on struggles against the dispossession of ancestral landscapes, knowledges, and practices by extractive and energy industries. Fjellheim emphasizes a committed research approach based on relations of solidarity, care, and accountability between humans, other-than-humans, and the landscape, aiming to challenge colonial (research) structures and praxis.