CORE TEAM
Dr. Yoriko Otomo is the Director and Founder of the Global Research Network, and a Fellow at the Royal Society of Arts, a Research Associate at SOAS, Governor for the Network for International Law Students, member of the Global Animal Law Expert Group, and on the Board of Minding Animals International. She is a Series Editor for Anthem Press, on the editorial board of the Australian Feminist Law Journal, and an External Examiner for universities in the UK. Yoriko lives in England with her beloved partner, three sons, three hens and two cats.
Dr. Tom Nichols is the IT Director at the Global Research Network. Having qualified as a General Practitioner (Family Doctor) in 2003, he qualified with Merit upon joining the Royal College of General Practitioners in 2008. Since then, Tom has developed a career in Clinical Informatics (the IT subfield related to Health Care) with a special interest in IT used in General Practice. Tom has also worked as a tutor to medical students at the University of Oxford prior to his current role as the GP Clinical Lead for IT at the local health authority, where he runs two development teams.
Rebecca manages the Global Research Network’s events and memberships, alongside creating the organisation’s newsletters and reports. They are a graduate student in Anthrozoology at the University of Exeter with a research focus on Asian elephant tourism camps as multi-species workplaces, rather than ‘retirement sanctuaries’. Rebecca’s academic background is in Social and Cultural Anthropology, having earned a B.A. from Memorial University of Newfoundland with a specific focus on systems of oppression and the ways in which various groups become marginalised by the individualistic agenda of late-stage capitalism.
Anisa Abeytia is a research and policy professional with a background in humanitarian diplomacy. She worked with Congress, the Department of Homeland Security and the State Department to shape US – Syria policy, with a focus on domestic immigration. Her research interests include: the social inclusion of Syrian refugees in Europe, the role of online platforms on the social inclusion of vulnerable populations in offline environments and access to socio-spatiality in the upward mobility of refugee populations. She regularly presents her research internationally, most recently at the University of Cambridge. Her articles are published via national and international web based and print media, including a book chapter and policy briefs for UNESCO and The Hill. She is the recipient of a Student Forum Award (2019) from the American Sociological Society and an Emerging Scholar Grant from the Lilly Family School of Philanthropy, University of Indiana/Purdue. Previously, Anisa operated a private practice as a clinical nutritionist in Dubai, specializing in utilizing the field of epigenetics to understand hypothyroidism and endocrine dysfunction. She is a published poet, former USC varsity rower and worked in Hollywood for the producer of the Godfather.
Daniela Gandorfer
Daniela is a lecturer at University of Westminster and an affiliate of the Ethics Institute at Northeastern University.
Before joining Westminster University, Daniela held postdoc positions at Princeton University and UC Santa Cruz, California. She received her PhD from Princeton University. In addition, she studied and attended programs at UC Berkeley, Utrecht University, Kent Law School, University of Klagenfurt, University of Vienna, NYU, and The New School. Daniela’s research focuses on scientific and technological frontier spaces — such as quantum physics, blockchain technology, and psychedelics — and their implications for emerging modes of normativity and governance. Special interest lies on the possibilities for an ethics of sensing and sense-making (synaesethics) attentive to these phenomena. Daniela is also the co-director of the Logische Phantasie Lab, a non-profit organization dedicated to decentralized and ethical approaches towards normativity at the intersection of climate change, political reorganization, and digital technologies.
BOARD MEMBERS
Patricia Tuitt is a legal academic working within the field of postcolonial studies. Formerly Professor and Dean of the School of Law at Birkbeck, University of London, she now curates an online resource (patriciatuitt.com) consisting of academic articles, book reviews and blog posts. Her publications include the monographs: False Images: Law’s Construction of the Refugee (1996) and Race, Law, Resistance (2004). She is co-editor of Critical Beings: Law, Nation and the Global Legal Subject (2004) and Crime Fiction and the Law (2016). Recently published articles include Academic Judgement and the Force of Law (patriciatuitt.com 2018), Walter Benjamin, Race and the Critique of Rights (Griffith Law Review, 2019), and European Empires in Conflict: The Brexit Years (Law and Critique, 2020).
Director of the Foundation-Excellence Laboratory RFIEA “French Network of Institutes for Advanced Study” founded by the Ministry of Higher Education, Research and Innovation, since 2007. He was Secretary-General of NetIAS, a European network of 26 Institutes for Advanced Study in 16 countries, since 2009. Olivier has been lead Coordinator of UBIAS, a global network of 45 university-based Institutes for Advanced Study worldwide, since 2021 (member of the Steering Committe since 2010). He was Lead Coordinator of the European COFUND programme FIAS since 2020, and of the European COFUND programme EURIAS between 2010 and 2019. Olivier was lead Coordinator of the International Panel on Social Progress (IPSP) since 2014 and of the World Pandemic Research Network (WPRN) since 2020. He has been President-elect of the Governing Board of the European Alliance for Social Sciences and Humanities (EASSH) between 2018 and 2021. Olivier was also head of the European and International Affairs at Alliance Athena (French Alliance for the Social Sciences and the Humanities) between 2012 and 2021.
Dr Emily Jones is a NUAcT Fellow based in Newcastle Law School. Emily's monograph, Feminist Theory and International Law: Posthuman Perspectives, was recently published with Routledge's GlassHouse series. In addition, Emily’s work has been published in several journals including, for example, the Journal of Human Rights and the Environment, Global Constitutionalism, Australian Feminist Law Journal, London Review of International Law, Marine Policy and Feminist Legal Studies. Emily is the co-editor (with Rosi Braidotti and Goda Klumbytė) of the More Posthuman Glossary, (Bloomsbury, 2022) as well as the co-author of The Law of War and Peace: A Gender Analysis, Volume One, (Bloomsbury, 2021). Prior to joining Newcastle University, Emily was a Senior Lecturer based in both Essex Law School and the Human Rights Centre at the University of Essex, where she worked from 2017-2022. Emily holds a PhD from SOAS University of London, an MA from University College London (UCL) and an LLB Law degree
Magid Shihade, PhD, is the Vice President for Academic Affairs at Dar Al-Kalima University. He is an interdisciplinary scholar who’s research and publications have engaged with aspects of modernity, violence, colonialism, settler colonialism, and decolonization. Magid’s work includes uncovering older texts such as that of the 14th century scholar Ibn Khaldun, texts that challenge our current knowledge and assumptions. His publications consider the social, cultural, and political transformations of the Palestinian society through a rural/village lens.
Maneesha Deckha is Professor and Lansdowne Chair in Law at the University of Victoria in British Columbia, Canada. Her research expertise includes critical animal law, vegan ecofeminist theory, and postcolonial theory. She has held the Fulbright Visiting Chair in Law and Society at New York University and currently serves as Director of the Animals & Society Research Initiative at the University of Victoria. She serves on advisory bodies for Social & Legal Studies, Politics and Animals, and Hypatia as well as for the Cambridge Centre for Animal Rights Law and Faunalytics. Professor Deckha is a graduate of McGill University, the University of Toronto Faculty of Law, and Columbia Law School. Her manuscript entitled Animals as Legal Beings: Contesting Anthropocentric Legal Orders was published by the University of Toronto Press in 2021 and her open access documentary designed for high school and undergraduate screening, A Deeper Kindness: Youth Activism in Animal Law, launched in October 2022
Su-Ming Khoo is Associate Professor and Head of Sociology at the University of Galway, Ireland and Visiting Professor in the Chair for Critical Studies in Higher Education Transformation (CriSHET) at Nelson Mandela University, South Africa (2022-27). She researches, teaches and writes about human development, human rights, public goods, development alternatives, decoloniality, global activism and learning, higher education and transdisciplinarity. She is co-editor with Helen Kara of: Researching in the Age of COVID-19, Volumes I Response and Reassessment, I Care and Resilience, III Creativity and Ethics (2020), and Qualitative and Digital Research in Times of Crisis (2021)