Education Team

The education branch of Human Dignity and Humiliation Studies (HumanDHS) aims at disseminating the research findings related to dignity and humiliation to a wide variety of audiences. We wish to contribute to the capacity of people to build peaceful societies and be mindful of how humiliation may disrupt the social fabric, and how social cohesion may be sustained by preventing humiliation from occurring. You are invited to develop ideas and projects that aim at dignifying our world, and preventing and healing humiliation. We wish to harness and nurture everybody's expertise for our HumanDHS educational activities, create cross-fertilization and synergy, and hope that our efforts will grow organically from our discussions and meetings!


DONALD C. KLEIN † June 8, 2007, yet always with us in spirit!
Please see here our condolences, or, more precisely, our love letters to Don.
Dear Becca and Alan! We are holding your hands in this difficult moment of losing your father and grandfather.
Don was and will always be, one of the central pillars of our work and our group. He is on the Board of our Directors and will always be there.
He spoke to us about Awe and Wonderment. About our human ability to live in awe and wonderment, not just when we see a beautiful sun set or the majesty of the ocean, but always. That we can live in a state of awe and wonderment. And we do that, says Don, by leaving behind the psychology of projection. The psychology of projection is like a scrim, a transparent stage curtain, where you believe that what you see is reality only as long as the light shines on it in a certain way. However, it is not reality. It is a projection. And in order to live in awe and wonderment, we have to look through this scrim and let go of all the details that appear on it, in which we are so caught up in. When we do that, we can see the beautiful sun set, the majestic ocean, always, in everything.
We are all inconsolable!
We are with you, dear Don, wherever you may be now!
And we promise to always remember that we can live in Awe and Wonderment, always!
Evelin, on behalf on our entire HumanDHS network!
Sunday, June 10, 2007

Donald C. Klein was a psychologist and behavioral scientist. He was also a Member of the HumanDHS Board of Directors, HumanDHS Global Advisory Board, the HumanDHS Global Core Team, and the HumanDHS Global Coordinating Team.
After earning a Clinical Psychology Ph.D. in 1952 at the University of California, Berkeley, he was CEO of an experimental community mental health center, directed a multi-disciplinary graduate center at Boston University, served as NTL Program Director for Community Affairs, and helped to develop and became coordinator of the Applied Behavioral Science graduate program at The Johns Hopkins University.
Subsequently, he was Professor Emeritus of the Graduate College of The Union Institute & University, which offers an innovative non-residential doctoral program for working adults.
Don Klein has been one of the first to explicitly examine and write on the humiliation phenomena. His first publication on humiliation goes back to 1991 (Journal of Primary Prevention on the Humiliation Dynamic, Vol 12, no. 2, Winter, 1991; Vol 12, No. 3, Spring 1992).
He has written numerous books and has conducted extensive research on how families and organzations use humiliation as a tool of control and socialization. In addition to the Humiliation Dynamic, as an Applied Behavioral Scientist, he has studied and written about community change dynamics, differences and diversity, power, and large group methods for change in organizations and communities. In his training and consulting work he has used sociodrama and other performatory approaches. He is especially interested in methods that can be used to create meaningful, integrative non-humiliating connections (i.e., "social glue") between diverse groups in community settings.
In recent years Don Klein has become deeply engaged with what he calls Appreciative Psychology, which has to do with the inherent level of appreciative being that connects each one of us with universal life energy.
Please find here:
•  The humiliation dynamic: An overview by Donald C. Klein, in Klein, Donald C. (Ed.), The Humiliation Dynamic: Viewing the Task of Prevention From a New Perspective, Special Issue, Journal of Primary Prevention, Part I, 12, No. 2, 1991. New York, NY: Kluwer Academic/ Plenum Publishers.
•  Creating Social Glue in the Community: A Psychologist's View by Donald C. Klein, a revised version of paper presented at 'Rising Tide: Community Development for a Changing World', 32 nd annual conference of the Community Development Society, Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada, July 26, 2000.
•  Community MetaFunctions and the Humiliation Dynamic, paper presented at the 2nd Annual Meeting on Human Dignity and Humiliation Studies, Paris, France, September 16-18, 2004 (not to be cited without author's authorization).
•  The Humiliation Dynamic: Looking to the Past and Future, paper presented at the 2005 Workshop on Humiliation and Violent Conflict, Columbia University, New York City, December 15-16, 2005.
•  Looking to the Past, Looking to the Future, New Years Greetings: 2006!

•  written by Alan Klein, Don's son, Past Master: Don Klein, first published in Practising Social Change, Issue 05, May 2012, pp. 48-49.
   

REBECCA ANN KLEIN
Rebecca Ann Klein is also a Member in the HumanDHS Global Coordinating Team and Global Core Team.
Rebecca Ann Klein is interested in creating effective, culturally sensitive nutrition programs within the field of Public Health. She is currently a student at Tufts University, working for a Master of Science in Food Policy and Applied Nutrition, with the aim to gain skills to run international health projects, and/or work with the politics and policies that affect the global food supply. She also takes classes at Tufts' school of International Law and Diplomacy.
Earlier, Becca completed a year of volunteer service through the AmeriCorps* VISTA program where she spent her time coordinating a teaching garden with Oregon Food Bank serving Washington County in Hillsboro, OR, USA. She has traveled extensively and is eager to do more. Becca is a graduate of Hampshire College in 2001 with a concentration in Nutritional Anthropology.
   


LINDA M. HARTLING
Linda M. Hartling, Ph.D., is the HumanDHS Director, and also a Member of the HumanDHS Global Advisory Board, HumanDHS Global Core Team, HumanDHS Global Coordinating Team, and HumanDHS Research Team. She is furthermore the Editor of the Journal of Human Dignity and Humiliation Studies (JHDHS).
Linda M. Hartling is the recipient of the Association for Creativity in Counseling Research Award (see the slides of her acceptance talk).
Linda is affiliated with the Jean Baker Miller Training Institute (JBMTI) at the Stone Center, which is part of the Wellesley Centers for Women at Wellesley College in Massachusetts. Until 2008, she was its the Associate Director. Dr. Hartling is a member of the JBMTI theory-building group advancing the practice of the Relational-Cultural Theory, a model of psychological growth and development. She coordinates and contributes to training programs, publications, and special projects for the JBMTI. She holds a doctoral degree in clinical/community psychology and has published papers on resilience, substance abuse prevention, shame and humiliation, relational practice in the workplace, and Relational-Cultural Theory. Dr. Hartling was co-editor of The Complexity of Connection: Writings from the Jean Baker Miller Training Institute at the Stone Center (2004) and author of the Humiliation Inventory, a scale to assess the internal experience of derision and degradation. She is currently a member of an international team establishing the first Center for Human Dignity and Humiliation Studies. [read more]
   

PHILIP M. BROWN
Dr. Philip M. Brown is also a Member of the HumanDHS Global Advisory Board.
Dr. Philip Brown is a Coach for the National School Climate Center and President of the newly reorganized International Center for Assault Prevention.
Dr. Philip M. Brown has established and directed the Center for Social and Character Development at Rutgers University, located within the Graduate School of Applied and Professional Psychology, where he served as principal investigator on research grants from the U.S. Department of Education. Phil has served for more than 25 years in various policy and program management positions in the Pennsylvania State Department of Health and the New Jersey Department of Education, where he created the first professional educational credential in the U.S. in the substance abuse prevention field. Early in his career he served in the Peace Corps in India and conducted training for the Peace Corps following his service. He was President of the New Jersey Alliance for Social, Emotional and Character Development. Recent publications include being guest editor for a special issue of the Indian journal, Experiments in Education on Humiliation in the Educational Setting which grew directly out of the HDHS Network, at the invitation from Evelin Lindner. He co-edited The Handbook of Prosocial Education, published by Rowman & Littlefield in the fall of 2012.
Please see here:
Humiliation, Bullying and Caring in School Communities, paper presented at the Workshop on Humiliation and Violent Conflict, Columbia University, New York City, November 18-19, 2004.
Reflections on Policy and Humiliation: Addressing the Needs of Poor Minority Children in New Jersey’s Public Schools, draft paper presented at Round Table 3 of the 2005 Workshop on Humiliation and Violent Conflict, Columbia University, New York City, December 15-16, 2005.
•  Philip M. Brown kindly guest-edited "Humiliation in the Academic Setting," A Special Symposium Issue of Experiments in Education, published by the S.I.T.U. Council of Educational Research in 2008.
• Prosocial Education, prepared by Ann Higgins D'Alessandro, Fordham University, and edited by Philip Brown, Rutgers University, for the 2010 Workshop on Transforming Humiliation and Violent Conflict, Columbia University, New York City, December 9-10, 2010.
• Prosocial Development: Defining the Basis for Prosocial Education, discussant background notes presented at the 2011 Workshop on Transforming Humiliation and Violent Conflict, Columbia University, New York City, December 8-9, 2011. See also a slide of the Prosocial Double Helix.
• Prosocial Education: Developing Caring, Capable Citizens, contribution shared at the 2012 Workshop on Transforming Humiliation and Violent Conflict, Columbia University, New York City, December 6-7, 2012.
• Philip M. Brown received the Human Dignity (Half!) Lifetime Commitment Award! (Video by Mariana Ferraz | Video Snapshots by Hua-Chu Yen), December 9, 2016, during the 2016 Workshop on Transforming Humiliation and Violent Conflict, Columbia University, New York City, December 8-9, 2016.
• Developing a Dignifying Culture in K-12 Schools (Video), contribution to the 2017 Workshop on Transforming Humiliation and Violent Conflict, Columbia University, New York City, December 7-8, 2017. See also the book edited by Phil Brown, Student Discipline: A Prosocial Perspective (2016).
• Developing a Dignifying Culture in K-12 Schools (Video), contribution to the 2017 Workshop on Transforming Humiliation and Violent Conflict, Columbia University, New York City, December 7-8, 2017. See also the book edited by Phil Brown, Student Discipline: A Prosocial Perspective (2016).
• "School Discipline: A Prosocial Perspective." In Human Dignity: Practices, Discourses, and Transformations: Essays on Dignity Studies in Honor of Evelin G. Lindner. Edited by Chipamong Chowdhury, Michael F. Britton, and Linda M. Hartling. Chapter 8. Lake Oswego, OR: Dignity Press, 2019.
• Dignifying the Individual Has Both an Interpersonal and Institutional Context and Dimension: Solidarity can happen for good or evil purposes; without prosocial core anchors, it can lead in the wrong direction (Video | PowerPoint), contribution to the 2021 Workshop on Transforming Humiliation and Violent Conflict, Virtual at Columbia University, New York City, December 9 – 11, 2021.

   

MAGGIE O'NEILL
Maggie O'Neill is also a Member of the HumanDHS Board of Directors, the HumanDHS Global Advisory Board, the HumanDHS Global Core Team, the HumanDHS Education Team, and HumanDHS Research Team, as part of the core HumanDHS Research Management Team, among others, as advisor to our Refugees and Humiliation Project. She is furthermore a Member of the Academic Board of the Journal of Human Dignity and Humiliation Studies (JHDHS).
Maggie O'Neill is a Professor in Criminology at the Department of Sociology at Wentworth College, University of York, United Kingdom, as well as Co-Chair of the Sex Work Research Hub, and Co-Chair of the UoY Migration Network. At York University, she is the Programme Director of the BA in Criminology and BA in Sociology with Criminology. Prior to that, until 2016, she was Professor in Criminology in the School of Applied Social Sciences at Durham University, UK. Until 2009, she was based in Criminology and Social Policy at Loughborough University. Prior to this she worked for eleven years in the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences at Staffordshire University and before that was ten years in the Department of Sociology at Nottingham Trent University. She co-edited Sociology (with Tony Spybey): the journal of the British Sociological Association from 1999-2002; she is a member of various professional associations including the National Network of Sex Work Projects and the British Sociological Association and British Criminology Association. She acts as a research consultant on community cohesion issues and has had commissions from the Home Office, and regional Local Authorities. Maggie researches the issue of prostitution, women's experiences, routes in to prostitution, and communities affected (since 1990) and forced migration (since 1998).
An expert in participatory action research (working with people, groups, communities to create change) Maggie has a reputation for developing innovative culture work to imagine new ways of understanding and articulating the experiences of crime and victimization, that breach disciplinary boundaries and expand and enliven the methodological horizons of cultural criminology. Her theoretical concept of ethno-mimesis (the inter-connection of sensitive ethnographic work and visual re-presentations) is a methodological tool as well as a process for exploring lived experience, displacement, exile, belonging and humiliation.
Research funding has been received from the AHRB; Joseph Rowntree Foundation; Home Office; Leicester Local Authority and Local Education Authority, East Midland Arts, Nottingham Trent and Staffordshire Universities.
Please see Maggie's blog at Policy Press.
Books include:
Adorno, Culture and Feminism (Sage);
Prostitution and Feminism: Towards a Politics of Feeling (Polity);
Prostitution: A Reader (Ashgate) with Roger Matthews;
Gender and the Public Sector (Routledge) with Jim Barry and Mike Dent;
Sex Work Now (Willen) with Rosie Campbell.
See also:
Humiliation, Social Justice and Ethno-mimesis, note presented at the 2005 Workshop on Humiliation and Violent Conflict, Columbia University, New York City, December 15-16, 2005;
together with Ramaswami Harindranath, Theorising Narratives of Exile and Belonging: The Importance of Biography and Ethno-mimesis in “Understanding” Asylum, in Qualitative Sociology Review, II (1, April 2006), pp. 39-52.
Forced Migration, Humiliation and Human Dignity: Re-Imagining the Asylum-Migration Nexus through Participatory Action Research (PAR), abstract presented at the 2006 Workshop on Humiliation and Violent Conflict, Columbia University, New York City, December 14-15, 2006.
Re-Imagining Diaspora through Ethno-Mimesis: Humiliation, Human Dignity and Belonging (2007). In: Reimagining Diasporas: Transnational Lives and the Media, edited by Olga Guedes-Bailey (Liverpool John-Moores University), Myria Georgiou (University of Leeds), and Ramaswami Harindranath (University of Melbourne). Published by Palgrave Publishers, UK.
Humiliation and Human Dignity: Conducting Participatory Action Research with Women Who Sell Sex(see www.safetysoapbox.co.uk), abstract presented at the 2007 Workshop on Humiliation and Violent Conflict, Columbia University, New York City, December 13-14, 2007.

"Making Connections: Ethno-mimesis, Migration and Diaspora," in Psychoanalysis, Culture & Society, 14, 289-302, September 2009, doi:10.1057/pcs.2009.5.
Humiliation, Social Justice and Recognitive Communities: Thinking about the Asylum-Migration-Community Nexus in the Context of HDHS, abstract presented at the 2012 Workshop on Transforming Humiliation and Violent Conflict, Columbia University, New York City, December 6-7, 2012.

   

GRACE FEUERVERGER
Grace Feuerverger is also a Member of the HumanDHS Board of Directors, and a Member of the HumanDHS Global Advisory Board, and of the HumanDHS Research Team.
Grace is Professor in the Department of Curriculum, Teaching and Learning (CTL) at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education of the University of Toronto. A child of Holocaust survivors, Professor Grace Feuerverger grew up in a multicultural and multilingual home in Montreal and brings her personal and professional experiences to bear on her teaching and research work. Grace was educated at a variety of institutions - McGill University, the Università per Stranieri in Perugia, Italy, the University of California at Berkeley, the University of Alberta, the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, and the University of Toronto.
Grace Feuerverger’s research interests focus on theoretical and practical issues of cultural and linguistic diversity, ethnic identity maintenance, and minority language learning within multicultural educational contexts, as well as on conflict resolution and peacemaking in international settings. Her courses at OISE/University of Toronto and her research projects explore the personal and professional texts of those who live within and between various cultural worlds. She continues to direct a multicultural literacy project in various schools in Toronto where she has developed an in-service teacher's guide and video programs. Grace is also Principal Investigator of a large-scale SSHRC (Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada) research study, which focuses on the school experiences of immigrant and refugee students in Toronto and Montreal. She is also an invited member of the Canadian Commission for UNESCO.
Professor Feuerverger’s recent award-winning book Oasis of Dreams: Teaching and Learning Peace in a Jewish-Palestinian Village in Israel (New York/London: Routledge/Falmer, 2001) is based on a nine-year study that she carried out as researcher in this extraordinary cooperative village and it is about hope in the midst of deadly conflict. It is a reflexive ethnography focusing on the two bilingual, bicultural educational institutions in this place of peaceful coexistence - an elementary school where Jewish and Arab children study together, and the "School for Peace" which is a conflict resolution outreach program for Israeli and Palestinian adolescents and their teachers.
Please see furthermore:
•  The "School For Peace": A Conflict Resolution Program in a Jewish-Palestinian Village, paper presented at the 2005 Workshop on Humiliation and Violent Conflict, Columbia University, New York City, December 15-16, 2005.
•  Building Bridges to Peace and Social Justice: An Emancipatory Discourse in a Jewish-Palestinian Village in Israel, abstract presented at the Second International Conference on Multicultural Discourses, 13-15th April 2007, Institute of Discourse and Cultural Studies, & Department of Applied Psychology, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China, as part of the 9th Annual Meeting of Human Dignity and Humiliation Studies.
•  Teaching, Learning and Other Miracles (Rotterdam: SensePublishers) explores teaching and learning in schools as a sacred life journey, a quest toward liberation (see the flyer).
•  On the Child's Right to Identity, the Best Interests of the Child and Human Dignity, an Excerpt from Chapter Three of Teaching, Learning and Other Miracles (2007, Rotterdam: Sense), “What I learned from my first day of Kindergarten” presented at the 13th Annual Conference of Human Dignity and Humiliation Studies "World Peace through Humiliation-Free Global Human Interactions," in Honolulu, Hawaii, August 20 to 23, 2009.
• Teaching and Writing Vulnerably: An Auto-Ethnography about Schools as Places of Hope, presentation held at the 2009 Workshop on Humiliation and Violent Conflict, Columbia University, New York City, December 10-11, 2009.
• Acts of “Great Generosity of Spirit”: The Classroom as a Pathway Toward Abundance and Dignity, abstract presented at the 2011 Workshop on Humiliation and Violent Conflict, Columbia University, New York City, December 8-9, 2011.
•  Auto-Ethnographic Reflections on the Immigrant and Refugee Experience in an Inner-city High School in Toronto, abstract presented at the 2012 Workshop on Transforming Humiliation and Violent Conflict, Columbia University, New York City, December 6-7, 2012.
• The Fairy Tale as a Pathway Toward Dignity for Children of War and Other Oppressions, abstract for the 2016 Workshop on Transforming Humiliation and Violent Conflict, Columbia University, New York City, December 8-9, 2016.

   

ERAN HALPERIN
Eran Halperin is a full professor of psychology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. His research uses psychological and political theories and methods to investigate different aspects of inter-group conflicts. More specifically, he is interested in widening the understanding regarding the psychological roots of some of the most destructive political ramifications of inter-group relations – e.g., intolerance, exclusion and inter-group violence and conflict. [read more]

   

shultziner
DORON SHULTZINER
Doron Shultziner is also a Member of the HumanDHS Research Team.
Doron Shultziner is a lecturer and researcher. Professor Shultziner is the head of the Politics & Communication Department at Hadassah Academic College Jerusalem since 2018. He is also one of the founders of Mali-Center for Enterprising Citizens, a nonprofit that advances social entrepreneurship.
He holds a B.A. and a M.A. from Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and a Ph.D. from the University of Oxford. After he completed his Ph.D., Doron taught at Emory University for two years before returning to Israel. Among his research interests is the topic of human dignity in law. He published several papers in this field. His paper with Itai Rabinovici proposes an approach to understanding this concept in relation to self-worth, through a comparative legal-psychological investigation into three legal systems (US, ECtHR, and Israel). His book Struggling for Recognition: The Psychological Impetus for Democratic Progress shows how, and in what psychological ways, the Montgomery Bus Boycott (of 1955) and the struggle against apartheid in Port Elizabeth (of 1976), were motivated by a desire for dignity.
Please see:
•  "Human Dignity, Self-Worth, and Humiliation: A Legal-Psychological Comparative Approach," in Psychology, Public Policy, and Law 18 (1) [forthcoming; available online], co-authored with Itai Rabinowitz, 2012.
•  Shultziner, Doron, and Guy Carmi. "Human Dignity in National Constitutions: Functions, Promises and Dangers,"in American Journal of Comparative Law 62 (2), pp. 461-90, doi: 10.5131/ajcl.2013.0003, 2014.
   

DAKSHINAMOORTHI RAJA GANESAN
Dakshinamoorthi Raja Ganesan is is also a Member of the HumanDHS Global Advisory Board.
He is the former Head of the Department of Education at the University of Madras, India. Professor Ganesan is currently writing a book on Problem Finding for Research with further books in planning, such as Psychopedagogy of Scientific Discoveries.
Dr. Ganesan has been elected twice to the Executive Board of the International Sociological Association Research Committee on Alienation (ISA RC 36) in Mexico (1982) and New Delhi (1986), and has retained this position for a third term, Madrid (1990). Dr. Ganesan has organised and chaired a session on Asian Religious Worldviews and Alienation in the XI World Congress of Sociology. Furthermore, he has organised a session on Alienation, Meditation and Mysticism - From a Purely Secular and Scientific Perspective, in cooperation with Dr. Frank A. Johnson M.D., Professor of Psychiatry, University of California at San Francisco, as the Session Discussant, in the XII Congress in Madrid, Spain. Dr. Ganesan was also entrusted with the responsibility for organising and chairing a session on Alienation and Dreams in the XIII Congress of Sociology, Bielefeld, Germany.
Professor Ganesan was invited to present his paper "Dreaming our Way to Peace: An Experimental Replication of the Senoi Tribal Custom of Daily Dream Interpretation," in the IPRA Conference at Malta in 1994. He participated in the Salzburg International Seminar on Educating Youth: Challenges for the Future in 1997. He was invited twice to the Annual Conference of the International Association for the Study of Dreams at Boston and Berkeley (2001 and 2002) to present his paper on "Dreams and Integral Yoga of Sri Aurobindo" (a savant scholar of the Indian Renaissance).
Dr. Ganesan earned his doctorate on Psychoanalysis and Buddhism at the Dr. Radhakrishnan Institute for Advanced Study in Philosophy, University of Madras. At present, he is a Nominee of the Government of India, Ministry of Human Resource Development, on the Indian Council of Philosophical Research as well as a Member of its Research and Projects Committee. He is a Satellite Faculty of the National Institute of Educational Planning and Administration, a Member of the Peace Education Commission of the International Peace Research Association, an Honorary Secretary of the SITU Council of Educational Research, an Honorary Editor of Experiments in Education (a monthly professional journal dedicated to the cause of educational research and development), Vice-President of the English Language Teachers' Association of India, and Founder-President of the Dream Study Circle in Madras.
Professor Ganesan has been practising meditation himself and has gone through five stages of progress. He also trains students of meditation. He has dream interpretation workshops and designed and offered Know Thyself - an experiential learning program, based on depth psychology.
• Professor Ganesan kindly edited "Humiliation in the Academic Setting," A Special Symposium Issue of Experiments in Education, published by the S.I.T.U. Council of Educational Research in 2008.
D. Raja Ganesan kindly writes on 25th April 2016: The Universal Declaration of Human Rights of the UN encompasses the concepts of dignity and prevention of humiliation. But many countries, I understand, have not yet signed the covenant. If I remember right India is not yet a signatory to this Delaration. The countries which have not yet become signatories may nevertheless have enshrined in their constitutions articles and sections in their statute books, as also institutional mechanisms for their implementation: they may not want to forfeit their sovereignty by signing this covenant. After making this status survey this group can draw upon the voluntary services of lawyers to draft a model legislation for adoption by countries which are in principle willing to adopt such a legislation but are not doing so because this is a relatively low priority item in their agenda. In the meantime it can be a subtheme for its annual conferences.
See also:
• "Message to the World" (Video edited by Linda Hartling from PowerPoint prepared on November 10, 2021), contribution to the 2021 Workshop on Transforming Humiliation and Violent Conflict, Virtual, Columbia University, New York City, December 9 – 11, 2021.
   

MICHAEL L. PERLIN
Michael L. Perlin is also a Member of the HumanDHS Global Advisory Board.
Michael L. Perlin is professor emeritus a New York Law School (he was at New York Law School since 1984), and an adjunct professor at Emory University Law School, specializing in all aspects of mental disability law. He is also the co-founder of Mental Disability Law and Policy Associates.
An internationally-recognized expert on mental disability law, Michael L. Perlin has devoted his career to championing legal rights for people with mental disabilities. A prolific author of fifteen books and well over 175 scholarly articles on all aspects of mental disability law, Professor Perlin says that his ninth book, The Hidden Prejudice: Mental Disability on Trial (2000), “represents my lifetime work.” The book is an attempt to educate society about how the fear of persons with mental illness creates a hidden bias against them that prevents equal justice, a form of discrimination he calls “sanism.” In his book and his other work, he speaks out against “sanism,” which he defines as “the irrational prejudice that causes, and is reflected in, prevailing social attitudes toward persons with mental disabilities.”
Michael Perlin is an award-winning author on mental disability law and insanity defense. He serves on the Board of Directors of International Academy of Law and Mental Health and lectures frequently in Central and Eastern Europe and elsewhere on international human rights and mental disability law. He testifies in trials as expert witness on questions of effectiveness of counsel in cases involving mentally disabled criminal defendants.
His courses address Civil Procedure, Criminal Law & Procedure: The Mentally Disabled Defendant, Criminal Procedure: Adjudication Mental Disability Litigation Seminar & Workshop, Mental Health Law, and Therapeutic Jurisprudence.
His educational background is as follows: Rutgers, A.B. 1966, magna cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa, Columbia, J.D. 1969, Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar (Kent Commentaries, Managing Editor), Law Clerk, Hon. Sidney Goldmann, Appellate Division, Superior Court of New Jersey, Law Clerk, Hon. Ralph L. Fusco, Law Division, Superior Court of New Jersey.
A teacher-lawyer-advocate who advises mental health professionals, hospitals, advocates, activists, lawyers, and governments, Professor Perlin has worked directly on mental disability cases as a deputy public defender and as director of the Division of Mental Health Advocacy in the New Jersey Department of the Public Advocate. He has witnessed the complexities and frustrations facing both judges and attorneys with such cases.
Professor Perlin travels around the globe to speak out about the legal rights of people with mental disabilities. In conjunction with Mental Disability Rights International, a U.S.-based human rights advocacy organization, he has presented mental disability training workshops in Hungary, Estonia, Latvia, Poland, Bulgaria, and Uruguay. As part of his work with the Justice Action Center, he has traveled twice to Taiwan in an effort to help create a pan-Asian mental disability advocacy network.
In 2002, he helped organize a symposium at New York Law School on “International Human Rights Law and the Institutional Treatment of Persons with Mental Disabilities: The Case of Hungary.” It was the first such U.S. gathering, bringing together prominent activists, advocates, and attorneys to look at the application of international human rights law to improve the treatment of people with mental disabilities.
His multivolume treatise, Mental Disability Law: Civil and Criminal (Lexis Law Publishing, 1998–2003), which was first published in 1989 by Michie, won the 1990 Walter Jeffords Writing Prize; the five-volume second edition of that treatise won the Otto Walter Writing Award in 2003 and is the indispensable authority for legal practitioners. Another book, The Jurisprudence of the Insanity Defense (Carolina Academic Press, 1994), won the Manfred Guttmacher Award of the American Psychiatric Association and the American Academy of Psychiatry and Law as the best book of the year in law and forensic psychiatry in 1994–95. He was given the American Academy of Psychiatry and Law's Amicus Award in 1998.
Since he joined the faculty in 1984, Professor Perlin has helped build the course offering in his legal specialty at New York Law School to such an extent that it now leads the nation in mental disability law curricula. He created and teaches the first online courses on mental disability law, offered to students here, at other U.S.-based law schools, as well as in Japan and in Nicaragua. There are currently four courses in the online program, and more will be added in the immediate future.
Professor Perlin has many other passions outside the law, including the clarinet, fishing, and the music of Bob Dylan.
Please see:
"Friend to the Martyr, a Friend to the Woman of Shame": Thinking About The Law and Humiliation, his presentation presented at the 2006 Workshop on Humiliation and Violent Conflict, Columbia University, New York City, December 14-15, 2006.
Please see here a collection of the following papers:
• An Internet-based Mental Disability Law Program: Implications for Social Change in Nations with Developing Economies, 30 Fordham Int'l L.J. 435 (2007)
• "And My Best Friend, My Doctor/ Won't Even Say What It Is I've Got : The Role and Significance of Counsel in Right to Refuse Treatment Cases, 42 San Diego L. Rev. 735 (2005)
• "Everything's a Little Upside Down, As a Matter of Fact the Wheels Have Stopped": The Fraudulence of the Incompetency Evaluation Process, 4 Houston J. Health L. & Pol'y 239 (2004)
• "She Breaks Just Like a Little Girl: Neonaticide, The Insanity Defense, and the Irrelevance of Ordinary Common Sense, 10 Wm. & Mary J. Women & L. 1 (2003)"Life Is In Mirrors, Death Disappears": Giving Life to Atkins, 33 N. Mex. L. Rev. 315 (2003)
• "You Have Discussed Lepers and Crooks": Sanism in Clinical Teaching, 9 Clinical L. Rev. 683 (2003)
• "Things Have Changed": Looking at Non-institutional Mental Disability Law Through the Sanism Filter, 46 N.Y.L. Sch. L. Rev. 535 (2002-03)
• "Chimes of Freedom": International Human Rights and Institutional Mental Disability Law, 21 N.Y.L. Sch. J. Int'l & Comp. L. 423 (2002)
• "What's Good Is Bad, What's Bad Is Good, You'll Find out When You Reach the Top, You're on the Bottom": Are the Americans with Disabilities Act (and Olmstead v. L.C.) Anything More than "Idiot Wind"?, 35 U. Mich. J. L. Ref. 235 (2001-02)
• Stepping Outside the Box: Viewing Your Client in a Whole New Light, 37 Cal. West. L. Rev. 65 (2000).
• A Law of Healing, 68 U. Cin. L. Rev. 407 (2000).
• Therapeutic Jurisprudence and the Civil Rights of Institutionalized Mentally Disabled Persons: Hopeless Oxymoron or Path to Redemption? 1 Psychology, Pub. Pol'y & L. 80 (1995) (with Prof. Keri K. Gould and Deborah A. Dorfman, Esq.)
• On Sanism, 46 SMU L. Rev. 373 (1992)
• Competency, Deinstitutionalization, and Homelessness: A Story of Marginalization, 28 Hous. L. Rev. 63 (1991).
International Human Rights and Comparative Mental Disability Law: The
Role of Institutional Psychiatry in the Suppression of Political Dissent
, in Israel Law Review, 39, pp. 69-97, 2006.
• Humiliation and the Criminal Justice System: How Our Desire to Humiliate Contributes to Recidivism and, Ultimately, Injures Victims, presentation presented at the 2007 Workshop on Humiliation and Violent Conflict, Columbia University, New York City, December 13-14, 2007.
A Therapeutic Jurisprudence Inquiry Into the Roles of Dignity and Humiliation in the Law, abstract presented at the 2009 Workshop on Humiliation and Violent Conflict, Columbia University, New York City, December 10-11, 2009.
Understanding the Intersection Between International Human Rights and Mental Disability Law: The Role of Dignity, abstract presented at the 2011 Workshop on Humiliation and Violent Conflict, Columbia University, New York City, December 8-9, 2011.
Considering the "Alternative Jurisprudences" as a Tool of Social Change to Reduce Humiliation and Uphold Dignity, abstract presented at the 2012 Workshop on Transforming Humiliation and Violent Conflict, Columbia University, New York City, December 6-7, 2012.
"Friend to the Martyr, A Friend to the Woman Of Shame": How the Adoption of Therapeutic Jurisprudence Best Ensures Dignity and Ends Humiliation, presentation given at the 2013 Workshop on Transforming Humiliation and Violent Conflict, Columbia University, New York City, December 5-6, 2013. See a revised version co-authored with Naomi Weinstein, Esq., titled, "Friend to the Martyr, a Friend to the Woman of Shame": Thinking About the Law, Shame and Humiliation," posted under filename SSRN-id2380701 at the Social Social Science Research Network on January 17, 2014.
Sexuality, Shame, Disability and Therapeutic Jurisprudence, paper shared at the 2014 Workshop on Transforming Humiliation and Violent Conflict, Columbia University, New York City, December 4-5, 2014.
co-authored with Naomi Weinstein (2014): "Friend to the martyr, a friend to the woman of shame”: Thinking about the law, shame and humiliation, Southern California Review of Law and Social Justice, September, pp. 1-51, an excerpt from this paper was presented at the Human Dignity & Humiliation Studies Network Conference, at the Morton Deutsch International Center for Cooperation and Conflict Resolution of Columbia University, December 6, 2013.
co-authored with Alison Lynch (2015): “Had to be Held down by Big Police”: A Therapeutic Jurisprudence Perspective on Interactions between Police and Persons with Mental Disabilities, abstract shared at the 2015 Workshop on Transforming Humiliation and Violent Conflict, Columbia University, New York City, December 3-4, 2015 (Pdf | video 1, video 2).
co-authored with Alison Lynch (2016): “She’s Nobody’s Child/The Law Can’t Touch Her at All”: Seeking to Bring Dignity to Legal Proceedings Involving Juveniles, abstract shared at the 2016 Workshop on Transforming Humiliation and Violent Conflict, Columbia University, New York City, December 8-9, 2016.
•  Dignity and the Nobel Prize: Why Bob Dylan Was the Perfect Choice (Video | Pdf), reflections shared at the Public Event of the 2016 Workshop on Transforming Humiliation and Violent Conflict, at Columbia University, Teachers College, New York City, on December 8, 2016.
• co-authored with Alexander J. Perlin and Alison Lynch (2017): "Them Who Are Slandered and Humiliated": How Marijuana Arrest Patterns Perpetuate a Racist Criminal Justice System and Shame and Humiliate Minority Youth (Video | Pdf), contribution to the 2017 Workshop on Transforming Humiliation and Violent Conflict, Columbia University, New York City, December 7-8, 2017.
• See a video collection on the conditions at psychiatric hospitals around the world. See a related article, Michael L. Perlin, "'Your Old Road Is/ Rapidly Agin': International Human Rights Standards and Their Impact on Forensic Psychologists, the Practice of Forensic Psychology, and the Conditions of Institutionalization of Persons with Mental Disabilities," Washington University Global Studies Law Review, 17 (1), 79-111. This article is an outgrowth and revision of the Lynn Stuart Weiss lecture (sponsored by the American Psychology-Law Society and the American Psychology Foundation) that Michael Perlin presented at the American Psychology Association annual conference in Denver, August 2016. It's basically a critique of how organized psychology has remained silent in the face of ongoing violations of international human rights law at institutions both in the US and elsewhere. The last twelve pages explicitly explains how this failure of action violates therapeutic jurisprudence.
• co-authored with Alison Lynch (2018): A Therapeutic Jurisprudence Deconstruction of Seclusion and Restraint Law: Thinking About Humiliation, Shame and Dignity (Video | Pdf), contribution to the 2018 Workshop on Transforming Humiliation and Violent Conflict, Columbia University, New York City, December 6 -7, 2018.

   

cucolo
HEATHER ELLIS CUCOLO
Heather Ellis Cucolo is an adjunct professor at Emory Law School and at New York Law School (NYLS) and the facilitator of the joint JD/MA program with John Jay College of Criminal Justice. In addition to those roles, Professor Cucolo is co-owner of the Mental Disability Law and Policy Associates educational company and on the Board of Trustees as Director of the International Society of Therapeutic Jurisprudence. As a professor of law, she has taught a variety of courses including: Sex Offenders; Survey of Mental Disability Law; Mental Disability Law and Criminal Defendants; Race Gender, Class and Culture; Mental Health Issues in Jails and Prisons; Therapeutic Jurisprudence; The Americans with Disabilities Act; Criminal Procedure Investigation; Criminal Procedure Adjudication andProfessional Responsibility for the Criminal Attorney. Professor Cucolo’s international work has included advocating at the United Nations for the rights of persons with disabilities in the Asia-Pacific and the creation of an instructional course on disability legislation for Japanese attorneys. In legal practice, she dedicated her career to representing individuals facing civil commitment under both The New Jersey Mental Hygiene Law and the New Jersey’s Sexually Violent Predators Act. Professor Cucolo has been recognized as one of the premiere experts in sexual violent predator law and has counseled attorneys, judges and clinicians on law and procedure in civil commitment proceedings and issues involving persons suffering from a mental disability or illness within the criminal justice system. She has published and lectured –both domestically and internationally — in the areas of mental disability law, criminal law and sex offender law. Most recent books include: Shaming the Constitution The Detrimental Results of Sexual Violent Predator Legislation(2017 w/ Michael L. Perlin); Mental Disability Law: Cases and Materials, 3e (2017 w/ Michael L. Perlin and Alison Lynch); Mental Disability Law: Civil and Criminal, Third Edition (2016 w/ Michael L. Perlin); and a Mental Disability Law: Civil and Criminal Supplement (2018 w/ Michael L. Perlin). In addition to the texts, Professor Cucolo has authored a chapter on "Sex Offender Registration and Ethical Practice" in the American Bar Association book Representing People with Mental Disabilities: A Criminal Defense Lawyer’s Best Practices Manual (edited by Elizabeth Kelley, ABA Book Publishing 2018). Most recent articles include: "'The Strings in the Books Ain't Pulled and Persuaded': How the Use of Improper Statistics and Unverified Data Corrupts the Judicial Process in Sex Offender Cases" (2018 w/ Michael L. Perlin); "Promoting Dignity and Preventing Shame and Humiliation by Improving the Quality and Education of Attorneys in Sexually Violent Predator (SVP) Civil Commitment Cases," Florida Journal of Law and Public Policy (2017 w/ Michael L. Perlin); and "‘Tolling for the Aching Ones Whose Wounds Cannot Be Nursed’: The Marginalization of Racial Minorities and Women in Institutional Mental Disability Law" (2017).
   

anderson
ROBERT ANDERSON
Robert M. Anderson is an adult-learning professional with over 30 years of experience in the fields of communication, leadership and conflict resolution. In 1989, he established McDonald Anderson, a management training and consulting firm based in New York City. He has conducted leadership and communication workshops for Fortune 500 companies, universities, and international nonprofit organizations in 35 countries. His work regularly takes him to Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America, and to cities throughout North America. In recent years, he has conducted leadership and diversity training for the Asian Development Bank at its headquarters in Manila and in field offices throughout Asia. He has also conducted interactive webinars for managers in 50 UN offices globally under the auspices of the United Nations System Staff College in Turin, Italy. He has delivered his workshops in English, French, Portuguese, and Spanish.
Dr. Anderson teaches the Skills Practicum: Self as Instrument course in the Columbia University’s master’s degree program in Negotiation and Conflict Resolution (NECR). He is a licensed practitioner of The Human Element, a methodology developed by psychologist Will Schutz, which promotes self-awareness and authenticity in relationships.
He also teaches basic and advanced courses in negotiation and mediation in the Morton Deutsch International Center for Cooperation and Conflict Resolution (MD-ICCCR) at Teachers College, Columbia University. He holds a Doctor of Education degree in adult learning from Teachers College where he completed his dissertation under the supervision of Professors Jack Mezirow and Stephen Brookfield. He completed his M.A. and B.A. degrees in Spanish at the University of Michigan and Oberlin College, respectively. He is a mediator licensed by the State of New York.
   

boynton
BETH BOYNTON
Beth Boynton, RN, MS is a nurse consultant and author specializing in respectful communication, collaboration, and culture in healthcare and other businesses. Her books, blogs, videos, and other publications build on the idea that respect for self and others is essential for healthy relationships, teams, cultures, and all human systems. In healthcare, respect is critical for safe, compassionate care of patients and families and for the wellbeing of the workforce. Beth is a pioneer in developing Medical Improv as an experiential teaching strategy for skills associated with emotional intelligence and communication. She is the founder of Boynton Improv Education, LLC, the author of 3 books on communication, the creator of the Teach Medical Improv train the trainer ebook series, and a member of the Human Dignity and Humiliation Studies Education Team. Learn more at confidentvoices.com. See also Beth's announcement of her joining this Global Education Team.
Please see:
Dignity Exchange: An Experiential Activity for Promoting Dignity Everywhere
A couple of samples noting the learning context can vary:
Building-situational-awareness
Hello-goodbye-ease-into-improv-activities, shared at the 2021 Workshop on Transforming Humiliation and Violent Conflict, Virtual, Columbia University, New York City, December 9 – 11, 2021.
• Host of the Dignilogue titled Giving and Receiving Simple Acts of Kindness as Seeds of Dignity (Video). The 20th Workshop on Transforming Humiliation and Violent Conflict, titled "The Urgency of Seeding Dignity: Honoring 20 Years of Global Collaboration for Transforming Suffering Through Courageous and Compassionate Action," hybrid, co-hosted online and in person by the Morton Deutsch International Center for Cooperation and Conflict Resolution at Teachers College, Columbia University, New York City, December 8, 2023.
   

hausner
DUSTIN HAUSNER
Dustin Hausner graduated from Columbia University with a Masters in Negotiation and Conflict Resolution. Over the years he has received multiple types of training including Basic Mediation & Divorce Mediation from the New York Peace Institute, Mediation of Ethno-Religious Conflict from the International Center for Ethno-Religious Mediation and Nonviolence Studies from the Metta Center for Nonviolence. Dustin Hausner is the founder of Hausner Consulting: Specializing in Mediation, Nonviolence, & Conflict Resolution Programs. In 2014, Dustin was one of the youngest honorees of Rockland Economic Development Corporation’s forty under forty awards. In 2019, Dustin will be honored by the NAACP Nyack Branch for civic engagement.
   

ronen

YA'IR RONEN
Ya'ir Ronen is currently a lecturer and researcher at the Department of Social Work, Ben-Gurion University, in Israel. Trained in law and counseling, he has been involved in child advocacy and social activism adopting the perspective that law should act as a healing therapeutic force. As a child advocate, he worked with youth at risk, youth in conflict with the law, Palestinian and Israeli youth involved in the Palestinian Israeli conflict, and he promoted legal and policy reform in Israeli child law. This year, two collections of papers co-edited by him have been published, one in English, "The case for the child – towards a new agenda," and the other in Hebrew, "Human rights and social exclusion in Israel." In his writing, teaching and public work, he is currently exploring how law could relate to human suffering and othering, to the experience of compassion by legal decision makers, to non-violent struggle by youth, and to children's sense of belonging.
Please see:
On Dignity, Humiliation, Non-violent Struggle and Israeli Jewish Identity, abstract presented at the 2008 Workshop on Humiliation and Violent Conflict, Columbia University, New York City, December 11-12, 2008.
On the Child's Right to Identity, the Best Interests of the Child and Human Dignity
Abstract presented at the 13th Annual Conference of Human Dignity and Humiliation Studies "World Peace through Humiliation-Free Global Human Interactions," in Honolulu, Hawaii, August 20 to 23, 2009.
Non Violent Opposition to a Violence Ridden Status Quo and Responsiveness to the Child, abstract presented at the 2009 Workshop on Humiliation and Violent Conflict, Columbia University, New York City, December 10-11, 2009.
Children Exposed to Humiliation: From Self-Destructiveness to Healing and Hope, abstract presented at the 2011 Workshop on Transforming Humiliation and Violent Conflict, Columbia University, New York City, December 8-9, 2011.
Preventing and Overcoming Humiliation: A Compassionate Loving Understanding of Human Dignity, abstract presented at the 2012 Workshop on Transforming Humiliation and Violent Conflict, Columbia University, New York City, December 6-7, 2012.
• Hope Amidst Destructiveness: A Dialogue (Pdf | video), dialogue shared by David Bargal and Ya'ir Ronen at the 2014 Workshop on Transforming Humiliation and Violent Conflict, Columbia University, New York City, December 4-5, 2014.

   


ALISA KLEIN
Alisa Klein is a public policy consultant specializing in the prevention of, and response to sexual violence; sexual violence in and after situations of disaster; sex offender-related public policy; and restorative justice. She serves as the as the lead researcher and writer for the National Project to Prevent and Respond to Sexual Violence in Disasters; as the Public Policy Consultant to the Association for the Treatment of Sexual Abusers; and as a researcher, writer, and public policy analyst and advocate for other organizations working on the prevention of interpersonal violence. Alisa recently completed a six-year term as a member of the Advisory Council to the National Sexual Violence Resource Center; is an Expert Panelist for the Sexual Violence Prevention Project of the International Association of Forensic Nurses; and served as a faculty member to the national training series of the Rape Prevention and Education project of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Division of Violence Prevention. She has written numerous publications on various aspects of interpersonal violence prevention including the 2008 book, Sexual Violence in Disasters: A Planning Guide for Prevention and Response. Alisa has presented workshops, plenary addresses, and trainings on preventing and responding to sexual abuse, creating strategic public policy plans for sexual violence and child maltreatment prevention, public health prevention, effective public policy for sex offender management, preventing and responding to sexual violence in disasters and their aftermath, and using the tools of restorative justice to prevent and respond to interpersonal violence. Alisa has a Bachelor’s degree from Smith College and a Master’s degree in International Policy Studies from the Monterey Institute of International Studies.
Please see:
• De-valorizing Victimhood: Transforming the Dominant Narratives of the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict, abstract presented at the 2010 Workshop on Transforming Humiliation and Violent Conflict, Columbia University, New York City, December 9-10, 2010.
   

mitchell
MANI BRUCE MITCHELL
Mani Bruce Mitchell is also Member of our Global Core Team.
My name is Mani Bruce Mitchell, I am an Educator, a Counsellor, Mentor, Change Agent, Artist – film maker and an intersex person (a person born with atypical genitalia), an issue that has for the last 100 years been shrouded in great mystery, silence and shame. I am also a teacher, a dreamer and in my early 40's (I am now in my 60's) I 'found my voice', I found it with gentleness, the result of attending the residential workshops designed by gifted grief and loss psychiatrist Elisabeth Kübler-Ross.
I made the decision to be out and visible as not only an intersex person, but also a person who does not see or experience the world as fully male or female but as a blended wonderful other. It used to be an un-languaged place, and now wonderfully all around the world intersex people are talking and giving rich texture to this complex and diverse reality.
I have experienced firsthand, at a visceral level what trauma and humiliation does to our sense of self, our soul and heart. I have also been blessed to have experienced the reparative life changing healing that dignity, respect and loving can bring.
My original training was as an educator.
A career change shifted my focus to disaster preparedness where my area of specialty became critical incident stress management.
For the last 20 years I have been a counsellor/therapist with my own private practice. In 1996 I set up what would become the intersex trust of Aotearoa New Zealand (ITANZ)
I have lectured and worked on many stages around the world.
   

intaratat

KAMOLRAT INTARATAT
Kamolrat Intaratat, Ph.D., is Associate Professor under the Faculty of Communication at Sukhothai Thammathirat Open University in Bangkok, Thailand. She is also the Founder and Director of the Expertise Centre CCDKM (Research Centre of Communication and Development Knowledge Management). She was the Chair of the APTN (Asia Pacific Telecentre Network) from 2012 until mid-2016.
Her focus is development communication, especially community-based communication, after her previous 13 years at Kasetsart (Agriculture) University. Her focus is ICT 4 D (Information and Communication Technologies for Development) for all marginalized people, from local to global. She has dedicated her life to empowering marginalized communities and disadvantaged groups in Thailand through Communication and ICT, such as:
• ICT and Sustainable Agriculture/ Smart farmer
• Women and Technology
• ICT and disability
• e-Commerce such as the ethnic groups, prisoners, the marginal youths
• Online Learning: MOOC, such as MOOC for ethnics’ lifelong learning, MOOC for Buddhism monks
• and others social media for development among all the other LESS in the society.
Her Current International Recognized Awards & Positions:
2012: Outstanding Alumni of AFA (Asia Fellow Association)
2014: Outstanding Alumni Award of SEARCA and UPLB
2015: Innovation Education Award by UNESCO (Development and Enhancing ICT Skills of Marginalized and Disadvantaged Groups Working in Micro, Small and Medium, Enterprise in Thailand and ASEAN.
2015: GEM-TECH Awards 2015 Category: Application of Technology for Women’s Empowerment by UN Women & ITU
2016: Outstanding Talent Award of the University
2015: External Examiners for ASIAN universities till currently
2017: AMIC Country Representative for Thailand since 2017 till currently
2017: AAOU Research mentor for AAOU scholars till currently
2018: Scientific Committee Member , The International Institute of Knowledge Management (TIIKM) (ICOSS 2018) till currently
Her Educational Background:
• B.A. (Mass Communication),1982
• M.A. (Educational Technology) in 1988
• Ph.D. under the University Consortium Program (SEARCA) in 1997: 1. University of the Philippines at Los Banos - Development Communication and Development Management, 2. University of Queensland, Australia - Agricultural Extension and Community Development.

   

malikhao
PATCHANEE MALIKHAO
Patchanee Malikhao received her PhD in Sociology from the University of Queensland in Australia, a Master's of Arts degree in Mass Communication from Thammasat University in Thailand, a Master's of Science degree in Printing Technology from Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT), Rochester, New York, and a Bachelor of Science (Hons.) in Photographic Science and Printing Technology from Chulalongkorn University in Thailand. She has worked and received extensive trainings in the fields of Communication for Social Change, Imaging Technology, Social Science Research Methods and Data Analyses in Belgium, Australia, and the United States. She was a recipient of many scholarships and awards, including the Fulbright Scholarship, the Australian Postgraduate Award, and the Outstanding Teacher Award. She had worked from September 2008 to July 2011 as a researcher and a lecturer in the School of Public Health at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, USA before she joined Thammasat University in Bangkok, Thailand in July 2011. She has become a Senior Fellow in the CSSC Center at UMass Amherst since 2010. Her latest book is Sex in the Village. Culture, Religion and HIV/AIDS in Thailand (Penang-Chiang Mai: Southbound & Silkworm Publishers, 2011). She is currently a consultant for Fecund Communication, Hong Kong.
Please see:
• Interviews by Patchanee on ‘Round the world women'.
• An interview with Patchanee
Culture, Religion, and HIV/Aids in Thailand, paper presented at the 23rd Annual Conference of Human Dignity and Humiliation Studies'Returning Dignity', in Chiang Mai, Northern Thailand, 8th - 12th March 2014
   

jacobsen
OVE JAKOBSEN
Ove Jakobsen is professor in ecological economics at Bodø Graduate School of Business, University of Nordland, Norway. He has master’s degrees in philosophy (University of Bergen), management (Norwegian School of Economics), and marketing (Buskerud University College). He received his Dr. Oecon. from the Norwegian School of Economics Ove’s main research interests are the need for a shift to an organic worldview in economics and business administration and describing and discussing the consequences of organic thinking in ecological economics, business ethics and spriritual leadership. He has published numerous articles and books internationally in these topics. Ove Jakobsen is leader and co-founder of Centre for Ecological Economics and Ethics,
Member of the board of Bodø Graduate School of Business, Member of the National Committee for Rerearch Ethics in the Social Sciences and the Humanities, and advisor at the North Norwegian Management Foundation.
See some of his publications here:
Storsletten Vivi M. L. & Jakobsen Ove (2013); CSR, Ecology and Economics, in CSR and Beyond – A Nordic Perspective, (Atle Midttun ed), Oslo, Cappelen Damm
Ingebrigtsen, Stig and Jakobsen, Ove (2012); Utopias and realism in Ecologicalk economics - Knowledge, understanding and improvisation, Ecological Economics, vol. 84 (pp. 84-90)
Ims, Knut J.and Jakobsen, Ove D. (2011) Deep authenticity -an essential phenomenon in the web of life in Business Ethics and Corporate Sustaiability (Tencati, a. and Perrini, F. eds.) Edward Elgar
Ingebrigtsen, Stig and Jakobsen, Ove (2011); Circulation economics - An ecological image of man based upon an organic worldview, in Environment, embodiment and gender (Aarø, A.F. and Servan, J. eds.) Hermes Text
Ims, Knut J. and Jakobsen Ove D. (2010); Competition or Cooperation? A Required Shift in the Metaphysics of Economics, in The Collaborative Enterprise - Creating Values for a Sustainable World (Tencati, Antonio and Zsolnai, Laszlo eds.), Oxford, Peter Lang AG International Acdemic Publishers
Ims, Knut J. and Jakobsen Ove D. (2010); Fair Trade Production, in The Collaborative Enterprise - Creating Values for a Sustainable World (Tencati, Antonio and Zsolnai, Laszlo eds.), Oxford, Peter Lang AG International Acdemic Publishers
Jakobsen Ove D. and Nystad, Øystein (2010); Collaborative Waste Management, in The Collaborative Enterprise - Creating Values for a Sustainable World (Tencati, Antonio and Zsolnai, Laszlo eds.), Oxford, Peter Lang AG International Acdemic Publishers
Ingebrigtsen, Stig, Jakobsen, Ove; (2009); Moral development of the economic actor, Ecological economics 68 2777-2784
Ingebrigtsen, Stig and Jakobsen, Ove (2007); Circulation economics - Theory and Practice, Oxford: Peter Lang Publ.
   

storsletten
VIVI STORSLETTEN
Vivi M. L. Storsletten (1976) is a researcher in ecological economics at Bodø Graduate School of Business, University of Nordland. Her research interests are; ecological economics, business ethics and spriritual leadership. She has a master degree in ecological economics, studying the correlations between economic efficiency and quality in kindergartens. The context of interpretation was theory in neo-classical and ecological economics, moral philosophy and motivational theories. She has a master degree in business administration, specially focusing on the retailing industry, sustainability and global responsibility correlated to leadership models based on founding principles within mechanistic and organic worldviews. She has a bachelor in optometry. The interest of optics, visual perception and the significance of seeing and acknowledging new patterns are inspirations for her work.
   

RAGNHILD S. NILSEN
Ragnhild S. Nilsen holds a M.A. in Communication Arts and Movement Therapy and an M.A in Music and Education. Ragnhild is partner in CoachTeam as. She is reckoned as one of Scandinavia 's most skilled course holders and lecturers and is a sought-after coach and communication artist. Furthermore, Ragnhild S. Nilsen is the author of several books, both fiction and non-fiction, that are sold worldwide. [...] Ragnhild S. Nilsen has served on the Board of the Norwegian Strømme Foundation, and has developed humanitarian projects worldwide, from East-Timor to Africa and South-America. She is founder of Global Fair Trade and member on the board.
   

BETH FISHER-YOSHIDA
Beth Fisher-Yoshida is also a Member of the HumanDHS Global Advisory Board.
Beth Fisher-Yoshida is the Academic Director of the Master of Science Program in Negotiation and Conflict Resolution at the School of Continuing Education at Columbia University, New York City. Prior to that, she was the Associate Director of ICCCR and engaged in the participatory action research (PAR) activities of the ICCCR.
She received her Ph.D. in Human and Organizational Systems and M.A. in Organizational Development from Fielding Graduate Institute in Santa Barbara, California. She graduated with honors when she received her M.A. from Teachers College, Columbia University. She also received both a B.A. and a B.S. from Buffalo State College. Dr. Fisher-Yoshida is a Certified Clinical Sociologist (C.C.S.).
Dr. Fisher-Yoshida has conducted research in the areas of intercultural communication and conflict resolution & transformative learning. Dr. Fisher-Yoshida has more than 20 years experience in working with people in organizations. Her areas of specialization include working with client organizations in supporting their change efforts through addressing: conflict resolution, diversity, communication, team building, performance management systems and leadership development. She has been very active in professional organizations holding many leadership positions.
   

VICTORIA C. FONTAN
Victoria Christine Fontan is a Member of the HumanDHS Board of Directors, the HumanDHS Global Advisory Board, the HumanDHS Global Core Team, and the HumanDHS Research Team. She is furthermore the former Co-Editor of the Journal of Human Dignity and Humiliation Studies (JHDHS).
Victoria is an analyst with a demonstrated history of working in the international affairs industry, specifically higher education. She has diverse experience in Nonprofit Organizations, Scientific Capacity Co-operation, Peace and Conflict Studies, Intercultural Communication, Politics, and Political Science. Currently working on the professionalization of the humanitarian sector. [read more]

   


MAGNUS HAAVELSRUD
Magnus Haavelsrud is also a Member of the HumanDHS Global Advisory Board.
He is Professor of Education at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Trondheim, Norway. His work deals with the critique of the reproductive role of education and the possibilities for transcendence of this reproduction in light of the traditions of educational sociology and peace research. He took part in the creation of the Peace Education Commission of the International Peace Research Association at the beginning of the 70’s and served as the Commissions 2nd Executive Secretary 1975-79. He was the Chairperson for the World Conference on Education in 1974 and edited the proceeding from this conference entitled Education for Peace: Reflection and Action. He served as the Carl-von-Ossietzky Guest Professor of the German Council for Peace and Conflict Research.
Publications include: Education in Developments (1996), Perspektiv i utdanningssosiologi (Perspectives in the Sociology of Education (1997, 2nd edition), Education Within the Archipelago of Peace Research 1945 - 1964, (co-authored with Mario Borrelli, 1993) and Disarming: Discourse on Violence and Peace (editor, 1993).
 

GURI WIGGEN
Norwegian Guri Charlotte Wiggen is an independent journalist with a Master of Science in Global Development Studies, specialised on Gender and Development. She has broad international and cross-cultural experiences, and writes for different newspapers and magazines. She also serves as a speaker or moderator on panel debates, as, for example, during the World Transform Festival at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) and Litteraturhuset in Trondheim, Norway, on 4th September 2024.
Guri wrote the first book on microfinance for poor women in Norwegian, titled Fra Almisser til Verdighet [From Charity to Dignity ] subtitled: Mikrokreditt — bank for fattige. This resulted in a personal invitation from the Nobel Committee to the Nobel Banquet in 2006, as the main person in the book won the Nobel Prize. Dr. Muhammad Yunus from Bangladesh was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006, along with Grameen Bank, for their efforts to create economic and social development from below.
Guri Charlotte Wiggen has been collaborating with Euphrasie Kouassi Yao since 2018, and they recently released a book together in Abidjan. Euphrasie Kouassi Yao is an Ivorian politician, who is the special advisor to the Prime Minister in charge of gender. She has also served as the Minister for the Promotion of Women, Family and Child Protection, and is the only female Chair Unesco (Eau, femmes, et Pouvior de Decisions) in Cote d´Ivoire. She is also the creator of CREA - Paix, promoting peace within communities, particularly in the context of post-conflict reconciliation in Ivory Coast. It is a peace project designed to teach women in the network (with international professionals), enhancing their negotiation skills to enable them to negotiate in their communities and villages to avoid and resolve conflicts. Kouassi Yao has been a significant figure in advocating for gender equality and women's empowerment, and her work with CREA - Paix aligns with her broader efforts in these areas.
Euphrasie Kouassi Yao has furthermore developed the Compendium of Women's Competences in Côte d'Ivoire, an internationally renowned platform of more than 15,000 women. In May 2024, in collaboration with Euphrasie Kouassi Yao, Guri released the book titled How Stars are Born, subtitled The Alliance between Gender and Peace in Cote d´Ivoir (Editorial L'Harmattan 2024) in Abidjan. The book addresses Africa's model network for female competence.

   

kolstad
HANS KOLSTAD
Hans Kolstad is Associated Researcher at INCEVIDA. He is specialized in European continental philosophy. He has a French D.E.A.-degree in Philosophy from University of Strasbourg and is Doctor of Philosophy (dr.philos.) from University of Oslo. His main interest is the study of philosophical analysis and its application to the theories of knowledge and education in order to establish new methods and models of understanding. He has published more than 25 books on different philosophical and humanistic topics. He is a member of the Senior Common Room of Grey College, University of Durham, England. He is also a member of the board of the International Consortium for Social Development (ICSD), European Branch, and an honorary member of the organisation International Network for Traditional Building, Arts & Urbanism (I N T B A U), The Prince's Foundation, London. In Norway he is the editor of the first collected works of Plato in Norwegian.
   

arnfinsen
JAMES ALEXANDER ARNFINSEN
James Alexander Arnfinsen grew up in Oslo with a Norwegian father and English mother. Since 2005 he has studied and lived in Trondheim, Norway. He has a teacher education from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) and additional training in dialogue facilitation and conflict mediation. Today he works as a mediator through the Norwegian Mediation and Reconciliation Service. In working with conflict his long term goal is to see constructive forms of communication and mediation skills becoming a central part of the Norwegian school system, both as a lived and applied competency amongst teachers and as an integrated part of the curriculum for students at all ages. 
Besides this he is an advocate for transformative practices that include the body and that foster our innate ability for being and becoming more aware. In this regard he regularly practices in the martial art aikido and is part of a Scandinavian group that receives training from Arawana Hayashi in what is called Social Presencing Theater. Meditation practice as taught by Jes Bertelsen and the Center for Growth in Denmark is also a prime inspiration in relation to this line of work. 
In his spare time James hosts a Scandinavian podcastshow called Levevei™ (eng. «way of life»), a show that explores different perspective pertaining to personal, relational and societal transformation. The show invites guests from all the Scandinavian countries, in addition to many international and English speaking guests. 
Please feel free to contact James at: james.arnfinsen @ gmail.com or +47 95119734. 
   

bakker
JOHANNES BAKKER
Dr. Johannes I. (Hans) Bakker has been a Professor of Sociology and Anthropology at the University of Guelph for thirty-two years. He retired September 1, 2012 in order to write and travel. He is the author of Toward A Just Civilization (1993) and has edited The World Food Crisis (1990), Gandhi and the Gita (1993) and Sustainability and International Rural Development (1995), as well as 47 articles in refereed journals and books. His current research interests include: the impact of Neo-Kantianism on Weber and Simmel, the effects of "patrimonial-prebendalism" on economic and political development, and the importance of civilizational World-views. For the last ten years he has taught a seminar on Charles Sanders Peirce's triadic epistemology and "Pragmaticist" semiotics. (Peirce's semiotics is different from Postmodernist semiologie.) He recently edited a special issue of The American Sociologist devoted to Peirce's semiotics and Norbert Wiley's The Semiotic Self (a University of Chicago Press book). He regularly attends the American Sociological Association (ASA) conferences and is active in four sections of ASA. His applied development work in Indonesia will hopefully continue. Every time he travels to Indonesia he attempts to improve his Indonesian (Bahasa Indonesia). He greatly enjoyed the island of Bali and has written several papers about Balinese culture and society. He is a "Frisian-Dutch American-Canadian" who has carried out research in India and Indonesia as well as the Netherlands and North America. He is also a father and a Kripalu certified yoga instructor who attends Unitarian-Universalist services and has received Tibetan Buddhist initiations. He does yoga and meditation regularly. See semioticsigns.com.
   

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GABRIELE RABKIN
Gabriele Rabkin is a German psychologist and educator (PHD, Dr. Phil., 1998). Her work focuses on humanistic psychology, literacy (storytelling in connection with the arts, biographical work), creativity, social-emotional learning, peace education, diversity and the appreciation of indigenous knowledge for our learning. She completed her double degree in psychology and educational science at the University of Hamburg and then worked for a year as an exchange scientist at the State University of Saint Petersburg. As part of her many years of work at the State Institute for Teacher Training and School Development (Hamburg), she worked primarily as head of concept development and project coordination.
From 1992 to 1998, Gabriele served as the Coordinator for the Hamburg portion of the 'Creativity, Culture and Basic Education - Non-conventional Ways to Writing and Culture' project, a collaboration between Hamburg's Ministry of Education and the UNESCO Institute for Education. Later, from 2004 to 2009, she coordinated the Family Literacy in Hamburg (FLY) project, which was a joint effort between the Institute for Teacher Training and School Development and the UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning in Hamburg. FLY was also part of the national FÖRMIG project1. The FLY project gained international recognition when it received the UNESCO International Literacy Prize in 2011, awarded by UNESCO Headquarters in Paris1. Between 2000 and 2005, she engaged in creative work with Tibetan refugee children in exile on a voluntary basis. Since 2018, she has been collaborating with the University of Hamburg's Peace Initiative and working as a lecturer at the same institution.
In 2024, Gabriele participated in the 40th Annual Conference of Human Dignity and Humiliation Studies titled 'Global 'Vulnerabilities — From Humiliation to Dignity and Solidarity', in Madrid, Spain, 17th – 20th September 2024. See her reflections on dignity.
• Monographs (selection)
- Anregungen zum freien Schreiben und Gestalten. Band I: Der Engel fliegt zu einem Kind... Anregungen aus der bildenden Kunst. Stuttgart 1995, ISBN 3-12-554680-X.
- Schreibanregungen in Theorie und Praxis. Hamburg 1998, ISBN 3-8258-3870-6.
- Anregungen zum freien Schreiben und Gestalten. Band II: Die schöne Hexe. Anregungen aus der Ganzheits- und Gestaltpsychologie. Stuttgart 2000, ISBN 3-12-554681-8.
- Far away from Home. Tibetan Refugee Children Write and Paint their Stories. New Delhi 2006, ISBN 81-86230-52-1.
• Issues (selection)
- mit H. Arntzen u. a.: Fantasien von Kindern aus aller Welt. Hamburg/Stuttgart 1998, ISBN 3-12-554723-7.
- mit M. Elfert: Gemeinsam in der Sprache baden: Family Literacy. Stuttgart 2007, ISBN 978-3-12-555111-4.
- 2004 – 2014 Learning to FLY – Familienorientierte Bildung im Raum Schule, Family-oriented literacy education in schools. Hamburg 2014, ISBN 978-3-00-045161-4.
Reflections on Dignity, contribution shared subsequent to the 40th Annual Conference of Human Dignity and Humiliation Studies titled 'Global 'Vulnerabilities — From Humiliation to Dignity and Solidarity', in Madrid, Spain, 17th – 20th September 2024, shared on 21st October 2024.
[read more]
   

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Mechthild Nagel is professor of philosophy, Director of the Center for Gender and Intercultural Studies (CGIS) at the State University of New York, College at Cortland. Dr. Nagel is also a visiting professor at Fulda University of Applied Sciences, Germany. She is author of seven books: Masking the Abject: A Genealogy of Play (Lexington, 2002), co-editor of Race, Class, and Community Identity (Humanities, 2000), The Hydropolitics of Africa: A Contemporary Challenge (Cambridge Scholars Press, 2007), Prisons and Punishment: Reconsidering Global Penality (Africa World Press, 2007), Dancing with Iris: The Philosophy of Iris Marion Young (Oxford University Press, 2010), and The End of Prisons: Voices from the Decarceration Movement (Rodopi, 2013). Her recent coedited book is titled Diversity, Social Justice, and Inclusive Excellence: Transdisciplinary and Global Perspectives (SUNY Press, 2014). She has taught in area prisons in New York state and established a prison education program at a prison in Fulda, Germany. She writes on justice studies, global feminist studies, Africana philosophy. Lately, Dr. Nagel also works with teens at a Youth Center and supervises a college program, teaching philosophy to children in area elementary schools (Sophia’s Garden project). Dr. Nagel is founder and editor-in-chief of the online feminist journal Wagadu: A Journal of Transnational Women’s and Gender Studies.
• Nagel, Mechthild (2018). "Policing Families: The Many-Headed Hydra of Surveillance." In Feminism and Psychology, 17 (2), pp. 2–11.
Troubling Justice: Towards a Ludic Ubuntu Ethic, Cortland, NY: Human Dignity and Humiliation Studies.
Dignity Dialogue – Entering the Circles of Hope, contribution shared at the 2019 Workshop on Transforming Humiliation and Violent Conflict, Columbia University, New York City, December 5 – 6, 2019.
Playing with (Lady) Justice: Another World is Possible? contribution shared after the 2019 Workshop on Transforming Humiliation and Violent Conflict, Columbia University, New York City, December 5–6, 2019.
• "Message to the World" (Video), contribution to Day Three of the 2021 Workshop on Transforming Humiliation and Violent Conflict, Virtual at Columbia University, New York City, December 9 – 11, 2021.
   

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NANCY PROVOLT
Nancy Provolt is currently an online course creator and instructor for universities across the United States. Nancy earned an M.A and was awarded for academic excellence in Women and Gender Studies from Eastern Michigan University, USA, as well as earning Certificates in Nonprofit Management and Entrepreneurship.
Nancy has spent the past 11 years working with various universities to add to their curriculum of Gender Studies, Sociology and American Studies. She is a contributing author to Feminism: Past, Present and Future Perspectives (2017) and is contributing to future work titled, Disclosing Boredom: Literature, Psychology, and Philosophy (2018). She has recently presented research on boredom and literature and is working on a project exploring the impact of boredom and loneliness on the elderly as well as populations facing isolation due to chronic health conditions.
Nancy’s research interests are poverty and the impact of gender equality, education and that of social expectations in generational poverty as well as the impact of loneliness and isolation within specific communities.
   

agostino
Dr. Brian D’Agostino is an interdisciplinary social scientist, educator, author, and speaker, with publications and other professional qualifications that span psychology, mathematics, political-economy, and public policy. He is a researcher and consultant and holds a Ph.D. and two other degrees from Columbia University. Dr. D'Agostino is Communications Director of the International Psychohistorical Association and author of The Middle Class Fights Back: How Progressive Movements Can Restore Democracy in America (Praeger 2012). He has addressed the NYC Panel for Educational Policy and NYS Senate Education Committee and lectured for the general public and academic audiences. His publications have appeared in the peer-reviewed Political Science Quarterly, Political Psychology, and Review of Political Economy, as well as popular publications including New York Daily News, Z Magazine, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, and Living City. Brian lives in New York City with his wife Constance L. Benson. See bdagostino.com/. "Dignity is a transformative concept that can bring liberals and conservatives together to effect meaningful social change" (Appreciative Introduction 2017).
Please see:
Militarism, Machismo, and the Regulation of Self-Image, in The Journal of Psychohistory 45 (3, Winter 2018)
Abstract: The topic of militarism could hardly be more timely. In 2015, the world failed to meet the Millennium Development Goals while spending over 1.6 trillion dollars on war and war preparations (Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, 2016), more than ten times what it would have cost to meet them (United Nations Development Program, 2012).
Dignity, Humiliation, and Social Transformation, in Psychohistory News, vol. 37, no. 1 (Winter 2018), an overview of the 2017 Workshop on Transforming Humiliation and Violent Conflict, Columbia University, New York City, December 7 - 8, 2017.
Dignity, Leadership, and the Ecological Crisis, in Psychohistory News 38, 1, Winter 2019, an overview of the 2018 Workshop on Transforming Humiliation and Violent Conflict, Columbia University, New York City, December 6 - 7, 2018.
   

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Picture by
Evelin Frerk
RAINER ROSENZWEIG
Dr. Rainer Rosenzweig is a perception scientist and lecturer at the Georg Simon Ohm University of Applied Sciences Nuremberg (Technische Hochschule Nürnberg). He is one of the founders of the of the hands-on science center turmdersinne ("Tower of the Sense") in Nuremberg, Germany, and was his managing director until April 2016. He was born in Nuremberg in 1968, studied mathematics at the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, where he received his diploma in 1995. He earned his doctorate in perceptual psychophysics at the University of Wuerzburg in 2003. From 1999 - 2000 he was managing director of the Humanist Association of Bavaria (HVD Bayern, then HVD Nuremberg) and 2000 - 2003 assistant of the management at the Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics. In 2003 he became the managing director of Bavaria-California Technology Center BaCaTeC at the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg. Since October 2014 he is lecturer for perception science at the Technische Hochschule in Nuremberg.
Rainer Rosenzweig and his "turmdersinne"-team created an excellent public platform to discuss the latest findings in the fields of cognition science, neuroscience, psychology, and philosophy. He established a yearly symposium of popular science in these fields with many famous scientists as speakers.
He is the author of many articles about perception and editor of a book series with the contributions of these symposia, most of them in co-editorship with Helmut Fink. Rainer Rosenzweig is also a member of the Scientific Council of the German Skeptics Society, among others, then the Society for the Scientific Investigation of Para Sciences GWUP e.V., board member of the Coordinating Board of secular organizations KORSO e.V., and member of the Council of the Giordano-Bruno-Stiftung.
   

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ZAYNAB BERNOUSSI
Dr. Zaynab El Bernoussi ("Z") is an assistant professor of international studies at the International University of Rabat, Morroco, since September 2020. Prior to that, she was an assistant professor at the School of Humanities and Social Sciences at Al Akhawayn University in Ifran, Morocco. She is a member of the Hillary Clinton Center for Women's Empowerment (HCC). She holds a PhD in political and social Sciences from the Université Catholique de Louvain. Z was a Carnegie visiting scholar at the Carolina Center for the Study of the Middle East and Muslim Civilizations, a visiting scholar at the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs at Harvard University and Smith College, and an associated researcher at the History of Human Freedom and Dignity in Western Civilization project by the European Union. Z’s research is at the intersection of postcolonial theory and dignity politics in the case of Egypt. She is now working on the constitutional process of post-Arab Spring Tunisia, on global understandings of dignity and development paradigms, and on Sino-Arab relations.
Please see:
Global Dignity? Implications for Paradigms of International Development and Globalisation, paper presented at the 31st Annual Conference of Human Dignity and Humiliation Studies 'Dignity and Innovation - Strategies for a Sustainable Future, with a Special Focus on Agriculture and Water’, in Cairo, Egypt, 21st – 24th September 2018.
Can Dignity Become a Constitutional Right? (Pdf | Video of Introduction | Video of Dignilogue Preparations | Lifestreaming by Bhante Revata Chowdhury | Video of Summary), contribution shared at the 2017 Workshop on Transforming Humiliation and Violent Conflict, Columbia University, New York City, December 7-8, 2017. Please see her Appreciative Introduction 2017 and see also Visiting Scholar Sheds New Light on Concepts of Dignity.
• "Human Dignity and Human Rights Terms in Transition." In Human Dignity: Practices, Discourses, and Transformations: Essays on Dignity Studies in Honor of Evelin G. Lindner. Edited by Chipamong Chowdhury, Michael Britton, and Linda Hartling. Chapter 11. Lake Oswego, OR: Dignity Press, 2019 (Pdf).
• "World War C: How the COVID-19 Pandemic Should Teach Us to Consume Less and Cooperate More?" by Zaynab El Bernousisi, Tribune Libre, Number 5, August 2020.
• Contribution to Dignilogue 4: Religion, Covid-19, and Human Dignity: How Does Religion Respond to the Coronavirus Pandemic? (Video) on Day Two of the 2020 Workshop on Transforming Humiliation and Violent Conflict, Virtual, Columbia University, New York City, December 10 – 12, 2020.
• El Bernoussi, Zaynab (2021). Dignity in the Egyptian Revolution: Protest and demand during the Arab Uprisings. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

   

babaciwilhite
ZEHLIA BABACI-WILHITE
Zehlia Babaci-Wilhite is also a Member of the HumanDHS Research Team.
Dr. Zehlia Babaci-Wilhite is a multi-lingual educator and researcher with a Doctorate in Education and Development from the University of Oslo (UiO), Norway. Her research interests include Language and Rights in Education, Development Aid and African Higher Education. Her dissertation explores the consequences of linguistic choices for quality education as a right in education. With more than 20 years of teaching experience in multiple countries including France, USA, Japan, India, and Norway, her strength lies in international learning, development, and human rights. She has supervised numerous master theses in Comparative and International Education. She is the author of many published articles in tier one academic journals and book chapters. Dr. Babaci-Wilhite has presented her papers at prestigious international conferences as well as invited guest lecturer. She has been a member of the Language of Instruction in Tanzania and South Africa (LOITASA) team of researchers, and, as LOITASA member, has presented her work at workshops in Tanzania and South Africa. Currently, she is a visiting scholar at the Graduate School of Education and at the Lawrence Hall of Science at the University of California-Berkeley.
Please see:
•  Language As a Right in Education: A Case Study of Zanzibar Curriculum Reform, abstract presented by Zehlia Babaci-Wilhite &  MacLeans Geo-JaJa at the 2011 Workshop on Transforming Humiliation and Violent Conflict, Columbia University, New York City, December 8-9, 2011.
•  Preservation of local languages-in-education: Why not in Africa?, abstract presented at the 2012 Workshop on Transforming Humiliation and Violent Conflict, Columbia University, New York City, December 6-7, 2012. See video recording.
•  Search for Dignity by Implementing African Languages in African School, abstract presented at the 21st Annual Conference of Human Dignity and Humiliation Studies "Search for Dignity," in South Africa, 25th - 28th April 2013. See a video of her presentation on Day Three of the conference, 26th April 2013.
•  Giving Space to African Voices: Rights in Local Languages and Local Curriculum. Rotterdam, The Netherlands: Sense, 2014, edited by Zehlia Babaci-Wilhite.
   

oeverby
HEIDRUN SØLNA OVERBY
Heidrun Sølna Øverby is a Norwegian drama educator, writer and facilitator/director. She has an MA in theatre/drama from NTNU, Trondheim, Norway where she wrote the following thesis: “Theatre as a method to communicate climatic awareness in rural areas. A study for the RASPAP project in South Africa,” where she did an Internship with a South African NGO. She is currently working as a museum educator at MiA, the museums in Akershus. [read more]
   
DAN VAUGHAN
Dan Vaughan is the Former Aide to Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu and the author of the 2022 memoir This One Thing: Journeying with Desmond Tutu, dedicated “To Desmond Mpilo Tutu, who taught us hope, and the world this one thing, to love” (book launch at the Desmond Tutu Legacy Foundation Museum, December 21, 2022). He is a South African, born in Cape Town, and in 1976, he was invited to join the staff of the South African Council of Churches (SACC) where he worked under Archbishop Tutu for 7 years, eventually as his Assistant General Secretary. He resigned after Tutu left the SACC, to work in the Order of St John (St John Ambulance) as Regional and National Director. In 2003 Archbishop Tutu asked him to join him in his office in Milnerton, near Cape Town. He served there as his travel aide and manager of his office until 2011 when Tutu retired from active involvement in international affairs.
Dan Vaughan and a small team are currently (2024) engaged in developing a process that will hopefully stimulate the teaching of what must be regarded as Archbishop Tutu’s greatest legacy, the call of his later years that we love even those we would regard as our enemies.
PS: Late Archbishop Desmond Tutu most generously contributed with a Foreword to Evelin Lindner's third book (2010), Gender, Humiiation, and Global Security, whose message was BIG LOVE. Dan and Evelin were in touch via email as far back as 2008.
   

ndwandwe
JOY DUMSILE NDWANDWE
Joy Dumsile Ndwandwe is an indigenous prophet, writer, facilitator, researcher, and public speaker with municipal working experience in Eswatini (former Swaziland), Zambia, and South Africa. She is a member of the World Dignity University, as the Founding President of the Indigenous Knowledge Hub in Eswatini that was founded in March 2020 as an NGO under the Swaziland Companies Act No. 8 of 2009. This hub is an academic space for policy makers and researchers for preserving and integrating indigenous knowledge and modernity towards Education for Sustainable Development and the Africa We Want.
The Indigenous Knowledge Hub is a Dignity Institute, following Joy's interest in advancing dignity embedded within indigenous knowledge towards Education for Sustainable Development. Most importantly, having access to leading dignity scholars is important, who will provide technical expertise in the establishing of the hub and strategic interventions as and when the need arises.
In 2024, Joy has been nominated and appointed Dean of the Royal Faculty on Historical Legacy with the University of the State of African Diaspora.
Joy has acquired writing, report writing, presentation and facilitation skills in the following areas: African Humanism Leadership; Indigenous Knowledge Systems; Project Management; and Local Economic Development. She has experience in national and local government strategic planning and financial management, including developing, directing programs aimed at establishing sound fiscal management, local economic development, and capacity building.
Joy lives by the following principles: Confidence, Dignity, and Contentment.
See some of her work:
• Video: Swaziland former King Sobhuza II by Jan Van Der Meer and Joy Ndwandwe, published on 2 February 2013 and produced by voluntourist Jan van der Meer. A new book is unearthing King Sobhuza II and his philosophy, written by Joy LaNdwandwe to show the cosmology and ontology that was lost centuries ago. It is recommended to universities world-wide. As a Prophet, Joy trained at the Institute of Right Brain Research of Dr. Steven Hlophe in Montreal, Canada. She authored Releasing Monkeys and Spirit of Kwandza.
Siyinqaba: We Are Fortress, Incwala Ceremony, in Weekend Obersver, Saturday to Sunday 10 -20 January 2013, page 29
Sibaya System: Our Indigenous Governance Tool, in The Swazi Observer, 6 October 2012, page 23
The Nwandwes and the Incwala Ceremony, in Weekend Obersver, Saturday to Sunday 22 -23 December, 2012, page 28
Umhlanga weLutsango LwaboMake BakaNgwane: My Journey in Regimency, in Weekend Observer, Saturday to Sunday 11 -12 August 2012, page 19
• Video Ubuntu Open Space Dignilogue session, 25th April 2013 (unfortunately, reduced video quality), created at the the 21st Annual Conference of Human Dignity and Humiliation Studies, 24th-27th April 2013, in Stellenbosch, South Africa.
• Video Ubuntu, summary by Joy Ndwandwe, 26th April 2013, created at the 21st Annual Conference of Human Dignity and Humiliation Studies, 24th-27th April 2013, in Stellenbosch, South Africa.
Baba Credo Mutwa, in Weekend Observer, Saturday to Sunday 4 -5 May 2013, page 2.
King Mswati Birthday Letter from Joy, in The Swazi Observer, 18 April 2013, page 54.
In Commemoration of the Late King Sobhuza II's Legacy, in Weekend Observer, National News, Saturday-Sunday 20-21 September 2013, page 20-21.
Prophet LaNdwandwe Goes International, in Weekend Observer, National News, Saturday-Sunday 12-13 October 2013, page 20-21.
Abantu Eswatini Dignity Institute Indigenous Knowledge Hub: Dignity Through Solidarity: Towards a New Global Normal, presentation by Joy Ndwandwe, Founding President (Video | Video recorded on November 17, 2021 | PowerPoint), a contribution to Dignilogue 1 of the 2021 Workshop on Transforming Humiliation and Violent Conflict, Virtual, Columbia University, New York City, December 9 – 11, 2021.

 

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RUTENDO NGARA
Rutendo Ngara holds a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering, as well as a Master of Science in Medicine in Biomedical Engineering, both from the University of Cape Town. She also holds a number of certificates, including an English language teaching certificate and a fashion designing diploma - which she completed concurrently with her electrical engineering degree.
Rutendo is currently training in African Traditional Medicine and Traditional Chinese Medicine, having put her graduate entry medical studies on hold to pursue a transdisciplinary doctorate with the DST/NRF South African Research Chair in Development Education at Unisa. Her doctoral thesis "Science, Culture, Cosmology and Paradigms of Healing: Towards Integrated Policy and Practice" seeks to facilitate greater dialogue between medical knowledge systems - through a comparative synthesis of Western, Eastern and Southern healing paradigms - as a contribution towards more holistic healthcare provision.
At present Rutendo is the Research Coordinator for Science, Culture and Society with the DST/NRF South African Research Chair in Development Education. She has worked in website management, research and development in the Clinical Engineering and Healthcare Technology Management arena, has been involved teaching and tutoring Mathematics, Sciences and English, and has also consulted in various community-based creative projects. With a passion for integrating art and science towards restoration, she is a counsellor, a facilitator of various modes of healing and a practitioner of a number of physical disciplines, including the Chinese Martial Arts. The quest for harmony, co-existence and complimentarity underpins her endeavours.

   

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MARTHE MULLER
Marthe Muller has been the Chief Operations Officer of South African Women in Dialogue (SAWID) since 2010, and she has spent 14 years being exposed to the wisdom of the collective voices of South African women. SAWID is in the second year of a partnership with UNISA (the largest higher education institution in the country and the continent, responsible for educating about 40% of all students in South Africa), to become a Women’s Legacy Academy for Community Engagement.
Marthe has been active in SAWID since its establishment in 2003, and she acted as one of the founding trustees of the Isigodlo Trust, (now the SAWID Trust) from June 2004 to April 2006, when she first accepted the position as Manager: Documentation and Information at SAWID. Between 2003 and 2006 she was also active as a volunteer community development worker in Langa and Khayelitsha, and she served on the Boards of two community development organisations in Cape Town.
Marthe matriculated in 1979 at La Rochelle in Paarl, after also attending schools and boarding schools in Port Elizabeth, Cradock, and Johannesburg, and obtained an Honours degree in Philosophy (Cum Laude) from the University of Stellenbosch in 1983. She completed all coursework for a Master’s degree in Women’s History at Sarah Lawrence College in Bronxville, New York, in 1987, but she has a third version of her MA thesis outstanding. Marthe lived in Bogotá, Colombia, for twelve years, where she worked in publishing, documentary filmmaking and public television. She completed a two-year Diploma in Spanish and wrote, directed and produced a multi-media course to teach English to Spanish-speakers. In 1999, after a year of working as an Operations Manager for Colombian fashion designer Amelia Toro, she opened the designer’s flagship Matador store in Soho, New York. She returned to South Africa in 2000, after 16 years of absence.
She is fluent in Afrikaans, English and Spanish and she completed a Certificate in Higher Management Cum Laude in November 2015. She has an abiding interest in personal transformation, social cohesion, reconciliation and knowledge management for the fulfilment of human needs. Her deepest conviction is that the universe was designed for the growth of souls, and human development practice should increase choice and advance soul-growth.

   

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CANDICE MAMA
Candice Nompumelelo Mama started her work in forgiveness, reconciliation and trauma after her story of forgiving apartheid assassin and her father’s murderer, Eugene De Kock, made international news. Having been inundated with requests to show people how she did it, she started travelling the world as a peace ambassador and forgiveness activist. Candice has spoken at The Global Leadership Summit, The UN Femprow Initiative, as well as multinational organisations and leading universities. She starred in an acclaimed documentary, It’s A Pleasure to Meet You, showcasing her story and that of Siyah Mgoduka grappling with the idea of whether forgiveness is always possible - that was showcased in France at The Louis Vuitton Foundation. She is also an ambassador for TEARS (A women’s sexual abuse organisation in South Africa). Ultimately Candice’s vision is to further the understanding of forgiveness after severe trauma, and give people the tool’s to live an empowered and dignity filled life.
Please see:
Five Minute talk
Art Documentary
   

mthombeni
BATHABILE K.S. MTHOMBENI
Bathabile K.S. Mthombeni, J.D., founder and owner of Untangled Resolutions: The Problem Is the Answer in New York City, NY, USA, is a seasoned mediator, negotiator, educator, entrepreneur and online radio talk show host. A cum laude graduate of Princeton University, she earned her law degree from Columbia University. She has been mediating for nine years. Bathabile Mthombeni is a board member of the New York City State Dispute Resolution Association and an Adjunct Assistant Professor in the Dispute Resolution Program at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York City. She is a former Associate University Ombuds Officer for Columbia University. There she helped over 1200 people address their disputes. Ms. Mthombeni is well known as a dynamic and gifted speaker who has developed and presented numerous workshops and panel presentations on negotiation, conflict resolution, and diversity at venues like Columbia and Princeton Universities, CUNY, Dress for Success, and the New York City Bar Association. She hosts a weekly online radio show about the lives and work of mediators called SANGOMA, Stories from the Frontlines of Mediation. Bathabile Mthombeni is also a video/documentary film producer and a singer/songwriter/guitarist.
   

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SUSAN WILDING
Susan Wilding is a South African Citizen who has over a decade experience in human rights in both government and civil society. Susan works at the international policy level, mostly engaging with the United Nations Human Rights Council and its mechanisms. Susan also works with the humanitarian sector, development and private sector with the aim of bringing human rights to the forefront of critical global discussions and ensuring citizens participation in policy making. Driven by the belief in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights that ‘All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights’.
   

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OLAV OFSTAD
Olav Ofstad is an independent researcher and consultant in the field of conflict management, humanitarian assistance and development. A lawyer by background, he has been a public prosecutor, deputy judge, senior partner in a private law firm and a lecturer. Ofstad shifted to the humanitarian field in 1992, working as a diplomat at Norwegian embassies in Pakistan and India with responsibility for development aid programmes and later with UNHCR in Bosnia and the Norwegian Refugee Council in Serbia. During the period 2003 -2010 he held senior international positions within the Red Cross Movement in different countries in Asia and the Balkans before assuming responsibility for IFRC’s International Disaster Response Law programme in Asia Pacific, with the core challenge of negotiating legal reform with governments.
Between his humanitarian missions, he spent time on conflict related research, while providing training in conflict management and communication for peace-keeping officers and others.
In 2003, assigned by the Norwegian Defence International Centre (NODEFIC), Ofstad wrote a conflict management handbook for peace-keepers. This book, initially in Norwegian was followed up by a further developed English version in 2006, titled Conflict Management in the Field. A handbook for Officers and Soldiers. The book differs from most contemporary conflict management literature, in that it draws extensively on social psychology, showing how interpersonal influence can be used for the purpose of conflict resolution, but also for kidnapping survival. The latter is among of Ofstad’s prime interests, and through his consultancy he is offering training for individuals and groups exposed to the risk of kidnapping/hijacking, see www.kidnappingsurvival.com.
Olav Ofstad’s interests also include peace-and state building. See also his profile on Linkedin.
•  As a visiting research fellow at Oxford University, Department of Politics and International Relations, he did a project in 2011 on UN conflict management in East Timor, compared to later UN operations in Africa, please see:
Reconciliation and Conflict Resolution in East Timor. Lessons for Future Operations, Working Paper April 2012, Oxford Institute for Ethics, Law and Armed Conflict.

   


GAY ROSENBLUM-KUMAR
Gay Rosenblum-Kumar is also a Member of the HumanDHS Global Advisory Board.
Gay Rosenblum-Kumar is a Public Administration officer in the Governance and Public Administration Branch of the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs. She works with government officials and their civil society counterparts in developing countries to enhance national capacities for managing conflict through various activities, such as training for individual skill-building, institutional development, and strengthening development practice and democratic governance.
Gay Rosenblum-Kumar currently advises on projects that develop skills to manage and mitigate conflict including regional projects in sub-Saharan Africa as well as national projects in Ghana, Guyana, Romania, and Zimbabwe. Prior to joining the United Nations, she worked with several international NGOs on anti-apartheid and development issues.
Please see Humiliation, Conflict and Public Policy, note presented at the 2004 Workshop on Humiliation and Violent Conflict, Columbia University, New York City, November 18-19, 2004. Please see furthermore Horizontal Inequality and Humiliation: Public policy for disaffection or cohesion?, note presented at Round Table 3 of the 2005 Workshop on Humiliation and Violent Conflict, Columbia University, New York City, December 15-16, 2005.

   

fattah
KHALED FATTAH
Dr. Khaled Fattah is a guest lecturer at Lund University in Sweden. In addition to a number of post graduate studies in the fields of intercultural communication, cultural psychology and development studies, Dr. Fattah holds a PhD in international relations from the University of St Andrews in the UK. He has worked as a lecturer and trainer for the Netherlands Royal Tropical Institute, and as a lead researcher, senior consultant and regional expert for the German international development cooperation sector, the EU and UN organizations in the Middle East. Dr Fattah is often interviewed and quoted in international media outlets as a distinguished expert on Yemen and state-tribe relations in the Arab world. His forthcoming academic works are entitled "Political Modernization in Tribal Middle Eastern Societies" and "Tribes and Revolutions in the Middle East."
Please see more here:
- Carnegie Middle East Center
- Canada's Hub for International Affairs
- Center for International and Regional Studies (CIRS), Georgetown University
- A Clash of Emotions: The Politics of Humiliation and Political Violence in the Middle East, co-authored with Karin M. Fierke, University of St. Andrews, UK, in European Journal of International Relations, 15 (March 2009), pp. 67-93, doi: 10.1177/1354066108100053. Abstract: After the attacks of 9/11 Americans asked, 'Why do they hate us so much?' The answer has been framed in terms of a range of 'clashes', none of which has addressed emotion, which is at the centre of the question. Emotion, and particularly humiliation, has begun to be addressed within the literature of IR. Numerous scholars have highlighted the pervasiveness of a discourse of humiliation in the Middle East and its relationship to the swelling ranks of recruits who are willing to act as human bombs. The purpose of this article is to examine the emotional dynamics of this relationship. The first section undertakes a conceptual analysis of humiliation and betrayal. The second section explores how these emotions have been given coherent meaning in the narrative of Islamists from the region. This is followed by an historical analysis of how this narrative has provided a framework for giving meaning to a range of national, regional and international interactions, particularly since 1967, and has contributed to the emergence of Islam as the basis for transnational identity in what had become a highly secular region. Section three examines flaws in the logic of both militant Islamists and the US-led 'War on Terrorism', arguing that both have exacerbated feelings of humiliation in the region rather than contributing to a restoration of dignity. The conclusion builds on the principle of human dignity to rethink the international approach to political violence.
   

TIMOTHEE NGAKOUTOU
Timothée Ngakoutou is also is also a Member of the HumanDHS Global Advisory Board.
He was born in Sibut (Central-africa Republic) and is a national of Chad. He holds a Ph.D. in Psychology from the Sorbonne in Paris, and another Ph.D. in "D'Etat ès Lettres et Sciences Humaines" also from Sorbonne. He has been a Professor at the University of Chad, and the Director of the National Human Sciences Institute in Chad.
Furthermore, Timothée Ngakoutou has been the Director General of Education, Culture, Youth and Sports in Chad, and the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Chad. He has also been the Secretary General of the African Association of Psychology, as well as the Regional Adviser for Social and Human Sciences in Africa, and Head of the Regional Office of Unesco in Africa, in Dakar. He has also been Head of the Democracy and Governance Section at Unesco in Paris, and the Director of the Division of Social Sciences, Research and Policy at Unesco in Paris.

   

SAMIR SANAD BASTA (4th August 1943 – 2023, but always with us in our hearts!)
Samir Sanad Basta was also a Member of the HumanDHS Global Advisory Board.
He was born in Cairo, Egypt in 1943. After graduating from Victoria College, he obtained a B.Sc Hon. Degree from the University of Surrey in the United Kingdom and in 1974 a Doctor of Science degree in Nutritional Biochemistry and Physiology from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the United States of America.
After joining the Institute of Nutrition in Mexico where he specialised in Growth, Development and Mental Status of malnourished children, he became team leader and chief researcher in Indonesia of a large World Bank study looking into the connections between Human Productivity, Nutrition and Health Status. He was then accepted into the Young Professional Program of the World Bank and in 1973 appointed Nutrition Expert where he had large supervisory responsibilities for multi-sectorial Food, Nutrition and Public Health programs of the World Bank.
In 1982, he joined UNICEF and was appointed Representative to the Sudan, where he supervised multi-disciplinary staff engaged in Health, Water, Education, Women's Development, Child Rights, and War and Famine Relief work. He was also the co-inventor of a a children's food supplement, (UNIMIX) now in world wide use. In 1986 he became Director of UNICEF's Evaluation Office where he perfected Rapid Assessment Techniques and became a visiting and occasional lecturer at various US Universities and Public Health Schools.
In 1989 he helped create the World Summit for Children at UN headquarters in New York City and in 1990 became Director of UNICEF's European Office in Geneva, where he was active in Fund Raising, Management of various Advocacy Programs and in trying to create Peace and Tolerance programs in Bosnia, Croatia and Serbia during the war in these countries. He also created, with the help of others, an emergency sea evacuation of children from the bombed city of Dubrovnik Later he was invited to visit the newly independent Baltic States to examine the situation of children there and was asked to join various research and lecture programs at the University of Geneva. During his tenure in Geneva he helped initiate the process for a world wide ban on the manufacture of land-mines and met with various Heads of State and Governments to ask them to help the cause of children in difficult situations.
In 1996, he accepted a Visiting Scholarship at the Dept. of Experimental Psychology at Oxford University where he carried out research for a book he wrote, entitled "Culture, Conflict and Children." In 1998, he took early retirement from the United Nations to settle in Southern France where he now lives carrying out occasional consultancies and lectures.
Dr. Basta has worked in over thirty countries in Latin America, Asia, Africa and Europe and is fluent in Spanish, French, English and Arabic. He has been the author or co-author of around two dozen scientific and development orientated papers.

   

MICHAEL MALUAL DUT
Michael Malual is the holder of two Master’s degrees in the closely related fields of International Relations and Conflict, Peace & Security studies. He has also a Commonwealth Executive Master of Business Administration as his third Master’s degree. He is a career diplomat with the rank of Minister Plenipotentiary and a Deputy Head of Mission at the Embassy of the Republic of South Sudan in Oslo, Norway. He is aspiring to work on a PhD in Peace Studies.
   

DANIEL L. SHAPIRO
Daniel L. Shapiro, Ph.D., is also a Member of the HumanDHS Global Advisory Board, and Senior Advisor of the Public Policy project.
Dan is the Associate Director of the Harvard Negotiation Project at Harvard Law School. He is on the faculty of Harvard Law School and Harvard Medical School's Department of Psychiatry. Trained in clinical psychology, his research and teaching focus primarily on the role of emotions in negotiation and international conflict management. Currently, he is working with Professor Roger Fisher on a book on how to deal with emotions in negotiation.
Dr. Shapiro consults widely to governments, businesses, and school systems, and has developed conflict management programs both domestically and internationally. Through funding from the Soros Foundation, he developed a conflict management program that has reached nearly one million people in 22 countries across Eastern and Central Europe.
Please see The Nature of Humiliation, note presented at the 2004 Workshop on Humiliation and Violent Conflict, Columbia University, New York City, November 18-19, 2004.
Daniel Shapiro is leading HumanDHS's Public Policy for Equal Dignity project. He is teaching a course on Negotiation: Dealing with Emotions at Harvard Law School.
   

KAREN MURPHY
Karen Murphy is also a Member of the HumanDHS Global Advisory Board.
Karen Murphy gained her Ph.D. in the Program in American Studies at the University of Minnesota in 1996. Since 1997, Karen has worked for Facing History and Ourselves, an international educational NGO. She is the Director of International Programs for Facing History.
Major projects include the coordination of international fellows project and program related work for England, Northern Ireland, Rwanda, Colombia, the Czech Republic and South Africa, in addition to outreach for future projects, project development, research and writing, all particularly focused on transitional justice issues (Rwanda, South Africa, Northern Ireland, US, Germany are the major case studies).
Karen Murphy has also been a consultant for work based in the United States, including on Without Sanctuary: Lynching Photography in America, for the New York Historical Society (2000), for the Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh (2000-2001), and the Martin Luther King, Jr. National Historic Site in Atlanta (2001-2002). Karen consulted on programming, development of teaching materials, and she designed and facilitated public discussions. Karen is also a consultant, curator and writer for National Video Resources, the After 9.11 Collection (2001-2002), and the Viewing Race Collection (2001). She has furthermore been a research associate for Peter Balakian's The Burning Tigris: The Armenian Genocide and America 's Response (1999-2001). Since 1999, she has been a Board Member of the New Haven Academy, where she helped to plan the curriculum and developed special projects. She is also on the board of a South African nonprofit organization, Facing the Past, based in Cape Town.
   

EDWARD J. EMERY
Edward J. Emergy is also a Member of the HumanDHS Global Core Team and HumanDHS Research Team.
He is the Chief Representative to the United Nations for World Information Transfer, an international NGO in Genral Consultative Status with the Economic and Social Council at the UN. He is also a Senior Partner with Ethical Futures and a psychoanalyst in private practice. Dr. Emery has lectured and taught internationally.
Please see:
•  An Ethics of Engagement: Shame and the Genesis of Violence, paper presented at a Conference of the Peacemaker Corps Association in Honor of Sergio Vieira de Mello "Peacemaking in the Family: Nuclear, Community and Global" United Nations Headquarters, February 27, 2004. Forthcoming in Psychotherapy and Politics International in 2004 (2) 3.
•  Musings on Shame and Idolization, abstract presented at the 2007 Workshop on Humiliation and Violent Conflict, Columbia University, New York City, December 13-14, 2007.
   

AMY C. HUDNALL
Amy C. Hudnall is also a Member of the HumanDHS Global Advisory Board, and Co-Editor of the Journal of Human Dignity and Humiliation Studies (JHDHS). She is furthermore HumanDHS's representative to the International Association of Genocide Scholars (IAGS).
Amy is a Lecturer in the History and Women's Studies Departments at Appalachian State University and a Research Assistant Professor at the Institute of Rural Health, Idaho State University. Her work focuses on cross-cultural trauma and genocide from an historical perspective, and she teaches courses on peace and conflict. She has presented and published on captivity trauma, human rights, secondary trauma, cultural relativism, and cross-cultural conflict. She received her M.A. in history at Appalachian State University and also studied at the Bayerische Julius-Maximilian-Universität in Germany.
Amy Hudnall is teaching an interdisciplinary course on the development of warfare and peacemaking and preparing an interdisciplinary course on genocide that will have a heavy focus on psychology.
Please see "Humiliation and Domination under American Eyes: German POWs in the continental United States, 1942-1945," in Social Alternatives (Special Issue "Humiliation and History in Global Perspectives"), Vol. 25, No. 1, First Quarter, pp. 33-39, 2006.

   

TONY JENKINS
Tony Jenkins is also a Member of the HumanDHS Research Team.
He is the Coordinator as well as Director of Administration and Research at the Peace Education Center of Teachers College, Columbia University and the General Coordinator of the International Institutes on Peace Education (IIPE), planning and coordinating institutes in the Manila, Seoul, and Istanbul and in 2005, Rhodes, Greece. His current work focuses on pedagogical research and educational design with emphasis on disarmament, gender and human rights education. Tony regularly conducts courses and workshops in peace education at Teachers College New York City and Tokyo campuses, and at United Nations-mandated University for Peace in Costa Rica.
   


JUDIT RÉVÉSZ
Judit Révész is also a Member in the HumanDHS Global Coordinating Team, the HumanDHS Global Core Team and the Global Coordinating Team. She generously donates her free time, since 2003, to handle all the messages sent to our website through our Contact Us page.
Judit is the Ombudsperson at the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) in Geneva since 2019. From 2016 until 2019 she was at Barnard College as ombuds officer, following many years as a Consultant Case Officer at the United Nations Office of the Ombudsman for Funds & Programmes (UNDP, UNFPA, UNICEF and UNOPS), providing services for those whose want to resolve their workplace related conflict within the informal conflict resolution system.
In 2007 Judit received her Master of Science in Organization Development from the American University and the NTL Institute joint program. Prior to that, she graduated from ELTE School of Law Budapest, Hungary in 1998 and practiced litigation and corporate law for a year in Hungary. She then studied conflict resolution and mediation at Columbia University, Teachers College, in New York in 2001. Judit subsequently worked as a mediator in New York on cases referred by the Small Claims Court. In this capacity she experienced how mediation actually fulfills the deepest meaning of conflict resolution for all parties as opposed to only litigation. She also worked as a facilitator on numerous conflict resolution courses and trainings at Teachers College and at the United Nations. She has been involved with Human Dignity and Humiliation Studies since its inception, as its NY resident, and kindly taking upon herself the important role of the HumanDHS website contact person.
   

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RAJESH DIXIT
Professor Dr. Rajesh Dixit was part of the team that hosted the 2017 Dignity Conference in Indore, Madhya Pradesh, India. He is a poet, author, thinker, and orator. He is the Vice Chancellor (President in the U.S.A.) of the Renaissance University in Indore, state of Madhya Pradesh, Central India. Prior to that, he was the principal of the Renaissance College in Indore, state of Madhya Pradesh, Central India. He has earned his doctorate from Vikhram University of Ujjain, Madhya Pradesh. His doctorate was written in Hindi, on Dr. Dharmvir Bharti, who was a great poet and novelist (Dr. Dharmvir Bharti ke Sahitya ka Samagra Anushilan). He was awarded two gold medals, the first one in his area of expertise, Hindi, and the second one, for the entire Faculty of Arts. Prior to this, he earned his Master of Arts in Hindi, his Master of Arts in economics, his Master of Philosophy in Hindi, and his Bachelor of Science in Geology. During his time at college, he received many prizes for debate, acting, and writing. He is also an active member in the National Services Scheme in India (a social services organisation). He wrote many dramas and participated in Akashvani Indore, which is a broadcasting station in Indore. He has been nominated to be an advisor for many departments of the government of Central India, for example, for its literary society and its economic task force (regarding income tax and indirect tax). He looks back on 25 years of experience in teaching, and more than 10 years of administration. During his time in the Renaissance College of Commerce and Management in Indore, he has participated in numerous international conferences, and has written many research papers, and he is being invited as a keynote speaker in many conferences in Central India. Personally, he loves nature, and he travels to many places all over India and abroad, together with his wife Dr. Amita Neerav. Please see his poem blog. He and his wife Amita Neerav have declared their home in Indore to be a Dialogue Home for Dignity.
Please see the 29th Annual Conference of Human Dignity and Humiliation Studies 'Dignity in Times of Globalisation', in Indore, India, 16th – 19th August 2017:
•  Honouring Dr. Rajesh Dixit
•  Love, Poerty and Arts Make the World Dignified (Video of the Introduction into the Dignilogue | Video of the Dignilogue | WDU Message with Dr. Amita Neerav in Hindi | WDU Message with Dr. Amita Neerav in English), Dignilogue facilitated by Dr. Rajesh Dixit on 18th August 2017 at the 29th Annual Conference of Human Dignity and Humiliation Studies 'Dignity in Times of Globalisation', in Indore, India, 16th – 19th August 2017.
• What to Create, Poem by Rajesh Neerav, translated by Hemant Gahlot, Ujjain, India, May 2, 2019.
• Need to Attain Holistic Sustainable Development Goals in Pursuit of World Peace (Video filmed by the conference team | Video filmed by Amita Neerav, 10th February 2023), contribution to the 9th World Parliament of Science, Religion/Spirituality and Philosophy - 2023, organised by Maharashtra Academy of Engineering Education & Research (MAEER)'s MIT World Peace University, Pune, under the leadership of Prof. Dr. Vishwanath Karad, venue: Shri Kashi-Vishwanath Corridor, Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, India, Thursday 9th to Saturday 11th February 2023, Day Two of the conference (streamed), 10th February 2023.
• Honouring Prof. Dr. Vishwanath Karad at the 9th World Parliament of Science, Religion/Spirituality and Philosophy - 2023 (Video, 10th February 2023)
• Amita Neerav and Rajesh Dixit at the Ma Temple at the Ma Sharanam Ashram on the banks of Narmada River in Madhya Pradesh, India (video recorded by Evelin Lindner in the evening of 18th February 2023).
   

neerav
AMITA NEERAV
Dr. Amita Neerav is a writer and thinker, currently working on a novel on a mythological character of India called Madhvi. She has written many poems that were broadcasted by Akashvani Indore. Her stories are being published in national and internationl magazines. She earned her doctorate in political science from Vikhram University of Ujjain in Madhya Pradesh. Her thesis was a comparative analysis of the political thoughts of Jean-Paul Sartre and Albert Camus. She has a Master of Arts in Economics, a Master of Arts in Political Science, and a Master of Philosophy in Political Science. She received a silver medal for her Master of Arts in Political Science. For a couple of years, she has been teaching in higher education and was then selected to be an officer in a public service commission of Madhya Pradesh. However, she declined this position, because she wanted to explore a wider range of expressions. She went into the field of media and writing, and published many articles on political and social topics in reputed newspapers of India. She is also working as an editor with NaiDunia Indore. She loves reading, and nature, and travels frequently together with her husband, Dr. Rajesh Dixit. Please see her blog अस्तित्व ('Existence'). She and her husband have declared their home in Indore to be a Dialogue Home for Dignity.

Please see her books:
1. Story collection titled तुम जो बहती नदी हो (You Are the Flowing River), published in 2018
2. Novel titled माधवी: आभूषण से छिटका स्वर्णकण (Madhvi: The Golden Particle Separated from the Ornament), published in 2021
3. Novel titled जब इश्क़ तुम्हें हो जाएगा (When You Fall in Love), published in 2023
4. Novel titled साँवली लड़की की डायरी (Diary of a Dusky Girl), in the process of publication in 2023
5. Novel Trilogy titled द जिहाद क्लब (The Jihad Club):
(A) . दीबाचा (Preamble), completed
(B). उरूज (Rise), in writing
(C). उफान (Peak), in planning

Please see also:
•  the 29th Annual Conference of Human Dignity and Humiliation Studies 'Dignity in Times of Globalisation', in Indore, India, 16th – 19th August 2017:
•  Dr. Amita Neerav Sings the Beloved Film Song 'Dil Ka Diya Jala Ke Gaya' and then Speaks on Dignity
•  Honouring Dr. Amita Neerav
•  Dr. Amita Neerav Sings 'Kisi Ki Yaad Mein Dunia Ko Hai Bhilaaye Hue'
•  Love, Poerty and Arts Make the World Dignified (Video of the Introduction into the Dignilogue | Video of the Dignilogue | WDU Message with Dr. Amita Neerav in Hindi | WDU Message with Dr. Amita Neerav English), Dignilogue facilitated by Dr. Rajesh Dixit on 18th August 2017 at the 29th Annual Conference of Human Dignity and Humiliation Studies 'Dignity in Times of Globalisation', in Indore, India, 16th – 19th August 2017.
• Dr. Amita Neerav Honoured at the Hindi Bhavan in Bhopal, India (Video recorded by Dr. Rajesh Dixit and subsequently used in the news, 12th February 2023). Dr. Amita Neerav is being honoured for her extraordinary contribution to Hindi literature with her novel Madhavi that builds on the mythical story of Madhavi. See, among others, 'Writer Amita Neerav feted for her novel 'Madhavi'. For the mythical story, see, for instance, story-sage-galava.
• Amita Neerav and Rajesh Dixit at the Ma Temple at the Ma Sharanam Ashram on the banks of Narmada River in Madhya Pradesh, India (video recorded by Evelin Lindner in the evening of 18th February 2023).
• Amita Neerav's Musical Greeting (Video, 22nd February 2023), a musical greeting from Amita Neerav to the entire global dignity community from her home in Indore, Madhya Pradesh in India. Thank you, dear Dr. Rajesh Dixit and Dr. Amita Neerav, for declaring your home to be a Dignity Dialogue Home, and welcoming Evelin Lindner so lovingly throughout all of February 2023!
• Unifying Old and New Wisdom, tribute to Amita and Rajesh, by Evelin Lindner, celebrating their immensely dignifying work in the world, on the occasion of their wedding anniversary and of Amita's birthday. 28th February 2023, in their home in Indore, Madhya Pradesh, India, recorded by Amita Neerav.
   


ABHISHEK KUMAR JAIN
Abhishek is currently an Assistant Professor of Management and Programme Leader at School of Law, Jagran Lakecity University, Bhopal, India. He started his career in the domain of Training & Development and served in both the Service and Manufacturing Sector. During his corporate experience, he took part in important projects related to Job Description Writing, Assessment and Development Center (a fast tracker programme for the Senior Management) and Performance Appraisal System. In 2011, he joined the Indian Institute of Management in Indore as an Academic Associate and for 3 years, he served in the subject areas of General Management and Communication. He has been associated with Jagran Lakecity University (JLU) since 2015. Abhishek is the member of the Board of Studies of the JLU School of Law and also a member of the Tuning India Project of Erasmus+ Programme. He graduated with a Bachelor Degree in Commerce and Post Graduate Degree in Management. He also has a UGC-NET Certification. In his decade long career, Abhishek has traveled extensively in India. He takes a keen interest in understanding cultural influence on life and profession. He is an avid follower of Cricket and enjoys travelling to new places. He can be contacted at abhishekjain.mgmt at gmail.com.
Please see
• The 'International Igniting Minds Lecture Series':
Igniting Minds Lecture by Evelin Lindner: From Humiliation to Dignity: For a Future of Global Solidarity (original streaming | downloaded video | Pdf), Jagran Lakecity University, Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh.

   

tshering
ONGMU TSHERING
Ongmu kindly wrote (21st November 2017): I am a Tibetan by origin, born and brought up in a small town called Darjeeling in West Bengal, India. Married to my college mate Praveen, who hails from Kerala, south of India, we are blessed with a 7 year old boy, Joshua. I have my Masters in dispute resolution from the University of Missouri, Columbia, U.S.A., and I am a certified mediator under Rule 17 of the Missouri Supreme Court – 2005. I currently work as a corporate lawyer in a law firm in Mumbai, India. I speak Tibetan, English, Hindi and Nepali languages.
   

millar
STEFANIE DINKELBACH
Stefanie Dinkelbach, PhD is an independent researcher, artist and film maker originally from Germany but now based in Cork, Ireland. Stefanie’s work is of a multi and interdisciplinary nature and her research is focussed on the causal relationship between loss of social connection and violence. She has published her findings as a blog series under https://crinklefilms.ie/blogenglish/ (2024) and is working on audio visual events that aim to acknowledge and reverse this loss and that prevent violence in the future. Stefanie Dinkelbach also works as an educator in the art, craft and design context and as a practitioner in family constellation.
Kindly see:
Trauma, Loss of Dignity and Violence in the Context of Human History: An Interdisciplinary Perspective (Video | Pdf | PowerPoint), presentation for Dignilogue 2 on Day Two of the 40th Annual Conference of Human Dignity and Humiliation Studies 'Global Vulnerabilities — From Humiliation to Dignity and Solidarity’, in Madrid, Spain, 17th – 20th September 2024.


   

millar
ADRIAN MILLAR
For most of the past 13 years, Adrian Millar has been a stay-at-home father. Yet, he has also somehow found time to write two works of non-fiction and two novels. In the former category is Socio-ideological Fantasy and the Northern Ireland Conflict: the Other side, which was published by Manchester University Press in 2006 as part of their New Approaches to Conflict Analysis series. Now comes The Quiet Life, a plot-driven novel that tells the story of a brother and sister growing up in the political conflict in Northern Ireland, and the trials they have to go through to be true to themselves. (The Quiet Life can be sampled or purchased at smashwords.) While Professor Richard English of Queen’s University described Adrian's 2006 book as “thoughtful, fascinating and original,” some best-selling novelists have declared themselves impressed with his foray into story-telling. Marian Keyes said The Quiet Life is “brilliant” and Patricia Scanlan found it “very pacy,” “authentic” and an “eye-opener.” Adrian’s next book, a work of non-fiction based on his blog is about finding beauty in everyday life. “Before I had my children,' Adrian says, 'I lived in Japan, Britain and France and was awarded a PhD in Japanese and a PhD in politics. I also trained to be a Catholic priest in the Jesuits. So, as you can see, I am supremely qualified for my current job of child-rearing, involving, as it does, an awful lot of politics, a wing and prayer, and what seems like a lot of Japanese, for all the listening my kids ever do to me.”
   

ELLEN RAIDER
Ellen Raider is a recognized authority in the field of conflict resolution, negotiation, and mediation training. Her work has been cited in numerous publications, and she has been a leading advocate for increasing awareness of the impact of culture on the conflict resolution process. Since 1978, she has taught international negotiation skills to thousands of corporate executives and diplomats in the United States and abroad. Her clients have included the United Nations, the European Economic Community, IBM, AT&T, General Electric, and Schering International. In 1988, she was asked to set up the training department of the research-based International Center for Cooperation and Conflict Resolution at Teacher’s College, Columbia University. In that capacity she has conducted workshops and created training materials for teachers, administrators, school boards, parents, and students.
Ellen is co founder of the Independent Commission on Public Education (iCOPE). ICOPE's  mission is to create a new Human Rights-based system of public education for NYC. One of iCOPE partners in this education work is The National Economic and Social Rights Initiative (NESRI) who promotes a human rights vision for the United States that ensures dignity and access to the basic resources needed for human development and civic participation. See their excellent report called  "Deprived of Dignity."
•  Ellen Raider's contribution to 2007 Workshop on Humiliation and Violent Conflict, Columbia University, New York City, December 13-14, 2007, is entitled Humiliating Experiences that Parents and Students Face in Schools (using info from the report, our tribunals, and our "Education is a Human Rights" campaign).

   

duchscherer
DUKE DUCHSCHERER
Duke Duchscherer is also a Member of the HumanDHS Global Core Team.
Duke Duchscherer is a Certified Trainer with the International Center for Nonviolent Communication and is on the Board of Directors for the MK Gandhi Institute for Nonviolence. For the past 17 years Duke has taught and facilitated peacebuilding and reconciliation processes with a depth and breadth of peoples and groups from the grassroots to the United Nations on four continents. For more than 2 years Duke has been learning from Dominic Barter (originator of the Restorative Circle process) while helping to set up a Restorative System for a university and a church; and teaching and applying the process within small groups and communities across N. America, Europe and Asia. Duke has a deep passion to find ways to (re)build relationships that acknowledges shared interdependence while affirming the unique strength and beauty in each person/group.
   


NOAM EBNER
Born in the US and residing in Israel, Noam is an attorney and an accomplished mediator. Directing a Jerusalem-based mediation center, he has dealt with hundreds of conflicts as a third party neutral or advisor. Settling day-to-day conflicts in a conflictual locale, Noam has dealt with issues ranging from divorce mediation and business disputes to the Israeli - Palestinian conflict. He has founded Israel 's first Campus Mediation Center at Bar-Ilan University, and serves on advisory boards and panels of various community mediation centers, Bar Association committees and Israeli-Palestinian dialogue groups. Noam balances teaching with practice, and believes in a hands-on method that encourages students to begin practicing their new skills as soon as they enter the classroom. Using this approach, Noam has taught and trained in Israel's leading universities, colleges and organizations and is a faculty member of Sabanci University's Graduate Program on Conflict Analysis and Resolution in Istanbul, Turkey.
   

YOAV PECK
Yoav Peck, a native of New York, earned his BA at Berkeley and shortly thereafter traveled to Israel as a tourist. He fell in love with the country and chose to make Israel his home in 1973. Yoav lived, for fifteen years, as a member of Kibbutz Kfar Hanassi in the Upper Galilee, where he worked in agriculture, child-care, and as a psychotherapist and organizational consultant for the kibbutz movement.
For three years, he served as Central Emissary to the Reform Movement in New York. Upon his return to Israel, Yoav moved with his family to Jerusalem, where he served for three years as National Director of the Association of Americans and Canadians in Israel and was Founding Chairman of the Organization of Immigrant Organizations.
Today, Yoav is an independent organizational consultant. His Institute, “Kivun” (direction) conducts projects for the advancement of human dignity in Israel and abroad. Among his clients are the Ministries of Health, Interior, Absorption and the Foreign Ministry, schools, hospitals, and also private industry. He recently conducted human dignity trainings for the Missouri Department of Social Services and for the Serbian Education Ministry. Yoav works in cooperation with “Person to Person,” an NGO devoted to the advancement of human dignity founded by Alouph Hareven, who recently received the prize of the Speaker of the Knesset (parliament) in recognition for his work on the advancement of human dignity. "Person to Person" was formed after we parted from the “Sikkuy” Association, and is exclusively devoted to human dignity advancement in Israel and abroad.
During the height of the period of terrorist bombings in Jerusalem, Yoav served on staff at the Israel Center for the Treatment of Psychotrauma where he worked as a therapist and conducted special projects, including a resilience-building program for public transport security personnel.
Yoav holds a Master's Degree in Organizational Psychology from Norwich University. He is a reserve officer in the IDF Human Science Division. His wife, Frumit, is a “Feldenkrais System” practitioner. Yoav's son Tal is studying agriculture, and his daughter Noa is a social worker. Frumit and Yoav's daughter, Aviv, is seven years old and learns at the Jewish-Arab “Hand-in-Hand” experimental school in Jerusalem.
Yoav has been active in the Israeli Peace Movement since 1979, and has worked intensively in the realm of Palestinian Israeli youth dialogue.
Yoav's hobbies include running, sailing, and playing music.
Yoav writes (22nd February 2007 ): " I am interested in networking with practitioners, since we are not a research operation but rather a field-work outfit, as you know. Im particularly interested in education professionals. I think our model for dignified schools is adaptable in any culture, as we demonstrated in Serbia. We recently took stock of what we have achieved so far and discovered that we have worked with over 20,000 people over the past ten years!"
Please see:
Palestinians at Mauthausen, in Jerusalem Report, 2005, and Human Dignity in Organizations, 2006.
Please see also his analysis Human Dignity in Israeli Elementary Schools: A Rationale for a Project in Nine Schools, 2007.
Human Dignity in Schools: A Practical Approach, in Ganesan, Dakshinamoorthi Raja, and Brown, Philip M. (Eds.), Humiliation in the Academic Setting: A Special Symposium Issue of ‘Experiments in Education’, New Delhi: S.I.T.U. Council of Educational Research, XXXVI (3, March 2008), pp, 71-.
The Power of Vulnerability, October 28, 2021, contribution to the 2021 Workshop on Transforming Humiliation and Violent Conflict, Virtual, Columbia University, New York City, December 9 – 11, 2021.
   
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AVI SHAHAF
Avi Shahaf has been dedicating most of his adult life to helping organizations to advance the value of human dignity in their daily lives. He was born (1951) and raised in Tel Aviv, Israel, and completed his BA in Sociology and Anthropology and his MA in Organizational Development — both in Tel Aviv University. For seven years, Avi managed an institute which focused on the development of managers and workers handling youth at risk.
During the past years he has developed, together with a team of professionals, a concept which differentiates between respect for a person due to his/her status, due to his/her activities, and inasmuch he/she is a human being. In addition, they have formed workshops that enable groups and teams to identify the expressions of mutual respect in the roles and tasks they fill, they transformed the insights which came from the workshops into organizational guidelines and mechanisms, and accompanied the different processes with measurement and documentation.
The uniqueness of the work of Avi and the team of professionals he leads is in the integration between one main theme — human dignity — and concepts and tools of organizational development. Their core aim is to make a change in the organizational culture.
Avi and his team have been carrying out processes for advancing human dignity in a wide variety of organizations — in schools, government offices, municipalities, business organizations, and not least in the Israeli Defense Forces with a focus on bringing more dignity into both commander – subordinate relations and Israeli soldier – Palestinian civilian relations.
Avi and his team are aware of the fact that the processes take time and sometimes demand facing disappointments or frustration, but above all they believe these processes answer a universal human need.
Apart from working in Israel, Avi has facilitated programmes in the US and in Serbia.
Avi is married to Nira, a Psychotherapist and Movement Therapist, and is a father of two girls — Netta and Gal.
Please see:
• Human Dignity Advancement in Schools: Concept and Implementation, Dignilogue facilitated by Avi Shahaf at the 25th Annual Conference of Human Dignity and Humiliation Studies 'A Life of Dignity for All', in Kigali, Rwanda, 5th-8th June 2015.
• How Can We Advance the Value of Human Dignity in Relation to Urban Population? Theoretical Framework, Basic Assumptions, Guiding Principles, and Discussion (see Video | Powerpoint | WDU Message), Dignilogue facilitated by Avi Shahaf on 21st September 2016 at the 27th Annual Conference of Human Dignity and Humiliation Studies 'Cities at Risk - From Humiliation to Dignity', in Dubrovnik, Croatia, 19th - 23rd September 2016.
• Human Dignity Advancement in Organisations (Video of the Introduction into the Dignilogue | Video of the Dignilogue | WDU Message), Dignilogue facilitated by Avi Shahaf on 17th August 2017 at the 29th Annual Conference of Human Dignity and Humiliation Studies 'Dignity in Times of Globalisation', in Indore, India, 16th - 19th August 2017.
Movement As an Attempt to Inquire the Language of Dignity, contribution shared at the 2018 Workshop on Transforming Humiliation and Violent Conflict, Columbia University, New York City, December 6 – 7, 2018.
Advancing Human Dignity Through the Concept and Tools of Organizational Development, contribution shared at the 2019 Workshop on Transforming Humiliation and Violent Conflict, Columbia University, New York City, December 5 – 6, 2019.
Dignity and Humiliation – Stories from Israeli Schools (Video)
Avi Shahaf is an organizational consultant who works with dignity in schools, hospitals, and other organizations. In this video, he presents his book titled "Dignity and Humiliation – Stories from Israeli Schools" (published in 2022 in Hebrew, to be translated into English). The video was recorded in his home in Tel Aviv on 30th January 2023.
Abstract: This book is based on a narrative research approach and examines how the value of human dignity is expressed in Israeli schools through two questions: The first is – what kind of stories of dignity and indignity were told by principals, teachers, educational consultants and pupils ? The second is – which perceptions of human dignity in school life were defined by those four agents? 26 interviewees presented 80 personal stories and then defined what they considered human dignity is in school life. All of the interviewees, participated in the research voluntarily, regardless of school affiliation, sectorial, geographic or otherwise. The findings do not support an objective truth but rather reflect the narrative picture as it comes out from the stories. Each story was analyzed as a complete unit without any separation of elements of the story (holistic approach). The analysis of the various stories identified two main messages: First outcome is dialectic – the existence of both dignity and indignity, residing side by side, in the same story. The other one is humanity – a human view that includes seeing the other as a person, recognizing the differences that exist among people, the uniqueness of each person, listening, empathy and lack of judgment. All the stories were connected to the concept of dignity – respecting each person for being human. There were no stories attached to the perception of honor – respect a person due to his status or of respect – respect a person due to his abilities. There was also no differentiation among the four officials regarding both messages from the stories and from the perception. In other words, it was not possible to define a common dominator of a narrative or a conceptual concept that characterizes each of the four groups separately. Thus, human dignity, in this context, is a value that exists above role or organizational definition.

   

nshahaf
NIRA SHAHAF
Nira Shahaf was born in Tel Aviv in 1956. Since early childhood it was clear that dance is her way to express herself. She was a member in two Israeli dance groups and taught dance in her own private school. She has B.A in Theater and Education from Tel Aviv University and M.A in Education and Dance therapy from Haifa University. She has also diplomas in psychotherapy in a psychoanalytic approach and in CBT (Cognitive & Behavioral Therapy). She integrates in her work the PE (Prolonged Exposure) approach that was developed by professor Edna Foa. During 15 years she worked in three big hospitals with adolescents who suffered from psychiatric problems, eating disorders and post trauma. She is teaching and training students and she is a supervisor in the Israel educational system. She has a private clinic.
Please see:
• Nira Shahaf Shared Appreciative Greetings at the 25th Annual Conference of Human Dignity and Humiliation Studies 'A Life of Dignity for All', in Kigali, Rwanda, 5th-8th June 2015.
• The Linkage Between Movement and Dignity (Video of the Introduction into the Dignilogue | Video of the Dignilogue inside the conference room | outside of the conference room), Dignilogue facilitated by Nira Shahaf on 18th August 2017 at the 29th Annual Conference of Human Dignity and Humiliation Studies 'Dignity in Times of Globalisation', in Indore, India, 16th - 19th August 2017.
• Pranjali Singh Parihar Teaches 'Kathak' Dance to Nira Shahaf on 16th August (Video), and on 18th August 2017 (Video), at the 29th Annual Conference of Human Dignity and Humiliation Studies 'Dignity in Times of Globalisation', in Indore, India, 16th - 19th August 2017.
   

siwakoti
MAMTA SIWAKOTI
Mamta Siwakoti completed the final exams of her B.A.LL.B. (Bachelor of Arts, Bachelor of Laws) in 2018, and is working at Kathmandu School of Law, soon with a bar license as a certified Legal Advocate. She is the daughter of Chandra Prasad Siwakoti, a human rights lawyer from Nepal. Both came together to the 29th Annual Conference of Human Dignity and Humiliation Studies 'Dignity in Times of Globalisation'. See Mamta Siwakoti's Appreciative Introduction to the conference.
Please see:
• Humiliation and Dignity: Absolute and Universal or Relative in Nature (Video of the Introduction into the Dignilogue | Video of the Dignilogue | WDU Message), Dignilogue facilitated by Mamta Siwakoti on 18th August 2017 at the 29th Annual Conference of Human Dignity and Humiliation Studies 'Dignity in Times of Globalisation', in Indore, India, 16th - 19th August 2017.
   

parihar
PRANJALI SINGH PARIHAR
Pranjali Singh Parihar is a kathak dancer and student.
Please see:
• Pranjali Singh Parihar Teaches 'Kathak' Dance to Nira Shahaf (Video), on 16th August, and on 18th August 2017 (Video) at the 29th Annual Conference of Human Dignity and Humiliation Studies 'Dignity in Times of Globalisation', in Indore, India, 16th - 19th August 2017.
   

bruer

NADA BRUER LJUBIŠIĆ
Nada Bruer Ljubišić is the Executive Secretary of the Inter-University Centre Dubrovnik (IUC), an independent international institution for advanced studies, operating in Dubrovnik, Croatia. She is coordinating the implementation of different academic programmes organised by professors and scientists from around the world at the IUC. The majority of these programmes are from the fields of humanities and social sciences and address contemporary social problems – each in its specific field. The IUC emphasizes and supports inter-disciplinary and cross-national collaboration on global challenges such as universal human values and rights, health, education, poverty and climate, and it encourages, in addition, east-west collaboration as well as new north-south initiatives.
By education and personal interest, Nada is an art historian, occasionally doing research and participating in projects in the fields of history of fortification architecture, revitalisation of cultural sites, and modalities of urban development as an engine for social change. She supports the development of these topics within the IUC programmes, and she works on these issues also independently.

   

hadzic
ALMIRA HADŽIĆ–TIMKOV
Almira Hadžić–Timkov has studied international economy at the University of Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and works as general manager of an insurance company in Sarajevo. She is interested in broadcast journalism, field and studio reporting, writing stories, news research and production, and confirming sources. She loves developing creative story ideas based on research of freedom of expression and freedom of press in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and on the impact of international treaties that guarantee freedom of expression as a fundamental human right necessary for democracy. Her stories also address the obstacles that reporters in emerging democracies and developing countries face when they want to do investigative reporting and the risks they have to take for that. Almira engages in public speaking, and in research of the impact of public speaking on citizen judgment especially during national elections. Research results have shown that parties that use promises and false information in public speeches have a stronger impact on citizen judgment than others, such as nongovernment organizations that use fact-based information but are unable, in their public speak, to inspire and build trust and confidence in others and thus influence decisions by spreading trust.
   

taho
BUJAR TAHO
Bujar (Jari) Taho holds a Jurist degree from the University of Tirana (Albania) as well as an LL.M degree in International and Comparative Law from the University of Pittsburgh (Pennsylvania, USA), where he studied as a Fulbright scholar. During 2003 – 2005, Taho was a United Nations Volunteer and worked as a training expert and local team leader on strategic planning, local development and good governance. From late 2007, he has been working as legal counselor, university lecturer in public international law, and soon after as project manager of several United Nations Development Program (UNDP) interventions in the areas of good governance and social inclusion of Roma population in his home country, Albania.
Currently, Taho is pursuing doctoral research at the S.J.D. Comparative Constitutional Law program at Central European University in Budapest, Hungary. His research interests are mainly related to Human Dignity in Constitutional Adjudication, Law and Development, European Affairs, and Minority Rights.
   

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HELEN CREWE
Helen Crewe has founded a research network called Research for Women in Prison, and is a member of the International Society for Therapeutic Jurisprudence. Helen is currently a consultant, writer, trainer and researcher about issues relating to women in criminal justice systems. Helen has worked for over 20 years in policy and education. Helen has worked and studied for Leeds University. She completed a Master's Degree in Forensic Psychology and Criminology with the Open University. Helen is an expert in issues relating to women in prison and human rights. She has recently published about the implementation of international non-state legislation (the Bangkok Rules) and Therapeutic Jurisprudence.
   

JEAN-DAMASCÈNE GASANABO
Jean-Damascène Gasanabo (Damas) is a Member of our HumanDHS Global Core Team, and Research Team.
Jean-Damascène Gasanabo (Damas) has a Ph.D. in Education from the University of Geneva, Switzerland (2004). His thesis pertained to the analysis of history textbooks and the construction of exclusive identities in Rwanda from 1962 to 1994. After his studies, Damas worked with UNESCO in Paris as Consultant in Education Sector for the project Fostering Peaceful Co-Existence through Analysis and Revision of History Curricula and School Textbooks in South-Eastern Europe (2005–2006). He has also collaborated as Programme Specialist for The United Nations Secretary-General’s Study on Violence against Children (2006). From October 2006 to August 2008, he was Head of Support for Communication, Research and Special Projects at Geneva Call, an international humanitarian organisation. Then he went back to UNESCO Headquarters in Paris as Consultant in the Sector of Education for the projects Education for Holocaust Remembrance and Prevention of school related gender-based violence in post-conflict countries — from African case studies to international cooperation as well as in the Sector of Social and Human Sciences, where he was responsible for producing Policy Briefs for the Management of Social Transformations (MOST) Programme. After Paris, he worked as Senior Consultant for Spectacle Learning Media and contributed on the project A Place to Learn: Review of International Research on Creating and Sustaining Enabling Conditions for Learning.
Starting on March 16, 2012, the Government of Rwanda appointed him as Director General in charge of the Research and Documentation Centre on Genocide. The Centre was within the National Commission for the Fight against Genocide (CNLG). The CNLG was removed from the Government Institutions at the end of October 2021, together with the Research and Documentation Center on Genocide that Damas was leading. Since the end of October 2021, these institutions do not exist anymore, and their activities have been transferred to the Ministry of National Unity and Civic Engagement (MINUBUMWE). Damas left the institution at that time, and he is now an independent consultant.
Damas has published various articles and contributed to a number of collective works including:
• “Two families, two destinies: A Personal Perspective on the Rwandan Genocide of 1994,” published by Professor Quintard Taylor, Faculty of History, University of Washington, Seattle, USA, August 2009. See: http://www.blackpast.org/?q=perspectives/two-families-two-destiniespersonal-perspective-rwandan-genocide-1994.
• “Rwandan Genocide: Sociological, Economic and Psychological Consequences”, In Seema Shekhawat & Debidatta Aurobinda Mahapatra (eds.), Afro-Asian Conflicts: Changing Contours, Costs and Consequences, 1st edition, New Delhi, New Century Publications, 2008, pp. 193-216
• « Le génocide des Tutsi du Rwanda » (co-authored with Jean-Pierre Chrétien), in Barbara Lefebvre & Sophie Ferhadjian (eds.), Comprendre les génocides du XXe siècle. Comparer – Enseigner, Paris, Bréal, 2007, pp. 130-153
• 
“School History and Mechanisms for the Construction of Exclusive Identities: The Case of Rwanda from 1962 to 1994”, in UNESCO-IBE, Textbooks and Quality Learning for All: Some Lessons Learned from International Experiences, Paris, UNESCO-IBE, 2006, pp. 365-404
• 
“The Rwandan Akazi (Forced Labour) System, History, and Humiliation”. Social Alternatives (Special Issue ‘Humiliation and History in Global Perspectives’), University of Queensland, Australia, Vol. 25, No. 1, First Quarter, 2006, pp. 50-55.
• Rwanda - Enseignement de l'histoire nationale de 1962 à 1999: Quelle construction de l'image de l'autre? Saarbrücken, Allemagne: Editions Universitaires Européennes, 2010.
• Gasanabo, Jean-Damascène, David J. Simon, and Margee M. Ensign (Eds.) (2014). Confronting Genocide in Rwanda: Dehumanization, Denial, and Strategies for Prevention. Kigali, Rwanda: The National Commission for the Fight Against Genocide, Republic of Rwanda.
• Fighting Against Genocide Denial and Revisionism (Video | Powerpoint), presentation given at the 25th Annual Conference of Human Dignity and Humiliation Studies 'A Life of Dignity for All', in Kigali, Rwanda, 5th - 8th June 2015, by Jean-Damascène Gasanabo in his capacity as Director General of Research and Documentation, Centre on Genocide, National Commission For The Fight Against Genocide (CNLG).

   

NIMROD SHEINMAN
Nimrod Sheinman B.Sc., N.D. is an Integrative Naturopathic Physician and one of Israel's most experienced and well respected mind-body authorities. He is the founder of Israel's Center for Mindfulness in Education (2013), and an active participant in The Van Leer Jerusalem Institute's group for Spirituality in Education. He was the co-founder of Israel's Center for Mind-Body Medicine (1998), and past director of the mind-body unit, Integrative Medicine Department, Rabin Medical Center, Israel. He is a co-founder, Academic Dean and instructor in Israel's Center for Yoga Therapy in Integrative Medicine. He is known for his integration of mind-body perspectives, imagery and mindfulness-based principles within the context of 'Vis Medicatrix Naturae' - 'The Healing Power of Nature'. In the past 25 years he has taught seminars on Mind-Body Medicine, Imagery-based Therapy and Mindfulness Perspectives in Clinical Practice in hospitals, universities, centers and international conferences in Israel, USA, Europe and Australia. Israel's first Mindfulness in Schools project, which he initiated over 15 years ago with support from Israel's Ministry of Education, has reached over 10,000 children, teachers and parents. Currently he serves as the Director of the Mindfulness and Mindful Learning Program, whose mission is to cultivate the inner lives of children, teachers and schools. He is a graduate (1986) of the National College of Naturopathic Medicine (Portland, Oregon, USA). He was a resident and faculty member (1986-1987) at Bastyr University of Natural Health Science (Seattle, Washington, USA), and was then a member in Bastyr's International Advisory Council. He has served on numerous national committees in the areas of integrative medicine. Nimrod Sheinman is the author of Food for Thought (1989, in Hebrew), and Imagery-based Therapy: A Workbook for Clinical Practice (1991, in Hebrew). He is a co-editor of Potentiating Health and the Crisis of the Immune System (Plenum Press, 1997). He was the founder of Israel Naturopathic Association (1993) and the president of the association in its first 4 years. Since 1988, he was Dean of Naturopathic Education for various colleges of natural medicine in Israel, and served on various government committees regarding the regulation of natural medicine in the state of Israel. Dr. Sheinman was also an Aeronautical Engineer, graduate of the Israel Institute of Technology (1973). He served then as a project leader officer in the Israel Air-Force (1973-1978), and was the recipient of the 1976 Israel's Air-Force Award. He lives in Israel with his wife and two children.

   

GEORGE W. WOODS
George Woods, M.D., is also a Member of the HumanDHS Global Advisory Board.
He is Board Certified by the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology. He is also a Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association. Dr. Woods has been recognized nationally for his clinical work in chemical dependency, consultation-liaison (study of the relationship between physical disorders and mental disorders), and sleep disorders. In 1992, he was named Clinical Director of the Year for National Medical Enterprise's chemical dependency and rehabilitation divisions. The International Academy of Law and Mental Health elected Dr. Woods to its International Board of Directors in 2003, and he was elevated to Secretary General of the International Academy of Law and Mental Health in 2009. The Health Law Institute of Depaul University College of Law elected Dr. Woods to its Health Law Institute's Advisory Board in 2004. Dr. Woods was appointed to the Advisory Board of the California Center for African Peace and Conflict Resolution in 2007. He is a certified mediator.
Dr. Woods has consulted with the Kenyan and Tanzanian medical organizations after the Kenyan/Tanzanian Embassy bombings in 1998, helping each country respond to the bombings and create mental health delivery systems. Dr. Woods is licensed in Zanzibar, East Africa as well as in California. He has also consulted with Department of Psychiatry, Makerere University, Kampala, Uganda,  in the development of humanitarian forensic psychiatric services.
Dr. Woods is currently an Affiliate Professor in the Department of Psychiatry, Morehouse School of Medicine, Atlanta, Georgia. He was also an Adjunct Faculty member in the Department of Educational Leadership and Public Policy, California State University, Sacramento, California. Dr. Woods is a faculty member of the National Institute for Trial Advocacy based at Notre Dame University. He was an Adjunct Professor at the University of California at Davis School of Medicine, Department of Psychiatry, in the Forensic Psychiatry Postgraduate Fellowship from 1995 to 2000.
Dr. Woods is a frequent lecturer for many continuing legal education programs and training seminars, including the Matthew Bender Legal Publishing Company Lecture Series. Dr. Woods lectures and teaches for corporations, law firms, and academic institutions, nationally and internationally, on methods of developing educational and organizational learning strategies, executive coaching, understanding trends in cognitive development, and organizational effectiveness. He has worked with authors and actors in character development. Dr. Woods has also consulted on high profile cases nationally and internationally.
Please see:
• From the Plantations/Asylums to the Prisons: The Relationship between Humiliation, Stigma, Economics and Correctional Care for the Mentally Ill, abstract presented at the 2010 Workshop on Transforming Humiliation and Violent Conflict, Columbia University, New York City, December 9-10, 2010.
   

taylor
HENRY LOUIS TAYLOR, JR.
Henry Taylor is Professor at the Department of Urban, and Regional Planning Director at the Center for Urban Studies School of Architecture and Planning at the University at Buffalo, the State University of New York.
The Center for Urban Studies (CENTER) is a research and community development unit located in the UB School of Architecture and Planning. It's mission is to (1) engage in research that produces knowledge which contributes to understanding and solving the problem of neighborhood distress and building a sustainable urban metropolis (2) develop a model for transforming distressed urban neighborhoods into socially functional communities that are based on the principles of solidarity, collaboration, cosmopolitanism, reciprocity, participatory democracy and social justice, and (3) train students in urban and regional planning with the ability to recreate and rebuild a sustainable metropolis based on socioeconomic justice.
The Center for Urban Studies (CENTER) was founded by Professor Henry Louis Taylor, Jr. to popularize public service at UB and to facilitate the university’s transition from a detached Ivory tower to a democratic cosmopolitan civically engaged university. Within this framework, the primary goal was to strengthen the university’s involvement in the effort to revitalize distressed inner city communities. Toward this end, the CENTER established an interdisciplinary Masters program in Applied Public Affairs, which was based on problem-based learning. To facilitate its work, the CENTER was located in the Office of the Vice President for Public Service and Urban Affairs.
Please see:
Henry Louis Taylor, Jr., Inside El Barrio: A Bottom-Up View of Castro's Cuba. Stylus, 2009.
   

geo-jaja

MACLEANS A. GEO-JAJA
Macleans A. Geo-JaJa is a Professor of Economics and Education at Brigham Young University in the United States, where he teaches Economics of Education, Development Education, and Human Rights and Poverty courses. He conducts research in the areas of Human Development, Human Rights in Education, Globalization and Poverty, Development Education, and Economics of Education. His is widely published in top tier international journals and has contributed numerous chapters in peer reviewed edited books. Serving as technical expert in China, he worked with colleagues to establish an Institute of Africa Studies and a Teacher-Team Development Program for China’s transforming economy and education system. He has undertaken missions and policy studies in his specialty areas for a wide range of international donor organizations (World Bank, USAID, UNDP, etc) and national governments.
He is a member of the Publication Committee of the World Congress of Comparative Education Society (WCCES) and a member of the editorial consulting Board of the International Review of Education (IRE) a journal of UNESCO. In recognition of his contribution in the field, he has been invited as Guest editor to tier one journal in his field. In 2006, he was appointed to the Governor Huntsman Task Force on Refugee Resettlement in Utah; this was in recognition of his contribution and scholarly work on Equity and dignity in refugee resettlement and reintegration. In 2007, Professor Geo-JaJa was appointed a member of The Nigerian National Think Tank, in recognition of his community and scholarly contribution in the area of poverty, equity in education and human development, as well as dignity institution in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria. Currently, he serves as the Chair of National Think Tank on the Review of the Nigerian Constitution. He spent many years as Professor of Economics at the University of Port Harcourt in Nigeria, as well as at the University of Utah in the USA.
Please see:
•  Language As a Right in Education: A Case Study of Zanzibar Curriculum Reform, abstract presented by Zehlia Babaci-Wilhite &  MacLeans Geo-JaJa at the 2011 Workshop on Transforming Humiliation and Violent Conflict, Columbia University, New York City, December 8-9, 2011.
• Human Rights in Development Aid for Self-determination: Any Cause for Education Concern?, abstract presented at the 2012 Workshop on Transforming Humiliation and Violent Conflict, Columbia University, New York City, December 6-7, 2012. See video recording.

   

balosa
DAVID BALOSA
David Balosa is also a Member of the HumanDHS Research Team.
David wrote (on 30th September 2013:) I am an Angolan-American Scholar whose research interests include language domination, Spanish in the US, political discourse analysis, sociolinguistics, interculturality, critical intercultural communication theories, postcolonial theories, and moral, social, and political philosophy. I am a retired High School teacher of French and Spanish from the School district of Philadelphia since 2013. I am now an Adjunct Professor of English and Foreign Languages at Delaware State University (DSU), Dover, DE, where I teach Swahili, French, Portuguese and Spanish, 2013 - present. I taught Functional Grammar Discourse and Language and Culture for Classroom Teachers, at Pennsylvania State University, Abington in 2010-2011. I taught English for International Students and Adult Basic Literacy at LaSalle University from 2002-2010 I taught Elementary and Intermediate French at Community College of Philadelphia (CCP) from 206-2010 I am a poet.
David added on 5th October 2013: Many observers of the role of scholarship in the age of globalization may agree that scholarship has also been affected by capitalistic mentality. It would take a human dignifying research perspective to overcome the challenge and address the need of bringing back research to its primary mission - providing information to humankind for well informed global intercultural citizenship for dignity, generosity, unity, and common humanity.
Please see here:
Global Intercultural Citizenship for Dignity: Philo-politico-Educational Perspectives
Abstract presented at the 2013 Workshop on Transforming Humiliation and Violent Conflict, Columbia University, New York City, December 5-6, 2013. See also his Powerpoint presentation, and see his sharing of the fable of The Rat and Toad (Morale: Humiliation creates crisis).
The Politics of Language in the U.S. - Humiliation for Language Minority Speakers, paper contributed to the 2014 Workshop on Transforming Humiliation and Violent Conflict, Columbia University, New York City, December 4-5, 2014.
Global Intercultural Citizenship (GIC) in Rwandan Reconstructive Dialogue (Abstract | Powerpoint | Video), co-authored with Seif Sekalala, paper contributed to the 2014 Workshop on Transforming Humiliation and Violent Conflict, Columbia University, New York City, December 4-5, 2014.
Global Intercultural Citizenship in “Dignity Studies” Specialization, abstract shared at the 2015 Workshop on Transforming Humiliation and Violent Conflict, Columbia University, New York City, December 3-4, 2015 (Abstract | Powerpoint | Video 1, Video 2).
   

sekalala
SEIF SEKALALA
Seif Sekalala is also a Member of the HumanDHS Research Team.
Seif shared with us his background on 11th November 2014: "I was born in Uganda, East Africa, and came to the United States to pursue higher education (among other reasons) after high school in 2004; I have family spread out over 3 continents, and I love interacting with people from all over the globe. Given that background, perhaps it is no accident that I ended up studying what I study. I draw the inspiration for my research from some of the experiences my family and I have had in Africa and the West, and my overarching ambition is to understand and to fight some of the root causes of global injustice and inequality.
As of 2012 to 2016, the biggest project I am working on is my dissertation, in which I examine the narratives of Rwandan former refugees and genocide survivors (“FRGS”), and their expressions of coherence and resilience.
I am honored and delighted to be part of the HumanDHS fellowship of scholars, activists, and humanists. May peace and human dignity prevail in our world.
The goals of the researcher must be to empathize with the subject, to enter the subject’s realm of experience, and to attempt to understand the value of the person as an individual.
Please see:
Global Intercultural Citizenship (GIC) in Rwandan Reconstructive Dialogue (Abstract | Powerpoint | Video), co-authored with David Balosa, paper contributed to the 2014 Workshop on Transforming Humiliation and Violent Conflict, Columbia University, New York City, December 4-5, 2014.
   

rashed

DOAA RASHED
Doaa Rashed is also a Member of the HumanDHS Research Team.
Doaa Rashed is a doctoral candidate in the Language, Literacy & Culture PhD program at THE University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC). Originally from Egypt, Doaa started her career as a teacher of English as a foreign language in 1996. She currently teaches English as a Second Language, Second Language Acquisition & Culturally Responsive Teaching at UMBC. She also serves as a delegate in the Women in Public Service Leadership Project (WPSP) and president of Maryland TESOL; a teacher professional organization. Her research looks into teachers' professional identity and the factors that influence their sense of professionalism, focusing on cultural and ethnic diversity among teachers of English as a second language. She is currently developing a course on the discourse of humiliation as it ignites conflict across cultures.
Please see:
How Can We Cultivate Dignity (Video), contribution to the 2017 Workshop on Transforming Humiliation and Violent Conflict, Columbia University, New York City, December 7-8, 2017.

   

tarek
NOHA TAREK
Noha Tarek wrote on 23rd May 2018: I am Noha Tarek, presently working as a researcher in the National Center for Social and Criminological Research in Cairo, Egypt. I hold a B.Sc. and M.Sc. in political science, and my Master's thesis was about Change in Egyptian Political Culture and January 2011 Revolution: A Field Study of Egyptian Youth. I presently aim to continue my research in two tracks within the paradigm of cosmic evolution / Big History: (1) Evolution of human cultural values, specifically with relation to hierarchy, patriarchy, and loyalty. (2) Value formation in children dis-attached from stable socialization processes, and the effects of expanding their world-view on their value formation. I have also been a revolutionary political activist during the Egyptian 2011 revolution, and have gone through a consciousness transformation.
Please see:
My Cosmic Story: The Dark Energy, written for WGSS 495/597, Fall 2018.
   

manirakiza

SPES MANIRAKIZA
Spes Manirakiza is a leading expert on community-based approaches to peacebuilding, women’s empowerment and leadership, with 17 years of experience with international non-governmental organizations. Originally from Burundi, Spes has been involved in peacemaking for nearly her entire professional life.
As Search for Common Ground’s (SFCG) former Director of the Women Peace Center, she coordinated a network of 300 women groups across the country. The women with whom she worked came from different ethnic groups who together created a center of peace within communities of conflict, and their solidarity was palpable. From Burundi, Spes spent eight years in West Africa as the Guinea Project Director, the Ivory Coast Country Director as well as serving as a gender expert for Search for Common Ground’s regional work in West Africa. Spes has a deep insight into gender relations (often invisible) and has phenomenal strategic ability to mobilize for change.
While in Guinea, Spes was instrumental in organizing women's’ groups. She worked with a task force to mobilize women around key peacebuilding issues and continued to work on an SFCG regional project with the Mano River Women’s Peace Network (MARWOPNET). After five years in the Ivory Coast and leading gender work in throughout West Africa, she joined the Tanzania country program where she led the Women Leadership Program on the islands of Zanzibar, providing strategies for preventing conflicts that lead to violent extremism both in Zanzibar and other regions of Tanzania, with a focus on women and youth.
Spes has rich experience as a journalist and trainer in the field of conflict transformation both on the national and regional level as well in cross-cultural, complex and challenging environments. Spes has always prioritized projects that continue to promote women’s voices in peacebuilding and leadership. To this end, she has undertaken a wide range of projects including collaborations with European Union (EU), United States Agency for International (USAID), Swedish International Development Cooperation  (SIDA) UNIFEM, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), Canadian Cooperation, and all major allies promoting UNSC 1325 and 1820 and a host of national partners.
Spes is an accomplished field worker with astute insight informed by her wide and profound experience, strong relationship-building skills, and focused advocacy for social change. Throughout her career working in Burundi, Rwanda, Cote d’Ivoire, Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia as well as Tanzania, Spes has collected many stories of women struggling to push peace processes, in the midst of conflict in their homes and their towns, and pushing to foster reconciliation and peace-building against all odds.
With a myriad of personal experiences to share and document, Spes hopes to inspire people interested in the field of conflict transformation. These experiences collectively represent the ‘coming of age’ stories of women in the middle of a journey of peace-building throughout the world.

   

fonkem

FONKEM ACHANKENG
Fonkem Achankeng is also Member of the HumanDHS Research Team.
Fonkem Achankeng, PhD, a Hubert Humphrey International Fellow, is Associate Professor at the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh. Dr. Fonkem a Hubert Humphrey International Fellow, is Associate Professor at the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh. Dr. Fonkem is the traditional Ruler of Atoabechied in the former British Southern Cameroons and served as senior official in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Cameroon for 12 years. He was also founder and executive director of the Association for Nonviolence, where he helped to introduce and moderate a third voice in Cameroon in the 1990s in the wake of a very polarized introduction of multiparty politics. Following an interdisciplinary approach, he has published more than 18 titles and presented his research in various regional, national, and international conferences. His research interests encompass peace and conflict studies; postcolonial nationalism and conflict; nonviolence; identity, culture and conflict; human and people’s rights; refugees, migration and human services; the working poor; aging; international mediation; crisis intervention in human services; and families with children with disabilities. Please see his two recent books, Nationalism & Intra-State Conflicts in the Postcolonial World (Rowman & Littlefield of Lexington Books, 2015), and British Southern Cameroons: Nationalism & Conflict in Postcolonial Africa (BC, Canada: FriesenPress, 2014). His next book will be Second Chances, Human Service, Crime & Redemption.
Please see:
• "Conflict and Conflict Resolution in Africa: Engaging the Colonial Factor." In African Journal on Conflict Resolution, 13 (2), pp. 11–37, 2013.
Human Dignity & A World Beyond War: Partnerships and Collaborations in Our Global Commons, paper shared at the 2015 Workshop on Transforming Humiliation and Violent Conflict, Columbia University, New York City, December 3-4, 2015.
The Dignity of the Commons: Re-imagining Life Experiences from the Poor & Homeless to International Politics (Pdf | Powerpoint), contribution prepared for the 2016 Workshop on Transforming Humiliation and Violent Conflict, Columbia University, New York City, December 8-9, 2016.
Imperial Dispossession of ‘Others’ by Falsification of Dignity (Video | Pdf | Powerpoint), contribution to the 2017 Workshop on Transforming Humiliation and Violent Conflict, Columbia University, New York City, December 7-8, 2017.
Fonkem Achankeng I (2018)
Understanding the British Southern Cameroons' Restoration of Statehood: Internal Affair or Decolonization Conflict (Pdf), contribution to the 2018 Workshop on Transforming Humiliation and Violent Conflict, Columbia University, New York City, December 6 -7, 2018.
• A summary of the situation in Cameroon: Cameroon Burning: The Unseen War, full documentary, BBC Africa Eye, June 25, 2018, "Hundreds of shocking mobile phone videos from Cameroon have surfaced in the past six months. They are coming from the English speaking part of the country, where rebels are fighting to form an independent state called "Ambazonia". BBC Africa Eye have analysed these films, shedding fresh light on who is responsible for the violence."
Humiliation, Betrayal and Great Pain: British Southern Cameroons, Half a Century of Self-Questioning, and a Mass Movement for Freedom (Pdf), contribution to the 2019 Workshop on Transforming Humiliation and Violent Conflict, Columbia University, New York City, December 5 -6, 2019.
• A summary of the situation in Cameroon shared at the 2021 Workshop on Transforming Humiliation and Violent Conflict, Virtual, Columbia University, New York City, December 9 – 11, 2021: Cameroon Burning: The Unseen War, full documentary, BBC Africa Eye, June 25, 2018, "Hundreds of shocking mobile phone videos from Cameroon have surfaced in the past six months. They are coming from the English speaking part of the country, where rebels are fighting to form an independent state called "Ambazonia". BBC Africa Eye have analysed these films, shedding fresh light on who is responsible for the violence."
Paradise Lost? A Political History of British Southern Cameroons from 1916 to 1972, by Nfor Ngala Nfor (Austin, TX: Pan-African University Press, 2020).
The Anglophone Problem in Cameroon: The Change from Crisis to Conflict, and a Possible Way Forward to Resolution, by Billy Agwanda and Uğur Yasin Asal, 2021, shared at the 2021 Workshop on Transforming Humiliation and Violent Conflict, Virtual, Columbia University, New York City, December 9 – 11, 2021.

   

lombardo

LUCIEN XAVIER LOMBARDO
Lucien Xavier Lombardo is Professor Emeritus of Sociology and Criminal Justice.
From working in a maximum security prison in the late 1960’s and early 1970’s, studying the world of work and prisons in the 1970’s and 80’s, exploring violence in the 1980’s and 90’s and the world of children in the 1990’s until today, Lucien Lombardo has learned that the road to human dignity, peace and justice starts in childhood: the childhoods of today’s adults, the childhoods of children with whom today’s adults interact, and the childhoods of the adults today’s children become. Starting with this intergenerational perspective on childhood, Lucien Lombardo shows how having today’ adults discuss their childhood experiences with human dignity (supports for and violations) provides a foundation upon which the road to becoming better ancestors can be built.
Lucien Xavier Lombardo retired from Old Dominion University in Norfolk, VA, after 35 years. From the beginning of his teaching career, he has emphasized dimensions of the struggle for and experiences of human dignity in relationship to power and violence that are part of the pedagogical process and the subjects focused on in his courses on violence, violence in the world of children, correctional institutions or an interdisciplinary exploration of working life.
Prior to his time at Old Dominion University, Dr. Lombardo worked as a teacher at Auburn Correctional Facility (1969-1977) a maximum-security prison in NY where he confronted the humiliation that is built into the structure and purpose of the , institution. There he taught prison inmates English and Spanish. He also developed a course called "Creative Reading" where students confronted their own existential situation in relation to literature. During these prison years he observed and experienced prisoners were struggling politically to have their humanity recognized as the civil rights and women's rights movements were struggling to extended rights and humanity to other groups. He wrote about some of these prison experiences in: Lucien X. Lombardo (2006), Attica Remembered: A Personal Essay, Paideusis, Journal for Interdisciplinary and Cross-Cultural Studies, and Lucien X. Lombardo (2012), Learning Corrections: Linking Experience and Research, in Lee Michael Johnson (ed), Experiencing Corrections: From Practitioner to Professor, Chapter 9, Thousand Oaks: Sage.
At Old Dominion University Dr. Lombardo developed a number of unique classes. He taught "Understanding Violence" a course that explored the relationships between experiencing violence and dehumanization (among other factors) and the perpetration of violence across the spectrum from suicide to violence against children, women, hate violence, institutional violence (torture, and violence in prisons and by police) war (policy makers and soldiers perspectives) and genocide. This is what he refers to as "the Violence Process". (See Pedagogy and Violence: Teaching Values in the Process of Understanding the Spectrum of Violence, prepared for presentation at the 76th Annual Fellows Meeting, The Society for Values in Higher Education, Colorado Springs, Colorado August 3-9, 2000.)
He also developed and taught with colleague Dr. Karen A. Polonko "Violence in the World of Children" - where violence is defined as "whatever interferes with children's work of developing and learning". This definition extends the study of violence and children beyond physical violence usually the focus of courses on children and places it squarely in the 'active' (children as agents) lives of children. Central to this course are the development of child-centered perspectives and an understanding of children and their social connections and the human dignity of children.
He also taught courses on "Correctional Institutions" which explored mass incarceration and its psychological and social causes and effects. The meaning of imprisonment in the contexts of our individual and political coping with difference, deviance and ideas of punishment and humiliation take a central position.
Dr. Lombardo's teaching and writing were shaped by many experiences with violence. These are referred to in: Finding My Way to Questions about Violence: Dr. Lombardo's Journey - Was It Following Me Around?, a presentation prepared for a "senior scholar lecture at Old Dominion University. 
Dr. Lombardo has written Guards Imprisoned: Correctional Officers at Work (1981; 1989) and co-edited Prison Violence in America (1994) and Children and Young People in a Changing World (Special Edition of Global Bioethics, University of Florence, 2005). For many years Dr. Lombardo directed and developed ODU's interdisciplinary studies program and was instrumental in developing an interdisciplinary BS degree program in "Work and Professional Studies" where students explored the relationship between work, the workplace and human dignity.
Dr. Lombardo also served as Co-Faculty Advisor, In Support of Children, a student organization at Old Dominion University. The organization seeks to spread the word that "It's NEVER ok to HIT A CHILD" as a starting point for reducing harms to children and the adults they become and preventing violence, dehumanization and human degradation in the future! 
In retirement he is developing a book describing and analyzing student experiences of support for and violations of human dignity violations experienced in childhood.
Please see the following writings for deeper discussion of the concerns described above:
• Lucien X. Lombardo and Karen A. Polonko (2004). The Enlightened Witness: Reasserting Humanity in the Face of Violence at the Beginning of the Twenty-First Century, International Journal of the Humanities, 2 (2), article HC04-0115-2004.
• Lucien X. Lombardo (2001). Brief Thoughts on Reading the Works of Alice Miller.
• Lucien X. Lombardo and Karen A. Polonko (2005). Human Dignity and Children: Operationalizing a Human rights Concept. Global Bioethics, Volume 18.
• Lucien X. Lombardo (2005). Some Observations of Alice Miller's The Body Never Lies
Bringing Human Dignity to Work and Workplace through the Study of Work, outline for the "Work and Professional Studies" degree program developed at the Old Dominion University Norfolk, VA, shared at the 2014 Workshop on Transforming Humiliation and Violent Conflict, Columbia University, New York City, December 45, 2014.
Learning the Language of Dignity and Humiliation in Childhood, contribution shared at the 2018 Workshop on Transforming Humiliation and Violent Conflict, Columbia University, New York City, December 6 – 7, 2018.
Adults ‘Becoming Better Ancestors’ through Exploring Their Childhood Experiences with Human Dignity (Pdf | Video), contribution shared at the 2019 Workshop on Transforming Humiliation and Violent Conflict, Columbia University, New York City, December 5 – 6, 2019.
Human Dignity and Childhood, Workshop with Leadership Team, Auburn Enlarged City School District, Auburn, NY, November 18, 2019.
• "Message to the World — Learning about Dignity" (Text | Video recorded on December 5, 2020) shared in the 2020 Workshop on Transforming Humiliation and Violent Conflict, Virtual, Columbia University, New York City, December 10 – 12, 2020.
• Lucien Lombardo shared his experiences (Video), 20th Workshop on Transforming Humiliation and Violent Conflict titled "The Urgency of Seeding Dignity: Honoring 20 Years of Global Collaboration for Transforming Suffering Through Courageous and Compassionate Action," hybrid, co-hosted online and in person by the Morton Deutsch International Center for Cooperation and Conflict Resolution at Teachers College, Columbia University, New York City, December 8, 2023.
Dignity Pledge in Sierra Leone from their Children’s Day celebration, supported by Lucien Lombardo, Futureleadersinitiative, 19th February 2024: "On November 20th, 2023, we embarked on a journey of empowerment and inclusivity during our World Children's Day celebration. With the theme of 'Dignity and Inclusive Education for Every Child', we ignited conversations that resonated with the hearts and minds of our future leaders. Highlights included captivating panel discussions led by esteemed moderators Saffiatu Barrie and Ibrahim. Our young scholars, guided by Saffiatu Barrie, delved into what defines a good teacher, the essence of respect, and the pivotal role educators play in shaping their lives. Meanwhile, Ibrahim led an engaging dialogue among educators, fostering insights and strategies to ensure every child receives the education they deserve. We extend our heartfelt thanks to Lucien and friends for their invaluable support in making this event a resounding success. Their dedication and commitment to the cause of children's rights and education are truly commendable. Furthermore, we express our sincere gratitude to all our partners and collaborators who contributed their time, resources, and expertise to bring this celebration to life. Together, we build a brighter, more inclusive future!"

   
kirisci
MUSTAFA KIRISCI
Mustafa Kirisci is a Research Analyst at Pennsylvania Partnership for Children. His research interests are civil conflict, terrorism, international conflict, conflict management and the effect of humiliation on conflict dynamics. His papers appear in Government and Opposition, Critical Studies on Terrorism, Terrorism and Political Violence, International Negotiation. He is currently working as a research analyst for Pennsylvania Partnership for Children that dedicates its works to promote child development, welfare and education. 
   

talluri
RAMBABU TALLURI
Rambabu Talluri is Bachelor of philosophy (religious studies), Bachelor of Arts, Master of Social Work (Specialized in Youth Development), Master of Law (LLB and LLM), legal and social researcher (qualitative and quantitative), human rights defender and fundraiser for a range of nonprofit organizations. He is an authorized facilitator for the Stewards of Children Training program by Darkness to Light for Beau Biden Foundation. Darkness to Light, like the Beau Biden Foundation, believes that every child has the right to grow up healthy, happy, and safe. He is also a research fellow for the Environmental Constitutionalism for Asian Pacific.
Please see:
Journey with Lenape Tribe for Defending their Rights and Sustainable Development, contribution shared at the 2017 Workshop on Transforming Humiliation and Violent Conflict, Columbia University, New York City, December 7-8, 2017.
Untouchables Love, Labor and Live, contribution to the 2018 Workshop on Transforming Humiliation and Violent Conflict, Columbia University, New York City, December 6 -7, 2018.
   

jemsek
GREG JEMSEK
Gregory J. Jemsek, M.A., is a Narrative Therapist and Leadership Consultant based in Ashland, Oregon, USA. He has worked internationally with Community Leadership organizations since 1986, including LISA, Leadership Plus, and the American Leadership Forum, providing Leadership development workshops and individual coaching to program participants. Greg has also worked as a Medical Educator, a University Lecturer, and an Organizational Consultant. Greg earned his Master’s Degree in Consciousness Studies from John F. Kennedy University in California, where he began his pursuit of a lifelong interest in the abuses of power that take place in ideological organizations, both secular and religious. This led to Greg writing Quiet Horizon, a book examining the psychological foundations of ideological thinking. Greg continues to explore this topic via a series of workshops, the Dogma Dialogues, and through his blog. In addition to these pursuits, Greg currently serves on the board of MHREN, a mental health education board serving the Rogue Valley, and Living Opportunities, a non-profit organization serving people with intellectual disabilities.
   

engler
ANNETTE A. ENGLER
Annette Anderson-Engler, Ph.D., is a Member of the HumanDHS Global Core Team, the HumanDHS Education Team, our HumanDHS Research Team, and our Global Coordinating Team.
Annette earned her doctorate in 2008 at Saybrook Graduate School in San Francisco, California. Her research focused on secondary trauma and displaced identity in daughters of U.S. Vietnam War veterans. She specialized in using narrative analysis as a method of inquiry by examining how daughters of war-traumatized veterans use narratives to construct social and personal meaning to their lived experiences. Annette was awarded her Masters degree in Conflict Analysis and Resolution at Nova Southeastern University and received her BSW in social work from the University of North Texas. She is currently a member of Association of Conflict Resolution and ISPP-International Society of Political Psychology. Annette took part in Dan Bar-On's Storytelling and Dialogue work through the Körber Stiftung foundation in Hamburg, Germany (2006-2008). Her dissertation is dedicated to the work and memory of Dan Bar-On (1938-2008).
Annette will finish her second masters degree from Walla Walla University, in March of 2011, where she has been working on her MSW in advanced clinical social work. During her training, she has focused on counseling women suffering from grief, trauma and loss.
Please see:
• the notes that Annette presented at our workshops in NY: Humiliation and Displaced Identity (2004), and Displaced Identity and Humiliation in Children of Vietnam Veterans (2005).
Constructing and Reconstructing Narratives – A Passageway to Personal Meaning and Social Change, abstract presented at the 2007 Workshop on Humiliation and Violent Conflict, Columbia University, New York City, December 13-14, 2007.
Shared Narratives: The “Voice” of Personal and Social Identity – Are we Listening?, abstract presented at the 2009 Workshop on Humiliation and Violent Conflict, Columbia University, New York City, December 10-11, 2009.
Humiliation Through Silent Grief in Women: When Words Are Not Enough, abstract presented at the 2010 Workshop on Transforming Humiliation and Violent Conflict, Columbia University, New York City, December 9-10, 2010.

See also Annette Engler's contributions to the World Dignity University (WDU) initiative. These video clips were recorded on October 28, 2011, in Portland, Oregon, by Linda Hartling and Evelin Lindner for the World Dignity University (WDU) initiative.
• 01 Annette Engler: Intoduction, Annette Engler is being interviewed by Evelin Lindner. The recording is done by Linda Hartling.
• 02 The Role of Dignity and Humiliation for Grief, Annette Engler is being interviewed by Evelin Lindner. The recording is done by Linda Hartling.
• 03 The Role of Dignity and Humiliation for the Transmission of Transgenerational Trauma, Annette Engler is being interviewed by Evelin Lindner. The recording is done by Linda Hartling.
• 04 The Role of Dignity and Humiliation for Cultural Diversity, Annette Engler is being interviewed by Linda Hartling. The recording is done by Evelin Lindner. (Please note that Annette Engler uses the term "servitude" in the sense of "service.")
• 05 The Role of Dignity and Humiliation for Conflict Resolution, Annette Engler is being interviewed by Linda Hartling. The recording is done by Evelin Lindner.
• 06 The Role of Dignity and Humiliation for Poetry, Annette Engler's presentation is being recorded by Linda Hartling and Evelin Lindner.
   

linger

RITA ANITA LINGER
Dr. Rita Anita Linger is a Human Scientist, Integrative Health Practitioner and the CEO of SERA, Inc. in Raleigh, North Carolina, a capacity building and public health organization which strives to enhance the quality of life for families, youth, women, men and seniors in all aspects of life from health and wellness to financial empowerment and sustainability. The organization primarily serves minority and low wealth communities. All facets of a community member’s life that will ultimately lead to health and economic empowerment are assessed and action plans for movement toward goals are created.
Dr. Linger has decades of experience in designing, implementing and overseeing leadership and organizational effectiveness initiatives and is the Founder and Director of The Center for Mind-Body and Business, LLC, a consulting firm which works to integrate mindful awareness training as well as mind-body skill development in every aspect of corporate and non-profit operations including but not limited to performance management, leadership development, team building, leadership and social change, appreciative inquiry, workplace conflict resolution, emotional intelligence, strategic planning and management, personality/typology, change management, data analysis, evaluation, strategy execution, health and wellness initiatives and effective communication. The integration of mindful awareness and training into organizational structures provide opportunities to create intentional leaders in the workplace with the priority of positively impacting systems, employee relations and the financial bottom line of the organization in ways that have the potential to exceed expectations.
Dr. Linger believes in using person-centered processes to identify, cultivate and synthesize capabilities within human systems for personal and professional success. She believes as her favorite humanist and psychologist, Abraham Maslow posits “People’s capabilities clamor to be used, and without those capabilities being realized, the person can atrophy, and disappear - diminishing him/her forever.”
To that end, Dr. Linger works to bring the best of people to their own awareness, ultimately causing them to self-generate authentic, humanistic and synergistic relationships amongst and between people in their communities and their homes; experiencing opportunities for health and wellness in a way that will create solutions for seemingly intractable issues, and help positively sustain those changes.
Dr. Linger has over 35 years as a public health, social justice advocate, corporate consultant and program administrator. In Western NYS she was responsible for starting the first Courtwatch program which sought to protect victims of domestic violence. She also started the first Community Police Advocacy Program in NYS during the Rodney King era to improve relationships and safety outcomes of community police interactions.
In North Carolina she was responsible for assisting a victim of domestic violence who was left for dead and her daughter murdered to receive a financial award of $400,000 by the municipality that ignored the victim’s cries for help. As a result of that outcome Dr. Linger assisted in crafting legislation that required law enforcement to facilitate due diligence around lawful arrests in domestic violence cases in order to protect the victim. The legislation is now law in North Carolina and is called “Candice’s Law”, named after the murdered daughter of the victim.
Dr. Linger has received numerous awards including the AARP Community Outreach Award and her picture has been placed on a quilt in the DeWitt Historical Society in NYS as a signature Community Advocate, right next to Dorothy Cotton, one of Martin Luther King’s collaborators and assistants. She has appeared in numerous magazines and television shows and was quoted in “Oprah” Magazine.
She has decades of experience in designing, implementing and overseeing organizational effectiveness initiatives in healthcare systems, major for-profit corporations, and non-profits, through the venues of health and wellness initiatives, change management, emotional intelligence, performance management & execution strategies, appreciative inquiry, data analysis & evaluation, conflict resolution & communication, skillful negotiation, individual, group and executive integrative health coaching, “leading mindfully” and mind-body medicine skill group facilitations as well as designing global diversity implementation strategies.
Dr. Linger is also the Founder and Director of SERA, Inc.’s “The People’s Integrative Health Center.” The center focuses on caring for the whole human being—body, mind, spirit, and community. The center works with clients to identify, illuminate and address those areas of life that hinder them from living optimally. She works with clients using a compassionate economics model and integrative health model to achieve behavioral change goals through interventions that are uniquely designed to empower the client to take action in pursuit of an enhanced quality of life through mindful awareness, all with the support of their coach. The center’s clients are engaged in Integrative Health and Wellness Coaching, Experiential Mindfulness Activities, Mind Body Medicine interventions and Community Gardening/Nutrition initiatives as well as Patient-Centered medical exams.
As an Integrative Health practitioner, Dr. Linger enters into a holistic partnership with her clients to bring awareness to all facets of life that are keeping the client from being his or her best. Ms. Linger assists clients in moving past "sticking points" to a place where they are able to increase the quality of their lives and experience the life they have always envisioned. She implements holistic approaches to wellness for individuals, organizations and communities through the mediums of coaching, stress reduction initiatives and mindfulness-based strategies for the purpose of increasing the personal wellness of individuals and/or the health of the organization.
Dr. Linger’s center is responsible for teaching youth, mindfulness stress reduction skills, mind-body and nutritional skills designed to enhance the quality of their health status and address issues of depression, substance abuse, low self-esteem and other cognitive and behavioral issues. Dr. Linger also works with caregivers, seniors, and family units around public health concerns and to enhance the quality of life for these individuals. She finds it important to train community members to provide resources and support to those who live and work within their own communities.
Dr. Linger is a Mind Body Medicine practitioner, a certified Mindfulness Facilitator and Emindful Instructor, and faculty/supervisor with the Center for Mind Body Medicine. She is part of a team of 20 working with Eskenazi Healthcare Systems in Indianapolis, making this hospital the first “wellness” hospital in the nation. She is a doctorate level and certified Integrative Health and Wellness Coach as well as an Organizational Effectiveness Consultant and Executive Coach. She is a PhD in Human Science graduating from the school of Psychology and Interdisciplinary Inquiry and Clinical Psychology, from Saybrook University, San Francisco, CA with Specializations in Integrative Health, Organizational Systems and Mind Body Medicine. She has expertise in Psychophysiology, Public Health and Contemporary Neuroscience. Dr. Linger is also in high demand by for profit corporations across the country for resiliency and leadership training.
Rita Anita is a graduate of The Center for Mind Body Medicine in Washington, DC., and a graduate of Duke University Integrative Medicine's Health Coach Professional Training Program in Durham, NC. Rita Anita is a licensed HeartMath biofeedback provider, receiving licensure at the Institute of HeartMath, Boulder Creek, CA. She is a Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) facilitator and practitioner for over 16 years as well as a licensed personality/temperament typology expert having been trained by True Colors International in Santa Ana, California.
Dr. Linger is also a certified mediator and conflict resolution trainer/facilitator for twenty eight years, having received certification from the NYS Mediation Association in Albany, NY. She is a guest lecturer at Cornell University, where she teaches “Mediation and the Law”. She is a reconciliation and restorative justice mediator working with victims and their perpetrators assisting in the repairing of harm done to the victim. She currently serves as Adjunct Professor at William Peace University, Raleigh, NC in the School of Leadership and Professional Studies where she teaches, Leadership and Organizational Change, Performance Management, Business Ethics, Group Dynamics and Processes, Leadership and Social Change. All of her classes are taught through a “Mindful Awareness” lens. She is also a workshop facilitator for ICF (International Coaching Federation), and TODN (Triangle Organizational Development Network) where she focuses on incorporating mindfulness skills in the workplace toward individual and personal success. She provides health/wellnesses and patient centered care coaching and training for physicians, nurses, administrators and others within the medical community.
Dr. Linger is a team member of the Columbia University hosted Global Research and Education Team of the Human Dignity and Humiliation Studies Program (HDHS). HSHA aims at disseminating the research findings related to dignity and humiliation to a wide variety of audiences, internationally and within the U.S. HDHS contributes to the capacity of people to build peaceful societies and be mindful of how humiliation may disrupt the social fabric, and how social cohesion may be sustained by preventing humiliation from occurring. Dr. Linger is married to a wonderful husband and has two adult children and three grandchildren. She enjoys Film Noir, trips to the beach, facilitating Mindfulness and Mind Body Medicine Skills Groups, partnering with clients to enhance their quality of life (on the job and off) and improving health outcomes via personalized coaching and biofeedback modalities. She also enjoys practicing what she preaches around enhancing states of wellness through mindfulness practice and integrative living.
Dr. Linger is married to a wonderful husband and has two adult children and three grandchildren. She enjoys Film Noir, trips to the beach, facilitating Mindfulness and Mind Body Medicine Skills Groups, partnering with clients to enhance their quality of life (on the job and off) and improving health outcomes via personalized coaching and biofeedback modalities. She also enjoys practicing what she preaches around enhancing states of wellness through mindfulness practice and integrative living.
See also:
•  SERA, Inc.: A snapshot
•  Rita Anita shared the following on October 28, 2014: First is a video of the organization SERA (Southeast Raleigh Assembly), I started with support from the city of Raleigh when they hired me 5 years ago. The second is a video that was done on collaborative urban gardening that features my community garden endeavor ROOT1 and has my executor for the garden in the video, Ajuba Joy. Next there is an article that was written on the Community Integrative Health Center I started three years ago, and finally a link to the website of the organization SERA. My dissertation was entitled: "A Qualitative Study of a Mindfulness-Based Coaching Intervention for Perception Shifts and Emotional Regulation around Workplace Stressors and Quality of Life". It was an amazing process. I am faculty with the Center of Mind Body Medicine and facilitate MBM groups each week. The Center has staff in Israel, the Gaza Strip, and Iraq. I am also training people in Mindfulness practice and have been working with at risk youth and previously incarcerated persons.
•  Enhancing Dignity and Reducing Humiliation through the Practice of Mind-Body Skills, abstract prepared for the 2016 Workshop on Transforming Humiliation and Violent Conflict, Columbia University, New York City, December 8 - 9, 2016.

   

benche

DENIS BEN CHE
Denis Ben Che was born in Cameroon and is currently a PhD student in the Institute of Development Policy and Management at the University of Manchester, UK. He previously studied peace and development work at the Linnaeus University in Sweden, where he earned a BSc and an MSc in Peace and Development Studies. Before leaving Cameroon, he graduated from the University of Yaoundé 1 with a BA and a Postgraduate diploma in arts, and later he obtained an MA from Blekinge Institute of Technology in Karlskrona, Sweden.
He worked as a teacher in many private institutions in Cameroon, and also worked as youth development leader. He got the opportunity to travel around Africa to areas of conflict and participated in community development projects, especially in East and Central Africa. During his stay in Eastern Africa, he became interested in researching vulnerable populations and got acquainted with refugees in camps and settlements, especially women and young children. Due to his interest in refugee environments in settlements and camps, notably the Nakivale Settlement in Uganda, this settlement became subsequently his research site for the completion of his MSc thesis in peace and development work. His interest in refugees and other vulnerable populations currently motivates him to do research on people displaced by long-standing conflict.
He is also interested in human rights and sustainable development. This interest has been the background for him to seek academic understanding of issues related to human and universal rights. He has a certification in international human rights law, sustainable development law, and European human rights law. He is keen on sharing his experience and knowledge in areas related to this field in order to improve the lives of vulnerable people. He has been volunteering at non-profit organizations related to issues of human rights.

   

amollo

CAROLINE AMOLLO
Caroline Anne Amollo is also a Member in our HumanDHS Global Research Team.
is a believer in Social Justice, currently pursuing a Master’s degree in Conflict Resolution at the University of Massachusetts, Boston, with a goal of acquiring knowledge and skills needed to become a part of global change through globalization and egalization by influencing policies that impact developing country communities in order to eradicate poverty and enhance human development without disrupting human dignity. In her home country, Kenya, she has been directly involved with environmental issues that impact human security namely, climate change and resource scarcity, also working against human rights violations like female genital mutilation among other gender issues in the developing world. She has experienced first-hand how these correlate to impact human security locally and globally. She looks forward to commence her doctoral studies in the fall of 2013. For her social justice and volunteerism efforts among the Maasai community in Kenya she was rewarded with the Ford Foundation International Fellowships Program through which she has been able to pursue graduate study in the USA.
Please see:
Caroline Amollo: Introduction to Research on Dignity, a video in which Caroline greets the participants of the 10th Workshop on Transforming Humiliation and Violent Conflict that takes place at Columbia University in New York City on 5-6th December 2013, among them her academic adviser Inga Bostad. Carol is the first PhD candidate of the World Dignity University initiative, in partnership with the University of Oslo, Norway. This video was recorded on 2nd December 2013 in Nairobi, Kenya, by Nicole Dorie.

   

DANA COMSTOCK
In 2007, Dr. Dana Comstock has been named Chair of the Department of Counseling and Human Services. Dr. Comstock has served St. Mary's University for 15 years. She served as Program Director for 11 of those years, and is editor of Diversity and Development: Critical Contexts that Shape Our Lives and Relationships.
Please see:
•  The Global Impact of Humiliation on Relationships and World Peace, presentation proposal together with Tonya Hammer to the Third International Women's Peace Conference, Dallas, Texas U.S.A., July 10-15, 2007.
   

SUSAN REYNOLDS PYNCHON
Please see Susan Reynolds Pynchon's dissertation Resisting Humiliation in Schooling: Narratives and Counter-Narratives at the University of Washington Library (dissertation). See here the abstract.
   

SHARON STEINBORN
Sharon Steinborn is a practicing psychotherapist working in the field of treating anxiety disorders and trauma. It is her belief that the discipline of psychology has a lot to offer in the way of healing for those who have been affected by trauma and the resultant depression and anxiety that follows traumatic events.
Sharon shared on July 24, 2022: I am specifically engaged in working with humiliation trauma and in understanding, researching an formulating treatment plans that specifically address humiliation. I believe there can be healing from trauma and that trauma can also become transformational and lead to deeper empathy, richer lives and the embrace of dignity for oneself and others. Currently I have my own private practice, but in the past I have worked for Protective Services working with victims of child abuse. I also worked in the field of divorce where I did Child Custody Evaluations for the court. I am so honored to be part of the Humiliation and Dignity Studies community.
Please see:
• Sharon Steinborn and Peter Pollard host the Dignilogue titled Humiliation Trauma. The 20th Workshop on Transforming Humiliation and Violent Conflict, titled "The Urgency of Seeding Dignity: Honoring 20 Years of Global Collaboration for Transforming Suffering Through Courageous and Compassionate Action," hybrid, co-hosted online and in person by the Morton Deutsch International Center for Cooperation and Conflict Resolution at Teachers College, Columbia University, New York City, December 8, 2023.
• "Humiliation Trauma: The Deepest Loss," Book Talk with Sharon Steinborn as Part of the Books, Dignity, and Dialogue Series, 
Friday, April 19, 2024 Online: 10:00 AM Pacific time; 11:00 Mountain time; 1:00 PM Eastern time; 7:00 PM Europe.

   

HAYÂL (ÖZIŞIKLIOĞLU) KÖKSAL
Hayal Köksal, Ph.D., is also a Member of the HumanDHS Global Advisory Board.
Dr. Köksal was born in Balikesir, Turkey in 1956. She graduated from Izmir Teachers' Training College in 1976 and Educational Faculty of Marmara University in 1985. She received her MA in English Language Teaching from Gaziantep University in 1992, and her Ph.D. in Educational Sciences in 1997 from the same institution. She is a teacher-trainer in pre- and in-service education. She is an author of 15 books about educational issues. Her last book Çekirdekten Yetiştirme (Catch Kids Young) was published by Dignity Press in 2014.
She also organizes educational and peace-oriented conferences in Turkey upon request. One was 11. ICSQCC in Istanbul Yeditepe University hugging 450 participants from 11 different countries. Another one was the 15. Annual Conference of Human DHS. It took part in Boğaziçi University in Istanbul on 28-30 April 2010 with the participation of 25 peace experts from various countries.
She is a researcher and quality expert especially in project management. Up to now, she guided 300 “ICT Seagulls projects” not only in Turkey but also in USA, UK, India, Nepal and South Africa.
Dr. Köksal has been dealing with Total Quality in Education since 1992, and between 2000-2013, she directed the Turkish and Eurasian Centers for Schools of Quality with quality expert Professor John Jay Bonstingl.
Since 2003, as the Director General of Turkey within the World Council for Total Quality and Excellence in Education (WCTQEE), founded in India by 25 countries, she has acted one of the partners of the "WCTQEE-CMS-Hayal Köksal Networking Initiative for Peace Education." She is trying to teach "Critical thinking skills" to the world children under the name of "İmece (=Collaborative) Circles. She guided more than 3,000 projects through that methodology which also includes conflict resolution, see www.bilisimcimartilar.com.
She has worked as advisor and coordinator of the Innovative Teachers Program of Microsoft Turkey, and consultant of Educational Quality, Leadership and Project Management from 2004 to 2009. 
She has been lecturing at various outstanding Turkish Universities as a part-time instructor as a way of publicizing quality-oriented education, and working as an educational quality consultant, researcher, teacher trainer, and curriculum designer.
Dr. Köksal is a member of many Turkish Non-Governmental Organizations believing in the power of unity.
Dr. Köksal has received the Honorary Medal of the Ministry of Tourism due to her leadership of Archeological projects, and golden and silver medals of NYDT in South Africa. She has also received the Business-Education Partnership Award of the Center for Schools of Quality together with Microsoft Turkey. Dr. Köksal is the Turkish National Youth Development Trustee (NYDT) of South Africa, the Turkish General Director of the World Council for Total Quality and Excellence in Education (WCTQEE) of India, and a member of the advisory board of the Center for Quality People and Organizations (CQPO) in the USA. She is also in collaboration with the International Academy for Quality Circles (IAQC), established by Donald Dewar, Dallas Blankenship, and Dr. John Man. She won an award in the World Bank 2005 Turkey Innovative Marketplace competition through her "Imece Circles Project" in May 2005. On 4th December 2005, she was awarded the World Quality Leader award by the WCTQEE.
Dr. Köksal has been giving some elective and compulsory courses at the Educational faculty of Boğaziçi University (Nonviolence in Education, Conflict Resolution, Classroom Management, School Experience, Introduction to Teaching Profession, Innovative Teaching and Quality in ELT) since 1997. She also gave courses at Yildiz Technical University (Personal Quality and Leadership), at the MA Program of Bahcesehir University (Human Resources Management), and "Quality in Training" at Yeditepe University.
Dr. Köksal is married with one daughter and one grandson.
Since 2007, Hayal is writing her new Blog regularly. It can be visited at www.hayalkoksal.com and www.bilisimcimartilar.com, where her daily comments are published. She also directs three Face Book pages.
Please see:
• Human Dignity Through “Peace at Home, Peace in the World”, presentation given at the 15th Annual Conference of Human Dignity and Humiliation Studies "Peace at Home, Peace in the World," in Istanbul, Turkey, 28th - 30th April 2010.
•  "Training Dignified Young Leaders For The Future," International Conference on New Trends in Education and Their Implications, iconte, 11-13 November, 2010 Antalya-Turkey, pp. 429-434.
•  Conflict Resolution, course at the Educational Sciences Department, Faculty of Education, Boğaziçi University, fall 2012, with a contribution by Evelin Lindner via Skype on 2nd October 2012.
•  Transforming Humiliation and Violent Conflict through Effective Teacher Training Programs (Pdf | video), paper contributed to the 2014 Workshop on Transforming Humiliation and Violent Conflict, Columbia University, New York City, December 4-5, 2014.
•  Combining ‘Innovative Teaching Program’ with ‘SQCs (İmece Circles)’ in Turkey, by Hayal Köksal, Keynote presented at Kingston University London, UK, during the 17. International Convention on Students Quality Control Circles (ICSQCC), on 16th June 2014.
   

taruc

KEMAL TARUC
Kemal Taruc was born in 1952, and is a native Javanese living in Indonesia. Professionally, he was an ASEAN Fulbright Scholar, International LEAD Fellow, 21st Century Trust Fellow, is the President-emeritus of the Indonesian Association of Planners, founder of the urban and regional chapter of the Indonesian Association of Engineers, and he is a senior advisor on the board of several Indonesian local NGOs.
Kemal Taruc kindly shared these biographical reflections on 29th July 2019:
It began with my family. My father, a democrat-socialist whose party was banned by Sukarno in 1955, and my mother were socially and politically active persons. Our house had always been a place where people came, met, and talked about ongoing social-political affairs. Thanks to my parents, my childhood was full of memories about social struggles and injustice, where political affairs were more about conflicts over power holding at the expense of human lives rather than for social justice and human dignity. At that time Indonesia was under the shadow of the Cold War, the competing global powers of the first and the second world. (As I could see now, retrospectively, people, human lives were simply being victimized for those "in-power" as I witness history move on from the 1960s to the current 21st Century).
My eleven year-long undergraduate education was full of campus social activism during the heyday of the military regime of the New Order era in the 1970s and ended with the expulsion from my 5-year co-lectureship position as an assistant lecturer. After 1982, after the army's raid of the campus, all late students were forced to graduate and the campus was then being "normalized" by the regime, where students were obliged to finish their study on time and no more political activities allowed on the campus. My journey had begun, how to survive professionally while persisting on our values and pursuing the mission to accomplish what needs to be done under any given circumstances that might arise.
I married in 1979 while both of us were still finishing our study, and we were blessed with our first son in 1981. My mother passed away in 1982, after getting a heart attack and being burnt out over her ten years of social-political activities as a member of the Indonesian parliament and being the chairperson of Indonesia's independent women organization. She was the key person who drafted and led the enactment of Indonesia's marriage law that provides more protection for women's rights. We had two more children, one son was born in 1983 and my youngest daughter in 1987, both have now completed their advanced studies as environment scientists. Their spouses, my son- and daughter-in-law, are clinical psychologists who team up with my wife Betty Sugihartati (a clinical psychologist, also a Hubert Humphrey Fellow at Johns Hopkins in 2001) on doing our social work.
While working to somehow make my living as a paid independent consultant and contractor for "development" projects in different parts of the country, I was able to maintain my networks and facilitated support for several community organizing activities, on and below the radar of the regime.
Thanks to the Hubert Humphrey Fellowship that my friend recommended to me, I went to Cornell in 1987 to broaden my network and deepen my formal education and knowledge. There, for the first time, I could open forbidden books and information, see validated stories of human humiliation in other parts of the world, and I met, talked, and discussed with leading critical scholars. Back home a year later, I was seeking a way to continue my studies, and I won a competition for a scholarship to be a teaching faculty at the management school in Jakarta. I completed my MBA with a concentration on organizational studies from Rutgers in 1993, then I taught organizational behavior at the school up to the 1997 financial crises. These crises forced me to be back home and I was not able to finish my doctoral program at the Centre of Action Research for Professional Practice at the University of Bath. Luckily, I was able to complete my courses at Glasgow Caledonian University and earned my master's degree in risk management in 1999, while Indonesia was entering a new "reformation" era with the toppling down of the Suharto regime. Then, my community and social activism continued during the new years of the 2000s up to now.
I continue with the same strategy of finding ways to make a living as paid consultant and being an advisor to international agencies (UN HABITAT, UNDP, USAID, CIDA, GTZ, JICA etc.) and to the government (the Presidential Advisory Council, the Ministry of Public Housing) as well as taking a position as a faculty member at the Graduate Program in Urban Development at Tarumanagara University where I collaborate with my international partners on various topics. Keeping my independence and avoiding being co-opted by the status quo power holders has been quite a challenge; yet I have been able to organize and build networks among environmental activists, urban youth, faith and community-based organization, social entrepreneurs, as well as doing my frontier activities with my wife and my grown-up children on the current issues such as: trauma healing and support to communities in post-disaster areas; and drug abuse and HIV/AIDS prevention and rehabilitation (with the Kapeta Foundation); facilitation for hearing impaired children (Rumah Siput Indonesia). My current and ongoing agenda is as a Chairman and co-founder of the Barunastra Foundation working in fisherman villages in Papua.
I do not have a commendable list of academic writings and I am trying now to finish my auto-ethnography, and hopefully, still have the luxury of time for doing this. Occasionally, I write poems and reflective notes in my personal blog while sharing my stories, facilitating emerging young scholars and social activists in the country.

   

kwartirini

KWARTARINI WAHYU YUNIARTI
Kwartarini Wahyu "Bo" Yuniarti is a senior staff member at the Faculty of Psychology of the Universitas Gadjah Mada (UGM) in Yogyakarta, Indonesia, since 1989 until present. She has accomplished her first six years of training in Education Psychology at the Faculty of Psychology UGM (1982–1988). A-2000-hour clinical psychology internship program was successfully carried out at a terminal psychiatric hospital, Camarillo State Hospital, Camarillo, LA, USA (1989–1990). She has received a Rockefeller Award to sponsor her master degree in Medical Social Science from the Faculty of Medicine, Newcastle University, New South Wales, Australia (1994–1999). Her research thesis was on the Discrepancy between Hygiene–Related Knowledge and Practices among Mothers of Children with Diarrhea. She has received the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) Award - Deutscher Akademischer Austausch Dienst - for her Doctorate Program and has accomplished her Doctorate Degree from the Faculty of Psychology – Hamburg University, Germany (1999 to 2004).
Kwartarini Yuniarti has been connected with the MAPI Research Institute in Lyon, France, as a senior translator for Indonesia, in the field of cultural and linguistic validation for psychometric instruments, from foreign language to Indonesian. Within the last five years, she has received an award for a two months research stay in Hamburg, Germany, from the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG). In the years of 2006 and 2009, she was enabled by DAAD to attend a scientific workshop and carry out a research stay in Leipzig, focusing on disaster studies. Since 2006, Kwartarini Yuniarti is associated with the Network for Humanitarian Studies, U-to-U international collaboration with Rijksuniversiteit of Groningen, supervising the field works of the European students in Indonesia. She has also received the European Commission Award for teaching and research in Europe, 2009, hosted by the Rijksuniversiteit of Groningen. Recently she received the Fulbright Award for the Senior Research Program at the Rutgers University in the USA, working at the Institute for Health, Health Care Policy and Aging Research.
Kwartarini Yuniarti is the current director of Center for Indigenous and Cultural Psychology, at the Faculty of Psychology, UGM, in addition to the Coordinator of Graduate Education for Professional Clinical Psychology. Professionally, she is associated with the International Network of Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, the Network of Humanitarian Action, the Indonesian Psychological Association, and the Asian Association for Social Psychology. Her main research interests are in the fields of Health Psychology, Indigenous psychology, and Cross-cultural psychology.
Apart from many articles, Kwartarini has published the following books:
• Kwartarini, W.Y,. (2010). Going through Acculturation. The cultural experience of Indonesian students living in Germany. Berlin. Lambert Academic Publishing.
• Kwartarini, W.Y,. (2011). Knowledge is not enough. Berlin. Lambert Academic Publishing.

   

desai

MIRAJ U. DESAI (August 14, 1982 – November 2023, but always with us in our hearts!)
Miraj U. Desai, PhD, was an Assistant Professor at the Program for Recovery and Community Health of the Yale University School of Medicine, Department of Psychiatry. At Yale, he was also a Fellow of Pierson College, Affiliated Faculty in the Center on Climate Change and Health (Yale School of Public Health), and a Member of the South Asian Studies Council. He has been at Yale since 2011, completing his clinical and postdoctoral fellowships, prior to joining the faculty in 2015. His work focused on the cultural, community, and social justice foundations of mental health.
He completed his B.A. Summa Cum Laude with Honors at Miami University, during which he also spent time at Selwyn College, University of Cambridge, conducting research on international health and development with a focus on South Asia.
Miraj has spent considerable time living in India and working with Sangath—a mental health focused non-profit/non-governmental organization—on a project investigating the local experience of autism spectrum disorders (ASD). His dissertation specifically examines the indigenous understandings of ASD from parents’ perspectives in Goa, India. Miraj has previously worked with low-income and refugee populations in NYC, conducting bilingual therapy at Bellevue/NYU’s Program for Survivors of Torture. His Master’s thesis on the lived experience of depression in primary care received the Sidney Jourard Award from APA Division 32, Society for Humanistic Psychology. In addition, Miraj has published or presented at national conferences on topics pertaining to phenomenological psychology, critical/postcolonial psychology, psychoanalysis, spirituality and religion, history of psychology (esp. Fanon, Fromm, and Boss), the psychology of music, and philosophy of science. He is a member of the Task Force on Indigenous Psychology for APA Division 32 and also a past recipient of the Minority Fellowship of the APA.

   
SUSMITA THUKRAL
Susmita is also a Member of the HumanDHS Global Core Team and the HumanDHS Research Team.
Susmita is from New Delhi, India. She has a Masters in Psychology and Education from Teachers College, Columbia University. Susmita has extensive research experience and has worked on an interdisciplinary research project on the lives of individuals who witnessed the partition of India and the violence that it entailed.
Her scholarly interests include genocide, war trauma and terrorism. She wishes to actively work in the area of trauma studies in a way that allows her to combine her psychodynamic orientation and socio-political interests.
   

CRAIG DORSI
Craig Dorsi is is also a Member of the HumanDHS Global Core Team.
Craig is a teacher who has taught social studies, sociology and psychology, in New York City. He aspires to create a life geared toward the greater good. He has completed an MA in History and Education from Teachers College, Columbia University, where he studied the foundations and history of education and society. Currently he works on course and mediation for the conflict resolution certificate from the International Center for Cooperation and Conflict Resolution.
Recently he has focused on International Educational Development with a concentration in Peace Education at Teachers College. He is also very excited to be involved in the Human Dignity and Humiliation Studies group. He has also extensive travel experience throughout the world, which he attempts to discover all of it. He has also volunteered with Cross-Cultural Solutions to teach in Ho, Ghana and Shanghai, China, as well as volunteering in Cuba.
He would like to establish an international organization which focuses on Peace Education in regions or zones that had experienced conflict. He is an internationalist, realist and most of all pro-active and goal-oriented. Progressive curriculum ideas differentiated in instructional techniques, holistic education, and an interest in cognitive development represent some of his pedagogical philosophy. He looks forward to working toward equal human dignity throughout our interdependent world.
   

munoz
LUIS MUÑOZ OLIVEIRA
Luis Muñoz Oliveira was born in México City, and is a Professor at Mexico's national university, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM), at the Centro de Investigaciones sobre América Latina y el Caribe. He studies dignity, humiliation, justice, and discrimination. He teaches ethics for undergrads and different seminars for grad students.
Please see:
• Muñoz Oliveira, Luis (2018). Árboles de largo invierno. Un ensayo sobre la humillación. Madrid: Punta de Vista.
Muñoz Oliveira, Luis (2018). "Humiliation as Exclusion and Injustice." In Iberoamérica, 20 (2), pp. 65-93. doi: 10.19058/iberoamerica.2018.12.20.2.65.
   

torres
ROSARIO TORRES-GUEVARA
Rosario Torres-Guevara is from Mexico. She earned her BA in Applied Linguistics with a concentration in Didactics from the Autonomous University of Nuevo Leon in Monterrey, N.L., Mexico. She earned her MA in TESOL/Linguistics from Teachers College, Columbia University, where she also completed her EdD in International Educational Development with a concentration in Bilingual/Intercultural Education. Her research interests are language policy, immigration and education, and intercultural education. Rosario has been an instructor for 21 years. She has taught a variety of courses including English as a Second/Foreign Language (ESL/EFL); ESL/EFL/Bilingual Education Teacher Training; Language Arts; Immigration and Education; and Critical Thinking in various schools of Mexico and of New York City, which include CUNY City College; SUNY Educational Opportunity Center; Teachers College, Columbia University; Autonomous University of Nuevo Leon; and the Mexican-North American Institute of Cultural Relations.
   

DHARMACHARI GUNAKETU
Dharmachari Gunaketu was trained as an economist and got interested in alternative economics. He started meditating and practicing with the Friends of the Western Buddhist Order, worked with them enlarging a buddhist centre in Manchester and got ordained into the Western Buddhist Order in 1996. He carried on working in Manchester until 2000 when he decided to go back to Oslo to see how he could live, work and serve the world there. Now, he wants to make use of meditation and teachings of the Buddha in connection with other "languages" and tools, most notably "Nonviolent communication" and gestalt therapy in the general work to make the world a more just, peaceful and friendly place. In this work he is now seeking partners, connections and opportunities.

   

heuer

STEPHANIE TICE
Stephanie Tice (formerly Heuer) is also a Member in the HumanDHS Global Core Team, and Global Coordinating Team.
Stephanie is currently a College and Career Adviser at Gunderson High school, and a public speaker on bullying and modifying teen behavior through consequential education methodologies. She is graduate of Notre Dame de Namur University, studying Human Services and counseling. Her current position also allows her to work directly with troubled and challenged youths, by introducing them to techniques to avoid loss of dignity through positive intervention and behavioral support. She was inspired at the HumanDHS Costa Rica conference in 2006 to create the “Be the Arrow” framework for transitioning from a mindset of revenge/retaliation to a place of reconciliation and respect.
Her children’s book, DignityRocks! is a collection of elementary school children’s feedback to the inquiry, “I feel like Nobody when…. I feel like Somebody when (purchase here and see the English and Spanish cover pages). This was inspired by the work of Dr. Robert Fuller and his somebody/nobody framework. She works closely with counselors and high school leadership organizations to combat cyberbullying and anonymous harassment on the internet. She is one of the original members of the HumanDHS team, and sites the HumanDHS organizational frame and mission as the basis for her continued work in dignity education and humiliation studies.
See also:
• Be the Arrow, contribution to the 2013 Workshop on Transforming Humiliation and Violent Conflict, Columbia University, New York City, December 5-6, 2013. See here a graphical overview over Stephanie Heuer's dignity rocks concept and her Dignity Rocks powerpoint presentation.
• The Story of the Stone (2014)
• The Dust Never Settles, paper shared at the 2014 Workshop on Transforming Humiliation and Violent Conflict, Columbia University, New York City, December 4-5, 2014, see also the Powerpoint version).

   

KATHLEEN FREIS
Kathleen Freis is also a Member of the HumanDHS Global Core Team.
Kathleen is the Manager of Group Offerings for Synergos, an organization that helps bring global philanthropists together to deepen their knowledge and commitment to social justice philanthropy. Kathleen is responsible for designing, facilitating and evaluating educational and reflective meetings, events, retreats, and workshops including overseas site visits that expose individuals to humanitarian fieldwork.
Prior to her Synergos engagement, Kathleen was the Education Director at the International Center for Tolerance Education and Program Officer at the Third Millennium Foundation. 
Kathleen is dedicated to educating for peace where individuals and communities are equipped with the knowledge, skills and attitudes necessary to preserve and protect human dignity. Kathleen earned a Master's degree in International Education Development with a specialization in Peace Education from Teachers College Columbia University. She has managed educational programs in the U.S. and Latin America, serving as Program Director of the Global Campaign for Peace Education at the Hague Appeal for Peace, Program Manager of Maestros Excelentes Teacher Training Program of the National Puerto Rican Forum, English Instructor at the Instituto Chileno-Norteamericano in Chile, and Community Center Coordinator for Centro Infantil in Costa Rica. She has conducted interactive, participatory workshops at conferences, schools and organizations, consulted educational programs in the US, Latin America and Africa, planned international conferences, co-developed Human Rights Summer Institute training manual (2006), co-edited both Peace Lessons from Around the World curriculum (2005), Environmental Protection for Social Equality: A Leaning Unit (2005), and the United Nations Global Atlas Human Rights Curriculum (2002), and wrote English for Spanish Speakers : A Linguistic Guide (2000). Kathleen has worked and traveled in Europe, the Middle East, East Africa, and Latin America and speaks Spanish. She lives in Brooklyn, New York City.
   

CHRISTOPHER SANTEE
Christopher Santee is also a Member in our HumanDHS Global Core Team, and Project Associate of the Journal of Human Dignity and Humiliation Studies (JHDHS).
He is currently studying and residing in San José, Costa Rica. He obtained a Bachelor's degree in Interdisciplinary Studies with a focus on Peace Studies from Naropa University in Boulder, Colorado, USA in 2005. Christopher has been working and interning at the United Nations-mandated University for Peace in Costa Rica since February, 2005. He hopes to enroll in a masters degree program in a yet-to-be determined institution for Sustainable Development, Peace Studies or International Relations with a focus on Latin America.
Recently named Project Associate for the Human Dignity and Humiliation Studies network, Christopher will be working to aid the creation of a peer reviewed e-journal as well as a composited book on the study of humiliation.
Prior to 2006 Christopher was a member of the Rocky Mountain Peace and Justice Center in Boulder, Colorado, organizing rallies and informational gatherings on the occupation of Iraq by the US as well as anti-racial profiling campaigns for US immigrant groups in the Colorado area through the Safety Net. Some of his work there included organizing a benefit concert for freetheslaves.net, featuring internationally renowned poet and activist Saul Williams in April, 2005. Through the service learning program at Naropa University, Christopher also coached high school students in community organizing and political activism on issues of civil rights and awareness utilizing the model of Public Achievement from the Center for Democracy and Citizenship at the University of Minnesota.
Please see American Diversity and the Role of Humiliation, note presented at the 2006 Workshop on Humiliation and Violent Conflict, Columbia University, New York City, December 14-15, 2006.

   

KATHRYN CRAWFORD
Kathryn Crawford is currently working with the International Center for Cooperation and Conflict Resolution (ICCCR) at Teachers College, Columbia University, New York City.
   

NORA FEMENIA
Nora Femenia (Ph.D.) is also a Member in the Global Core Team.
Nora is a Professor of Conflict Resolution and Consensus Building at the Labor Center at Florida International University, where she teaches courses in conflict management, cross-cultural communication, and organizational conflict systems design, both in English and Spanish. She has done extensive research and writing on the resolution of the Falklands-Malvinas conflict, exploring the emotional roots of war-prone governmental decision-making.
She has held full time teaching positions at Nova Southeastern University, the School for International Training and was Visiting Scholar at SAIS, and American University. Nora has been invited to teach at several universities in Spain, Argentina, Ecuador, Colombia and Peru, and is known for her work in Spanish at www.inter-mediacion.com.
Please see here:
• Healing Humiliation and the Need for Revenge, paper submitted to the 2007 Workshop on Humiliation and Violent Conflict, Columbia University, New York City, December 13-14, 2007.
• Humiliation Dynamics and A Therapy of Social Action: A Path to Restore Dignity after Domestic Violence, paper discussed at the International Workshop: "Humiliation Dynamics and Restorative Dialogue," Oñati International Institute for the Sociology of Law, Gipuzkoa, Spain, 10-11 April 2008.
   

OLGA BOTCHAROVA
Olga Botcharova is a conflict resolution expert who has designed and conducted numerous workshops on conflict resolution and reconciliation (community, ethnic, interpersonal, family), conflict management (organization/workplace) and cross-cultural communications. She has lectured and consulted in more than 20 countries, worldwide (including the United States, Russia, Israel and the West Bank, Bosnia, Serbia, Croatia, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Bulgaria, Hungary, India, Denmark, Austria, Switzerland, Canada, South Korea, Ukraine, Greece, Cyprus, the Netherlands and Hungary) and has led numerous seminars on victimhood-aggression dynamics in conflict escalation, and principles of peacemaking, for various groups, including political and business leaders, women's groups, peacemakers, and educators. After Olga was invited as a visiting fellow to join Preventive Diplomacy Program in the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington D.C., she facilitated dialogue for leaders of ethnic\religious communities (Christians and Muslims) of the former Yugoslavia at war and post-war time, with the goal of encouraging their participation in peacemaking and community rebuilding. For a number of years she worked for the international program “Seeds Of Peace,” as a facilitator of co-existence dialogue between youth groups from Greece and Turkish Cyprus, from Israel, Palestine, and other Arab countries, from the Balkans, and from India and Pakistan. She also led a pilot project for a coalition of the US and international organizations and designed the international conflict transformation program for the National Conference for Community and Justice.
Olga developed a model of reconciling relationships destroyed by humiliation, widely used by psychologists and psychotherapists, professional mediators, family counselors and other conflict resolution experts. (Her approach, illustrated in two diagrams “Seven Steps Toward Revenge” vs. “Seven Steps Toward Reconciliation,” was published by the Templeton Foundation Press as a chapter “Track II Diplomacy: Developing a Model of Forgiveness”). She has been interviewed on television, radio and in the print media and has published a number of articles. She has also served as a facilitator in cross-cultural business communications for corporate and government leaders from the U.S., Russia, and seven major Western European countries, as part of the International Action Commission, co-chaired by Dr. H. Kissinger and Mayor A. Sobchak.
Olga Botcharova combines her extensive overseas work on conflict resolution and peace building with practices of conflict management and problem solving in the workplace. She offers training and counseling in communication skills (basic and advanced), negotiations, mediation, team building, diversity and healing relationships from conflict (workplace, communities, families).
She holds advanced degrees in liberal arts, European literary studies and social psychology from two leading St. Petersburg State Universities, Russia.
Please see:
• Implementation of Track Two Diplomacy: Developing a Model of Forgiveness, in Helmick, Raymond G. and Petersen, Rodney L. (Eds.), Forgiveness and Reconciliation: Religion, Public Policy and Conflict Transformation (pp. 269-293). Philadelphia, PA: Templeton Foundation Press.
   
OLGA R. PEREZ
Olga R. Perez is a mediator in a not for profit program in New York City that provides intensive therapy, social work and mediation services to adolescents and families where there is high risk of child placement (due to behavioral problems) or where the child is transitioning from placement back into the family setting. There are often issues of abuse and neglect. In addition to individual work with the families, the agency develops different support groups or workshops intended to strengthen the family relationships and the therapeutic treatment. So, although her main task is to conduct individual mediation between family members (mostly between teens and their parents), she is planning a group/workshop around conflict resolution. She would like to develop a workshop that as much as possible addresses core notions or feelings that give rise to destructive behavior and violence.
Olga is an attorney who always worked in public interest and several years ago chose to get involved in volunteer mediation work. She felt attracted to working with teenagers. Her legal work was always providing direct legal services to the poor or in civil rights. Her current job as a mediator brings together her public interest concerns and her passion for conflict resolution.
   

NOOR AKBAR
Noor Akbar is also a Member of the HumanDHS Global Coordinating Team, and of the HumanDHS Global Core Team and HumanDHS Research Team.
Noor Akbar is working as Programme Manager – Community Engagement &  Involvement, with the National Institute for Health & Care Research (NIHR) in the UK. Prior to joining NIHR Noor worked as Programme Coordinator with the Commonwealth Local Government Forum. Before that, he worked as Research Associate in the project Tolerance in Muslim Politics: Political Theory Beyond the ‘West’ at King’s College London. In this project Noor’s work centered on the life histories of the tribal Pashtuns, who had been displaced from their homes in the tribal areas along the Pak-Afghan border, due to military operations.  
Noor also worked with the Commonwealth Local Government Forum in the Project Strengthening the Associations of Local Governments and their Members for Enhanced Governance and Effective Development outcomes in Pakistan. In addition to that, he worked with Oxfam GB in the “We Can End Honor Killing and Violence Against Women” campaign, which was a 5-year Campaign in Pakistan, Afghanistan, India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Nepal.
Noor has been working in local and international non-profit organizations for more than fifteen years in various capacities and across a range of thematic areas, such as conflict resolution and human rights. He holds a Master's degree in Human Rights from Roehampton University, UK, Gothenburg University, Sweden, and Tromso University, Norway, under the European Union’s Erasmus Mundus Scholarship programme.
Please see here:
•  Honor Killing in Pakistan: The Case of 5 Women Buried Alive, Gothenburg, Sweden: University of Gothenburg Sweden, Human Dignity and Humiliation Studies, 2010
•  How should we define genocide?, London: University of Roehampton, Human Dignity and Humiliation Studies, 2010
• Women Rights in FATA Pakistan: A Critical Review of NGOs' Communication Strategies for Projects’ Implementation
SOA-3902. A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment for the degree: Master in Human Rights Practice Department of Social Anthropology, University of Tromsø School of Global Studies, University of Gothenburg School of Business and Social Sciences, Roehampton University 28th May 2010
   

GULNAZ ANJUM
Dr. Gulnaz Anjum (Ph.D. Social Psychology) is an accomplished Associate Professor of Psychology at the University of Oslo. With a robust academic background and extensive professional experience, Dr. Anjum has significantly contributed to the fields of Social Psychology, Cultural and Community Psychology, the Psychology of Peacebuilding and Extremism, Climate Psychology, and Gender Inequality.
Dr. Anjum holds a Ph.D. in Social Psychology and has built a distinguished career marked by over 50 peer-reviewed articles in high-impact journals and multiple research grants from prestigious organizations, including the Max Planck Institute and the International Research and Development Commission (IDRC). Her research addresses critical issues such as social inequalities, climate change, and human dignity, reflecting her commitment to advancing global understanding in these areas.
At the University of Oslo, Dr. Anjum has played a pivotal role in developing and leading eight different courses in Social Psychology, Cultural Psychology, and Community Psychology. She serves as a course leader and section coordinator, recognized for her inclusive teaching methods that integrate diverse perspectives. Dr. Anjum's dedication to diversity and inclusion extends beyond the classroom; she is an active member of both the climate committee and the diversity committee, advocating for a more inclusive academic environment.
In addition to her teaching and administrative roles, Dr. Anjum leads several impactful initiatives. She spearheaded the Ukraine Initiative, a project focused on supporting psychologists and helpers in addressing war trauma among refugees, demonstrating her capacity to manage complex, socially impactful projects. She also co-leads the "Psychologists for Climate" initiative, organizing seminars and promoting awareness about climate change in collaboration with esteemed colleagues like Professor Dr. Beate Seibt and Professor Dr. Thomas Schubert.
Dr. Anjum's international experience includes a visiting associate professorship at Simon Fraser University, where she conducted research and taught courses in Cultural and Environmental Psychology. She successfully managed the IDRC-funded socio-cultural assessment project, which involved extensive qualitative and quantitative research on marginalization and inequality among migrant and poor communities.
Before joining the University of Oslo, Dr. Anjum was an Associate Professor at the Institute of Business Administration (IBA) Karachi. There, she built a strong research portfolio in Social and Gender Psychology and contributed to the institution's academic governance through roles on various committees, including the Anti-harassment Committee, the Board of Studies, and the Research and Publication Committee.
Dr. Anjum's involvement in the Global MINDS program, an ERASMUS initiative, further highlights her commitment to fostering global collaboration and understanding. Her innovative teaching and supervision methods, focusing on cultural and environmental interventions in the global South, have been widely recognized and appreciated by her peers. Dr. Gulnaz Anjum is a respected leader in her field, known for her dedication to promoting social justice, gender equality, and climate action through her research, teaching, and advocacy efforts. Her work continues to make a significant impact on both the academic community and society at large.
   

CORINNA CARMEN GAYER
Corinna Carmen Gayer is also a Member of the HumanDHS Research Team.
Corinna is a PhD-student in peace- and conflict studies at the Freie Universität in Berlin. She finished her masters thesis entitled Of Irreconcilable Nature? Biodiversity Conservation and Indigenous Peoples' Rights in Brazil at the Department for Social Sciences at the Humboldt-University in Berlin. Throughout her studies, Corinna studied at the University of Salamanca in Spain and at the University of Belo Horizonte in Brazil. For more than two years she worked in international cooperation projects in Guatemala and Brazil and also had the opportunity to visit regional development projects in North-West Africa. During her last stay in Brazil she got acquainted with the conflict of different cultural groups over a specific territory, which brought up her present interest in conflicts and possible peace-building processes.
Corinna is currently based in Jerusalem in order to carry out her research project about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
   

SOPHIE SCHAARSCHMIDT
Sophie Schaarschmidt is also a Member of the HumanDHS Global Core Team, and the HumanDHS Research Team.
She was born nearby Dresden, Germany, 27 years ago. She has lived and studied in several countries, including Great Britain, Netherlands and Malta. She is a doctorate student of psychology working at the "FernUniversität" in Hagen, Germany (a distance learning university).
Sophie writes: In my free time I've been actively involved in the Youth Programme of the European Commission (EC) by volunteering, setting up (inter)national youth projects and training. Over the last years I have become interested in the co-operation between Europe and the Middle East. My Master thesis focussed on differences in cultural values of youth and youth workers engaging in the Euro-Mediterranean Youth Programme of the EC which aims at creating co-operative youth projects in both regions. I was involved in establishing CYT (Conyoungtion) association, a Dutch based association that facilitates and implements intercultural youth projects with a specific focus on cooperation with partners from the Middle East.
My dissertation will now focus on (emotional) barriers in dialogue between youth from Israel and Palestine, which is of specific interest for me.
I've visited Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories (Westbank) several times, and I've lived there for a period of 3 months. For my future I envision to get involved in projects in that region that are aimed at creating an atmosphere for and facilitating dialogue for peaceful change.
I like working in the spirit of the HumanDHS group because I really believe that here we're dealing with a core issue of human relations and peace, be it in the micro or the macro level. I feel very connected to the vision and concept and the ambition to research, publish and put into practise models of how human relations can improve through mutual respect, dignity and appreciation and the avoidance of humiliation, counterhumiliation, shaming and blaming. This connects very well with the concept of non-violent communication which I find very important and valuable, especially in the field of peace work.
Please see here some of Sophie's publications:
•  Cognitive and Emotional Ingroup-identification of Youth in Israel and Palestine, note presented at Round Table 1 of the 2005 Workshop on Humiliation and Violent Conflict, Columbia University, New York City, December 15-16, 2005.
•  Samen in Zee: Israelis and Palestinians in the Same Boat Camp.
•  Contribution presented at the 2007 Workshop on Humiliation and Violent Conflict, Columbia University, New York City, December 13-14, 2007.
   

MARÍA CRISTINA AZCONA
María Cristina Azcona is also a Member of the HumanDHS Global Core Team.
María studied at the Universidad del Salvador / University USAL in Argentina. She is an Educational Psychologist (Psicopedagoga, which means Educational Psychologist or Psycho Pedagogist). She also obtained the title of Family Counselor at the University of Navarra in Spain in 1999. 
María is a bilingual writer, editor and poetry critic in both English and Spanish working as a researcher in peace education through literature. She works as a psychotherapist focused on the resolution of family conflicts and is also an independent forensic expert. She also works as a translator, freelance writer, and editor, at the same time studying law at the UBA University of Buenos Aires in her third year (2024).
Being a novelist and poetess, María Cristina has authored 11 books and many articles and poems in English and Spanish, about family, society and peace, published mostly in USA, India, and Argentina. She is a contributor to the EOLSS Encyclopedia that was edited under the auspices of UNESCO, to whom she has been a consultant in the building of a culture of peace through literature.
María Cristina has been finalist in literary competitions in her own country and in the USA. Among several distinctions, she obtained the First Prize in Poetry at one of the most important contests of her country, organized by the Academic Circle of National Writers. She has been awarded a peace tribute in Uruguay in 2022, and the AKS, Orissa, India Peace Leadership award 2023 “Biju Patnaik,” as well as the first prize at the International Literature Award named after Dr. Manuel Equihua Estrella in Mexico in 2024.
María Cristina was born on April 5th, 1952, and has been married since 1977. She is the mother of two and grandmother of three.
Please visit her paper books here:
A Guide to find Peace
Window to Heaven
A Treasure of Mysterious Love
Carta abierta a los lideres del mundo
Open Letters to the World Leaders paperback
El gran doctor de la paz
Vivamos en Paz
Strategies for peace
About peace and peacemaking
Mundo postmoderno
Please see also:
Dignity and Humiliation in Argentina, a paper written by María for HumanDHS in 2005.
See also:
Education for a New Millennium, Buenos Aires, Argentina, 2018.
The Education of Morality for Parents and Children, Buenos Aires, Argentina, October 10, 2020.
Mission of the Worldwide Peace Organization (English and Spanish), 2020.
   

SALMAN TÜRKEN
Salman Türken is also a Member of the HumanDHS Global Core Team, and of the HumanDHS Research Team.
Defining himself as a cosmopolitan, Salman is interested in studies of all levels of analysis that influence and change both individuals and societies in this globalisation era. Influenced by critical social psychology, ideology - understood as common sense, as legitimising and reproducing unequal power relations which might also lead to humiliation in intergroup relations - is now the main research topic for him.
Salman holds a MA degree in psychology from the University of Oslo, where he for the time being holds a position as a lecturer in social psychology. In his MA thesis (2006), Salman developed a brief cross-culturally stable scale that measures global identity, arguing that more and more people around the globe transcend national and territorial boundaries, identify first and foremost with their shared humanity (rather than seeking parochial ends), and show responsibility for and “engage the distant other.”

   


PATRICIA FRIEDRICH
Patricia Friedrich is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Language Cultures and History at Arizona State University. She is the author of Language, Negotiation and Peace: The Role of English in Conflict Resolution (Continuum, 2007). She is also the guest co-editor of a special issue of the journal World Englishes about English in South America (2003) and several articles in journals such as Harvard Business Review, International Journal of Applied Linguistics, English Today, and Management Research. Besides Peace Linguistics. Dr. Friedrich's current research interests include Cross-Cultural Communication and topics in World Englishes.
   

werner
ANTHONY WERNER (22nd May 1939 – December 2022, but always with us in our hearts!)
Anthony Werner, born in South Africa of Swedish parents, came to live in England in 1960. His publishing career began at Oxford University Press. In 1973 he joined Shepheard-Walwyn (Publishers) Ltd, a new publisher and in 1979 became the owner of the business. The emphasis of the books published has been twofold: First to explore what it means to be a human being, our ‘Love of Wisdom’ list, at the heart of which are The Letters of Marsilio Ficino, the 15th century priest/philosopher whose Platonic Academy inspired many of the figures of the Florentine Renaissance. Second our ‘Ethical Economics’ list which explores how our present unstable and unjust society can move to a more stable and just society. For more information, see www.shepheard-walwyn.co.uk or www.ethicaleconomics.org.uk. [read more]
   

DONNA FUJIMOTO
Donna Fujimoto is Associate Professor at Osaka Jogakuin College in Osaka, Japan where she teaches English as a Foreign Language, Intercultural Communication and Human Rights courses. She was born in the U.S. and has lived in Japan for over 26 years, and this experience prompted her to organize a study group of other long-term Nikkei residents of Japan (Nikkei means people of Japanese heritage). Donna has been in the field of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) for over 30 years, and she has an M.A. from the Department of Second Language Studies, University of Hawaii, and is a doctoral candidate at Temple University, Japan. She is the Chair of the Intercultural Communication Interest Section of TESOL (Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages), Co-Publicity Chair for the Pragmatics Special Interest Group of JALT (Japan Association of Language Teaching), Co-Program Chair of SIETAR Kansai chapter (Society of Intercultural Education, Training and Research), and Coordinator of the Contrast Culture Method, an intercultural training group. She is currently involved in research on Conversation Analysis, Nikkei-related topics, Intercultural Communication and issues about racism and teachers in Japan.
   

moen
DARRELL MOEN
Darrell Moen kindly sent us the following introduction on 9th May 2015:
Hello! My name is Darrell Moen. If you're interested, I have a relatively short biographical essay you can read here
My mother was Japanese and my father Norwegian-American. I was born in Japan and lived (t)here until I was seven. Our family then moved to my father's home state of Wisconsin in the United States where I spent my formative years. My father worked most of his life as a mailman so my class background is working class. After graduating from high school, I joined the US Air Force and spent a year (Feb. 1969 - Feb. 1970) in the Mekong Delta of Vietnam with a forward air control team tactical air support party attached to the 9th Infantry Division of the US Army. And this is where I had a political awakening and started to overcome the ways in which I had been indoctrinated and socialised to believe in my country as the epitome of democracy, freedom, and justice. After my discharge from the Air Force, I backpacked in Europe and North Africa for a year, worked on the assembly line at a Chevrolet factory in Wisconsin for a year, worked as a truck driver hauling cars from Wisconsin to the East Coast and back again for three years, and finally ended up going to university and coming out with a Ph.D. in cultural anthropology in Dec. 1995 (University of Wisconsin - Madison) with a specialisation in the anthropology of human rights and the anthropology of new social movements.
I am now retired from my tenured position as professor of cultural anthropology at Shibaura Institute of Technology in Tokyo (as of March 31, 2015) and am planning to spend several months later this year in Chiang Mai working with NGOs in the area. I live in Kunitachi (a western suburb of Tokyo) with my wife Yumi (who is a newspaper reporter) and my son Gene (who just entered the School of International Liberal Studies at Waseda University). I am looking forward to spending several months each year in my new life and upcoming adventures as a "retiree" doing research and learning from and hopefully contributing to grassroots based groups and NGOs (primarily in the Global South) working for such universal principles as social justice, peace, environmental sustainability, and human rights. 
   

ATLE HETLAND
Atle Hetland is also a member of the HumanDHS Global Core Team.
Atle is a Norwegian citizen. He has since 1984 mostly worked outside his home country, including as a Norwegian diplomat, international civil servant and in other functions. He has set up home in Nairobi Kenya but has during the last several years spent most of his time in Pakistan, with visits to Afghanistan.
He is a Mass Media Candidate (Volda), Fil. Kand. (Gothenburg), Cand. Mag. & Cand. Polit. (Oslo), Fil. Dr./Ph.D. studies (Stockholm/Oslo), with further research with affiliation to his old Scandinavian universities and the East-African Universities of Dar-es-Salaam and Nairobi.
He is a specialist in development and refugee education and research and has spent more than 25 years in these fields, including an initial decade at the University of Oslo, including as editor in university publishing/audiovisuals at Universitetsforlaget, and as Head of development studies (RIU), before he left for posts in East-Africa, where he has spent about one and half decade, some years in U.S.A. and West Africa, mainly working for UN organizations, the World Bank, Embassy of Norway/Norad (Tanzania), and head of ICED/Kenya, and recently 5-6 years dealing with education and other refugee issues in Pakistan, with several visits to Afghanistan, as a consultant working for UNHCR, UNESCO, and other organizations.
His recent publications include, Learning Away from Home, a large foundation book in refugee and emergency education (285 pp), with two shorter versions. Alhamra Publishing, Islamabad, 2006-2007. The Know Norway Book was published by Mr. Books, Islamabad, and UOG Press, Gujrat, 2011.
He is currently working on a book about Religion in Scandinavia in a current international perspective (working title). Most of his earlier research was on North-South issues, university/research linkages, development ethics, moral education and other issues, with most of his fieldwork and empirical data from East Africa. He continues researching and writing, often working in small multicultural teams composed for each project, or alone. He carries out consultancy studies and evaluations and guest lectures at Pakistani universities. He writes a weekly column in The Nation newspaper, Lahore, and contributes to Dawn, Islamabad, PTV and other stations. Email: atlehetland@yahoo.com
Please see here:
•  Learning Away From Home: A Foundation Book in Refugee and Emergency Education - Cases: "Basic Education for Afghan Refugees" - BEFARe and Other Refugee and Returnee Education Activities in Pakistan and Afghanistan 1980 - 2005 (Expanded Volume), Islamabad, Pakistan: Alhamra Publishing, 2006.
•  Cosmopolitan No More? Atle Hetland reviews The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid, Oxford University Press, Karachi, 2007.
•  Education Denied - Why does Pakistan not have Education for All?, article for The News on Sunday, 17.02.2008.
•  Words and Wars, article for the "Political Economy Section" in The News on Sunday, Lahore, Pakistan, 14.12.2008.
•  The Know NORWAY Book: Background for Understanding the Country and Its People - Pakistan and Afghanistan Edition, Islamabad, Pakistan: Mr. Books Publishers and Booksellers.
•  The Right to Aid, in The Nation, 19th August 2010.
•  Morals of Aid, in The Nation, 26th August 2010.
•  Studying Society, in The Nation, 2nd September 2010.
•  Rights Issues and the Social Sciences, in The Nation, 20th September 2012
•  Education First, in The Nation, 27th September 2012.
•  Peace Within Ourselves?, in The Nation, 4th October 2012.
•  The Two Cultures, in The Nation, 24th January 2013.
•  Owners of Dreams, in The Nation, 21st January 2013.
•  Religion, Media and the Economy, article for The Nation, 28th March 2013.
•  Everything Is Local, not Only in Africa, article for The Nation, 4th April 2013.
•  Politicians' Qualifications, article for The Nation, 11th April 2013.
•  Ramadan and Eid - the Whole Year, article for The Nation, 8th August 2013.
•  Nation-Building and Identity, article for The Nation, 15th August 2013.
•  We Are All Ordinary People, article for The Nation, 22nd August 2013.
•  "Don't tell anyone!", article for The Nation, 29th August 2013.
•  Lessons in Education for the Future, article for The Nation, 12th September 2013.
•  In the Wake of Terror Tragedies, article for The Nation, 26th September 2013.
•  Promise of a New Day in Education, article for The Nation, 3rd October 2013.
•  Better Mental Health Awareness for Better Lives, article for The Nation, 10th October 2013.
•  Iceland's warm gender relations, article for The Nation, 31st October 2013.
•  "Rural women don't eat eggs – they sell them to the city," article for DAWN ISLAMABAD Metro-North, 3rd November 2013.
•  Finding the Best in Us All, article for The Nation, 12 December 2013.
•  Counting Telephone Poles – Or Learning to Think?, article for The Nation, 19 December 2013.
•  Keeping Fit in Style, in The Nation, 2nd February 2014.
•  Diversity and Multiculturalism in Europe, article for The Nation, 20 February 2014.
•  Hearing – But Not Listening, article for The Nation, 20 March 2014.
•  Questioning the Purpose of Endless Economic, article for DAWN, ISLAMABAD, Metro-North, p. 19, 13th April 2014
•  Easter: A Message of Change, article for The Nation, 17 April 2014.
•  Learning to See Utility in Futility, article for The Nation, 24 April 2014.
•  Literature Fest Opens in the Capital, article for DAWN ISLAMABAD, ISLAMABAD LITERATURE FESTIVAL 2014, 26th April 2014.
•  Classical Dance in Pakistan, article for DAWN ISLAMABAD, ISLAMABAD, LITERATURE FESTIVAL 2014, 27th April 2014.
•  'Poetry from a Troubled Land', article for DAWN ISLAMABAD ISLAMABAD, LITERATURE FESTIVAL 2014, 27th April 2014.
•  Language Is the Medium of Writing, article for DAWN ISLAMABAD, ISLAMABAD LITERATURE FESTIVAL 2014, 28th April 2014.
•  Special Education and Empathy with Others, article for DAWN ISLAMABAD, TEACHERS’ LITERATURE FESTIVAL, 1 May 2014, CHILDREN’S LITERATURE FESTIVAL, 2-3 May 2014, 2nd May 2014.
•  ‘History Is Finding Out Who We Are’, article for DAWN ISLAMABAD ISLAMABAD, LITERATURE FESTIVAL 2-3 May 2014, 3rd May 2014.
•  Learning to Solve Everyday Conflicts, article for DAWN ISLAMABAD, CHILDREN’S LITERATURE FESTIVAL 2nd -3rd May 2014, 4th May 2014.
•  Overseas Trained Pakistanis Returning Home, article for DAWN ISLAMABAD, Metro-North, 4th May 2014.
•  One-Eyed ‘Trolls’ in Real Life, article for The Nation, 8th May 2014.
•  Is There Logic Behind the Illogical? article for The Nation, 26th June 2014.
•  ‘All Believers Can Learn from the Way Muslims Observe Ramadan’, article for DAWN ISLAMABAD, Metro-North, 6th July 2014.
•  Learning to Understand 'the Others', article for The Nation, 10th July 2014.
•  Sport in Pakistan is More than Cricket, Article for HASHOO GROUP Pearl-Continental Hotels and Resorts, Pakistan, Issue No. 22 – July 2014, Our Heritage.
•  A Prayer for Peace, article for The Nation, 24th July 2014.
•  En bønn om fred, VÅRT LAND – lørdag 26. juli 2014 – side 35.
•  The Journey and the Destination, article for The Nation, 29th July 2014.
•  The Tragedy of the Palestinian People: Can the Youth Find New Solutions?, article for DAWN ISLAMABAD, 3rd August 2014.
•  What Is It to Be Young?, article for The Nation, 7th August 2014.
•  Nobel Prize Week, article for The Nation, 16 October 2014.
•  Challenges to Inclusion, article for The Nation, 23th October 2014.
•  Ebola in a Class World, article for The Nation, 30th October 2014.
•  From Cold War to Cold Peace? article for The Nation, 13th November 2014.
•  The Rich Have Met, article for The Nation, 20th November 2014.
•  Thanksgiving, article for The Nation, 27th November 2014.
•  The Pope's Journeys, article for The Nation, 4th December 2014.
•  Symbolism and Reality, article for The Nation, 11th December 2014.
•  Tomorrow Never Comes, article for The Nation, 18th December 2014.
•  Forgiving Is Divine, article for The Nation, 25th December 2014.
•  “Big Children Should Help Small Children,” article for The Nation, 8th January 2015.
•  Learning to Live Together, article for The Nation, 15th January 2015.
•  Trust – The Only Thing that Counts, article for The Nation, 22nd January 2015.
•  Ones Size Doesn’t Fit All, article for The Nation, 29th January 2015.
•  Build Your House on Stone, article for The Nation, 12th February 2015.
•  After the Copenhagen Tragedy, article for The Nation, 19th February 2015.
•  Forgiveness, Not Revenge, article for The Nation, 25th February 2015.
•  Seeing the Whole Picture, article for The Nation, 26th February 2015.
•  Independent and Non-Aligned? article for The Nation, 19th March 2015.
•  Playing with Fire? article for The Nation, 26th March 2015.
•  Ecumenical Easter, article for The Nation, 2nd April 2015.
•  Spheres of Interest, article for The Nation, 9th April 2015.
•  Lessons Across Borders, article for The Nation, 16th April 2015.
•  The Chinese Are Here, article for The Nation, 23rd April 2015.
•  Moral Development Leadership, article for The Nation, 30th April 2015.
•  Is Cultural Diversity an Illusion? article for The Nation, 28th May 2015.
•  As Ramadan Approaches, article for The Nation, 4th June 2015.
•  Seeing Things in a Positive Light, article for The Nation, 25th June 2015.
•  Education Above All, article for The Nation, 9th July 2015.
•  Our World As Eid Approaches, article for The Nation, 16th July 2015.
•  Youth Entrepreneurship, article for The Nation, 23rd July 2015.
•  Do We All Have a Touch of the Ostrich Syndrome? article for The Nation, 6th August 2015.
•  Concern for Others, article for The Nation, 10th September 2015.
•  Comparative Politics, article for The Nation, 17th September 2015.
•  ‘It Is in Giving We Receive’, article for The Nation, 24th September 2015.
•  The Pope and Religious Inclusiveness, article for The Nation, 1st October 2015.
•  Why do we dwell in the past?, article for The Nation, 1st October 2015.
Please see more of Atle Hetland's columns in Pakistan for The Nation, and see also Dawn.
   

gunhildstad
RANDI GUNHILDSTAD
Randi Gunhildstad is a singer and conductor, and is able to practice her theories both as a soloist and with a choir wich also has members from a national prison. She is self-employed and gives lectures and practical workshops based on theory, as for example, at the Høyskolen i Vestfold's conference "The 7th Nordic Health Promotion Research Conference," 17. - 19. June 2013. She has given the lecture titled "Empirical Research Versus Theoretical Living - Abstract Thinking Causes Theoretical Nature," at the third global ethics conference at the University of the West of England, Bristol, June, 2010.
Randi is a philosopher with an existential curiosity. With a Master of Philosophy from the University of Oslo she has "a license to think," and is researching how child-like joy can be developed and cultivated, resulting in more sustainable human living. She observes how Western culture has focused mostly on abstract thinking, cultivating the ability to think, without also considering the bodily connection and comunication. Her focus is on joy as situated in the body, and how each person can choose to develop more of it.
   


KRISTIAN LAUBJERG
Kristian Laubjerg kindly wrote on 5th March 2021: I was born in a remote rural region of Denmark in 1948 on a farm 150 km north of the German border on the west coast of Denmark. My place of birth was characterized by 'geographic and cultural barriers towards higher education'. I was lucky enough to be admitted to a grammar school with boarding facilities. I discovered very early in life that ‘justice’ did not come by itself, or by prayers. At Sunday school I had been told that we were all equal before the Lord. But I saw early, that some families were more equal than others and automatically got a better deal than others less fortunate. I never gave up believing in a just society, where the equality of its members is the premise for action. When it was time to be drafted for military service, I practiced my freedom to rebel against what I saw as serving inhumane objectives. I became a conscientious objector. Later in life I came to learn that justice often evaded a definition and that it was much easier to see when injustice was done.
After grammar school I studied social psychology, and philosophy at the University of Copenhagen, where I obtained a doctorate. Apart from three years as a research librarian, I ended up working for the Danish International Development Assistance Programme and eventually for the United Nations. All together I spent more than 30 years trying to make an impact on the development of the world for the betterment of mankind. I had entered the service of the UN in the belief that this prestigious institution served to create equality and justice among peoples of the world, however, I ended up rather frustrated.  With time I came to see that many of the noble words stressing equality and freedom essentially served to conceal injustices done with a view to control and dominate markets and ultimately the world-system.
It is too simple to explain my generation with reference to the events of the 1960s. It is true that I entered University in the autumn of 1968, the year, when an attempt was made to assassinate Rudi Dutschke, a student leader, in Berlin. Anti-American sentiments were being fed by the ongoing Vietnam War. In retrospect, 1970 became an important year for my position to subsequent world events. Most of 1969 and 1970, I spent in the USA, where I experienced the chock of the killings of students at Kent State University by the National Guard in May 1970. Earlier on I had passionately followed Bertrand Russel and Jean Paul Satre’s War Crimes Tribunal in Stockholm. Russel’s political writings and that of Danish journalist Torben Krogh, author of The American Threat, sensitized me to the dangers coming from the USA to the freedom of the entire world. During my brief stay in the USA at the beginning of the 70s, I made my first contacts with friends of the Black Panther movement. Police aggression against leaders of that movement made a strong impression on my ideas about the USA, the leader of the so-called free world. The persecution of Black leaders made me question the moral foundation of the country that wanted to lead the world. The treatment of Bobby Seale, co-founder of the Black Panther movement, made a strong impression on me. In the early 1970s, I met the South Africa’s anti-apartheid fighter Ruth First during her tour in Denmark, where she lectured on the involvement of American and European companies in Apartheid South Africa. Shortly after, she was killed by a letter bomb at the University in Maputo where she lectured.
Another 30 years had to pass until I again should spend some years (1998 – 2001) in the USA. This time as head of the Middle East and North Africa desk in the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF). This post provided me with an opportunity to gain close insight into how the United Nations and its agencies work. I completed my time with UNICEF by serving it as head of three countries in Central Africa.
After my early retirement, I founded a health care agency in Senegal, where I live with my Senegalese wife and our three children, when we are not in Denmark.
Copenhagen
5.3.2021

layer

CHRISTOPHER LAYER
For the last 20 years, Christopher Layer has been working in New York City as a multi-instrumentalist, recording artist, and producer, specializing in woodwind instruments and bagpipes including the Irish Uilleann Pipes, Highland Bagpipes, Scottish Smallpipes, Bassoon and the six-key wooden or simple system concert flute. He is the founding director of The New Harmony Music Festival & School in New Harmony, Indiana, USA. His work and "musics" have been featured on the Broadway stage, jazz clubs, Irish pubs, national radio broadcasts, with major symphony orchestras, dance companies, in films, video games, TV programs and commercials, and as a sideman for touring rock, pop, and trad music acts in most inhabited areas world-wide, plus some that are not. Chris Layer speaks German, French, Swiss-German, English and American.
In 2009, Layer contributed his orchestrations of original and traditional music to the New York Public Theater's production of "The Twelfth Night" for Shakespeare In The Park, performing onstage with theater and film greats, Anne Hathaway, Audra MacDonald, David Pittu, Jay O. Sanders, and Raul Esparza.
Additionally, Layer has taught music for Scotland's Feis Na Gael, in the Scottish Hebrides, The Augusta National Heritage Center, in West Virginia, The Hamish Moore School of Piping in Vermont and countless workshops at music festivals the world over, including the Moab Music Festival, The Caramoor International Music Festival, The Old Songs Festival, The Vancouver and Calgary Folk Festivals, and the Celtic Connections
Festival in Glasgow, Scotland. Over the last 16 years, Layer has toured the world with the Trinity Irish Dance Company as their principle Uilleann Pipe soloist and Irish flautist.
Layer comes from 2 music clans: Out of the many family musicians, his paternal great grandparents built a dance hall (Zippele Hall) and family band in Ohio in the 19th century and his maternal great Uncle, Bernard Lucas, was a touring singer and pianist on the German "Sangerchor" circuit, also in the 19th century. His father is Indiana bluegrass fiddler, Edwin Layer, and his mother Dolores Layer is a former beauty queen and
professional singer, his sister Valerie was a songwriter and singer until her untimely death in June of 2013. Chris' first professional engagement (for which he was paid $25) was as a child performer, and took place at the tender age of 7 years old, wearing red pajamas at the Lafayette Jefferson High School Christmas Show, alongside his older sister Valerie as she sang to him onstage.
Chris has been the Artist In Residence for the Moab Music Festival in Moab, Utah, since 2003, teaching there for 10 weeks each year, and is also is the creator of the Moab Community Dance Band, a charitable community orchestra, in that Moab. Although Chris is a native Hoosier, when not traveling, he makes his home in Greenwich Village, NYC, where he volunteers for charitable organizations, loves to cook, lives with many musical instruments, and waters his plants.
Please see his personal blog (Music, travel and food) and his music festival website.
Read more about The New Harmony Music Festival & School:
Christopher Layer is the founder and director of The New Harmony Music Festival & School, a multi-disciplinary music school and chamber music festival in New Harmony, Indiana. The festival brings professional performers from around the world to give public chamber concerts, while also sharing their knowledge of diverse "musics", experience as professionals, and the joy of music-making with our small annual class of music students. The main festival and summer school takes place the 2nd week of July each year, and recently began offering live broadcasts of its summer concerts nationally on The Public Radio Satellite Service (PRSS) as well as regionally on WNIN-Evansville, IN, WBAA-Purdue University, WKU-Western Kentucky, and WSIU-Carbondale, IL. Fred Child, the host of "Performance Today" on American Public Media, has served as the live co-host and production advisor for these broadcasts.
   

ELIZABETH "LIBBY" TRAUBMAN
Elizabeth "Libby" Traubman is a retired clinical social worker. In 1982, in response to the threat of global nuclear war, Mrs. Traubman was a founding member of the Beyond War Movement, now Foundation for Global Community. In 1991, she helped organize the Beyond War conference for Israeli and Palestinian citizen-leaders which resulted in a historic signed document, FRAMEWORK FOR A PUBLIC PEACE PROCESS. Libby then co-founded the Jewish-Palestinian Living Room Dialogue Group of San Mateo, now 15 years old, preparing for its 185th meeting, having inspired dozens of other Dialogues to begin and continue. She is a Trustee of the Foundation for Global Community, and in 1994 was inducted into the San Mateo County Women's Hall of Fame. In February, 2007, the Dialogue produced two new films that model a new quality of listening and communication. Early response from all continents can be read at http://traubman.igc.org/vidresponse.htm. Shorter trails can be viewed on the Web for both DIALOGUE AT WASHINGTON HIGH, and PEACEMAKERS: Palestinians & Jews Together at Camp.
• Interview, October 16, 2013, International Center for Ethno-Religious Mediation
   

LIONEL "LEN" TRAUBMAN (08 August 1939 – 04 October 2019, but always with us in our hearts!)
Lionel "Len" Traubman retired in 2000 from his practice of Dentistry for Children in San Francisco. He is a former Director of the San Francisco Dental Society, and was Editor of the American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry and of the California Society of Dentistry for Children. He was regional alumni President of Alpha Omega Jewish dental fraternity, and received the 1998 Distingushed Alumnus Award of the University of California School of Dentistry, for whom he gave the 2006 Commencement Address. Len wrote and published THE ORECKOVSKY FAMILY: FROM RUSSIA TO AMERICA, depicting his pioneer ancestors' immigration following the first pogroms of the early 1880s. The book resides in 100 libraries in North America and Europe. For 25 years, Len has published on war and peace from personal experience with Soviets and Americans, Armenians and Azerbaijanis, and Jews and Palestinians.
• Interview, October 16, 2013, International Center for Ethno-Religious Mediation
   


JENNIFER KIRBY
Jennifer Kirby is also a Member of the HumanDHS Global Coordinating Team, and of the HumanDHS Global Core Team and HumanDHS Research Team.
She graduated from Appalachian State University with a Bachelor's Degree in Biology. At the university she published her senior thesis on "The Nature of Holocaust Survivor Poetry: The Power of Poetic Expression." She is currently the Administrative Assistant/Event Coordinator for Appalachian State University's Center for Judaic, Holocaust, and Peace Studies. As she continues her academic interests, Jennifer plans to pursue graduate education in genocide and peace studies while incorporating her interest in humiliation studies within her field of study.
In her free time Jennifer loves reading, traveling, and spending time with animals of all kinds.
   

jha
HARI BANSH JHA
Hari Bansh Jha originates from Janakpur, a center for spiritual awakening all over the Indian sub-continent in ancient times. Jha is a Professor of Economics and Executive Director of Centre for Economic and Technical Studies in Nepal. He has to his credit more than two dozens of books, more than sixty research reports and about two-hundred-fifty papers and articles written on economic and social issues.
Jha earned his Ph.D. (Economics) from the University of Bihar, India, on "Resource Mobilization and Economic Development in Nepal during the Plan Period" in 1982 and was awarded the "Mahendra Bidya Bhusan" by His Majesty King Birendra of Nepal for his Ph.D.. He earned his M.A. (Economics) from the Banaras Hindu University in Varanasi, India, in 1975. As Assistant Lecturer/Lecturer, Associate Professor, and Professor of Economics, he taught subjects like Nepalese economics, International Economics, Public Finance and Economic Theory at the Department of Economics, at the Tri-chandra Campus of the Tribhuvan University in Nepal (1976-1998), and Rural Development at the Central Department of Rural Development (CDRD) at Tribhuvan University in Nepal (2004).
Hari is a truth-seeker, as many of us are. Over the years, he has realized the futility of any external knowledge in attaining peace of mind and peace within. One need not make any extra effort to make this discovery except concentrating on one's own breathing. Simply, one has to be aware of oneself. Gradual discarding of all that is learnt will take one to the realm of INFINITY.
   

NAVARAJ PUDASAINI
Navaraj Pudasaini is a human rights lawyer by profession and a permanent resident of Kathmandu, Nepal. He completed his LL.M in International Human Rights and Humanitarian Law in 2006. He has devoted his professional career to work in the areas of human rights, rule of law, conflict resolution, and the transitional justice. Additionally, he has been involved in a number of human rights organizations to protect and promote human rights situation in Nepal which is still on transitional period. During, his studies, he was elected as a secretary of LL.M Students’ Forum. He also worked together with the UNHCR for refugee issue, mainly the Bhutanese Refugee, which has been seen in Nepal since 1990. Currently, he is a secretary for Social Justice for Equality-Nepal. It raises awareness about the issues of human rights violations through domestic and international channels and supports legal reforms to make the justice more efficient and accessible. He is interested in transitional and restorative forms of justice both in the criminal justice as well as in post-conflict societies.
   

lublin

ARIEL LUBLIN
Ariel Lublin is an Associate Principal at Consensus - an international negotiation, conflict-resolution, and peace-building firm – where Ariel Lublin consults, leads trainings, and conducts peace-building dialogues for international organizations, governments, Fortune 500 companies, law enforcement agencies, and NGOs. She also teaches at Columbia University in the School of International Public Affairs (SIPA) and in the Negotiation and Conflict Resolution Masters Degree Program, and she serves as a custody/visitation mediator for NYC Family Court.
In 2007, Lublin was engaged by GTZ to consult and train trainers in their Sri Lankan conflict transformation program. From 2002 to 2005, she directed the Center for Court Innovation's Midtown Civic Partnership, where she led victim-offender restorative-justice conferences and convened multi-stakeholder mediations for entrenched conflicts involving Manhattan-based businesses, law enforcement, community leaders and public officials.
Ariel Lublin was the assistant producer of Poisoned Chalice: The UN in Iraq, a documentary film released in 2006. (Available for free viewing at www.vimeo.com/ with the password: iraq2005)  She assisted in the organization and documentation of the first two Women Waging Peace conferences and has been published in Bhumi Magazine of International Development.
Ariel Lublin formerly taught Dispute Resolution and Sociology at CUNY's John Jay College of Criminal Justice, and she was a Teaching Fellow at the Center for Public Leadership at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government. She holds a Masters of Education from Harvard University, with an individualized focus in Leadership Development and Conflict Resolution. Please read more about her here.
See here:
•  Addressing Humiliation through Listening with Respect: A Restorative Justice Model for Victims, Offenders, and Law Enforcement, note presented at Round Table 3 of the 2005 Workshop on Humiliation and Violent Conflict, Columbia University, New York City, December 15-16, 2005.

   

selterman
BONNIE SELTERMAN
Bonnie Selterman taught Human Communication and Culture at New York University in the Steinhardt School of Culture, Education and Human Development for 20 years, and was the recipient of the 2014 Teaching Excellence Award conferred by the NYU Steinhardt Undergraduate Student Government. She has been a certified mediator since 1997, primarily active in community, civil court, and family mediation. She assisted in the implementation of the successful Program for Young Negotiators at Baruch Middle School in NYC, under the auspices of Harvard Law School’s Program on Negotiation, and assisted in the coordination and implementation of the successful peer mediation program at Seward Park High School in NYC; and has served as an assistant coach in the Mediation Clinic at Columbia Law School. Bonnie is among a core group of mediators who helped establish the incorporation of mediation as an alternative conflict resolution process offered within the Civil Court System of New York. She collaborated in the creation of the “Make Talk Work” bookmarks, distributed internationally, as part of a public awareness project for Alternative Dispute Resolution undertaken by the CUNY Dispute Resolution Consortium of John Jay College of Criminal Justice. For the past several years Bonnie has been participating in the HumanDHS network and has been serving on its Education Team. Ongoing professional and intellectual interests center on the unrestricted flow of ideas, unrestricted access to ideas, evolution, the dignity of secularism, and the potential for art, music, and nature in conflict transformation. Bonnie writes poetry.
Please see:
Appreciative Introduction to the 2015 Workshop on Transforming Humiliation and Violent Conflict, Columbia University, New York City, December 3 - 4, 2015.
Poem "No Shoes" (Video | Pdf) (2016) recited in the 2016 Workshop on Transforming Humiliation and Violent Conflict, Columbia University, New York City, December 8 - 9, 2016.
Comments to Dignilogue 1 (2017) (Video) in the 2017 Workshop on Transforming Humiliation and Violent Conflict, Columbia University, New York City, December 7 - 8, 2017.
Comments to Dignilogue 2 (2017) (Video) in the 2017 Workshop on Transforming Humiliation and Violent Conflict, Columbia University, New York City, December 7 - 8, 2017.
Poem "Consume This" (2017) (Video | Pdf), recited for the 2017 Workshop on Transforming Humiliation and Violent Conflict, Columbia University, New York City, December 7 - 8, 2017.
Notes on Human Dignity as a Concept That Can Be Taught, Reflections prepared in May 2019 for the 2019 Workshop on Transforming Humiliation and Violent Conflict, Columbia University, New York City, December 5 - 6, 2019.
Escaping Complicity — A Poem (Pdf | Spoken recording on November 21, 2020), prepared for the 2020 Workshop on Transforming Humiliation and Violent Conflict, Virtual, Columbia University, New York City, December 10 – 12, 2020.
Dignity Through Solidarity — A Spoken Essay and Poem (Video | Pdf | Spoken recording on November 21, 2021), a contribution to the 2021 Workshop on Transforming Humiliation and Violent Conflict, Virtual, Columbia University, New York City, December 9 – 11, 2021.
Ways of Learning: A spoken poem composed for the specific theme of this year's workshop (Video | spoken recording on November 18, 2022 | Pdf), a contribution to the First World Dignity University Initiative Workshop, titled "For People and the Planet: Learning for a Future of Dignity," hosted online on December 9, 2022, representing the 19th Annual Workshop co-hosted by Morton Deutsch International Center for Cooperation and Conflict Resolution at Teachers College, Columbia University.
   

baird
JONI BAIRD
Joni Baird is a writer and activist.  Since 1997, she and her husband Bill Baird co-direct a non-profit women’s rights organization in New York. Both educate the public about birth control made legal through the U.S. Supreme Court case Baird v. Eisenstadt. Joni is passionate about issues pertaining to women and children having been a single mother of three. She is also committed to their organization’s motto, “To be wanted and loved is every child’s birthright.” In the past she was a pre-school teacher and facilitator of the parenting workshop “How to Talk So Kids Will Listen.” In 1999 she organized the first Right to Privacy Day celebration held at Boston University Law School in honor of Baird v. Eisenstadt. Attendees were Bill Baird, U.S. Sen. Joseph Tydings, attorney Joan Green (attorney for Baird v. Bellotti),former NY State NOW President Prof. Ti-Grace Atkinson, Lonny Myers, MD (NARAL founder), and others. In 1999, out of concern for growing inflammatory rhetoric, she and Bill Baird developed a lecture tour to educate the public about this issue. She wrote (under the last name Scott) “From Hate Rhetoric to Hate Crime: A Link Acknowledged Too Late,” an article published in the Humanist. The story was instrumental in passing California FACE legislation. Other articles include, “A Privacy Wake-up Call”, “Seeking Common Ground on Uncommon Ground,” and “An ‘Eco’ Systems Approach: Reproductive Rights Go Green.” In 1999, the Bairds began dialoguing with members of Priests for Life in an effort to bring attention to escalating inflammatory rhetoric that was leading to violence. This resulted in a Joint Statement she helped to develop that called for respectful debate on the reproductive rights issue. Joni recently completed a biography about her husband Bill’s fight to legalize birth control in the U.S. that is currently in the publishing process. She is a student at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst through their University Without Walls program. Joni believes that fostering respectful dialogue, sharing resources, and education are the keys to recreating how humanity relates to each another and to the environment.
Please see:
Why I Call Myself an Equalist, by Joni Baird, Huntington, New York, July 2018.
Yours in Freedom, Bill Baird, documentary film by Rebecca Cammisa: "In an America where more and more women and trans people are losing legal bodily autonomy, the history of Bill Baird’s long fight for women’s right to abortion is as relevant as ever. Oscar-nominated filmmaker Rebecca Cammisa doesn’t just give us a portrait of Baird, but also creates a historical register of allyship and activism that those fighting to uphold freedom and choice can access, and perhaps emulate. – Bedatri D. Choudhury"
   

scott
BRANDON SCOTT
Raised by artist-activists in the New York City area, Brandon has accumulated a wide array of experiences and skills. He has toured seemingly disparate cross-sections of the world, guided by an insatiable curiosity and valuing wisdom and understanding over ego-building and other acquisitive approaches to life. Never missing an opportunity to step outside of his comfort zone towards this end, he has been rewarded with a profound sense of connection to all forms of life and has ultimately seen that there are no separate actors to be found in nature. He is a veteran of the U.S. Armed Forces and holds a B.A. in Communication Studies, a B.S. in Psychology, and has skills and competencies which include neuroscience research, emergency medical care, intercultural dialogue facilitation, security and policing, and technology education (to name just a few). He has spent the last ten years serving as Director of Media Relations for a small nonprofit organization devoted to reproductive rights. His involvement with HDHS has given him the precious gift of integrating his eclectic skill set in support of a mission which he believes lies at the very core of our shared human condition.
Yours in Freedom, Bill Baird, documentary film by Rebecca Cammisa: "In an America where more and more women and trans people are losing legal bodily autonomy, the history of Bill Baird’s long fight for women’s right to abortion is as relevant as ever. Oscar-nominated filmmaker Rebecca Cammisa doesn’t just give us a portrait of Baird, but also creates a historical register of allyship and activism that those fighting to uphold freedom and choice can access, and perhaps emulate. – Bedatri D. Choudhury"
   

monrose
RENÉE MONROSE
Renée Monrose grew up in New Orleans. That unique city, with its rich mixture of cultures, races and religions, has had a marked influence on her art and interests. She now lives and works in New York City.
Her creative path has taken many turns, from journalism and film to art and theology. Renée studied painting and drawing at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Parsons School of Design, and the École des Beaux Arts in Paris. She has also studied at the International Center of Photography and attended the 2015 Master Photography Retreat in southern France. She holds an M.S. degree from the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism and an M.Div. from Union Theological Seminary. She worked in special projects and film development at Merchant Ivory Productions and as an archivist on the PBS Frontline films, John Paul II: The Millennial Pope and Faith and Doubt at Ground Zero.
Her interest in women’s issues, violence against women and social justice grew during her years of study at Union. Since 2012, she has volunteered as a rape crisis advocate at Bellevue Hospital.
Her most recently completed  work is photography-based and focuses on portraits and women: Face to Face: Women in the Forefront of History, is an installation commissioned by Union Theological Seminary in New York City. At its core are 19 portraits of women who are important in the history of women’s rights. The portraits are based on archival photographs which are silk-screened onto stainless steel mirrors. Each image is fashioned into a hand-mirror.  Viewers are invited to pick up and hold each one in order to see their reflections in or next to the face of the woman depicted there. The installation is on display indefinitely.
Renée is now at work on two new projects: one on tomboys and the other on images of women and violence in popular culture. In the near future, you will be able to see her work at reneemonrose.com.
 

newman
HARVEY NEWMAN
Harvey Newman is the director of community outreach for Transformative Communities, a social enterprise creating dynamic open source websites, web communities and enterprise platforms for business and organizations. Harvey was ordained as an Interfaith Minister 1984 and was co-founder and first president of A.I.M. as well as chairman emeritus of A World Alliance of Interfaith Clergy. Harvey is founder and facilitator of Circle of Life-Mastery, Inc., a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization dedicated to promoting and encouraging spiritual/emotional growth. Harvey retired in 2004 from Synovate, Inc., a global market research corporation, after 21 years of experience in the field. For 15 of those years he succesfully functioned within the company in his self-created position of research projects trouble-shooter. Harvey is a United Nations representative for the Association for Trauma Outreach & Prevention/Meaningful World and a member of the Congress of Non-Governmental Organizations (CoNGO) Committee on Spirituality, Values and Global Concerns.
   

varela
BRUNO VARELA
Bruno Varela is providing solutions that assist in the reduction of consumption and carbon footprint in factories and residential buildings ("Smart Building" solutions) and is involved in bringing awareness to ocean issues (pollution, global warming, piracy) and he also assists in combating these issues with technology innovations (blockchain, IoT traceability, open source ERP). He is proud of helping planners to be effective in solution planning and transition strategy for developing new integrated business units. During his 16 years of work experience, he has specialized in setting up and running new operating units and has successfully completed engagements across the U.S., Brazil, Europe, Africa, Asia, and Canada.
Bruno has an MBA in Marketing and a BS in Production Engineering from the Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro. He is fluent in Portuguese (mother tongue), English, and Spanish. Bruno is the founder of Adapto Consulting (www.adaptoconsulting.com - a boutique management consulting firm) and Adapto Solutions (www.adaptosolutions.com - a disruptive technology company with solutions based in Blockchain and IoT).
   

schulman
Ted Schulman holds a degree in Social Anthropology from Queens College and authored the best selling Web design book Photoshop Web Magic (1996). His broad perspective and collaborative approach to the development of interactive media, technology and community is based on engagements as an entrepreneur, corporate manager, consultant and producer/director. He has the credibility that only comes from deep experience with major engagements.
A social anthropologist and evolutionary activist, Ted is a proponent for the transformative potential of open source software and culture. Combining his interest in social development and technology Ted has facilitated the OWS Earth Summit Workgroup and its participation with the United Nations Rio+20 Earth Summit. He is now helping to create Transformative Communities, a community of practice (COP), bringing together thought leaders as a transformative organization.
Prior to founding Transformative Communities Ted Schulman managed the Solutions Group at TBWA\Chiat\Day the global adverting agency known for its work as Apple Computer's agency (among others; Absolute Vodka, Nissan, Pepsi, Visa). The Solutions Group at TBWA consisted of geography diverse teams of software developers who customized and integrated open source software for the agency's digital infrastructure. It was at TBWA that Ted began to fully appreciate the value of open source technology for the development of socially and economiclly transformative systems.
Over the course of his career Ted has directed and produced traditional and interactive communications projects for many Fortune 500 clients. Project highlights include: Responsive TV, first generation interactive learning system (1980s); The Learning Center at Ellis Island, interactive classroom (1990); HarlemNYC.US, example online community developed for Harlem, NY community application as a Federal Empowerment Zone (1995); The Open Source Imperative (2012).
   

sullivan

FRED SULLIVAN
Fred Sullivan is also a Member in the HumanDHS Global Core Coordinating Team.
Fred has manifold interests: He is a Technology/Social Entrepreneur, Activist, and Artist, with the range reaching from Strategy to Start-Ups, Branding, Technology Entrepreneurship, Social Entrepreneurship, Software Integration & Development, Inbound Marketing, Film & Video Producer, Art Direction, Systems Analysis, Argentine Tango, and Modern Dancer and Choreographer, Pianist.
He writes: What do I usually do for ventures? Help realize an organization leadership teams vision by using my ability envision a strategy and integrate technology & brand way creates exceptional value. One of the tools is The Filter Model it is a process of systematically identifying opportunity by modeling users of a system. In a workshop with the venture team of core members, we develop together strategy, brand and mission critical IP and technology systems. Recent Projects: The City of Jersey City, Trial Academy of New York State, The Man Up Campaign, Total Coordination Professionals, Gurfein Douglas.

   

lund

MARIA LUND
Maria Lund is President and COO of First Sun EAP a national provider of employee assistance program services in South Carolina. Maria has over 30 years of experience working in the counseling and EAP fields. She has a Master’s Degree in Clinical Psychology and is a Certified and Licensed Employee Assistance Professional as well as a Licensed Professional Counselor. She is a leader in the EAP industry and has received rewards and recognition for her leadership from several EAP Associations. For 17 years Maria was Chair of the EAPA Communications Committee and a standing lead columnist for the Journal of Employee Assistance which is the EAP industry’s professional publication. She is now the Editor of this Journal. Maria served as a Commissioner on the Employee Assistance Certification Commission. Maria lives in Zirconia North Carolina with her husband Lyndon Harris.

   

harris

LYNDON F. HARRIS
Lyndon Harris is a forgiveness teacher, coach, and inspirational speaker, offering keynotes for conferences around the world. But Lyndon came kicking and screaming to the work of forgiveness. As a former priest, he thought he had it all figured out. Until he had to do the hard work of forgiveness: forgiving others, forgiving himself, forgiving life. Beginning at the foot of the besieged South Tower of the World Trade Center on the morning of 9/11, and continuing beyond the reclaiming of the WTC site, Lyndon’s journey has had many highs and some devastating lows on his path to reclaim his life through the power of forgiveness. Lyndon’s work after 9/11 has been written about widely, including The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Christian Science Monitor, and Time Magazine. His forgiveness work is also featured in the award-winning documentary, “The Power of Forgiveness” (Journey Films, 2006). For more information see www.lyndonharris.com.
Please see:
• Lyndon Harris' talk on Forgiveness from The Episcopal Diocese of Texas in 2015. He talks about forgiveness and how his time at St. Paul's Chapel in NYC during the 9/11 attacks changed his outlook on grace and forgiveness.
• "Message to the World — Forgiveness" (Video | Video recorded on December 10, 2020) for the 2020 Workshop on Transforming Humiliation and Violent Conflict, Virtual, Columbia University, New York City, December 10 – 12, 2020.
• Dignilogue on Forgiveness (Video | Announcement and Afterthoughts) on Day One of the 2020 Workshop on Transforming Humiliation and Violent Conflict, Virtual, Columbia University, New York City, December 10 – 12, 2020.
There Can Be No Future Without Forgiveness (Quote from Late Archbishop Desmond Tutu) (Video), contribution Dignilogue 1 of the 2021 Workshop on Transforming Humiliation and Violent Conflict, Virtual at Columbia University, New York City, December 9 – 11, 2021.

   

kauffman
JEFFREY KAUFFMAN
Jeffrey Kauffman is a psychotherapist who works in private practice with individual, family and group psychotherapy since 1985. Since 1984, he is the Founder/Director for the Care of Community Institutions, Inc. (CCCI). Through CCCI, extensive consultation and training services are provided to hospices, nursing homes, schools, emergency services, mental health and mental retardation agencies, clergy and congregations, funeral directors, hospital and other institutions. He has conducted more than 350 training programs, presented his work at more than 200 conferences, edited two books, authored one book and havspublished more than twenty-five book chapters and journal articles. From 1995-1999, and since 2008, he is Adjunct Associate Professor at the Widener University Center for Social Work Education, teaching graduate level courses on Group Psychotherapy, Human Behavior, Second Year Practicum, Spirituality and Social Work (he developed this course), and Field liaison. Since 2008, he is a Clinical Supervisor at the Widener University Developmental Disabilities Clinic. Since January 2009, he is on the Online Faculty of the Graduate Program in Thantology at the University of Western Ontario, Canada.
   

singer
MARK SINGER
Mark Singer is also a Member in the HumanDHS Global Core Coordinating Team.
Mark is an ethicist, writer, and professor from the USA. He has taught communication at the college/university level for over 25 years. His memberships include the Center for Global Nonkilling and North American Kant Society. Seminal Ethics – Discovering Your Ethical Core is his latest work-in-progress - a book designed to educate others via a values clarification process that can greatly enhance identity-awareness. Singer maintains that such strengthening of one’s personal identity is the key to overcoming the deleterious effects of humiliation.
Please see also:
The Kant Concept Art created by Pegge Patten.
• Guidelines for Communication, fourth edition, 2011, by author Mark Singer and illustrator Pegge Patten (USA) is available as a free download here or from Punim Publishing (email). GFC includes innovative new models of communication such as the "Communication Guide" - a strategic analysis for creating a "Persuasive Message Strategy" and "Gratitude-Based Communication" - a paradigm for meaningful personal growth. Also, "Discovering Your Ethical Core" is a unique blend of philosophy and a practical values clarification exercise.
   
brogaard
BERIT BROGAARD
Berit Brogaard is a Professor at University of Miami and Director of the Brogaard Lab for Multisensory Research. Prior to that, she was Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of Missouri, Saint Louis, USA. She is the American editor of the international philosophy journal Erkenntnis. Before returning the States she held a 2-year research fellowship at the Centre for Consciousness at the Australian National University, where she worked on perception and the contents of consciousness. She has a background in neuroscience from University of Copenhagen. Her current research is located at the intersection of philosophy of mind and philosophical psychology. She has authored or co-authored papers which have appeared in various journals and edited volumes, including: Journal of Philosophy, Noûs, Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, Consciousness and Cognition, Cognitive Science, Philosophical Psychology, Philosophical Quarterly, Australasian Journal of Philosophy, Philosophical Perspectives, American Philosophical Quarterly, Analysis, Mind and Language, The Monist, Pacific Philosophical Quarterly, Synthese and the Canadian Journal of Philosophy. Her book Transient Truths is scheduled to appear with Oxford University Press in April, 2012, and her popular book Sick Love is scheduled to appear with Park East Press, New York, in June 2012.
   

reibold
KERSTIN REIBOLD
Kerstin is a PhD fellow at the Globalizing Minority Rights project of The Arctic University of Tromsø, Norway. She has studied philosophy, political science, and literature in Germany, England, and Norway. She also has a minor in educational studies and experience in planning and teaching courses at high schools and universities.
She is interested in human rights issues, territorial rights, indigenous rights, as well as historic injustice and reconciliation. Her current project analyses how widespread and systematic injustices undermine the social bases of self-respect even after they have ceased. Focusing on the Sami in Norway and First Nations in Canada, the project clarifies the responsibilities of states to implement policies and grant rights that restore equal social bases of self-respect to these groups.
Kerstin is also a member of the feminist philosophy research group at UiT and the Territory and Justice Network.
   

cota
ALVIN BENJAMIN COTA
Alvin Benjamin Cota, is a History teacher, writer, and lecturer.  He primarily works at the Secondary School level, but also conducts seminars for teachers on Native American History, Law, and The Indian Termination act, especially as it affected Oregon Indian tribes.  Originally from the most Indian state of Arizona, he has always been politically active in both the Native and the Teacher/ Education communities.  Most recently, he has presented a history of "Naming and Race, in the Hispanic and Indian Cultures', for the Oregon Council of the Social Studies.  
Please see:
Hispanics Native Americans – Mexicans, and Indians: What Role Does Language Play in Defining these Groups?, co-presented with Darci Monroe for the Spring Oregon Council for Social Studies, an organization for Social Studies (mostly History) teachers in Oregon, March 2, 2013.
   

smithbyron
AMANDA SMITH BYRON
Amanda Byron is a faculty member in the graduate program in Conflict Resolution at Portland State University, Oregon, United States, where she teaches critical peace education and violence prevention. Her research interests include loving praxis as a pedagogy of change, storytelling as a means to engage students in democracy, creativity as a conflict resolution practice, and the exploration of how identity and culture influence conflict. Dr. Byron has more than 20 years of experience working with diverse communities to heal trauma and transform conflict, and she is particularly interested in understanding how and why violence occurs, and in forging new ideas on individual and collective responses.
   

donohoe

MARTIN DONOHOE
Martin Donohoe's slide shows, articles, and syllabi can be found at www.publichealthandsocialjustice.org or www.phsj.org. He is Adjunct Associate Professor in Community Health at Portland State University, practices internal medicine, and was Chief Scientific Advisor to Oregon PSR’s Campaign for Safe Food for the last decade. He received his BS and MD from UCLA, completed internship and residency at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and was a Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholar at Stanford University. He teaches courses in medical humanities, public health, social justice ethics, and women’s studies.

   

eddy

MARTHA EDDY
Martha Eddy, RSMT, CMA, Ed.D., is a movement therapist, exercise physiologist lecturer, author and international speaker. She is Honorary Adjunct Professor of BioBehavioral Sciences at Teachers College, Columbia University. In 2019, she joined the Marymount Manhattan College as Visiting Artist-in-Residence and was named the First Geraldine Ferraro Fellow on Social Justice and Movement  as part of MMC’s Ferraro Institute for Breakthrough Civic Leadership. Eddy is the founder and director of the Center for Kinesthetic Education (CKE) in New York City and brings to the fields of health, wellness and education her strong belief in the power of movement and somatic – or body-mind-spirit awareness – to enhance lives and build connections within and across communities. She does this with a racial and cultural equity lens.
Her Embody Peace programs include “Peaceful Play Programming” for recess enhancement in schools, Conflict Resolution through Movement and Dance, Moving Towards Peace, and Somatic Approaches to Healing from Trauma (www.embodypeace.org blog). She brings to all of her work her experience growing up in Spanish Harlem, her volunteer work with survivors of 9/11, her consulting in the NYC public school system, and her joyful interactions in leading her dance-exercise classes for women with cancer (www.Movement4life.com). She trains movement therapists www.movingoncenter.org/DynamicSMTT internationally and has published dozens of articles, several chapters, and is in press with a new book.
She founded Dynamic Embodiment–Somatic Movement Therapy Training (DE-SMTT) in 1991 and affiliated it with Moving On Center, a non-profit educational arts organization that she co-founded in 1995 with Carol Swann, daughter of Bob Swann founder of the E. F. Schumacher Society. The DE-SMTT course of study is also in partnership with SUNY-Empire State College, Santa Barbara Graduate Studies and the International University of Professional Studies. She taught movement analysis and development at Teacher College, Columbia University from 1990 – 2000 and consequently her Moving Towards Peace course through CEO&I. She teaches Laban Movement Analysis at Barnard periodically and is a senior faculty member, advisory council member, and Senior Research Associate of the Laban/Bartenieff Institute of Movement Studies.
Her doctoral research in movement science from Teachers College, Columbia
University focused on embodied approaches to violence prevention in adolescents within schools and community centers. An outcome of her research was to establish a methodology for training arts educators to teach conflict resolution and violence prevention skills to pre-K – college youth using movement, dance, martial arts, and somatic principles.  The soma is the living body – the body that has natural intelligence and the ability to self-regulate. She began work with resiliency in responding to trauma in her client practice and then has worked with Project Renewal, now Inner Resilience/Tides Center, ever since movement therapists and educators began working near Ground Zero just after the events of 9/11.  She writes and speaks internationally on the physical experience of trauma and violence, as well as body-mind approaches to recovery, see her published works in non-verbal communication, and embodied conflict resolution, violence prevention and peacebuilding. Most recently she is a pre-conference workshop leader, speaker and keynote panelist at The Arts and Intercultural Conflict symposium held in Lima, Peru December, 2010. She has numerous websites including www.embodypeace.org blog, www.movingoncenter.org/DynamicSMTT, and www.WellnessCKE.net. Current projects: www.GlobalWaterDances.org, www.Movement4Life.org, and Spiritual Coordination in Community Organizing.
In 2016, after 15 years of working with it, Martha launched her book, Mindful Movement: The Evolution of the Somatic Arts and Conscious Action (Bristol: Intellect. 2016).
See also the AFS Intercultural Programs, an international, voluntary, non-governmental, non-profit organization that provides intercultural learning opportunities to help people develop the knowledge, skills and understanding needed to create a more just and peaceful world (originally the American Field Service, of which Martha Eddy's father was part). In 2007, almost 13,000 participants traveled abroad on AFS cultural exchanges between 65 countries, as supported by 44,000 active volunteers.
Please see:
Mindful Movement: The Evolution of the Somatic Arts and Conscious Action, and her book talk at Gottesman Libraries on December 6, 2016.
• A DigniStretch Activity (Video | followed by How to Be Alone and Water Dance | see also DigniCalm and DigniStretch activities pre-recorded on December 4, 2020) as contribution on Day Two to the 2020 Workshop on Transforming Humiliation and Violent Conflict, virtual, Columbia University, New York City, December 10 – 12, 2020. See also: Somatic Resources for Stressful Times | Global Water Dances Mission | Global Water Dances (GWD) YouTube Channel | Global Water Dance: Documentary, 3 minutes | Global Water Dance, 12 minutes
• "Message to the World" (Video | Rise Up: Cancer Survivor/Thriver Dance, created on September 29, 2020 Video), contribution shared on Day Three of the 2021 Workshop on Transforming Humiliation and Violent Conflict, Virtual at Columbia University, New York City, December 9 – 11, 2021.
• Host of the Dignilogue titled Giving and Receiving Simple Acts of Kindness as Seeds of Dignity. The 20th Workshop on Transforming Humiliation and Violent Conflict, titled "The Urgency of Seeding Dignity: Honoring 20 Years of Global Collaboration for Transforming Suffering Through Courageous and Compassionate Action," hybrid, co-hosted online and in person by the Morton Deutsch International Center for Cooperation and Conflict Resolution at Teachers College, Columbia University, New York City, December 8, 2023.

   

shafir
TALIA SHAFIR
Talia Shafir is a Psychophysical Therapist, Registered Somatic Movement Therapist/ Educator, and Clinical Hypnotherapist.
She writes about herself here: "I'm a Dynamic Embodiment™ Somatic Movement Therapist & Educator, a Psycho-Physical Therapist who specializes in a body-centered, movement oriented approach to adult attachment issues, the developmental underpinnings of current life challenges, as well as acute and chronic trauma and post-traumatic stress. My training includes the latest psychophysical approaches to acute and chronic trauma and post traumatic stress. Currently a doctoral researcher of adult attachment, I am a PhD candidate in the field of Somatic and Spiritual Psychology. My work has been informed by experts in the field such as Dr Carol George Dr.Mac West, Dr. Pat Ogden, Dr. Janina Fisher, Bill Bowen, Ron Kurtz, Dr. Ruella Frank, Dr. Martha Eddy and Bonnie Bainbridge-Cohen, among others. I'm a member of the USABP (United States Assoc. of Body Psychotherpists) and ISMETA (Intn'l Somatic Movement and Education Therapy Assoc.) and presently serve on the faculty of California-based Moving On Center - School for Participatory Arts and Somatic Research and the Center for Kinesthetic Education in Manhattan. In addition, I'm a Certified Clinical Hynotherapist and a practitioner and trainer of Deep Memory Process™. I find the Jungian and Tibetan Buddhist-based, somatically grounded, past life regression methodology of the late Dr. Roger Woolger to be an alternative, life changing approach to unraveling present-day patterns that no longer serve. To sum up my philosophy of practice, both professional and personal: No one way is "it". Successful, lasting change requires movement - physically, emotionally, cognitively and spiritually."
   

sivertsen
BARBARA ROWEN SIVERTSEN
Barbara Rowen Sivertsen was originally educated as a biochemist, and worked for years as a science teacher. Teaching science took her to countries caught up in in conflict (Nigeria right after the Biafran war, or Colombia) and she started wondering how teachers could contribute to a culture for peace. She transferred to peace work, later becoming director of the umbrella organization for Norwegian Peace NGOs – the Norwegian Peace Council. Her focus has always been on education for peace and on developing "skills for a better world". She has been developing the resource web-page www.educationforpeace.no for many years. The last 6 years she has been working at the Norwegian Centre for Human Rights, which has given her the opportunity to hold workshops in Indonesia, the Caucasus and Central Asia in addition to Europe.
See also:
Shianshenka: The Rise and Fall of the Perfect Creation by Rowen Sivertsen, Nesoddtangen, Norway: Birch Tree Road Publishing, 2011.
• Conflict Staircase, Empathic (non-violent) Communication: A tool in Conflict Transformation and a Counterbalance to Humiliation (see also www.educationforpeace.com), presented at the "Communication and Dignity" Thematic Network Meeting, convened by the Human Dignity and Humiliation Studies network in Oslo, Norway, together with "Impuls" - Student Journal of Psychology at the University of Oslo, and Education for Peace, 22nd-24th January 2014.
This was a training session by Babs Sivertsen (The Norwegian Peace Association Education for Peace group), and Elsa-Britt Enger (Grandmothers for Peace) on 23rd January 2014, where the participants were looking at the principles of non-violent (empathic) communication, and methods of developing it as a powerful tool which both promotes human dignity and avoids the infliction of humiliation in conflict situations. The participants shared and demonstrated the methodology of training, and practiced the use of the tools available.
See videos:
Babs Sivertsen
Elsa-Britt Enger
See also the following humorous illustration of failing communication:
Rights of Passage:
This is the transcript of the ACTUAL radio conversation between the British and the Irish, off the coast of Kerry, Oct 98. Radio conversation released by the Chief of Naval Operations 10-10-01:
IRISH: Please divert your course 15 degrees to the South, to avoid a collision.
BRITISH: Recommend you divert your course 15 degrees to the North, to avoid a collision.
IRISH: Negative. You will have to divert your course 15 degrees to the South to avoid a collision.
BRITISH: This is the Captain of a British navy ship. I say again, divert YOUR course.
IRISH: Negative. I say again. You will have to divert YOUR course.
BRITISH: THIS IS THE AIRCRAFT CARRIER HMS BRITANNIA THE SECOND LARGEST SHIP IN THE BRITISH ATLANTIC FLEET. WE ARE ACCOMPANIED BY THREE DESTROYERS, THREE CRUISERS, AND NUMEROUS SUPPORT VESSELS. I DEMAND THAT YOU CHANGE YOUR COURSE 15 DEGREES NORTH, I SAY AGAIN, THAT IS 15 DEGREES NORTH, OR COUNTER-MEASURES WILL BE UNDERTAKEN TO ENSURE THE SAFETY OF THIS SHIP.
IRISH: We are a lighthouse. Your call.
Posted on Arnish Lighthouse at 15:29
   

smaldino
CAROL SMALDINO
Carol Smaldino has a 30 year psychotherapy practice with individals, couples, families and has worked with groups, as well as previously, in residential treatment and in social service agencies. Her orientation is helping people, find where they are stuck and unable to feel the gifts of choice, dignity, and passion, including laughter, and compassion.
Carol writes about herself (December 20, 2010): "I often help parents and kids escape from power struggles into relationship, and love that part of translation as well. My accents are plentiful and I am somewhat fluent in Spanish, Italian, and some French, and listening to kids wihtout preaching, which seems a language in itself. My orientation is very much developmental as opposed to overly-happy affirmations for all. I help patients work with both their inner shadows, and work through issues of shame and comparison so they can embrace imperfection, so they don't have to be put in any corner by a very authoritative and competitive culture, and in sync with my commitment to mutuality they help me as much. This work has been sometimes quite stormy. I currently write for the Huffington Post on matters of the human climate-- connecting all aspects of human growth and pollution to the larger ecology--and also at times on the arts, though always connecting back to the emotional/political relationship. My parenting book, In the Midst of Parenting: A Look at the Real Dramas and Dilemmas (2000, Brooklyn Girl Books) can be viewed at www.adancingmind.com and is available at no cost if you contact me by email. I spend summers in our home in Lucca, Italy, and hope to increase that time, still participating in teaching, writing, consultation and working with the DHS network. My current manuscript is in the midst of seeking potential agents and publishers and is called Dancing into Maybe. There is a very mishchievous, irreverant, silly side of me, part of that is a persona known best to some of you in the form of Doctor Ethel, who manages to remain part of me but herself as well; she is English from who knows where and loves to tell the following secret to everyone: "I'm not a Doctor". She entertains, makes me happy and at times says things better than I as English English just sounds so very extra important some times. Don't you suppose? I am also entertained by my long term partner and husband Lino, who stimulates and helps my work in his own capacity as self-made editor and psychoanalyst (not entirely self-made though he is unique and gritty and real) And then there are my dearest--for Evelin but true--daughter Emma and son Paul who right now live on the west coast. One of my sayings--pardon the generality--is: Without laughter, it would all be impossible."
Please see:
The Human Climate Facing the Divisions Inside Us and Between Us, Carol Smaldino's book published in January 2019 in Dignity Press.
See also:
Found in Translation: Recognizing all the Shades of Human Feeling, abstract presented at the 15th Annual Conference of Human Dignity and Humiliation Studies "Peace at Home, Peace in the World," in Istanbul, Turkey, 28th - 30th April 2010.
If We Meet the Shadow: One Family’s Interruption of Bullying and Blame , abstract presented at the 2010 Workshop on Transforming Humiliation and Violent Conflict, Columbia University, New York City, December 9-10, 2010.
What's So Funny?, abstract presented at the 2011 Workshop on Transforming Humiliation and Violent Conflict, Columbia University, New York City, December 8-9, 2011. See also related reflections.
• "Cancer Comedy,"Huffington Post, July 12, 2014.
Vulnerability Protected: Respecting the Rawness of Vulnerability and Giving it the Protection it Needs, contribution to the 2015 Workshop on Transforming Humiliation and Violent Conflict, Columbia University, New York City, December 3-4, 2015.
As a Therapist: Cultivating the Dignity of Being Ourselves, contribution to the 2016 Workshop on Transforming Humiliation and Violent Conflict, Columbia University, New York City, December 8-9, 2016. See also: "In a Dialogue: In a Dignilogue," by Carol Smaldino, Huffington Post, December 20, 2016, and "Finding Dignity in Emotional Anguish," by Carol Smaldino, Huffington Post, December 29, 2016.
Solidarity with Our Emotions in the Human Climate (Video), contribution to Dignilogue 1 of the 2021 Workshop on Transforming Humiliation and Violent Conflict, Virtual at Columbia University, New York City, December 9 – 11, 2021.
   

white
JANICE GILLIGAN WHITE
My name is Janice Gilligan White and I am a blogger for targets of workplace bullying. I experienced the horrific effects of this phenomenon and would lose my 16 year career in the aviation industry. I began The Empowered Employee as a way to spread awareness, knowledge, and resources available so others may be spared the damage to one’s health and spirit. I hold a BA in Psychology and am affiliated with both The Workplace Bullying Institute and End Workplace Abuse.org. I am thrilled to be a part of the Human Dignity and Humiliation Studies Community and look forward to joining the rest of you in your mission to make the world a more dignified, humane place.
   

ishihara
NORIKO ISHIHARA
Noriko Ishihara, Ph.D., is Professor of Applied Linguistics and TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) at Hosei University, Japan. She teaches language teachers’ professional development courses at graduate programs in Japan and the U.S. She started as a researcher of linguistic politeness (pragmatics) and a teacher educator promoting its instruction, and is currently working to bridge respectful/peaceful language use and critical awareness in the language classroom and teacher development. The first of such efforts was a book chapter on how diplomats’ (and others’) language awareness can be enhanced to communicate tactfully and respectfully in a global community (2016, in Patricia Friedrich (Ed.), English for Diplomatic Purposes. Multilingual Matters). Please see her website.
See also:
• "Teaching to Develop Learners’ Sociocultural Competence," by Noriko Ishihara, Hosei University, Columbia University Teachers College Tokyo, Soleado, Spring, 2011.
• Ishihara, Noriko (2017). "Teaching Pragmatics in Support of Learner Subjectivity and Global Communicative Needs: A Peace Linguistics Perspective." In Idee in form@zione, 6 (5), pp. 17–32. doi: 10.4399/97888548998652.
• "The Language of Respect and Dignity for Intercultural Understanding and Conflict Resolution: Application to Diplomacy and Education." In Human Dignity: Practices, Discourses, and Transformations: Essays on Dignity Studies in Honor of Evelin G. Lindner. Edited by Chipamong Chowdhury, Michael Britton, and Linda Hartling. Chapter 5. Lake Oswego, OR: Dignity Press, 2019.
   

pim
JOÁM EVANS PIM
Joám is part of the leadership team of the Center for Global Nonkilling and has as primary responsibility identifying, leading and/or overseeing research initiatives, including symposia, collection of critical data related to nonkilling, research committees and related activities. Joám followed graduate and undergraduate studies in Journalism, Anthropology and Politics. He was Professor of Media Studies at the University of Santiago de Compostela and Director of the Arab and Islamic Studies Program at Menéndez Pelayo International University. He is also Founding President of the Galizan Institute for International Security and Peace Studies and Board member of the Brazilian Institute for Nonkilling.
   

PETER BARUS
Peter Barus kindly shared his thoughts in 2019, in preparations for our 2019 Workshop on Transforming Humiliation and Violent Conflict, Columbia University, New York City, December 5–6, 2019: As a nonviolent activist since 1958 (first antiwar demonstration, age 10), and a Conscientious Objector in 1968, in the late 1970s my commitment to nonviolence was severely challenged. After dealing with fear (with a lot of help), I adopted the view that I was the source of the violence, regardless of circumstance, and knew nothing about it. Soon I encountered a master in a Japanese tradition of swordsmanship and followed this discipline for thirty-five years (and counting). My purpose was not to find security or become invincible (absurd notions), but to discover and master the essence of human conflict. In this context I published Matters of Life and Death: Essays in Budō, in 2012. Next book working title: Dodging Extinction: Human Evolution at the Dawn of the Attention Age. Current projects include work with the Unbounded Organization Academy. I live in the possibility of harmony with all life. See more on attentionage, unboundedacademy, opednews, and barus.
• "Message to the World — Learning about Dignity" (Video) shared on Day Three of the 2020 Workshop on Transforming Humiliation and Violent Conflict, Virtual, Columbia University, New York City, December 10 – 12, 2020.
• "Message to the World" formulated after the 37th Annual Conference of Human Dignity and Humiliation Studies, in Amman and online, 5th – 7th September 2022:
As our gracious hosts and others have pointed out, we cannot solve our complex, dynamic perdicament a piece at a time, or understand it by examining the parts. Instead we must take a holistic approach that appreciates the interdependent, interconnected, constantly moving nature of life. Human transformation will not be easily perceptible, because it is not from the past, and cannot be commodified; and because it has always been our nature. Our worldviews are limited to past experience, riddled with trauma, fragmented by attention-exploiting technology, and distracted by answers that beg the real questions. But "the medicine is next to the wound." Outside of this bubble of our awareness there is a lot going on that shows up, when we look for it, not passively, but creatively: not with apathy and despair, but the eyes of stewardship and love. HDHS, Ubuntu, the global indigenous movement, even the rising tumult of a failing, obsolete, self-parasitic culture: all speak to the arising individual realization of belonging, care and responsibility, in each of us, for the whole of life. This is our future in the making. Every person has a hand in it.
• Surviving Extinction at the Dawn of the Attention Age, talk given at the Universidad de Congreso, Global Peace Studies for Sustainable Development in Africa, streamed live on May 31, 2023.
   
killingback
MUNA KILLINGBACK
Muna Killingback looks back on many years of experience advocating for and writing about women's and human rights, peace, and social and economic justice. Before joining the Center for Women in Politics and Public Policy at the University of Massachusetts in Boston, she worked with the Center for Rebuilding Sustainable Communities after Disasters at UMass Boston, she had previously served as Executive Director of the Cambridge-based nonprofit organization Theological Opportunities Program (now Women Explore). She is a former director of communications for the World YWCA, headquarters of the global women's movement in Geneva. As a freelance writer and editor, she specialized in the work and communications needs of nonprofit and non-governmental organizations (NGOs), including grant writing. She continues to serve as one of the World YWCA's UN representatives. 
   

tabaczynski
REBECCA TABACZYNSKI
Rebecca "Becky" Tabaczynski is the CFO for the American Council of International Studies, an education travel company.
With a BS in Nursing from UMass Amherst, and an MA Counseling from Framingham State College, Rebecca had a successful career in nursing.
After completing an MBA at Suffolk University, she progressed from cash accountant, financial researcher, expense controller, accounting manager, controller, to Vice President of Finance. She is now responsible for the company's financial health including pricing, budgeting, currency hedging and growth management. She developed sales and marketing dashboards, and profitability and cost analysis. The flights department improved customer satisfaction after she created a quality control system.
Rebecca volunteered for Oxfam in the research department, and at Bikes Not Bombs. She attended the Leadership Summit for Kiva, a micro-lending organization, and visited Mexico to experience the impact of the loans.
Rebecca "Becky" Tabaczynski holds a certificate in Global Post-Disaster Studies from the Center for Rebuilding Sustainable Communities after Disasters, under the Direction of Adenrele Awotona, at the University of Massachusetts, Boston. In 2017, Becky became connected to HumanDHS as a student in the course: Human Dignity, Human Rights, and Sustainable Post-Disaster Reconstruction.
Over the last year she has been donating her research skills as a gift to HumanDHS by studying conspiracy theories. She has a bachelors degree in nursing and masters degrees in counseling and business administration. After extensively researching conspiracy theories, she will be exploring what may encourage or prevent involvement for witnesses of humiliation.
Please see:
• The Threat of Conspiracy Theories (Video | Video recorded on November 29, 2021),
Contribution to Dignilogue 2 "Creating Courage Through Action in the Age of Cogitocide, Sociocide, and Ecocide" of the 2021 Workshop on Transforming Humiliation and Violent Conflict, Virtual at Columbia University, New York City, December 9 – 11, 2021.
   

norderval
INGUNN NORDERVAL
I'm born in Finnmark, Norway, and grew up in Møre and Romsdal. Started political science studies at the University of Oslo, but when I received a Fulbright scholarship to the United States, I left for the University of Washington, Seattle, where I eventually received my Ph.D., married an American fellow student, and raised four kids. I taught political science at various colleges and universities in the US and Canada. When I returned to Norway after a quarter of a century, I was associate professor at Molde University College for 20 years. I served in political positions in the provincial assembly, the "Fylkesting," for 16 years. After retiring and moving to Oslo, I was a member of Frogner Bydelsutvalg for 4 years, and thereafter a member of the Labor Party's city council group for four years. My last political position was a leader of the Labor Party's Veterans Forum.
Please see also:
• "The Nobel Peace Prize: How Have Women Fared," in Scandinavian Review (autumn-winter 2005), pp. 68-77.
Nobelkomiteen og kvinnene 1901-1960. Oslo: Internasjonal kvinneliga for fred og frihet, 2015, a book women who did not receive the Nobel Peace Prize: Eleanor Roosevelt, Rosika Schwimmer, Maria Montessori, and Margaret Sanger, for example, were nominated as candidates for the prize, but none of them received it.
Women and the Nobel Peace Prize. Lake Oswego, OR: Dignity Press, 2021.
   

frank
MONA MARIE FRANK
Mona Frank has completed an Erasmus Mundus Master’s degree in Social and Cultural Psychology at the University of Oslo. She was born in Munich, Germany, where she received her Bachelor’s degree at LMU in Munich in 2017 and she completed an internship as a school counsellor in Cape Town, South Africa, in 2016.
   

nygaard

ELLA NYGÅRD AUTTI
Ella Autti is currently undertaking PhD research into shame and humiliation in healthcare work communities at the University of Lapland, Finland. She aims to pursue an understanding of the dialogues and systems that humiliate or cause shame in work settings. She holds a master's degree in social sciences and has a background in marketing and communications. Ella is filled with a desire to help healthcare organizations to have mutually respectful and dignified work cultures.
Kindly see:
• "Over the Rainbow" (Video), sung at the First World Dignity University Initiative Workshop, titled "For People and the Planet: Learning for a Future of Dignity," hosted online on December 9, 2022, representing the 19th Annual Workshop co-hosted by Morton Deutsch International Center for Cooperation and Conflict Resolution at Teachers College, Columbia University.
• Graphics:

   

chunchun
BANGCHUN (CHUNCHUN) LIU
Bangchun Liu is a visiting doctoral Ph.D student in Psychology Department at Clark University, USA, under the supervision of Prof. Joseph de Rivera. She comes from Psychology Department of Human Normal University, Changsha, China. Her thesis is the comprehensive introduction to peace psychology. She also is working on peace education in a middle school in Worcester, MA. She received her master degree on second language acquisition in the Capital Normal University, Beijing, China, with Prof. Qiqi as her supervisor. She is now interested in peace education and writing a conflict resolution education in Chinese context.
Please see:
The Peacefulness of Chinese Teenagers, paper prepared for the 21st Annual Conference of Human Dignity and Humiliation Studies "Search for Dignity," in South Africa, 25th - 28th April 2013
   
ABIGAIL GREEN
Abigail M. Green is a Master of Arts in Global Inclusion and Social Development from the University of Massachusetts Boston. Her concentration was in Human Rights with an emphasis on global and domestic mental health issues and her capstone topic was The Preservation of Human Rights & Dignity for Those Suffering from Mental Illness. Abigail’s undergraduate work was in Writing, Literature, and Publishing at Emerson College. Her work aims to promote human rights and dignity related to mental illness and mental health and she hopes to work internationally to preserve and protect these inherent rights.
   

haoran

LI HAORAN
My name is Haoran Li, a graduated student in University of Massachusetts Boston. My major is Global Comparative Public Administration. I was born in a western city in China. After getting my bachelor degree in Chengdu University of Technology, I came to America for my strongest aspirations to different cultures and opinions of human rights. I wish I could be a resource that offer facts and values of culture which could build a bridge with different country and a international environment which every culture would be dignified.

   

ioannides

TAKIS IOANNIDES
Dr. Panagiotis - Takis D. Ioannides was born in Athens οn April 15, 1955 by parents Dimitrios-Demosthenes Ioannides and Melpomeni Zagli - Ioannidou. He has 3 children and 3 grandchildren.
He worked as an executive at IBM Hellas SA and at EF Hutton sa. He is a poet, whose poetic work has been published in the Greek and foreign press, and who has been recited over the years on the radio (ERA FM, Sky FM, Athens 984 FM, Thessaloniki FM etc.). He is also painter and educator of Martial Arts.
Takis is author and co-author and has published 15 books in Greece, and his literary works have been translated into English, Chinese, Spanish, Japanese, Malay, French, Mongolian, and other languages. Takis is the author and co-author of several books outside of Greece as well (Global Peace Science GPS, The ABC of Harmony, Mahatma Gandhi Non-Violence, Strategies for Peace, Magna Carta of Harmony, Open Letters to the World Leaders, Anti Nuclear Manifesto XXI, XXI Century World Literature, Antiwar and Peace, among others).
He is honorary Doctor of Literature (Visa Diploma no 358) of the "World Academy of Arts and Culture hWAACF" (August 21, 2010), in Seoul. He was honored in 2008 with the Korean Literature Prize from the World Academy of Arts and Culture (hWAACF).
He is one of the 13 Peace Poets of the World in Hiroshima 2010 (Peace Prevail on Earth, published by the Japan Foundation, Municipality of city of Hiroshima, Table for Two USA, TOSSS). He is a member of the global Union "Poetas del mundo", as well as "Bilingual MCA writers and poets for peace Argentina". He has been honoured for his professional, scientific, poetic, athletic and artistic works.
Takis is also a historical researcher with independent scientific works in the ”Laboratory History and Ethics of Medicine” of the “Hellenic Kapodistria University of Athens EKPA”, and a member of the "World Dignity University" (Human Dignity and Humiliation studies).
He was nominated jointly with others for the Nobel Peace Prize 2013, for the book The ABC Harmony for World Peace by the Global Harmony Association, Priority to Children GGHA.
He was honored in the year 2022 with the title of creator, one of four, of the "Gandian Creators of World Harmony 2022" by the GGHA. He was honoured in 2024 as one of the 8 GGHA World citizens and peacemakers of Global Peace.
He is Ambassador of Peace, co-founder and Vice President of the "Global Harmony Association, Priority to Children GGHA" and representative of the "International Forum for Culture and Peace, IFLAC", the "Worldwide Peace Organization WWPO" and "Paz Pax Arts Arte Cultura" , among others.
He is a regular member and member of the “book awarding committee” of "ESTIA Nea Smyrna" , member of the cultural association of Asia Minor "Phoenix" of Nea Smyrna" in Athens, member of the "Maniatakeion Foundation of Koroni".
Takis is a regular member of the “book awarding committee” of "ESTIA Nea Smyrna", as well as a member of the cultural association of Asia Minor "Phoenix" of Nea Smyrna" Athens, and a member of the "Maniatakei Foundation of Koroni".
Please see:
DIGNITY - The Definition of the well-educated human By Socrates (469b.C. - 399 B.C.)
Athens, Greece, 4th December 2011
Approximately 2.500 years ago, my ancestor and teacher Socrates defined the well-educated man by saying, “the well-education is a matter of attitude…”.
Consequently he didn’t speak at all about the collecting of knowledge, but he considered as well-educated the humans who are skilled with the following:
• The man who is able to control any situation, but he is not controlled by situations.
• The man who faces all the events with braveness and logic.
• The man who is honest in his converses.
• The man who manages to face all bad events and any obnoxious human, amiably.
• The man who may control his appetence and delectations.
• The man who was never vanquished by his infelicities and collapses.
• The man who was never decayed by his victories and glories.
• The man who managed to “find” and “know” him-self.
As a conclusion on the above, as a student of life, I believe that the unity of faith in both the spiritual freedom of a man and his moral conscience, is mandatory. In others words, the meaning, the purpose and the constant practice, the constant daily struggle of the “athlete” man in the difficult arena of life, to conquer mentality of completeness and therefore the whole freedom, which will earn him the true meaning of life and the deep sense of solidarity with his fellows, is the most valuable safeguards for human existence and DIGNITY.
- Takis Ioannides, Student of this life…
Please see also:
Human Dignity (in Greek), 15th July 2011.
Socrates "triple refined Test," 10th April 2012
The Meaning and Practice of Love (in Greek), 14th March 2012
• The status of Greece, November 2013: 7.500.000 poeple unemployed, 360.000 houses without electricity (they cannot pay the theri bills, due to lack of money), 65.5% unemployment of youths, 28% of adults (officially, the real numbers are higher), 410.000 citizens left Greece seeking a job abroad, ciolence, corruption, robberies....

   

oakman

TAMARA OAKMAN
Tamara Oakman's work has been published in such magazines as Painted Bride QuarterlyMany Mountains Moving, Philadelphia Stories and Best of Anthology, Mad Poets Review, Fox Chase Review, Extraordinary Gifts: Remarkable Women of the Delaware Valley, Unbreakable and Other Domestic Violence Poems and many other online and in print magazines; she has awards in poetry, fiction, memoir, and drama, and performs poetry and fiction in Philadelphia and the surrounding tri-state areas. Through the Light of Unity Association, she founded Light of Unity Press which published three anthologies and three chapbooks as limited editions including E Pluribus Unum: An Anthology of Diverse Voices (2010). Through her graduate studies at Arcadia University, she researched Pulitzer Prize winning poet Anne Sexton at the Howard Gotlieb Archival Research Center in Boston, MA (where she lived in the author's space) culminating in a manuscript of reflective poems called, Snatched. She explored creative writing fiction in Umbria, Italy, expatriated authors in Paris, France, and Garifuna writing and art in Dangriga, Belize. Inside and outside of academia, she has hosted, created and coordinated many events, event series, workshops and festivals in the promotion of unity and love. She has been on many panels and symposiums in a vibrant discussion of the influence and importance of poetry and writing also inside and outside of academia at Arcadia University, Community College of Philadelphia, The University City Arts League (UCAL), The Philadelphia Cultural Fund, Head and the Hand Press, and more. She teaches literature and composition, creative and expository writing, and the humanities (film, philosophy) at several universities as an English and humanities professor. She is also co-founder, executive editor of APIARY Magazine, a formal non-profit with 501(c) (3) status. Her ambitions have been well documented in the press, especially in The City Paper and The Philadelphia Inquirer. See APIARY Magazine’s reach of love and unity, and then look for them on television as a feature in WHYY Friday Arts, April 3, 2015. She lives and loves in Philadelphia.

Press:
WHYY: Friday Arts (airdate: April 3, 2015 at 8:30pm ET)
"A New Look for Lit Mag," The Temple News (2014)
"Poet Maya Angelou, 86, ‘an epic life,'" The Philadelphia Inquirer (2014)
Commissioned to write for Forgotten Philadelphia, a tribute to female leaders (2013)
"Literary Boroughs #7: Phila, PA," Ploughshares Literary Magazine (2012)
"Philly Poetry Scene," The Philadelphia Inquirer (2012)
Board Member for the Philadelphia Poetry Festival (2011 - 2013)

Creative Work:
Painted Bride Quarterly
Many Mountains Moving
Philadelphia Stories and Best of Anthology

Montgomery County Poet Laureate Judge

Tamara says:
Creative writing and literature has the ability to transcend race, heritage and region, socioeconomic status, gender and sexual orientation. It is not always written in an academic sense with the style and grace of the formal essay, but it always transports personal ideals and concepts through storytelling, character development, and personal experience. Personal writing is a power that has existed as a means of communication between humans since the first cave person scrawled her story on a rock canvas. Powerful literary voices added to the discussion of human dignity through creative writing include, Toni Morrison, J.M. Coetzee, Günter Grass, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Jorge Luis Borges, Elie Wiesel, Chinua Achebe, Edwidge Danticat, Maya Angelou, Sonia Sanchez, James Baldwin, Amiri Baraka and many others (too many to name here). That is why I would like to contribute to the World Dignity University initiative, the idea that sharing personal ideals and experiences through literature breaks down boundaries between people across the world and increases compassion between said individuals. One has only to think of the love one feels for a favorite author or a favorite poem to acknowledge this idea and how that love—when the flames are fanned—can even transcend time and space. The unity forged from such transcendental love and compassion gives those touched by the very thing they read, view, and experience the open mind to focus on and begin to understand the concept of human dignity. Literature also bridges gaps, inviting more voices to an essential conversation about human dignity and humiliation.

   

shultziner
DORON SHULTZINER
Doron Shultziner is also a Member of the HumanDHS Research Team.
Doron Shultziner is a lecturer and researcher. He holds a B.A. and a M.A. from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and a Ph.D. from the University of Oxford. After he completed his Ph.D., Doron taught at Emory University for two years before returning to Israel. Among his research interests is the topic of human dignity in law. He published several papers in this field. His paper with Itai Rabinovici proposes an approach to understanding this concept in relation to self-worth, through a comparative legal-psychological investigation into three legal systems (US, ECtHR, and Israel).
   

qwaider

AYMAN QWAIDER
Ayman wrote (5th August 2011): "Education is the key factor for self-recognition, which leads to human empowerment, and directly construct a dignified life. That is the reason I am very much attracted and attached the Humiliation and Dignity Studies. I would love to take an active part of this noble mission in life. I would like to share my small experience being a person raised up in a conflict zone and obtained education in Palestine, then moved to Europe to peruse my post graduate studies, I have realized how important the education is in uncertain and unstable context. I just finished my internship at UNESCO HQ Paris where I was working in a Education in Post-Conflict and Post-Disaster Situation. Throughout my experience, I have realized the key role in which education plays in constructing human dignity patricianly in a conflict zones. Education has even essential role to play in letting people discover and explore themselves more deeply and letting them see the other as a human being."

   

milosevic

TIJANA MILOSEVIC
Tijana Milosevic is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Oslo in Norway focusing on social media policies, internet governance, and digital media use among children and youth. She is a member of the EU Kids Online research network. She holds a PhD from American University and an MA from the George Washington University. Her first monograph Protecting Children Online? Cyberbullying Policies of Social Media Companies has just been published in 2018 in the MIT Press Information Society Series. For Tijana Milosevic's full CV, please visit tijanamilosevic.org or you can follow her on Twitter.
Please see:
• Cyberbullying in US Mainstream Media, paper presented at the 2012 Workshop on Transforming Humiliation and Violent Conflict, Columbia University, New York City, December 6-7, 2012.

   

vergara
MARIANA I. VERGARA
Mariana Ines Vergara is also a Member in the HumanDHS Core Team.
Over 15 years ago, Mariana Vergara began her search of looking for answers to the complex situations in the American public school system. Mariana Vergara works with Dr. Edmund W. Gordon on issues related to the education of economically disadvantaged and immigrant populations. They were drawn together because of their mutual interest in supplementary education and its relevance for the pursuit of academic excellence. She is an educator who specializes in educational program and family development in immigrant and low income families. She is primarily a practitioner—her mentor, Dr. Edmund W. Gordon, calls her "a scholar of practice"—who uses data and theory to understand the need for and strategies of professional intervention. To the extent that practices can be generalized, she has become interested in public policy as it relates to the intersect between family, home, community and school in the academic and personal development of children. In 2009, her research was funded by the Policy, Evaluation and Research Center at Educational Testing Services. Vergara’s work is the design and field development of a parent education and child development intervention that is titled “BRIDGE” (Better Resources in Developing Great Education) Model of Transformational Learning. In addition to direct interventions in the teaching and learning transactions to which children are exposed, Vergara gives special attention to the needs of parents who are not sophisticated in traditional approaches to the support of the academic development of children. The model recognizes the holistic needs of children; the information needs of parents; and the practical needs of both for guidance in and models for the adjustments and adaptations that both must make. She is currently a Program Associate at the Institute for Urban and Minority Education at Teachers College, Columbia University. She is also founder of Family Development Center and Morris County Parent Information and Resource Center. She is pursuing a degree of Doctor of Education at the Department of Leadership and Organization, AEGIS (Adult Education Guided Intensive Study) program at Teachers College, Columbia University; expected graduation on May 2012. Her work was published in Gordon, E. W., & Vergara, M. I. (2009). Supplements to schooling. In H. Varenne, E. W. Gordon, & L. Theoretical Perspectives on Comprehensive Education: The way forward. Volumen two of the perspectives on comprehensive education series. Lewiston, NY: The Edwin Mellen Press.
Please see:
• One Person Can Make the Difference, a video about Mariana's work regarding higher education and students helping their local community, 2011.
• Mariana Vergara's contributions to the World Dignity University (WDU) initiative:
- The World Dignity University Amazon Initiative (video recorded in New York City in December 2011).
Please see more:
- World Dignity University Initiative: Co-creating Sustainability in the Amazon Rainforest with the Kichwa Community: Why, Who, What, How, Where, When (Pdf, 2012)
- Global Community - Transformational Learning: Lessons from the Amazon Rainforest Co-creating a Global Community: Mindfulness into Action (Powerpoint, 2012)
- The BRIDGE® Model: The Case for Integrating Phenomenological Documentation aAnd Participatory Action Research through Collaborative Inquiry: Transformational Learning in Transforming High Aspirations into Human Agency (Pdf, 2012)
- WDU Amazon Rainforest Initiative (Videos 2012)
- WDU Amazon Rainforest Initiative (Pdf from Powerpoint, 2011)
Garry Davis and Mariana Vergara in Dialogue on the World Passport (video, 2012)
• Mindfulness into Action (video, 2013), see also Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's TED Talk 'The danger of a single story', regarding single, double or triple loop learning.
• Vergara, Mariana I., Yvonne Dennis, Courtney Furlong, Elizabeth Negrete, April Frazier, The Journey of Mindfulness into Action, paper contributed to the 2014 Workshop on Transforming Humiliation and Violent Conflict, Columbia University, New York City, December 4-5, 2014.
   

arcos

CLAUDIA ARCOS DUARTE
Claudia Arcos Duarte was born in Santiago de Chile. Her family was forced into exile in 1974, after dictator Augusto Pinochet had come to power in 1973. First, her family went to Argentina, for three years, then the coup in Argentina forced the family to seek refuge in Germany. Claudia grew up in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. She stayed there for nine years, later returning to Germany several times for her education. Like many young Chileans, who could have stayed in exile, at some point, she decided to return to Chile, this was in September 1984, to help resist the dictatorship. Since then, aside from raising three children, she has worked as an activist to promote social causes. She taught as a teacher at private schools and helped socially disadvantaged children. She also was a radio commentator discussing questions of philosophy, identity, and human dignity. Today, she is also an author, preparing several books based on the letters she wrote over the years, about her traumatic experiences with exile, with resisting dictatorship, with cross-cultural conflicts, and the presently existing problems with relationships between women and men. Her narratives aim to not just describe problems. Her style is humorous despite the gravity of the problems she addresses. In this manner, she opens space for hope, for new visions for the future, for new ways of living together, in caring mutuality.
Please see the following videos:
Che Guevaras Bedeutung für die Südamerikanische Jugend (The Significance of Che Guevara for Today's Youth in South America) (Deutsch)
La Importancia del Che Guevara de la Juventud de Hoy en América Latina (Español)
- English: These two videos dialogues between Claudia Arcos Duarte and Evelin Lindner were created on 7th April 2012 in Limache, Chile. The first video is in German, the second represents the Spanish version. The videos were recorded by Claudia's son Luciano.
- Deutsch: Diese beiden Video Dialoge zwischen Claudia Arcos Duarte und Evelin Lindner wurden am 7. April 2012 in Limache, Chile, erstellt. Das erste Video ist in deutscher Sprache, das zweite ist die spanische Version. Die Videos wurden von Claudias Sohn Luciano aufgezeichnet.
- Español: Estos dos vídeos diálogos entre Claudia Arcos Duarte y Evelin Lindner se creó el 7 de abril de 2012 en Limache, Chile. El primer vídeo está en alemán, la segunda representa su versión en español. Los videos fueron grabados por el hijo de Claudia, Luciano.
Claudia Arcos Duarte: Eine Chilenische Biographie (Claudia Duarte Arcos: A Chilean Biography) (Deutsch, 7th April 2012)
Claudia Arcos Duarte: Una Biografía de Chile (Español, 8th April 2012)
- English: These two videos dialogues between Claudia Arcos Duarte and Evelin Lindner were created on 7th and 15th April 2012 in Limache and in Caleu, Chile. The first video is in German, the second represents the Spanish version. The first video was recorded by Claudia's son Luciano in Limache, the second by Alberto Neumann in Caleo.
- Deutsch: Diese beiden Video Dialoge zwischen Claudia Arcos Duarte und Evelin Lindner wurden am 7. und 15. April 2012 in Limache und in Caleu, Chile, erstellt. Das erste Video ist in deutscher Sprache, das zweite ist die spanische Version. Das erste Videos wurde von Claudias Sohn Luciano in Limache aufgezeichnet, das zweite von Alberto Neumann in Caleu.
- Español: Estos dos vídeos diálogos entre Claudia Arcos Duarte y Evelin Lindner se creó el 7 y 15 de abril de 2012 en Limache y en Caleu, Chile. El primer vídeo está en alemán, la segunda representa su versión en español. Los videos fueron grabados por el hijo de Claudia, Luciano, en Limache, y por Alberto Neumann en Caleu.
Claudia Arcos Duarte: Mann und Frau heute / El Hombre y la Mujer de Hoy (Claudia Duarte Arcos: A Chilean Biography) (Deutsch/Español, 15th April 2012)
- English: This video dialogue between Claudia Arcos Duarte and Evelin Lindner was created on 15th April 2012 in Caleu, Chile. It is both in German and Spanish and was recorded by Alberto Neumann.
- Deutsch: Dieser Video Dialoge zwischen Claudia Arcos Duarte und Evelin Lindner wurde am 15. April 2012 in Caleu, Chile, erstellt. Das Video ist in deutscher und spanischer Sprache und wurde von Alberto Neumann aufgezeichnet.
- Español: Este diálogo vídeo entre Claudia Arcos Duarte y Evelin Lindner fue creado el 15 de abril 2012 en Caleu, Chile. Es a la vez en alemán y español y fue grabado por Alberto Neumann.
Claudia Arcos Duarte & Alberto Neumann: Exilerfahrungen / Experiencia del Exilio (Deutsch/Español, 15th April 2012)
- English: This video dialogue between Claudia Arcos Duarte and Alberto Neumann was created on 15th April 2012 in Caleu, Chile. It is both in German and Spanish and was recorded by Evelin Lindner.
- Deutsch: Dieser Video Dialoge zwischen Claudia Arcos Duarte und Alberto Neumann wurde am 15. April 2012 in Caleu, Chile, erstellt. Das Video ist in deutscher und spanischer Sprache und wurde von Evelin Lindner aufgezeichnet.
- Español: Este diálogo vídeo entre Claudia Arcos Duarte y Alberto Neumann fue creado el 15 de abril 2012 en Caleu, Chile. Es a la vez en alemán y español y fue grabado por Evelin Lindner.
Claudia Arcos Duarte & Evelin Lindner: Die Identität einer Stadt / La Identidad de una Ciudad (Deutsch/Español, 12th April 2012) English: Claudia Arcos Duarte and Evelin Lindner use Limache, Chile, as an example to explain how large supermarket chains may fail to provide the "progress" that they promise. Claudia and Evelin are filming each other, 12th April 2012.
Deutsch: Claudia Arcos Duarte und Evelin Lindner nehmen Limache in Chile als ein Beispiel dafür, wie grosse Supermarktketten möglicherweise nicht den Fortschritt bringen, den sie versprechen. Claudia und Evelin filmen sich gegenseitig, 12. April 2012.
Español: Claudia Arcos Duarte y Evelin Lindner uso Limache, Chile, como en el ejemplo para explicar cómo grandes cadenas de supermercados puede que no proporcionan el "progreso" que prometen. Claudia Duarte y Evelin están filmando entre sí, 12 de abril 2012.

   


saab

GABRIELA SAAB
Gabriela Rodrigues Saab Riva is also a Member of the HumanDHS Board of Directors and of the HumanDHS Research Team.
Gabriela Saab has earned her PhD from the University of São Paulo. She holds two Masters in Public International Law and Human Rights (from the University of Sao Paulo and from the Université Catholique de Louvain). Her studies focus on human rights, environmental protection, and armed conflicts. 
She graduated from the University of São Paulo with a Bachelor's Degree in Law and has completed the Sciences Po International Program in Paris, where she studied sustainable development policies. At that university she also published her theses on "The Treatment of Child Soldiers in International Law” and on “The Right to Water as a Human Right”.
Please see:
• The Recruitment of Child Soldiers: Humiliation Compromising Childhood
Abstract presented at the 2009 Workshop on Humiliation and Violent Conflict, Columbia University, New York City, December 10-11, 2009.
• The Treatment of Child Soldiers under International Law, Paper presented at the 2009 Workshop on Humiliation and Violent Conflict, Columbia University, New York City, December 10-11, 2009, based on O Tratamento da Criança-Soldado no Direito Internacional (The Solder-Child in International Law), Tese De Láurea, Faculdade de Direito da Universidade de São Paulo, Departamento de Direito Internacional.
• Gabriela Saab: Creating International Law for Dignity (Português/Inglês, English/Portuguese)
Português: Este vídeo é bilíngüe (Português/Inglês). Foi criado na São Paulo no dia 4 de junho de 2012. Gabriela Saab compartilha suas opiniões sobre a dignidade e suas contribuições para a iniciativa da Universidade Mundial para Dignidade com Evelin Lindner.
English: This video is bilingual (Portuguese/English). It was created in São Paulo on the 4th June 2012. Gabriela Saab shares her views on dignity and her contributions to the World Dignity University initiative with Evelin Lindner. See also some still pictures from 4th June 2012. See, furthermore, the work by Judge Antônio Augusto Cançado Trindade, see, for example, his chapter "Humankind as a Subject of International Law" in his book International Law for Humankind: Towards a New Jus Gentium (2010).
Gabriela Saab Apresenta a Universidade Mundial para Dignidade / Gabriela Saab Presents the World Dignity University (Português/Portuguese)
Este vídeo foi criado na CHDEP, Jardim Ângela, São Paulo no dia 1 de junho de 2012. Ury fez a gravação.
English: This video was created in CHDEP initiative in Jardim Ângela, São Paulo on 1st June 2012. Ury did the recording.See also some still pictures.

   

rodrigues

ROSY RODRIGUES
"Dignidade Humana e o Desemprego" is a bilingual video (Portuguese, with English translation). It was created in São Paulo on the 3rd June 2012. Rosy Rodrigues shares her work with the Grupo de Apoio Psicoprofissional (GAP) serving unemployed in the city of Guarulhos, Brazil, with Evelin Lindner. See also some still pictures
Português: Este vídeo é bilíngüe (Português, com tradução Inglês). Foi criado na São Paulo no dia 3 de junho de 2012. Rosy Rodrigues compartilha de seu trabalho com o Grupo de Apoio Psicoprofissional (GAP) que atende desempregados na cidade de Guarulhos, Brasil, com Evelin Lindner.

   

collado
JAVIER COLLADO
Javier Collado has as his life project the resilience of knowledge. His aim is to create new horizons for world society with a transcultural, transpolitical and transnational approach. "There are no political borders and frontiers on our Mother Earth in this century as the Internet will connect the global civil society to that we can reach a new stage for the human being". The world needs "worldlists" and they need to have a transdisciplinary, multireferential and polylogic vision. In this sense, Javier is working as Director of Edition at the Global Education Magazine working to raise awareness of the global problems of humanity. You can read more about his reflections at ufba.academia.edu/javiercolladoruano.
   

jardelino
MURILO JARDELINO DA COSTA
   

guil
MARCELLE FEIGOL GUIL
   

brasil
NATÁLIA S. VIANA BRASIL
Natália S. Viana Brasil studied law at the Universidade Estadual da Paraíba (Rede UEPB) and lives in João Pessoa, Brazil. She was part of the dignity group that Gabriela Saab gathered in May 2012 on the occasion of Evelin Lindner's time in Saõ Paulo.
   

rodrigocosta
FABRICIO RODRIGO COSTA
   
LÚCIA UDEMEZUE
   

mendes
NAYARA MENDES
Nayara Mendez is a student of Social Work at the Catholic University of Brasilia, Brazil. She is responsible for the blog City of Estrutural (Portal Cidade Estrutural), where she gets the opportunity to talk about the history of her city through postings on "Memory of the city of Estrutural" (Memória Estrutural), while keeping the local and the Brazilian Federal District populations informed about everything that happens there in real time. She also works with the project Hands of Ester (Mãos de Ester), which has been developed by the Associtation Hands That Create (Mãos Que Criam), also in the city of Estrutural. Nayara has participated in political training courses, and is active in social movements, especially those aimed at Brazilian youth.
Since June 2010, Nayara has been working on a personal project entitled "Structural, # Memory, #Resistance and #Justice". In this project, she is rescuing the history of the city of Estrutural, in the Federal District, between the years 1994 and 1999, a period that was characterized by brutal action perpetrated by the local government of the Brazilian Federal District against needy families who fought for housing. Her interest in this rescue has been triggered by the atrocities and humiliations by the government on children, men and women of the city of Estrutural. The history of this struggle has also been the subject of reports on the BBC, The New York Times, and various monograph works at the University of Brasilia.
   

sundberg
STEVE SUNDBERG
Steve Sundberg is the author of Street Logic, a novel about homelessness in the United States. He graduated from Emory University, where in his senior year, as president of the Beta Alhpa Psi international honors business fraternity, he realized that the path of business did not contain the heart and passion that he wanted. That "Aha!" moment led to his decision to do work that held meaning for him, and to that end he studied psychology at the University of Massachusetts and then embarked on a career on the front lines of human services. He has focused primarily in the mental-health and substance-abuse fields, working with homeless children and homeless adults. From 2000-2005, he was part of a federally funded homeless outreach team in Boston, Massachusetts, where he witnessed the failure of the public-health system to effectively respond to the most vulnerable people living on the streets. Those experiences are detailed in Street Logic, for which Christopher Jencks of Harvard's Kennedy School of Government (author of The Homeless) has named "the most closely observed, emotionally charged account of American homelessness I know". Currently Steve is working as a substance-abuse counselor in south Florida, where he teaches journal writing and creative writing workshops aimed at helping patients to tell their stories and find their own meaning and real paths in the world. He is working on several projects, including a journal writing workbook for patients in recovery, and a new novel that deals with the pharmaceutical medication abuse epidemic that has arisen among the young generation of the U.S.A.
   

rehman

INAYAT UR REHMAN
Inayat ur Rehman lives in the Northwest Frontier (Khyber Pakhtoonkhwa) of Pakistan. He is a practitioner and professional in peace and conflict resolution who holds an M.A. in Political Science and graduation diploma in International Development Studies. He has worked with the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation Humanitarian Aid Unit (SDC) and for other national and international organization. Currently, he is working in Pakistan with a special focus on tribal areas and Peshawar. He has experience with humanitarian aid, community development, and peace and conflict resolution, working with children in conflict in affected tribal areas of Pakistan. He has attended various training courses around the world, for example, he is certified as Peace and Conflict Consultant from the Acdemy for Conflict Transformation in Köln, Germany, has attended the summer course "Conflict Transformation across the Cultures CONTACT SIT" at the Graduate Institute in Vermont USA (from May to June 2012), the International Training Programme of the Conflict Management División at Alta Formazione Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna Pisa, Italy, and a Professional Development Seminar at Oslo University in Norway. He is a board member of various NGOs in Pakistan and currently establishes an international organization with his colleagues in the USA under the name of ChildsPlay International (CPI)

   

lynne
JENNIFER K. LYNNE
Jennifer is the founder and director of thecontactproject, an organization utilizing the science of complex systems, identity theory, and contemplative practices to collaborate with individuals, communities, and organizations in cultivating the capacities for listening, patience, and respect for conflict transformation. She developed The Engaged Identity theory and process while studying Buddhist Psychology and Peace at Naropa University. She holds a Masters in Conflict Transformation from the Center for Justice & Peacebuilding at Eastern Mennonite University, with specializations in Identity, Trauma and Organizational Leadership and is pursuing a PhD in Peace Studies at the University of New England, Australia. Her dissertation explores the efficacy of The Engaged Identity theory and the development of listening, patience, and respect in multiple cultural and conflictual contexts as foundations for conflict transformation and peace-building. She has been a Visiting Scholar at the Mind & Life Institute at Amherst College, and an invited presenter for the International Peace Research Association, the Human Dignity and Humiliation Studies consortium, the National Coalition of Dialogue & Deliberation, and the Association for Conflict Resolution. In addition to her role as Director at thecontactproject, she is currently the Peacebuilding Professional Practice Research Fellow at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Partnership for Sustainability and Peacebuilding, and serves on the Global Advisory Board for the Chetanalaya Institute in Katmandu, Nepal. Jennifer's work and research have reached participants from over thirty countries including Nigeria, Cameroon, Indonesia, Cambodia, Central America, Turkey, Fiji, and the EU.
   

martin
NICHOLAS CARL MARTIN
Nick is a also a Member of the HumanDHS Global Core Team.
He is currently a visiting fellow at the United Nations University for Peace (UPEACE) campus in Costa Rica. He also serves as Deputy Director of UPEACE/US, a foundation created in the U.S. for charitable purposes and dedicated exclusively to the advancement of educational peace initiatives and programs established by the United Nations University for Peace. Nick received his B.A. from Swarthmore College where he graduated with honors degrees in both English Literature and Education and his M.A. in Education for Peace from the United Nations University for Peace. After Swarthmore, Nick earned his secondary teaching certification and taught literature to high school students in inner city Philadelphia. He then worked at Xi'an Teachers College in China as an American classroom pedagogy professor. In 2004, Nick helped to start what has become a very successful NGO called the Genocide Intervention Network (GI-NET) to raise awareness and money for the African Union mission in Darfur. He and his family have also started a policy think tank in the Czech Republic called Prague Security Studies Institute (PSSI) for Czech university students.
Please see Exploring Possibilities for UPEACE in China: Peace Education, Project Development Report, thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts, Peace Education, 2006.