Diana Arce is the Director and Co-Founder of Artists Without a Cause (AWAC), a non-profit developing collaborations between political, social and culturally engaged artists and the organizations and activists fighting for the same issues. This past Summer, AWAC developed and produced a program of artist led sessions on Storytelling and data for Open Knowledge Festival, bringing together 10 international artists of various mediums with data activists from all over the world. As an artist, Diana creates works about multicultural representations, non-partisan political and social critique. Her project, Politaoke , a participatory political speech karaoke bar where audiences can respeak real contemporary political speeches, has toured across the US, Canada, Germany and Israel and is currently being turned into a toolkit for organizations and activists to use.
Raffaella Bolini is 54 years old. She has been and still is activist in international social movements and democratic civil society networks since the beginning of the ’80s and disarmament, European Nuclear Disarmament, Helsinki Citizens’ Assembly, Time for Peace in Middle East, Italian Consortium of Solidarity during the Balkan’s wars, anti-racist movement, altermondialistic movement, European and World Social Forum. Since 1991 she works full time in Arci, an Italian association formed by 5000 self-organized communitarian centers all over Italy, promoting active citizenship for cultural, social and democratic rights. She is member of the WSF International Council, Vice-president of European Civic Forum, member of Solidar board, member of Executive Committee of Euromed Human Right Network. In the last European elections, she has been candidate for the “L’Altra Europa con Tsipras”.
Faith Bosworth is an independent facilitator specialising in workshops, events and educational programs for activists on campaigning. She is a member of the Peng! Collective in Berlin and is currently working on two security projects for marginalised communities with the Tactical Technology Collective.
Martha Bouziouri is active in the fields of anthropological research, theatre and (cross)-cultural management. In the research field, she is currently completing her PhD thesis in Social Anthropology under the subject “Transnational artists in theatre: artistic expression and anthropological intervention”, investigating issues of artistic creativity, identity & representation within the socio-political contexts of privileged mobility/forced migration. As a professional actress, she has participated in various independent theatre productions negotiating the notions of identity, exile & violence. Since 2008, she is the co-founder and artistic director of plays2place, where she’s involved in the research, artistic direction and implementation of cross-cultural and community-based projects concerning applied models for civic transformation, raising awareness and social integration. She is also a member of Cultural Innovators Network and Tandem – Cultural Managers Exchange Program.
Beppe Caccia (Parma, Italy, 1968), graduated in Philosophy (University of Padua), Ph.D. in European and Euro-American Political Studies (University of Turin), scholar in History of Political Thought, works for several international research institutions; from 1997 to 2014 was councillor and from 2001 to 2005 deputy mayor for Social affairs in the City of Venice; member of political-cultural Association “in comune” (Venice); is active in Italian and European social movements, like Blockupy international coalition; member of the Editorial Board of Global Project; participates in Euro Made independent research network; collaborates also with “il manifesto” daily newspaper.
Teresa Conrad manages the Curriculum at LEAD, a Berlin-based non-profit with the mission to increase leadership capacities across the world, holding the conviction that the more of good leadership there is the better the world can be. She got her own leadership education mostly from working as teaching assistant with Professors Ronald Heifetz and Hugh O’Doherty during her Graduate Studies at the Harvard Kennedy School. Before she gained professional experience as strategy consultant for public sector institutions, for charity foundations, and private sector organisations in the realm of Shared Value creation.
Catherine Fieschi is the director of Counterpoint, a research consultancy that provides governments, NGOs and corporate actors with strategic advice on how cultural and social dynamics affect politics, policy-making and markets. Prior to directing Counterpoint, Catherine led the London-based think tank Demos (2005-2008) and was Director of the Centre for European Governance at the University of Nottingham (2001-2004). She holds a PhD in Comparative Politics from McGill University. Catherine is the author of In the Shadow of Democracy (2008) and of numerous pamphlets and articles on extremism, populism, and identity politics and their impact on policy and business. She has advised governments and businesses around the world and serves regularly on government task-forces. Catherine is a Senior Associate in the Department of Government at LSE, she was previously a Senior Member of St Antony’s College, Oxford. She is a regular contributor to press, radio and television debates.
Ádám Foldes joined Transparency International in September 2012 after working for more than three years with Transparency International Hungary. Prior, he conducted researches, advocacy and policy development to promote and defend the right of access to information, specialised in issues relating to the protection of personal data and state secrecy. He also worked for Access Info Europe (Madrid, Spain) and led the Freedom of Information and Personal Data Protection Program of the Hungarian Civil Liberties Union. He holds a J.D. and a Master’s degree in Sociology from Eötvös Loránd University (University ELTE), Budapest, and studied sociology and law at the Humboldt University in Berlin on a Copernicus Scholarship.
Corinna Genschel is working for the Left Party (Die Linke) in parliament as a liaison between the party and social movements. As such she is active in the Blockupy coalition – especially right now in the Blockupy International coordinating structure.
Alice Audrey Grindhammer is a “Garbologist” by training. During the last four years she worked at ALBA Group in various positions from assistant to the CEO to business development in the Middle East and North Africa. During this time she learned the recycling business inside out, implementing solutions big and small, e.g. disposing hazardous waste from ISAF bases in Afghanistan in accordance with the Basel convention. Together with her friend and business partner Hannes,she started WASTELAND PROJECTS in spring 2014. Alice’s goal is to put the Global Waste Crisis onto the agenda(s) and to develop and implement interdisciplinary solutions.
Pedro Jardim is co-founder of Agora and CEO of Apoio.Pedro researches on methodologies for facilitation of group dynamics and also helped start AFFECT an residency for collaboration and social art practice, Agora Collects a multidisciplinary festival and FOREPLAY a performance series related to group dynamics. Pedro studied business administration in combination with philosophy and arts at Alanus University. Currently Pedro studies psychology at Open University focusing his research on group dynamic and constellation.
Antonia Laterza is currently an editor at Eutopia Magazine, a new online European review launched by four publishers in April 2014. She previously worked as a journalist at the Huffington Post Italia where she covered various topics including human rights, foreign affairs and cultural news. She studied Law and Anthropology at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London, UK. She is a passionate Europeanist and her other interests include the Middle East, human rights and music
Hilde van Meegdenburg is a European Alternatives activist, and former coordinator of the European Citizens Initiative (ECI) for Media Pluralism. An honest Ph.D student by day, she helped set up the German coalition for the ECI in her spare time, and was happy to exchange her monotonous dissertation life temporarily to support the ECI for Media Pluralism fulltime as European Coordinator from May 2014 onwards. Educated in political science in the Netherlands, she is currently pursuing a Ph.D. degree in International Relations at the Free University Berlin.
Andreas Müllerleile is a political analyst and communications specialist. He blogs at kosmopolito.org about EU politics and European journalism. Before moving to Brussels he worked as a communications manager at the European Council on Foreign Relations in London.twitter: @kosmopolit
Jean Peters is co-founder of the Peng collective, a NGO that supports civil society to develop more courageous tactics and campaigns for a stronger advocacy of their issues, especially focussed on means of subversion and civil disobedience. Peng’s work include methods from investigative journalism, campaigning and performative arts, creating media sculptures of a hyperreality and motivating activists to find new ways of direct participation in hegemonial discourses. Besides, he is consulting and giving workshops, and currently working on a project in cooperation with the Schauspielhaus Dortmund and teaches Culture Jamming at the University of Kiel.
Cornelia Reetz has been active in the global justice and environmental movement for more than a decade and holds a Master in International Development as well as TV Documentary Production. Until recently, she worked for Film4Change as a filmmaker and video consultant specialised on helping Nonprofit organisations to better utilise video as a tool for social and political change. In August 2014, she became the Campaign Manger for Germany of the European Citizens’ Initiative against TTIP and CETA. Since then, she has been working on building a strong Europe-wide movement against the two trade agreements.
Linnea Riensberg is general manager of Publixphere – a non-profit, non-partisan, community-driven information and discussion platform operating online and offline, aiming to further issues-based debate amongst citizens, decision-makers and institutions on a national and European level. Already during her studies of journalism, communication studies and philosophy Linnea developed and moderated political participation and media projects and wrote reports for TV, radio and newspapers. She wrote her master thesis on the dimensions of journalistic responsibility. After finishing university she worked for an Italian member of the European Parliament, before committing herself to human rights on the Internet at the non-profit association Digitale Gesellschaft e.V., where she was also general manager. Regarding Publixphere, Linnea is particularly enthusiastic about the combination of participation, European affairs and “the Internet”, and about the potential that still remains to be uncovered.
Miguelángel Verde Garrido is a doctoral candidate at the Graduate School of Global Politics (GSGP) at the Freie Universität Berlin, in Berlin, Germany. He is also a co-founder of the Berlin Forum on Global Politics (BFoGP), a non-profit organization dedicated to the promotion of academic, expert, and public understanding of global politics. The BFoGP edited The Transatlantic Colossus, an international study on the free trade agreement currently being negotiated between the European Union and the United States (TAFTA | TTIP), which was published in collaboration with the Internet & Society Collaboratory and FutureChallenges.org. Miguel holds a BA in Philosophy (Universidad Católica Andrés Bello) and a MA in Political Science and Political Philosophy (Kyoto University). He researches how state and corporate policies and practices concerning information and communications technologies impact the political agency of civil society. He is a global citizen, philosopher, and transhumanist; he loves bebop, enjoys bouldering, and is enthusiastic about space exploration.
Andy Williamson is an internationally recognised expert in digital democracy, innovation and transforming engagement. An experienced facilitator, consultant, researcher and commentator focussing on digital, society and policy, Andy has a passion for finding innovative ways to make democracy work better for all of us. He is the Founder of Democratise, and is amongst others the Chair of Do-it UK and a Governor of the Democratic Society.
More coming soon!