Amneh Badran is a doctor of political science, a graduate of Exeter University, the UK. She has an MA in Middle East Politics from the same university. She joined AlQuds University, Department of Political Science, in 2008. Currently, she is a faculty member in Social Thought, Economics and Policy (STEP) program and serves as an assistant dean at AQB College.

ambadran@staff.alquds.edu

Jonathan Becker is the director of the Center for Civic Engagement and Executive Vice President and Vice President for Academic Affairs at Bard. As director of CCE, Jonathan has general oversight of the center’s activities and coordinates programming among the center affiliates and the Bard’s national and international networks. He is also an associate professor of political studies specializing in Russian and eastern European politics, media and politics, and education reform.

Dr. Becker earned his B.A. from McGill University in 1987 and his DPhil. from St. Antony’s College, Oxford in 1993. He is the author of Soviet and Russian Press Coverage of the United States: Press, Politics and Identity in Transition (1999; revised and expanded edition, 2002), guest editor of a special issue of Education Studies/Voprosy obrazovanie on Liberal Arts and Science Education (2015), co-editor of Svobodniye Iskusstva i Nauki na Sovremennom Etape: Opyt SShA i Evropy v Kontekste Rossiiskogo Obrazovaniya (2014), and author of chapters and articles in a variety of books and publications, including Voprosy Obarzovaniya, European Journal of Communication, Journalism and Mass Communications Quarterly, and Demokratiizatsiya.
Prior to coming to Bard in 1997, he served as assistant vice president of the Central European University in Budapest and as the European director of the Civic Education Project.

jbecker@bard.edu

Kerry Bystrom is Associate Professor of English and Human Rights and Associate Dean of the College at Bard College Berlin, A Liberal Arts University. Books and edited volumes include Democracy at Home in South Africa (2016); The Global South Atlantic (2018) and The Cultural Cold War in the Global South (2021). She also works practically in the field of higher education in emergencies.

k.bystrom@berlin.bard.edu

Erin links the liberal arts with civic engagement through strong community partnerships and programming that incorporates Bard's vast network around the globe. As an inaugural staff member of Bard's Center for Civic Engagement (CCE), Erin has strengthened Bard’s local, national and global partnerships that centers and amplifies community, student and faculty work. Since 2012, she has launched a variety of initiatives, including BardWorks, Science Outreach, the Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Engagement, the Community Action Internship Award, Election@Bard, the annual Get Engaged Student Conference, the Engaged Liberal Arts and Sciences (ELAS) program, and the 100 Days Initiative (now called The Dissonance).

Erin co-led Bard's successful application for the 2020 Carnegie Engagement Classification and co-teaches ELAS and network courses focused on civic engagement. She has been the academic director for the US State Department’s Study for the United States Institute (SUSI) at Bard since 2018. Since 2020, Erin has led the Open Society University Network’s (OSUN) civic engagement initiative that includes student leadership training and development, research and curriculum development and institutional capacity building.

Erin joined the Center staff after 15 years in the Division of Student Affairs at Bard where she served as Vice President for Student Affairs and Dean of Students. Her background in student affairs motivates her to connect the liberal arts and sciences with civic engagement to promote student well-being, learning and skill-building. In 2020, she was promoted to Vice President for Civic Engagement.

cannan@bard.edu

Syed M Hashemi has a long career in teaching, research, developing and managing programs for the poor. He taught Economics at Jahangirnagar University in Bangladesh, directed an anti-poverty research program at Grameen Trust, and set up the Brac Development Institute and chaired the Department of Economics and Social Sciences at BRAC University. He spent nine years with CGAP, at the World Bank, focusing on financial inclusion of the poorest and ensuring a social performance bottom line in microfinance. He also designed and headed a successful multi-country program to develop new pathways for the poorest to graduate out of extreme poverty through integrating safety nets, livelihood activities and financial services. Hashemi continued to work on an expanded agenda of Economic Inclusion as a Senior Advisor to the Partnership for Economic Inclusion, at the World Bank. He joined Brac University as Professor at the School of General Education in 2020. Along with developing new multidisciplinary courses and promoting a strong liberal arts education at the School, Professor Hashemi continues his research and practice on global extreme poverty.

hashemi@bracu.ac.bd

Samia Huq is Dean of the School of General Education and Professor of Anthropology at Brac University, Bangladesh. She obtained her PhD from Brandeis University, USA, looking at women’s religious discussion groups in urban Bangladesh. As Dean of the core curriculum, she works closely with the Open Society University Network (OSUN) as its chief academic officer for Brac University to build and consolidate the liberal arts and sciences in general education and inter-departmental offerings. Dr. Huq is also Research Fellow at the Center for Peace and Justice (CPJ) at Brac University where she runs the project on Faith and Development in collaboration with the World Faiths Development Dialogue at Georgetown University. As part of the project, Dr Huq is exploring the intersection of faith and development around questions of education, gender equality and aspirations of the youth, and facilitating dialogues between faith inspired and secular development actors on these issues. Dr. Huq has been involved in research on the impact of secondary secular and madrasa education on gendered norms and practices, as part of the Initiative on Education, Gender and Growth in Asia http://www.integgra.org/index.php. Dr. Huq has also worked on the Global Life Stories Project with Musawah: For Equality in the Muslim Family. She is author of several peer reviewed journal articles, book chapters and currently working on her monograph on women, Islam and modernity in Bangladesh.

shuq@bracu.ac.bd

Nurzhamal Karamoldoeva is an Executive Director at the Center for Civic Engagement of the American University in Central Asia (AUCA CCE) that oversees different civic engagement activities initiated by students and faculty. Nurzhamal is an award-winning documentary filmmaker who explores the intersection of art and human rights through her creative work. She teaches OSUN Visual Storytelling for Civic Engagement collaborative class at the AUCA department of TV, Film and Media Arts (TCMA).

Karamoldoeva_n@auca.kg

I joined Central European University (CEU) in 2015 as Civic Engagement Officer with the goal of setting up the Civic Engagement Office and strengthening social responsibility and civic engagement at the university. In my current role, as Director of the Community Engagement Office, I'm responsible for civic engagement, arts and culture, human rights, student leadership and public outreach activities. Prior to my time at CEU I acted as CEO of the Hungarian NGO Uccu Roma Informal Educational Foundation for eight years. I had a crucial role in establishing the organization in 2009. I remain in the Board, after handing over the leadership. I have a sociology MA, received at university ELTE, Budapest, Hungary. I benefited from fellowships from Université, Paris VIII, Sorbonne and University of Stirling, Scotland.

email

I received my BA in Economics from Bard College, US. After completing my studies at Brandeis University, US, with an MA in International Finance, in 2001 I joined CEU in Budapest, Hungary. I have served CEU in various roles since, most recently as the Dean of Students. I hold an MA in Philosophy from Open University, UK, and a PhD in Philosophy from the University of Reading, UK. My main academic interests are in philosophy and higher education. Some of the questions I am working on is the possibility of founding moral knowledge on moral intuitions, the concept of moral understanding, and moral expertise. In addition, I am interested in applied ethics issues, such as big data ethics and the ethics of higher education. I am also keenly interested in the ability of the university to participate in social debates and bring about societal change. I am currently leading CIVICA consortium’s civic engagement efforts and the community engagement efforts at CEU.

margaritidisc@ceu.edu

Brian has over twelve years of progressively responsible leadership experience in higher education working with early college, undergraduate and graduate level students. He works with over 40 university and research institutions worldwide through the Open Society University Network on curriculum development, integrating programs, strategic management, student initiatives and topics such as climate education and refugee access to higher education.

He has experience working with diplomacy programs sponsored by the U.S. Department of State on U.S. foreign policy and civic engagement, and has cultivated an alumni base of over 100 scholars from 59 countries.

He is a Term Member on the Council on Foreign Relations, a Truman National Security Fellow and a Climate Reality Leader trained under former U.S. Vice President Al Gore.

Lastly, Brian has served on the Board of Trustees of the Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs and ByKids Films.

bmateo@bard.edu

Kseniya Shtalenkova is a lecturer at European Humanities University (Vilnius, Lithuania). She has an MA in Sociology, having a specialization in cultural and visual studies, and is currently preparing to the defense of her PhD in philosophy, dedicated to the transformations of symbolic exchange practices in the digital era.

Kseniya has been teaching the OSUN Network Collaborative course in Civic Engagement since 2019/2020 academic year. Except her academic career, Kseniya is also a writer and playwright. Having begun with historic novels for young adults, she is now focusing on sight-specific projects and autofiction, related to the topics of Jewish heritage, disability, and motherhood.

kseniya.shtalenkova@ehu.lt

Medet Tiulegenov is Senior Research Fellow at the University of Central Asia and Assistant Professor of the International and Comparative Politics Department at the American University of Central Asia. His research and teaching interests include normative diffusion, civil society in transition countries, contentious politics and politics of identity, public policy and political participation and he has published in international journals and publishing houses (East European Politics, Central Asian Affairs, CRC Press, IOS press, Palgrave McMillan and others). Until 2008 he has been working at Soros Foundation in Kyrgyzstan and prior to that he was a research fellow at the National Academy of Sciences and Kyrgyz National University. He graduated in history from Kyrgyz State University (1993), received Master of Public Administration from Bowling Green State University, USA (1996) and currently is a PhD Candidate in Political Science at Central European University, Hungary.

tiulegenov_m@auca.kg

Sabina A. Wien is the Dean of Students at the American University in Bulgaria. She is a member of the OSUN Civic Engagement Steering Committee. Sabina believes that education can change the world for the better and that civic engagement should be an integral part of it. Ever since she joined AUBG in 2006 as an adjunct instructor of Bulgarian language and culture, and a faculty advisor to the “Better Community Club”, she has been committed to educating empathetic community members and active citizens who possess the knowledge, skills, and mindset to improve the societies they live in. In her current role as Dean of Students, Sabina is a strong supporter of community and civic engagement in student life-related initiatives.

Sabina A. Wien holds a Master’s degree in English and American Studies from Sofia University/Bulgaria and a Master’s Degree in German as a Foreign Language/Transnational German Studies from LMU Munich/Germany.

swien@aubg.edu