ICLD Faculty

Amalinda is a Professor of Political Science and Head of Department Politics and Government at Gadjah Mada University, Indonesia. Her PhD research focused on the political behaviour of business actors responding to political shifts and neoliberalism in Pekalongan, Central Java, in Sociology and Anthropology. Her research interests include studies of social movements in the urban sector and labour with political economy.

His research focuses on local politics and government, comparative politics and education policy. This includes studies of local democracy and self-government, and political participation in city-regions, both within Sweden and in a comparative perspective. He has also carried out research on education policy, with a particular focus on how this is shaped at the local level.

Tomila’s research focuses on comparative democracy and authoritarianism, mass protests and historical patterns of human capital and democratic reproduction in Russia and other states. She is currently working on a book on the long-term patterns of reproduction of social structures in Russia and why this matter for democracy, development, and social inequalities.

Valeria is a Reader in Public Policy and Politics, at De Montfort University, UK. Her research focus has been on local politics, citizen participation, governance, collaboration, partnership and Latin America. She has been able to study these topics within the English and Welsh contexts and in Mexico and Latin America. She has done studies on the impact that structural economic changes and institutional socio-political reforms have on local governance. Also, democratic principles such as inclusion and accountability have also an area of interest, particularly how these concepts and meanings affect the organisational structures of local government as well as the practices and behaviour of local government bureaucrats.

Before starting at AU August 2018, Jesse spent a decade as a professor of Geography, Anthropology and Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences and Director of the Social Dimensions of Environmental Policy Initiative at the University of Illinois. He has also worked for numerous development agencies, such as World Bank and United Nations. His research focuses on decentralization and democratic local government, natural resource tenure and access, distribution along natural resource commodity chains and household vulnerability in the face of climate and environmental change.

Ana Maria is a scholar in the field of international development, passionate about social justice and understanding social change. With a PhD in sociology of law from Lund University and the University of Milan, her thesis was awarded the prize for Best dissertation in Sweden in the field of working environment by FALF -Forum for Working Life Research in 2016. She has published research on inclusive urbanization and local democracy, the everyday life of street vendors and rickshaw drivers, the local politics of air pollution, and everyday forms of resistance to urban politics, recently with a focus on climate change adaptation. Ana Maria believes that research must strive to make an impact in the world, and she currently leads the Knowledge Centre at ICLD, where she strives to connect research with local practitioners and politicians that want to make a better world. Originally from Colombia, Ana Maria is currently living in the city of Malmö, Sweden.

Shireen is Canada 150 Research Chair in Gender and African Studies at Carleton University, Ottawa and Visiting Professor at WiSER, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. She has written and edited several books including Women’s Organisations and Democracy: Contesting Authority; No Shortcuts to Power: Women and Policymaking in Africa, and Go Home or Die Here: Violence, Xenophobia and the Politics of Difference in South Africa.

Sten is a Professor of Cultural Anthropology and director of the Forum for African Studies at Uppsala University, Sweden. His PhD research focused on dispute settlement between farmers and herders in Burkina. He has conducted anthropological research in Burkina Faso since 1988 and in Mali since 2008 covering themes including dispute settlement, local politics, environment, development, democracy and social movements. His research nowadays focuses on political culture, municipal democracy, local development, the mass media, security and popular struggle.

Mayne is Ford Foundation Associate Professor of Public Policy at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government and Faculty Co-Chair for Curriculum and Research at the Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative. His research interests include comparative political behavior, democratic representation, subnational and urban politics, and social policy.

Before working with production and publication at the Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative, Lisa was the communications manager for the Sorenson Impact Center. Prior to that role, she was a case writer and researcher at Harvard Business School, where she worked with professors in the fields of social enterprise, finance, technology ventures, entrepreneurship, and leadership. She also spent three years as a consultant, two years as a financial analyst in New York City, and a year at the Fulbright Commission in Madrid, Spain.
Lisa has a Bachelor of Science from Cornell University and a Master of Arts in Journalism from the Harvard University School of Extension Studies.

Moses is a Postdoctoral researcher at the School of Pharmacy, University of Waterloo, Canada. He is also an associate professor at the department of Epidemiology and Global Health, Umeå University and holds an affiliation to the department of Health Policy, Planning and Management, School of Public Health, Makerere University in Uganda. His current research works include building confidence in Covid-19 vaccines in Canada by engaging with diverse stakeholders such as Public Health authorities, community members and a multidisciplinary research team. He has an experience that spans over 10 years in health systems research and expertise in Participatory Action Research. His other research works include contraceptive use in urban informal settlements, access to maternal and neonatal health services, health managers capacity development and knowledge translation. He is motivated by the desire to make health systems more responsive for the most underserved across the world.

Josh is Executive Director of People Powered: Global Hub for Participatory Democracy. He has 20 years of experience developing, researching, and working with leading community engagement programs across North America, Latin America, and Europe. He was previously co-founder and Co-Executive Director of the Participatory Budgeting Project (PBP), a nonprofit organization that empowers people to decide together how to spend public money. Josh completed a PhD in Politics at the New School for Social Research and a Masters in Planning from the University of Toronto. He is the author of Making Democracy Fun: How Game Design Can Empower Citizens and Transform Politics, Everyone Counts: Could Participatory Budgeting Change Democracy?, and over 20 articles.

Leslie is the author of two books on gender and cities, including Feminist City: Claiming Space in a Man-Made World (Verso). Exept for a PhD, she is an associate professor of geography and environment and director of women’s and gender studies at Mount Allison University, in Sackville, New Brunswick, Canada. Kern’s research has earned a Fulbright Visiting Scholar Award, a National Housing Studies Achievement Award, and several national multi-year grants. She is also an award-winning teacher. Kern’s writing has appeared in The Guardian, Vox, Bloomberg CityLab, LitHub, and Refinery29. She is also an academic career coach, where she helps academics find meaning and joy in their work. Kern’s next book is Gentrification Is Inevitable and Other Lies, forthcoming from Between the Lines Books and Verso in September 2022.

Architect (1995 – FAUUFRJ – Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro/Federal University of Rio de Janeiro), MsC (2004) and PhD in Urban Design (2011) (PROURB-FAUUFRJ). Visitor Researcher (2008-2009) and Post Doctorate (2020) at ETSAB/UPC – Universidad Politécnica de Cataluña/Catalonia Polytechnic University, in Spain. Associate Professor at FAUUFRJ and PROURB. Coordinator of the Temporary Interventions and Tactical Urbanism Lab (LabIT). Author of the books: “Intervenções temporárias, marcas permanentes. Apropriações, arte e festa na cidade contemporânea” (2013), published by Casa da Palavra, “Reflexões sobre o ensino integrado do projeto de arquitetura” (2018), “Urbanismo Tático: um guia para as cidades brasileiras” (2020), published by Rio Books, and “Urbanismo Tático: X ações para transformar cidades”, published by Editora UFRJ (2021).

Jua Cilliers is the Head of the School of Built Environment, and Professor of Urban Planning at the University of Technology Sydney. She has professional registrations from both the South African Council for Planners (SACPLAN) and the Planning Institute of Australia (PIA). She is currently an Adjunct Professor of Planning at the North-West University (South Africa), the Chair of the Women in Planning Network of the Commonwealth Association of Planners, a Board Member of the International Society of City and Regional Planners, and the lead investigator of a project investigating and planning for Child-friendly cities, funded by the National Research Foundation in South Africa. Jua has been the recipient of the National South African Teaching Award for Teaching Excellence in South Africa, a finalist of the National Science and Technology Forum Awards, and prize winner at the Woman in Science Awards and the North-West University Award for Excellence in Community Engagement.

Viktor Mitevski is a Fulbright Scholar who holds MSc in Economics from Texas A&M University, USA. He served as a Special Adviser to the Minister of Finance of North Macedonia and covered issues related to international financial relations, financial control, EU accession process, EU Pre-Accession Assistance – IPA and public finance (PFM) reforms. Aside from his experience at the public sector, Mitevski has immense experience in civil society and quantitative policy based research. Together with a group of 7 researchers, he co-founded the Association for research and analysis ZMAI. The Association has published over 20 research papers and policy papers and is actively engaged in the dialogue between the Government and the Civil Society.