Speakers
David T. Mitchell, Ph.D.
Professor David Mitchell is a leading scholar in the field of Disability Studies and has been studying the Aktion T4 program and related histories for nearly 20 years. He teaches a yearly class in the English Department titled, “Origins of Nazi Genocide: Disability and the Holocaust”), which has also been selected as a study abroad course in 2014 and 2015. I have previously created a short documentary film, A World Without Bodies, that is featured as a required text on many university syllabi in Disability Studies nationally and internationally. The film has won multiple awards including Best Documentary, The Achievement Award, and Best Film at the Picture This! Film Festival in Winnepeg, Canada, the Breaking Barriers Film Festival in Moscow, Russia, and at the Superfest Disability Film Festival in Oakland, California, among others. My scholarship on Aktion T4 is featured as a chapter in my third book, Cultural Locations of Disability (U of Chicago P, 2006), as a featured essay in a special issue on Public Memory in the peer reviewed journal, Parallax (October 2017), and as a chapter in my most recently published edited collection, The Matter of Disability (U of Michigan P, 2018). He has also published several articles for the general public on the German website Gedenkort-T4.com. This substantive duration of investment in the topic has built upon his career as a filmmaker who can draw upon his dedication to this topic.
Enrique Mallen, Ph.D.
Dr. Enrique Mallen earned his PhD in Theoretical Linguistics from Cornell University. He is Professor in the Department of World Languages and Cultures at Sam Houston State University. He has published numerous articles and books on linguistics, poetic language, semiotics and art history. Since 1997 he is director of the Online Picasso Project, a Digital Humanities publication dedicated to the analysis and dissemination of the works by the multilingual and multidisciplinary Pablo Picasso. Among his books are: Pablo Picasso: A Period of Transformation (1906-1916) (Liverpool University Press, Forthcoming 2023), Pablo Picasso and Dora Maar: A Period of Conflict (1936-1946) (Sussex Academic Press. 2021), Pablo Picasso: The Aphrodite Period (1924-1936) (Sussex Academic Press. 2020), Eduardo Espina: Poesía del Deslenguaje (Amargord Ediciones, 2019), Pablo Picasso: The Interaction Between Collectors and Exhibitions, 1899-1939 (Sussex Academic Press, 2018), Pablo Picasso: A Critical Chronology (Lumme Editor, 2017), La Pulsión del Lenguaje: Diálogos y Poemas de José Kozer (Lumme Editor, 2015), La Muerte y la Máscara en Pablo Picasso (Peter Lang, 2013), A Concordance of Pablo Picasso's French Writings (Edwin Mellen Press, 2010), A Concordance of Pablo Picasso's Spanish Writings (Edwin Mellen Press, 2009), Antología Crítica de la Poesía del Lenguaje (Editorial Aldus, 2009), Poesía del Lenguaje: De T. S. Eliot a Eduardo Espina (Editorial Aldus, 2008), La Sintaxis de la Carne: Pablo Picasso y Marie-Thérèse Walter (Red Internacional del Libro, 2005), The Visual Grammar of Pablo Picasso (Peter Lang, 2003) and Con/figuración Sintáctica: Poesía del Des/lenguaje (Red Internacional del Libro Editores, 2002).
Roberto Di Ceglie, Ph.D.
Roberto Di Ceglie is Full Professor of Philosophy of Religion at Pontifical Lateran University. He holds a PhD from The University of Edinburgh and a PhD from Pontifical Lateran University. He has been Visiting Scholar at Notre Dame University for 3 years. He has authored more than 10 books, including “Aquinas on Faith, Reason, and Charity” (New York: Routledge, 2022) and “God, the Good, and the Spiritual Turn in Epistemology” (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2022). His essays have appeared in international journals such as, among others, "Philosophy", "Philosophia", "International Journal for Philosophy of Religion", "Theology and Science", "Heythrop Journal", "Philosophy and Theology", "International Philosophical Quarterly", "Philosophia Christi", "European Journal for Philosophy of Religion", "The Journal of Scottish Philosophy", "Sophia. International Journal for Philosophy and Traditions", and "New Blackfriars". He has co-authored with Paul Moser "Amore e obbedienza in filosofia" (Lindau 2013), and has translated A. Plantinga's “Warranted Christian Belief” into Italian (Lindau 2014). A book symposium has been devoted to “God, the Good, and the Spiritual Turn in Epistemology” at Society for Christian Philosophers 2022 Mountain-Pacific Meeting. He will be Keynote speaker at 2024 European Society for Philosophy of Religion Conference, where he will talk about digital immortality and religion.
Andrea Aguti, Ph.D.
Andrea Aguti is Full professor of Moral Philosophy at the University of Urbino (Italy), Department of Economics, Society and Politics, where he teaches Philosophy of Religion. His research areas are Philosophy of religion, Moral philosophy, Philosophical anthropology, and Systematic theology. As a continental philosopher of religion, he is involved in bridging the gap between the analytic and continental philosophy of religion. He has published seven books, including two introductory volumes to the philosophy of religion, more than one hundred essays and articles in national and international academic journals, and edited several books. His latest book, Morale e religione. Per una visione teistica (Religion and Morality. Toward a Theistic View), 2021 argues that theism has an explanatory advantage in both the justification and motivation of morality. Since 2016, he has been President of the Italian Association for Philosophy of Religion (AIFR) and Co-editor of the yearbook of philosophy and theology “Hermeneutica”. As President of the European Society for the Philosophy of Religion (ESPR), in the two-year period 2022-2024, he is organizing the 24 th ESPR Conference to be held in Trento (Italy), 5-7 September 2024.
Nafhesa Ali, Ph.D.
Dr. Nafhesa Ali is a Lecturer in Sociology at Northumbria University and is an interdisciplinary Sociologist with expertise in the everyday lives of racialized and minority communities. Nafhesa's interest include ageing, migration, sexualities and environmental sustainability. Her forthcoming book titled Older South Asian women's experiences of ageing in the UK: Intersectional feminist perspectives will be published with Palgrave Macmillan. Nafhesa's previous publications include on co-authored book Storying Relationships (2021), and edited collection A Match Made in Heaven: British Muslim Women write about Love and Desire (2020) and several journal publications in Sexualities, Ethnicities, Ethnic and Racial Studies and Cultural Geographies. Nafhesa has previously worked at the various UK institutions which include the University of Huddersfield, University of Sheffield and the University of Manchester. Nafhesa's other roles include lead for the Power and Intersecting Identities (PII) Research Cluster Group at Northumbria University and Honorary SCI Fellow at the University of Manchester.
Muhammad Idrees, Ph.D.
Muhammad Idrees was born in Sangla Hill, Punjab, Pakistan. He completed his early education from the government school and college and got distinction in matriculation examination. He started his professional career in 2011 after MSc Sociology as project officer in the Rural Development Organization, where he wins project on reproductive health and up gradation of health centers. In august 2014 he joined department of sociology and work there as focal person, academic coordinator. In GCUF, he wins the project titled "Demographic Dividend: A wave of challenges or opportunities in Punjab Pakistan from Higher education Commission of Pakistan worth 4.3 million. He completed his Ph.D. in Sociology and currently working as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Rural Sociology, University of Agriculture Faisalabad. The University of Agriculture stands in 1 st position in the agricultural universities of Pakistan. His area of Research is Sociology of development, Population and Development, Youth Development, and Criminology. He had a number of research publication in international and national journal. Currently he is editor and reviewer of JCR Listed Journals. He submit project to Higher Education Commission Pakistan with the collaboration of Chines University Hohai on the titled CEPEC intervention in Pakistan.
Nasir Mahmood, Ph.D.
He was born in Lahore and after completion his basic education he moved to Islamabad where he completed his BS in Arabic Language and Literature in 2008 and MS in Arabic Linguistics in 2012. In August 2013 he moved to Germany from where he received his PhD in Arabic Linguistics and Translation studies from University of Leipzig Germany, in July 2017. While his stay in Germany, he worked in different Universities as lecture where he used to teach Translation & Interpretation, Applied linguistics, and German and Urdu as foreign languages. He speaks 06 languages and worked in Germany as Translator and Interpreter from German language into Arabic, English, Urdu, Punjabi languages and vice versa. After completion his PhD, he started working in Germany as Lecturer of German language where he taught German language to non-native speakers until he came back to Pakistan in August 2018 and joined International Islamic University Islamabad and nowadays, he is serving University of Sialkot as Assistant Professor.
Abdullah Laghari, Ph.D.
Dr Abdullah Laghari is working as Lecturer at the Department of English, Quaid-e-Awam University of Engineering, Science and Technology, Nawabshah, Pakistan. He possesses a vast teaching experience at the university level. His research expertise lies in English Language Teaching, Professional Development, Teacher Education, etc. At his university, he has conducted several teacher education workshops, and seminars for novice and prospective teachers and professionals respectively. He has authored and co-authored many research articles in national and international journals. Dr Laghari has also presented many research papers at national as well as International conferences. He is recently done with his PhD research in Applied Linguistics from the University of Sindh, Jamshoro, Pakistan. He has completed a course "Professional Development of Teacher Trainers from Arizona University USA. He is also the reviewer of the International Journal of English Teaching and Learning. He is an Alumni of the Online Professional English Network OPEN. Besides, he is a member of 'The Society for Pakistani English Language Teachers' SPELT which is loacated in Karachi. At his University, he is a member of the Vice Chancellor's special committee 'The students' Consultative Bureau' SCB. Within a short period, Dr Laghari has emerged to be an innovative teacher, active researcher and master trainer.
Previous Speakers
Pranit Anand, Ph.D
Dr Pranit Anand is a Senior Lecturer in Information Systems at the University of New South Wales. He has a PhD from the University of Wollongong and the title of his thesis was "Using mobile phone technology outside class to develop first year university students' independent study skills". He is passionate about designing engaging learning environments for students, especially learning environments that address the needs of students from diverse backgrounds. Pranit is an accomplished educator. He is a Senior Fellow of HEA and a Fellow of HERDSA.
Sometimes it is the people who no one imagines anything of, that do the things that no one can imagine.