UExt Summer University 2022, Global Development: Facing the Future with Hope

Armando Renato Balderrama Santander, PhD

Center for Asian Studies, Universidad Autónoma de Nuevo León (UANL)

México

Currently, I am Director, Center for Asian Studies, UANL (2012- now). Director, Korea Foundation for Latin America (2014-now). President of the Latin American Association of Asia and Africa, Mexico chapter (2021-now).

Also, I am President of the International Advisory Council of INVEST Monterrey, Member of the International Advisory Council of the Mexican Association for the Promotion of International Education (AMPEI), as well as of the International Council on Education of Casa Asia, Spain.

I am PhD in Social Sciences from the Tecnológico de Monterrey (ITESM), Master in Asian and African studies from the Colegio de México (CEAA-Colmex), BA in International Relations from the Tecnológico de Monterrey (ITESM).

Previous jobs to the current one: Executive Director of the Asia Pacific Institute at the Tecnológico de Monterrey System (2006-2008). Visiting Professor and Researcher at the Center for North American Studies at Fudan University, Shanghai, P.R.C. (2008-2010). Professor of the Department of Political Science and International Relations of the Tecnológico de Monterrey, Campus Monterrey (2002-2012).

Research topics and publications: economic development models in East Asia (China, Japan and South Korea), Industrial policy strategies, innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystems in Asia.

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Richard Harrill, PhD

University of South Carolina

United States

Dr. Rich Harrill is an accomplished centre director with a strong record of success and an international reputation as an expert in tourism, urban planning, and economic development with the University of South Carolina (2005-Present) Georgia Tech’s Enterprise Innovation Institute (2001-2005), Clemson University (1997-2001). He is a Research Professor and was Acting School Director of the University of South Carolina’s School of Hotel, Restaurant, and Tourism Management (2012-2016).

Dr. Harrill has made a difference with applied tourism, urban planning, and economic development research around the world. He is well-known for his experience and expertise in grant making, contracts, and development. Dr. Harrill is one of the few academics to publish in both leading tourism and urban planning journals and have university teaching experience in tourism and urban planning. He currently teaches courses in South Carolina’s number 1 ranked honours college.

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Suzanne Temwa Harris, PhD

London School of Economics and Political Science

United Kingdom

Dr Suzanne Temwa Gondwe Harris is a lecturer and founder of Changing the Face of Africa. Having spent more than 10 years working in media and human rights in Africa, Asia and South America, her research interests are centred on coloniality, the intersections between media, race, and international development, decolonising media studies, ethnic minority media, identity and representation. Drawing from years of community-based research, she is currently investigating how the invisibilisation of Blackness in Argentina and the UK is maintaining the hegemonic construction of Whiteness through media spaces. Latest book chapter on development titled Manufacturing the Liberal Media Model Through Developmentality in Malawi looks at how development has been used as an ideological instrument to promote the Western liberal media model in the “Global South”.

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Gabriel Ricardo Nemogá Soto, PhD University of California

Full Professor, University of Winnipeg

Canada

Descendant of the Muisca indigenous people. PhD in Ecology (University of California-Davis), Master’s in Socio-Legal Studies (Brunel University, United Kingdom), Sociologist (National University of Colombia) and Lawyer (Free University of Colombia). Field work and research with Indigenous peoples and organisations from Colombia, the Andean region, the Amazon region, Central America, and Mexico, as well as with the Afro-descendant people. I am a Professor at the University of Winnipeg, Master’s program in Indigenous Government. Member of the Panel of Experts monitoring the judgment T-622 of 2016 that recognised the Atrato River as a legal subject. Author in the Intergovernmental Panel on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) in the evaluation Values on Nature, Chapter Three, and the study on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services in Colombia, Chapter Five.

My research focuses on bio-cultural diversity, the interrelationship between the ways of life of indigenous peoples and local communities with their environments, and the policies that affect the integrity of their knowledge systems.

Previously I was a professor at the School of Law of the National University of Colombia and at the Institute of Genetics. At the National University I established the UNIJUS Research Institute, the PLEBIO research group and the Master’s in Biosciences and Law.

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Jorge Luis Valenzuela Herrera, PhD

Kansas State University

United States

Dr Jorge Valenzuela received a bachelor’s degree in computer engineering from Monterrey Tech, Mexico, in 1990. Following graduation, he joined Petro Ensambles as a software engineer/team leader and worked there from 1991 to 1997. In January 1998, he came to K-State to pursue a master’s degree in software engineering. After obtaining his master’s degree, Valenzuela worked for Motorola as software engineer from 2000 to 2003. He returned to K-State in 2004 and received his doctorate degree in computer science in 2014. He then worked for the K-State College of Education as systems programmer for the Center of Intercultural and Multilingual Advocacy (CIMA). He also worked as adjunct instructor in the K-State department of Computer Science from Fall 2014 to Spring 2016. Valenzuela currently holds a Teaching Assistant Professor position in the department.

Valenzuela’s research interests focus on software engineering, multi-agent systems, embedded systems, computational thinking, and computer Science in grades K-12.

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Jonathan Williams, PhD candidate

University of Florida

United States

Jonathan Williams has been a catalyst for change for 16 years as a teacher, motivational speaker and spoken word poet. He has facilitated curriculum programs for students ranging from kindergarten to college seniors, and even as an international visiting professor for the Universidad Externado de Colombia in the summer of 2019. He’s performed and spoke at conferences to ignite dialogue about inequality, institutionalized oppression, and potential solutions to these issues. Notable performances include an educational showcase at the New Amsterdam Theatre on Broadway, The National Conference of Teachers in English in Boston, and the Cultural Olympiad at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre in London. Ultimately, Williams would like to challenge the traditional ways in which people engage with society through performance and critical thought.

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Thuy Thanh Tran, Ph.D. candidate

University of Kassel

Germany

Thuy Tran has a wealth of experience in teaching at both postgraduate and undergraduate levels. She has taught the master module “Management Accounting” for over three years at the University of Kassel. Besides, she was a lecturer teaching “Accounting Information Systems” for undergraduate students. Previously, she was a board member of the Vietnamese for Excellent Teaching and worked as an accounting expert for global groups.

She continuously innovates in her teaching strategies (case studies, blended methods). Her teaching case “Improving decision-making through material flow cost accounting: the case of VietGreen bottled mineral water company” was awarded as one of the best showcases at the 2020 IFAMA Global Conference. She has an inherent ability to apply modern technologies (Kahoot, Powtoon, Moodle) in blended teaching.

With the philosophy of student-centered teaching, she has received positive assessments from students with diverse backgrounds. She was invited to present her innovations in accounting education (blended learning, experiential learning, podcasts) at prestigious conferences (European Accounting Association, British Accounting and Finance Association).

During her Ph.D., she has developed six papers regarding sustainability accounting and accounting education in collaboration with international researchers. Some papers have already been published, while others are under review in high-ranking journals (The British Accounting Review; Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal).

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Hanna Obracht-Prondzynska, PhD

University of Gdańsk

Poland

Hanna Obracht-Prondzynska, PhD, MArch, Eng., is an urban planner and spatial data scientist with a background in architecture and international planning experience from Poland, USA, China, South Africa, Romania and Turkey, founder of URBAN.AI and an assistant professor at the University of Gdańsk, Department of Spatial Planning.

Her research focuses mostly on data driven planning and data-based solutions supporting smart development and resilient urban design. Her work concentrates on the use of urban BigData and social media data to assess urban perception and digital app solutions aiming to mitigate climate changes and supporting social participation. After her studies at the Gdańsk University of Technology and Vienna University of Technology, she graduated as a GIS analyst at the Warsaw University of Technology, and further she obtained data scientist certificate. Her PhD dissertation defended with distinction received 5 awards including 2 by the Minister of Economic Development, Labour and Technology in spatial planning and geoinformation, and Polish Academy of Science.

For the last five years she has been working as a spatial planning specialist at the Pomeranian Office for Regional Planning and is above all a coauthor of spatial development plan for the Pomeranian Region and the Gdańsk-Gdynia-Sopot metropolitan area. She works with SoftGIS and PPGIS tools and coordinates planning documents.

Currently together with an interdisciplinary team she focuses on developing two applications engaging residents to be actively involved in the implementation process of climate mitigation policies. She is an active member of the International Society for City and Regional Planners and a board member of the Society of Polish Town Planners.

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Rebecca Cordell, Ph.D

University of Texas at Dallas

United States

I am an Assistant Professor in the School of Economic, Political and Policy Sciences, University of Texas at Dallas. I received my Ph.D. in Political Science from the Department of Government, University of Essex in 2017.

My research is published or is forthcoming in International Studies Quarterly, Journal of Conflict Resolution, Journal of Peace Research, International Interactions, Journal of Human Rights and International Area Studies Review.

My research interests include state repression, human rights, political violence and measurement. I work on the Sub-national Analysis of Repression Project (SNARP) with Thorin M. Wright, Reed M. Wood, Christopher J. Fariss and K. Chad Clay – funded by the National Science Foundation.

I use statistical and computational methods with a focus on machine learning, text analysis and spatial econometrics. I received the ISA Human Rights Section’s Steven C. Poe Best Graduate Student Paper Award in 2018 for my article «Security-Civil Liberties Trade-offs: International Cooperation in Extraordinary Rendition».

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Kim Barker, PhD

The Open University

United Kingdom

Dr Kim Barker is a Senior Lecturer in law at the Open University Law School, specialising in internet law including online violence against women, online misogyny, online hate speech, regulation of online content (especially via social media platforms and online games), and intellectual property law (copyright, and digital content). She holds a PhD in Intellectual Property Law, Internet Regulation and Contract Law from Aberystwyth University. She is a visiting Fellow at the Information Society Law Centre at the University of Milan, and Co-Director of the UK’s Observatory on Online Violence Against Women. She has acted as expert consultant for the Council of Europe, Facebook, and IT4Change.

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