Experts Database

Thomas G. Kalunge (Strategy advisor/Agile Project Management, r0g_agency) is Innovation Management and Entrepreneurship Scientist and practitioner (M.Sc.) as well as a certified design thinking expert. With the User-centered approach, Thomas’s work focuses on Agile project management, Innovation Management, and diaspora involvement in transformative development in host and countries of origin. Currently, Thomas leads the project Migrant Media Network #MMN. This project uses digital online and offline tools to ensure factual information on migration decisions. It aims to promote dialog at household and community level on safe migration and positive alternatives. He also works with r0g_agency on program and strategy development for various projects and programs. As freelance consultant Thomas advices on aspects such as transnational entrepreneurship, Innovation and Migration Management as well on Agile Project Management, Alingment and Evaluation

International postdoctoral fellow at the School of Humanities and
Social Sciences, the University of St. Gallen. I received a BA degree in philosophy and
sociology from the University of Banja Luka (2008), a joint master's degree in global studies
from the University of Vienna and University of Leipzig (2010), and a PhD degree in Balkan
Studies at the University of Ljubljana (2017). I worked as outreach workers for hard-to-
reach social groups such as sex workers and registered civil victims from the war 1992-1995
in Croatia (Documenta, 2012). I published several journal articles and book chapters
dealing with contemporary working-class culture, informal construction, labor migration
(gastarbajteri), popular music and queer audiences, and vernacular commemoration
practices. My research project at the University of St.Gallen explores how labor
migrants from former Yugoslavia use mobilities to construct spaces and new forms of
belonging. (miso.kapetanovic@unisg.ch)

Pınar Karababa Demircan completed her PhD studies in the department of Sociology (Middle East Technical University, Turkey) with her thesis on urban conflict and appropriation. As a researcher and academic in the domain of sociology the main focus of her works is on the paths of solidarity and conflict between disadvantaged communities in the urban context. Her previous experience as a paid worker and independent researcher in the field of migration in Turkey led to several researches in different migration fields and circumstances. She continued working on migration management in her academic life as well. In addition to her works under the sociology of migration, Karababa Demircan also works on invisible labor and subtle solidarity mechanisms within disadvantaged groups, urban conflicts and rights, and theoretical aspects of feminist methodology.

Dženeta Karabegović is based in the Division of Political Science and Sociology at the University of Salzburg. She holds a PhD in Politics and International Studies from the University of Warwick (2017) where she worked on an ERC funded project, Diasporas and Contested Sovereignty.

Her wider research interests and academic publications are rooted in international relations and political sociology with a particular focus on transnationalism, diaspora, migration, human rights, transitional justice, foreign policy, and the Balkans. She has done consulting work with local and international organizations focused on diasporas and development, returnees, social inclusion, civil society, education, and countering extremism and has collaborated with the Post-Conflict Research Center for multiple years. She currently serves as the Program Co-Chair for the Ethnicity, Nationalism, and Migration Studies Section of the International Studies Association (ISA).

She was an Assistant Professor at International Burch University in Sarajevo, Lecturer at the Sarajevo School for Science and Technology, a Guest Researcher at Mid-Sweden University’s Forum for Gender Studies and a Visiting Scholar at the Harriman Institute at Columbia University. Previously, she was a U.S. Fulbright Fellow at the Hugo Valentin Centre at Uppsala University in Sweden.

She holds an M.A. in International Relations from the University of Chicago and completed her B.A. (Hons) at the University of Vermont in Political Science and German with a Holocaust Studies minor.

Her academic work has been published in multiple peer-reviewed academic journals and she has a co-edited volume (with Jasmin Hasić) on Bosnia and Herzegovina’s foreign policy since independence with Palgrave (2019) and a co-edited volume (with Maria Koinova) on diasporas and transitional justice with Routledge (2020).

Dr. Ozge Karadag works as a Senior Research Scholar at the Center for Sustainable Development of the Earth Institute at Columbia University. She also holds an associate professor of public health title in Turkey with 15 years of research and teaching experience in different higher education settings. Dr. Karadag earned her Medical Doctor (MD) degree from Istanbul University, and her MSc and PhD Degrees in Public Health from Hacettepe University. She also holds a postgraduate degree in health promotion from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

Dr. Karadag has nearly 20 years of experience working in multidisciplinary teams to conduct research, develop public health policies and programs for different vulnerable/disadvantaged populations with a special focus on refugees/migrants and youth. Her main research interests are health care access among vulnerable populations, migration and health, health promotion and education, community mental health, stigma and discrimination, community participation in health care, and sustainable development. She has worked as a consultant for WHO, UNFPA, UNICEF, UNHCR, UNDP, IOM, and the European Commission in addition to different governmental and non-governmental organizations. Her current work focuses on research, advocacy, and training activities regarding the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the most vulnerable populations and how to use digital technologies to increase access to health information and care among refugee and disadvantaged local youth in Turkey, Lebanon, and Jordan. She is a member of The Lancet COVID-19 Commission Scientific Secretariat and one of the experts of the Global Happiness Council, where she co-chairs the Vulnerable Populations Thematic Group.