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)

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).

A researcher at the Institute of Philosophy and Sociology, University of Latvia, and Stockholm School of Economics in Riga, Latvia. An Assistant Professor at Graduate School of Education, Nazarbayev University, Kazakhstan. Holds a PhD in Comparative Education from the State University of New York at Buffalo, USA. A co-editor of “The Emigrant Communities of Latvia: National Identity, Transnational Belonging, and Diaspora Politics”, Springer, https://www.springer.com/gp/book/9783030120917

Expertise in political sociology, socio-legal studies, migration and citizenship with strong skills in qualitative methods and experience in quantitative research. Holds PhD in the Interdisciplinary Near and Middle Eastern Studies Program and Graduate Certificate in Law and Society Studies at the University of Washington. Currently, a postdoctoral researcher and lecturer at Erasmus University Rotterdam, Department of Public Administration and Sociology.

Laavanya Kathiravelu is Associate Professor in the School of Social Sciences at Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore. Her research is at the intersections of international migration, race and ethnic studies and contemporary urban diversity, particularly in Asia and the Persian Gulf. Her first book was Migrant Dubai (Palgrave, 2016), which explored experiences of low wage migrant workers in the UAE. She has also published widely on issues of race, inequality and migration in Singapore. Prior to joining NTU, she was a postdoctoral fellow at the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity. She was also a Fung Fellow at Princeton University between 2015-16. In 2019, she was recipient of the Social Science and Humanities Research Council Fellowship (SSHRF) and recognised as one of the Ten Outstanding Young Persons (TOYP) in the area of academic leadership. Laavanya is board member of migrant welfare organisation, HOME as well as civil society group AWARE, whose aim is to advance gender equality. She comments regularly on public forums and through op-eds on issues of migration, race and diversity in Singapore. In 2022, she was a Fulbright Scholar based at the City University of New York (CUNY)

Caitlin Katsiaficas is a policy analyst in ICMPD’s Policy Unit, where her recent research focuses on international protection, talent attraction, and integration. Prior to joining ICMPD, she held positions at the Migration Policy Institute, World Bank, International Rescue Committee, and George Washington University’s Institute for European, Russian, and Eurasian Studies, in addition to internships with local and national refugee resettlement organisations in the United States. Caitlin holds an MA and BA in international affairs from George Washington University’s Elliott School of International Affairs, where her studies focused on conflict, migration, and development.

Dr. Atinder Pal Kaur is working as Assistant Professor (Sociology) in the Dept. of Economics and Sociology, Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana. She has completed her Ph.D. (2018) from the Department of Sociology, Panjab University Chandigarh. She has completed her M.A in sociology from the Department of Sociology, Panjab University Chandigarh. She Graduated with Sociology and Political Science Honours from the Department of Social Science, Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar. She has already published papers in the field of Migration, Gender, and development. She has presented a paper on Migration and Gender Equality in the International Institute of Social Sciences 2017 in Hague, The Netherlands. She has done Project with UNFPA for six months, designation as Research Officer; she attended two workshops on Research Methodology, one with UN¬FPA. She also attended a Summer Program at Tata Institute of Social Sciences in 2013, Mumbai. She published a paper entitled “International migration and Impact of remittances on left behind wives: a study of Doaba region of Punjab” (2019) in SI Rajan and Neetha N (eds) Migration, Gender and Care Economy. 103-122, Routledge London. And also “Migration and Cultural Challenges through a gender lens: Punjabi Transnationalism in Doaba Region (Punjab)” (2019). Research Monograph Series GRFDT. 5(4), 4-13. She is also a member of scientific Societies that include “Global research forum on Diaspora and Transnationalism” and Indian Society for agricultural development and Policy. Recently join IMESOC. Her research interest includes International and Internal Migration studies, Gender and Development, Cul¬tural and Transnational Diaspora studies, Social Change and Rural Society. Email: atinderbains@gmail.com.