Fi Martynoga is an environmental activist, journalist, museum researcher and a renowned figure in Scottish nature, sustainability, history and food circles.

Catherine Maxwell Stuart is the Director of Heritage at Beyond Borders Scotland. She is currently the 21st Lady of Traquair. She lives at Traquair House where she was born and brought up. Over the past 20 years she has been actively involved in tourism, the arts, heritage and business both locally and nationally. She has been a board member of the Scottish Enterprise Borders, the Broadcasting Council for Scotland and non-Exec director of Border TV. She also sat on the Lord Chancellor’s Advisory Council on Records and Archives and currently is Chair of the Scottish Borders Area Tourism Partnership.

Geoffrey Baskerville studied Modern History at Merton College, Oxford, before starting a career in arts administration, working largely with émigré Russians pursuing careers in the west. He subsequently turned to freelance writing and journalism and then joined the BBC, where he worked first as a diarist and subsequently as a producer of arts programmes for BBC Scotland, and as a presenter for Radio 3, Radio 4 and the World Service. He has now turned back to writing and editing, and is currently working on a biographical project about Peter Darrell, one of Britain’s most significant post-war choreographers and the founder of The Scottish Ballet.

Ben Cowell OBE is the Director General of Historic Houses, a not-for-profit organisation representing more than 1,650 privately owned historic properties. He was awarded an OBE for services to cultural heritage in the 2021 New Year Honours list. Ben studied BA History at UEA from 1990-1993.

Andrew Gilmour CMG is a British Diplomat and Human rights advocate. Known for his extensive career within the United Nations. Gilmour pursued Master’s degrees from Oxford University in History and also the London School of Economics in History and Government. His professional career began in the British Diplomatic Service where he later transitioned to the United Nations in 1989 serving various roles over several decades. He held the position as Director for Political, Peacekeeping, Humanitarian and Human Rights affairs in the Executive Office of the Secretary General in 2012. And in 2016-2019 was designated as Assistant Secretary-General for Human rights heading the OHCHR’s Office in New York. In recent years he has served as Deputy Special Representative of the Secretary-General in Iraq, and in South Sudan and was the Representative of the Secretary-General in Belgrade. Since retiring from his position at the United Nations he is now the Executive Director of the Berghof Foundation. Gilmour has authored numerous articles and reports throughout his career which have featured in the New York Times, Financial Times and many others. His most recent publication “The Burning Question: Climate and Conflict- why does it matter?” which was released in March of 2024.

Dr. Houda Abadi, PhD is the founder and executive director of Transformative Peace. Abadi served as the MENA Associate Director of the Conflict Resolution Program at the Cart Center from 2014-2019. She also served as the program director in two conflict transformation organisations working with Jewish and Muslim youth. Dr. Abadi holds a PhD in Political Communications and Media Studies from Georgia State University and a MA in International Relations and Diplomacy from Seton Hall University. She has received numerous awards and honors, including theISB 2019 Women of Influence Award, Luther College Young 2018 Alumni Award, Georgia State University Transcultural Conflict and Violence Presidential Fellowship, and the Atlanta Institute for Diplomatic leadership 2018 Peace builder Award. She currently serves as a council member in the RESOLVE’s Research Advisory Board.

Martin Griffiths OBE was the former Deputy Head of the UN Supervisory Mission in Syria (UNSMIS) where he was the lead civilian and responsible for political affairs, human rights and civil affairs, working with Kofi Annan.

He was the Founding Director of Geneva based Humanitarian Dialogue Centre where he specialised in developing dialogue between governments and insurgents, and helped lay the foundations for peace in a range of countries across Asia, Africa and Europe. 

Mr. Griffiths has worked with UNICEF in Asia, in the British Diplomatic Service, Save the Children, and as Chief Executive of ActionAid. He rejoined the United Nations (UN) in 1994 as Director of the Department of Humanitarian Affairs (which became OCHA) in Geneva and became the Deputy to the UN Emergency Relief Coordinator in New York in 1998. He has also served as UN Regional Humanitarian Coordinator for the Great Lakes and UN Regional Coordinator in the Balkans with the rank of UN Assistant Secretary-General.

Oscar Guardiola-Rivera is a writer and professor of human rights and political philosophy at Birkbeck College, University of London. After leading the student movement that initiated a wave of constitutional reform throughout Latin America in the late 1990’s, he continued his studies in the United Kingdom where he obtained an LLM with Distinction at University College London, and a PhD in Philosophy at the University of Aberdeen. He is the writer of the award-winning What If Latin America Ruled the World? which was listed as one the best non-fiction books of 2010 by The Financial Times. Dr Guardiola-Rivera is also the co-editor of the contemporary art and theory journal Naked Punch: An Engaged Review of Arts & Theory, and has engaged with an extensive range of publications and broadcasters, including Granta, El Espectador, the BBC World Service Nightwaves, and Al-Jazeera to name but a few. He is currently the Deputy Postgraduate Director of the Department of Law at Birkbeck, University of London and is recognized as one of the most representative voices of contemporary Latin American philosophy and literature.

Azad Ashim Sharma is a writer and publisher based in South London. He is the director of the87press. His work includes Against the Frame (Broken Sleep Books, 2022) and Ergastulum (Broken Sleep Books, 2022). His work has featured in publications such as the Asian American Writers Workshop, Stand Magazine, Gutter Magazine, the journal Social and Health Sciences, SPAMzine, MIR Online, and Wasafiri. He is a Chase-funded PhD Candidate in English and Humanities at Birkbeck College, University of London. He is the recipient of the Caribbean Philosophical Association’s Nicolás Cristóbal Guillén Batista Outstanding Book Award 2023.

Percussion, Hammered Dulcimer, music composition, music arrangement. Influenced by her father Hisaatsu Kondo, a conductor, she started the music from two years old. In 2010, graduated Tokyo College of Music High School Percussion major. In 2010, Kunitachi College of Music Percussion major for few months. In 2013, Won first prize from the consul of China in Osaka for the International Music Competition of Chinese Music Council and Received the Encouragement Award for the TIAA All Japan Classical Music Concert of the Tokyo International Association of Artists as a Multiple Percussion Solo. In 2014, studied the Timpani from Michael Kroutil/Principal Timpanist of Česká filharmonie at Czech Republic. In 2015, lived in Dresden – Germany for studying the percussion and paint. In 2016, Started to play the Hammered Dulcimer Also perform the Classical, European traditional, own songs and improvisation In 2017, Become a member of the ‘Global Artist project’ of The And Vision company. In 2018, Exclusive music artist of STAND UP ORCHESTRA of Sony Music Japan. And contracted to the Japan Association of String Instrument Performer as a producer. In 2020, Won 4th prize (Honorable Mention) from World BACH Competition 2020 presented by Boulder Bach Festival as Instrumental Professional Category – Hammered Dulcimer solo. In April 2019, joined Sacred Art Festival in Senlis – France. In January 2020, joined Japan Festival Berlin. In September 2020, had a solo exhibition for a week in Shinjuku – Tokyo. The currently activities are as music freelancer, music instructor and also as a painter. Live in Berlin from August 2021.

Derek Goldman, is Artistic and Executive Director and co-Founder of the Laboratory for Global Performance and Politics at Georgetown University in Washington DC, with the mission to harness the power of performance to humanise global politics.  He is Chair of Georgetown University’s Department of Performing Arts and Director of the Theater & Performance Studies Program as well as Professor of Culture, Politics & Global Performance in GU’s School of Foreign Service.  He is an award-winning stage director, playwright/adapter, scholar, producer, and developer of new work, whose work has been seen throughout the US, off-Broadway, and internationally at leading venues such as Shakespeare Theater Company, Steppenwolf, Lincoln Center, Kennedy Center, Arena Stage, Baltimore CenterStage, Folger, Ford’s Theater, Chicago Shakespeare, and many others. He co-wrote and directed the award-winning play Remember This: The Lesson of Jan Karski starring Oscar-Nominated actor David Strathairn as the Polish Holocaust witness. The play is touring internationally to leading venues and will premiere Off-Broadway in New York in the Fall. The film version of Remember This is also premiering at leading festivals this summer.  Goldman is the author of more than 30 professionally produced plays and adaptations, including work published by Samuel French, and he has directed over 100 productions. His engagement with global performance in recent years has taken his work to Sudan, Cambodia, Bangladesh, China, Poland, South Africa, Australia, Peru, Japan, Bulgaria, Armenia, Chile, the Czech Republic, Italy, Spain, France, and throughout the UK, among other places. He is a member of the Board of Directors of Theatre Communications Group (TCG); Vice-President of UNESCO’s International Theatre Institute, and Founding Director of the Global Network of Higher Education in the Performing Arts. He holds a Ph.D. in Performance Studies from Northwestern University and he received the President’s Award for Distinguished Scholar-Teachers at Georgetown and the Provost’s Award for Innovation in Teaching for his work as creator of In Your Shoes, an internationally recognised groundbreaking model for using performance to counter polarisation and to engage challenging conversations across difference through theatrical techniques and deep, respectful listening.

The Women in Conflict 1325 Fellowship is based around the principles of UN Security Council Resolution 1325 which “reaffirms the role of women in the prevention and resolution of conflict, peace negotiations, peace-building, peacekeeping, humanitarian response and in post-conflict reconstruction, and stresses the importance of their equal participation in all efforts for the promotion of peace and security”.

The Fellowship has been held 3 times a year since 2015 in Edinburgh and online during the Covid-19 pandemic, and has built up a fantastic network of over 360 women from 33 countries across the Middle East, Africa, South Asia and Latin America. These women are a diverse group, working in an equally varied range of professions related to peacebuilding and conflict resolution. This wealth of experience is one of the key strengths of the Fellowship as it allows for greater reflection and shared learning on different aspects of the peacebuilding rather than solely focusing on high-level, formal peace processes.

Aminatta Forna is the award-winning author ‘The Hired Man’, ‘The Memory of Love’, which was awarded the Commonwealth Prize for “Best Book” in 2011,’Ancestor Stones’, and a memoir ‘The Devil that Danced on the Water’. In March, she was announced as the recipient of the 2014 Windham-Campbell Literature Prize (Fiction). She also serves as Professor for Creative Writing at Bath Spa University and was a Harkness Fellow at the University of California, Berkeley.

Lang studied at the University of Bristol, where she earned a degree in Drama and English. After completing her education, she embarked on a career in journalism. Lang’s career in broadcasting took off when she joined the BBC World Service as a producer and reporter, covering various international events and issues. She later became a presenter for the BBC World Service arts and culture program, showcasing her passion for the arts.

Kirsty Lang is best known for her work on BBC Radio 4, where she presented and co-presented several programs. One of her notable contributions was as a co-presenter of “Front Row,” a daily radio arts and culture magazine show that featured interviews with prominent figures from the creative world.

Throughout her career, Lang has interviewed numerous artists, authors, actors, and musicians, providing insights into their work and creative processes. Her in-depth knowledge of the arts and her engaging interviewing style have made her a respected figure in the broadcasting industry.

Humza Yousaf is a Scottish politician who served as the former First Minister of Scotland and the leader of the Scottish National Party (SNP) in March 2023. Yousaf studied Politics at the University of Glasgow and began his political career as an aide to several SNP politicians. In 2011, he was elected the Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) for the Glasgow region. Yousaf has held  several positions at his time in the Scottish Government including Minister for External Affairs and International Development (2012-2014), Minister for Transport and the Islands (2016-2018), Cabinet Secretary for Justice (2018-2021) and Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care (2021-2023). His role as former First Minister of Scotland held historical significance as the first Muslim and person of Asian descent to hold office in Scotland. 

Allan Little is an award-winning Scottish journalist and presenter who has reported from more than 80 countries including a variety of war zones, revolutions and natural disasters. After graduating from the University of Edinburgh, Mr Little joined BBC Scotland as a news and current affairs researcher before moving to London to train as a radio reporter. He specialised in foreign reporting for BBC Radio 4’s Today Programme, including accounts from the revolutions of 1989 across Eastern Europe. He then worked as a reporter for BBC News, reporting from hostile environments such as the 1991 Gulf War, Kuwait, former Yugoslavia, South Africa, Rwanda and Zaire. Mr Little also worked as the BBC Moscow correspondent and reported on the 1995 Afghanistan earthquakes before becoming the BBC’s Africa and later, Paris correspondent. He has won several awards, including three Gold Sony Radio Academy Awards for Reporter of the Year, the Bayeux War Correspondent of the Year, and in 2012 he won both the Thomas Reuters prize for Reporting Europe for his Radio 4 documentary, Europe’s Choice and the Charles Wheeler Award for Outstanding Contribution to Broadcast Journalism. Mr Little left the BBC in 2014 and today chairs the Edinburgh International Book Festival.

Derek Goldman, is Artistic and Executive Director and co-Founder of the Laboratory for Global Performance and Politics at Georgetown University in Washington DC, with the mission to harness the power of performance to humanise global politics.  He is Chair of Georgetown University’s Department of Performing Arts and Director of the Theater & Performance Studies Program as well as Professor of Culture, Politics & Global Performance in GU’s School of Foreign Service.  He is an award-winning stage director, playwright/adapter, scholar, producer, and developer of new work, whose work has been seen throughout the US, off-Broadway, and internationally at leading venues such as Shakespeare Theater Company, Steppenwolf, Lincoln Center, Kennedy Center, Arena Stage, Baltimore CenterStage, Folger, Ford’s Theater, Chicago Shakespeare, and many others. He co-wrote and directed the award-winning play Remember This: The Lesson of Jan Karski starring Oscar-Nominated actor David Strathairn as the Polish Holocaust witness. The play is touring internationally to leading venues and will premiere Off-Broadway in New York in the Fall. The film version of Remember This is also premiering at leading festivals this summer.  Goldman is the author of more than 30 professionally produced plays and adaptations, including work published by Samuel French, and he has directed over 100 productions. His engagement with global performance in recent years has taken his work to Sudan, Cambodia, Bangladesh, China, Poland, South Africa, Australia, Peru, Japan, Bulgaria, Armenia, Chile, the Czech Republic, Italy, Spain, France, and throughout the UK, among other places. He is a member of the Board of Directors of Theatre Communications Group (TCG); Vice-President of UNESCO’s International Theatre Institute, and Founding Director of the Global Network of Higher Education in the Performing Arts. He holds a Ph.D. in Performance Studies from Northwestern University and he received the President’s Award for Distinguished Scholar-Teachers at Georgetown and the Provost’s Award for Innovation in Teaching for his work as creator of In Your Shoes, an internationally recognised groundbreaking model for using performance to counter polarisation and to engage challenging conversations across difference through theatrical techniques and deep, respectful listening.

The Women in Conflict 1325 Fellowship is based around the principles of UN Security Council Resolution 1325 which “reaffirms the role of women in the prevention and resolution of conflict, peace negotiations, peace-building, peacekeeping, humanitarian response and in post-conflict reconstruction, and stresses the importance of their equal participation in all efforts for the promotion of peace and security”.

The Fellowship has been held 3 times a year since 2015 in Edinburgh and online during the Covid-19 pandemic, and has built up a fantastic network of over 360 women from 33 countries across the Middle East, Africa, South Asia and Latin America. These women are a diverse group, working in an equally varied range of professions related to peacebuilding and conflict resolution. This wealth of experience is one of the key strengths of the Fellowship as it allows for greater reflection and shared learning on different aspects of the peacebuilding rather than solely focusing on high-level, formal peace processes.

Steve Richards is a British TV presenter and political columnist who has written for the Guardian, Independent, News Statesman and Spectator. An insightful observer of the British political scene, he has produced many television talks on influential political leaders and major political turning points. Mr Richards regularly presents Radio 4’s Week in Westminster and hosts a vibrant one man stand up show called Rock & Roll Politics. He has written numerous books, including his latest The Prime Ministers We Never Had: Success and Failure from Butler to Corbyn, which was awarded Book of the Year by The Times, The Guardian and Prospect.

Tim Phillips is a social entrepreneur who has launched several innovative organisations in the non-profit and for-profit sectors that address critical emerging global issues. In 1992, he co-founded Beyond Conflict (formerly the Project on Justice in Times of Transition), a pioneering and widely respected conflict resolution and reconciliation initiative that has made important contributions to the consolidation of peace and democracy around the world. In the private sector, he was a founder of Energia Global International Ltd. (EGI), which was a leader in the development and operation of privately-owned renewable energy facilities in Central and South America in the early 1990s. He helped launch and currently serves on the Advisory Committee of the Club of Madrid, which was founded in 2001 with the support of 30 current and former heads of state and government to promote the consolidation of democracy around the world.

Miriam Margolyes OBE is British-Australian actress renowned for her prolific career in film, television and theatre. Over Margolyes decade long career in the film industry, she has won a BAFTA Award for Best supporting actress for her role Mrs. Mingott in Martin Scorsese’s “The Age of Innocence” (1993) and received the LA Critics Circle Award for her role in “Little Dorrit” (1988).  Margolyes is perhaps best known for her roles in “Blackadder,” “The Life and Loves of a She-Devil,” and as Professor Sprout in the “Harry Potter” series. She has also made memorable appearances in “Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries,” “Call the Midwife,” and “The Real Marigold Hotel”​. Margolyes was appointed OBE in the 2022 New year Honours for Services to Drama. 

Jim Naughtie FRSE  is a British radio and news presenter for the BBC. He began his career as a journalist at the Aberdeen Press and Journal before moving to the London offices of The Scotsman. He became its Chief Political Correspondent before working for The Washington Post and The Guardian. Mr Naughtie later moved into radio presenting and has anchored every BBC Radio UK election results programme since 1997, and worked on every US presidential election since 1988. He has been the main presenter of BBC Radio 4’s Today Programme and his radio presenting has earned him two Sony Radio Awards: Radio Personality of the Year in 1991 and Voice of the Listener and Viewer Award in 2001. That same year, Mr Naughtie received an honorary doctorate from the University of Sterling and was appointed as its chancellor in 2008. He retired from regular presenting duties in 2016 and is currently the BBC’s Special Correspondent responsible for charting UK constitutional reform, as well as the BBC news’ Book Editor.

Gnawa music is a well-preserved heritage of ritual poetry with traditional music and dance, becoming increasingly known to international audiences. Gnawa Trance Fusion combine traditional and modern instruments to create an irresistible celebration of existence. Compelling instrumental and vocal phrases are created from traditional call and response sources and combined with creation around the repertoire which draws on jazz, reggae and other influences. This is an addictive rhythmic experience, at once a soul party and a mystical transport to Africa – Gnawa Trance Fusion brings a unique cultural experience to the contemporary and world music scene.

William Dalrynple is a Scottish-born bestselling author and historian. While studying at the University of Cambridge, he mirrored – on foot – the route of Marco Polo from Jerusalem to Mongolia and wrote his first book, In Xanadu about the journey. This became a bestseller and in 1990 he won the Yorkshire Post Best First Work Award and a Scottish Arts Council Spring Book Award. He has written several books about his travels, particularly around India, and his historical works have earned him several notable awards. Among them are the Wolfson Prize, the Scottish Book of the Year prize and three honorary doctorates of letters from the Universities of St Andrews, Lucknow and Aberdeen. His most recent written work The Anarchy: The Relentless Rise of the East India Company (2019) was shortlisted for numerous prizes. He is one of the co-founders and co-directors of the world’s largest writers festival, the annual Jaipur Literature Festival.

Oscar Guardiola-Rivera is a writer and professor of human rights and political philosophy at Birkbeck College, University of London. After leading the student movement that initiated a wave of constitutional reform throughout Latin America in the late 1990’s, he continued his studies in the United Kingdom where he obtained an LLM with Distinction at University College London, and a PhD in Philosophy at the University of Aberdeen. He is the writer of the award-winning What If Latin America Ruled the World? which was listed as one the best non-fiction books of 2010 by The Financial Times. Dr Guardiola-Rivera is also the co-editor of the contemporary art and theory journal Naked Punch: An Engaged Review of Arts & Theory, and has engaged with an extensive range of publications and broadcasters, including Granta, El Espectador, the BBC World Service Nightwaves, and Al-Jazeera to name but a few. He is currently the Deputy Postgraduate Director of the Department of Law at Birkbeck, University of London and is recognized as one of the most representative voices of contemporary Latin American philosophy and literature.

Judge Roberto Carlos Vidal López  has worked as a consultant for several organs of the United Nations System and organizations such as the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and the Interamerican Institute of Human Rights (IIDH). Judge Vidal is also former president of the International Association for the Study of Forced Migration (IASFM) and the Network of Universities for Peace – REDUNIPAZ. 

Nigel Osborne is an accomplished composer, teacher and aid worker. Mr Osborne’s works have been performed around the world by major orchestras and opera houses, including the Vienna Symphony Orchestra, Moscow Symphony Orchestra, Philharmonia of London, Los Angeles Philharmonic, and the Scottish Opera. He has been awarded the Opera Prize of Radio Suisse Romande and Ville de Geneve, the Netherlands Gaudeamus Prize, the Radcliffe Award, the Koussevitzky Award of the Library of Congress, and the Washington and the British Composer Award for Inspiration. Mr Osborne was the Master of Music at Shakespeare’s Globe from 1999 to 2000 and has pioneered methods using music and the creative arts to support children who are victims of conflict. This innovative approach was developed during the war in Bosnia-Herzegovina (1992-95), and has since been widely implemented across the Balkan region.

Derek Goldman, is Artistic and Executive Director and co-Founder of the Laboratory for Global Performance and Politics at Georgetown University in Washington DC, with the mission to harness the power of performance to humanise global politics.  He is Chair of Georgetown University’s Department of Performing Arts and Director of the Theater & Performance Studies Program as well as Professor of Culture, Politics & Global Performance in GU’s School of Foreign Service.  He is an award-winning stage director, playwright/adapter, scholar, producer, and developer of new work, whose work has been seen throughout the US, off-Broadway, and internationally at leading venues such as Shakespeare Theater Company, Steppenwolf, Lincoln Center, Kennedy Center, Arena Stage, Baltimore CenterStage, Folger, Ford’s Theater, Chicago Shakespeare, and many others. He co-wrote and directed the award-winning play Remember This: The Lesson of Jan Karski starring Oscar-Nominated actor David Strathairn as the Polish Holocaust witness. The play is touring internationally to leading venues and will premiere Off-Broadway in New York in the Fall. The film version of Remember This is also premiering at leading festivals this summer.  Goldman is the author of more than 30 professionally produced plays and adaptations, including work published by Samuel French, and he has directed over 100 productions. His engagement with global performance in recent years has taken his work to Sudan, Cambodia, Bangladesh, China, Poland, South Africa, Australia, Peru, Japan, Bulgaria, Armenia, Chile, the Czech Republic, Italy, Spain, France, and throughout the UK, among other places. He is a member of the Board of Directors of Theatre Communications Group (TCG); Vice-President of UNESCO’s International Theatre Institute, and Founding Director of the Global Network of Higher Education in the Performing Arts. He holds a Ph.D. in Performance Studies from Northwestern University and he received the President’s Award for Distinguished Scholar-Teachers at Georgetown and the Provost’s Award for Innovation in Teaching for his work as creator of In Your Shoes, an internationally recognised groundbreaking model for using performance to counter polarisation and to engage challenging conversations across difference through theatrical techniques and deep, respectful listening.

The Women in Conflict 1325 Fellowship is based around the principles of UN Security Council Resolution 1325 which “reaffirms the role of women in the prevention and resolution of conflict, peace negotiations, peace-building, peacekeeping, humanitarian response and in post-conflict reconstruction, and stresses the importance of their equal participation in all efforts for the promotion of peace and security”.

The Fellowship has been held 3 times a year since 2015 in Edinburgh and online during the Covid-19 pandemic, and has built up a fantastic network of over 360 women from 33 countries across the Middle East, Africa, South Asia and Latin America. These women are a diverse group, working in an equally varied range of professions related to peacebuilding and conflict resolution. This wealth of experience is one of the key strengths of the Fellowship as it allows for greater reflection and shared learning on different aspects of the peacebuilding rather than solely focusing on high-level, formal peace processes.

Magnus Linklater CBE is a Scottish journalist, writer and former newspaper owner. He was born in Orkney and studied at Trinity Hall, Cambridge. Mr Linklater has worked as an Editor for the Evening Standard, The Sunday Times, The Observer, The Scotsman and The Times. Linklater is also a former chairman of the Scottish Arts Council 1996-2001 and holds honorary degrees from Napier, Aberdeen and Glasgow Universities. He has presented Eye to Eye on BBC radio Scotland and written numerous books on Scottish history and current affairs from, ‘The Nazi Legacy’ to ‘The Secret Life of Jeremy Thorpe.’  

Jen Stout is a correspondent, writer and radio producer from Shetland. A former BBC Scotland journalist, she left Russia at the outbreak of the invasion and moved to Romania and then Ukraine, covering the war as a freelancer. She has written regularly for the Sunday Post, London Review of Books, and most recently, New Humanist and Prospect. Her radio work includes From Our Own Correspondent, Any Questions (Radio 4), and BBC World Service.

Sarona Abuaker is a poet, artist, and educational outreach worker. Her poems have been published in Berfrois, MAP Magazine, and the87press’ theHythe Digital Poetics series. Her mixed-media essay Suture Fragmentations – A Note on Return was published in December 2020 with KOHL: A Journal for Body and Gender Research. She is based in London. Why so few women on the street at night is her debut collection (the87press, 2021).

Karenjit Sandhu is a poet and artist. Her publications include Poetic Fragments from the Irritating Archive (Guillemot Press), young girls! (the87press) and Baby 19 (intergraphia), with gestalt (the87press) forthcoming in 2025. Her work also appears in Judith: Women Making Visual Poetry and The Blue Notebook: Journal for Artists’ Books. Her own artists’ books have been collected by the Tate archive and exhibited at The Showroom (London) and Galerie éof (Paris). Karenjit’s performance work has led to collaborations with the Institute of Contemporary Arts, Barbican, Flat Time House and Christie’s (London), Arnolfini (Bristol) and Galerie Eric Dupont (Paris).

Jessica Widner is a fiction writer and academic. Her first novel, Interiors, was released in 2022 from the87press. Her short fiction has appeared in the Edinburgh International Film Festival commissioned From Troubled Dreams Under a Glare of Sky, Extra Teeth, and Gutter Magazine. She is an Early Career Fellow in Creative Writing at the University of Edinburgh. 

Azad Ashim Sharma is a writer and publisher based in South London. He is the director of the87press. His work includes Against the Frame (Broken Sleep Books, 2022) and Ergastulum (Broken Sleep Books, 2022). His work has featured in publications such as the Asian American Writers Workshop, Stand Magazine, Gutter Magazine, the journal Social and Health Sciences, SPAMzine, MIR Online, and Wasafiri. He is a Chase-funded PhD Candidate in English and Humanities at Birkbeck College, University of London. He is the recipient of the Caribbean Philosophical Association’s Nicolás Cristóbal Guillén Batista Outstanding Book Award 2023.

Derek Goldman, is Artistic and Executive Director and co-Founder of the Laboratory for Global Performance and Politics at Georgetown University in Washington DC, with the mission to harness the power of performance to humanise global politics.  He is Chair of Georgetown University’s Department of Performing Arts and Director of the Theater & Performance Studies Program as well as Professor of Culture, Politics & Global Performance in GU’s School of Foreign Service.  He is an award-winning stage director, playwright/adapter, scholar, producer, and developer of new work, whose work has been seen throughout the US, off-Broadway, and internationally at leading venues such as Shakespeare Theater Company, Steppenwolf, Lincoln Center, Kennedy Center, Arena Stage, Baltimore CenterStage, Folger, Ford’s Theater, Chicago Shakespeare, and many others. He co-wrote and directed the award-winning play Remember This: The Lesson of Jan Karski starring Oscar-Nominated actor David Strathairn as the Polish Holocaust witness. The play is touring internationally to leading venues and will premiere Off-Broadway in New York in the Fall. The film version of Remember This is also premiering at leading festivals this summer.  Goldman is the author of more than 30 professionally produced plays and adaptations, including work published by Samuel French, and he has directed over 100 productions. His engagement with global performance in recent years has taken his work to Sudan, Cambodia, Bangladesh, China, Poland, South Africa, Australia, Peru, Japan, Bulgaria, Armenia, Chile, the Czech Republic, Italy, Spain, France, and throughout the UK, among other places. He is a member of the Board of Directors of Theatre Communications Group (TCG); Vice-President of UNESCO’s International Theatre Institute, and Founding Director of the Global Network of Higher Education in the Performing Arts. He holds a Ph.D. in Performance Studies from Northwestern University and he received the President’s Award for Distinguished Scholar-Teachers at Georgetown and the Provost’s Award for Innovation in Teaching for his work as creator of In Your Shoes, an internationally recognised groundbreaking model for using performance to counter polarisation and to engage challenging conversations across difference through theatrical techniques and deep, respectful listening.

The Women in Conflict 1325 Fellowship is based around the principles of UN Security Council Resolution 1325 which “reaffirms the role of women in the prevention and resolution of conflict, peace negotiations, peace-building, peacekeeping, humanitarian response and in post-conflict reconstruction, and stresses the importance of their equal participation in all efforts for the promotion of peace and security”.

The Fellowship has been held 3 times a year since 2015 in Edinburgh and online during the Covid-19 pandemic, and has built up a fantastic network of over 360 women from 33 countries across the Middle East, Africa, South Asia and Latin America. These women are a diverse group, working in an equally varied range of professions related to peacebuilding and conflict resolution. This wealth of experience is one of the key strengths of the Fellowship as it allows for greater reflection and shared learning on different aspects of the peacebuilding rather than solely focusing on high-level, formal peace processes.

Staffan de Mistura is a long-serving Italian-Swedish diplomat and former member of the Italian government. Having worked in various United Nations agencies for 40 years, we was appointed Undersecretary of State for Foreign Affairs in the Italian cabinet. He is currently United Nations special envoy for the Syria crisis and the director of Villa San Michele on Capri. His previous posts in the UN have included Special Representative of the Secretary-General in Iraq (2007-2009) and Afghanistan (2010-2011), Personal Representative of the Secretary-General for Southern Lebanon (2001-2004), and director of the UN Information Centre in Rome (2000-2001).

Stephanie Williams is an accomplished American diplomat who has played a key role in international peacekeeping efforts, particularly in the Middle East and North Africa. She served as the United Nations Special Adviser on Libya, where she was instrumental in brokering the 2020 ceasefire agreement, significantly contributing to the country’s path toward political stability.

Williams has held various significant positions, including Deputy Chief of Mission at the U.S. embassies in Jordan and Bahrain, and Deputy Special Representative for Political Affairs at the United Nations Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL). Her deep expertise in Middle Eastern affairs and her dedication to diplomacy have marked her as a prominent figure in international relations.

Nicola Sturgeon MSP, is the former First Minister of Scotland and leader of the Scottish National Party (2014-2023). She is also the Member of Scottish Parliament for Glasgow Southside. Formerly a graduate of Law from the University of Glasgow, she originally worked as a solicitor. Having already become a member of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, she was first elected to the Scottish Parliament in 1999 and served as the SNP’s shadow minister for education, health and justice. Since then, she has held multiple positions within the party serving as Cabinet Secretary for Health and Wellbeing, Cabinet Secretary for Infrastructure, Investment and Cities, deputy leader of the party and Deputy First Minister of Scotland before becoming First Minister. She has won several awards including both the title of Scottish Politician of the Year and the Donald Dewar Debater of the Year Award.

Peebles High School, is a Secondary School located in Peebles in the Scottish Borders. Founded in 1858, Peebles High School serves nearly 1,500 students aged 12-18.

Jim Naughtie FRSE  is a British radio and news presenter for the BBC. He began his career as a journalist at the Aberdeen Press and Journal before moving to the London offices of The Scotsman. He became its Chief Political Correspondent before working for The Washington Post and The Guardian. Mr Naughtie later moved into radio presenting and has anchored every BBC Radio UK election results programme since 1997, and worked on every US presidential election since 1988. He has been the main presenter of BBC Radio 4’s Today Programme and his radio presenting has earned him two Sony Radio Awards: Radio Personality of the Year in 1991 and Voice of the Listener and Viewer Award in 2001. That same year, Mr Naughtie received an honorary doctorate from the University of Sterling and was appointed as its chancellor in 2008. He retired from regular presenting duties in 2016 and is currently the BBC’s Special Correspondent responsible for charting UK constitutional reform, as well as the BBC news’ Book Editor.

Lin Anderson is a Scottish author and screenwriter and is best known for her crime fiction novels featuring forensic scientist Rhona MacLeod. Anderson studied at Glasgow University and earned a degree in Mathematics and later obtained a Screenwriting degree from Edinburgh Napier University. Her major works include the Rhona MacLeod Series and the Patrick de Courvoisier Series. Anderson’s books have received critical acclaim and have been shortlisted for awards such as the Scottish Crime Book of the Year. She is also the co-founder of the Bloody Scotland crime writing festival, an annual event that celebrates crime fiction and brings together authors and fans from around the world.

Doug Johnstone is the author of seventeen novels, many of which have been bestsellers. The Space Between Us was chosen for BBC Two’s Between the Covers, while Black Hearts was shortlisted for the Theakston Crime Novel of the Year, The Big Chill longlisted for the same prize. Three of his books – A Dark Matter, Breakers and The Jump – have been shortlisted for the McIlvanney Prize for Scottish Crime Novel of the Year. Doug has taught creative writing or been writer in residence at universities, schools, writing retreats, festivals, prisons and a funeral directors. He’s also been an arts journalist for twenty-five years. He is a songwriter and musician with six albums and three EPs released, and he plays drums for the Fun Lovin’ Crime Writers, a band of crime writers. He’s also co-founder of the Scotland Writers Football Club.