Niti's research interests lie in the intersection between design methods, knowledge systems particularly local, traditional and indigenous knowledges, and participatory social design-driven transformation. She is currently exploring the relationship between post-colonial indigenous research paradigms (Chilisa 2019) and integrated product development strategies for holistic knowledge production that implements cognitive justice (Visvanathan 1997; 2021) for research at the Cultural Interface (Nakata 1997, 2007; Durie 2005). Over 30 years of professional creative practice in design and innovation. This includes 15 years of leading interdisciplinary teams for fieldwork using design anthropology methodologies (rapid ethnography, indepth interviews, day in the life, observations and shadowing in markets, farms, villages, borderlands and more). Fieldwork personally completed in South Africa, The Philippines, India, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda, and with local assistance in Benin and Malawi. Networks span the African continent. Public recognition of original knowledge production includes Invitation to mainstage of TED Global 2017 in Arusha Tanzania TEDTalk video https://www.ted.com/talks/niti_bhan_the_hidden_opportunities_of_the_informal_economy

I am a doctoral research in Social Sciences, Youth Studies. My thesis research explores skateboarding culture in Morocco and the lived experiences of Moroccan skateboarders through an ethnographic approach.

My research interests include internal and cross-border displacement in Sub-Saharan Africa, politics of belonging, identity building and state formation. In my ethnographic Doctoral Study I use the return migration of Zimbabweans from neighbouring Southern African countries as an avenue for exploring the dynamics of returnee urban emplacement.

I have a bachelor’s degree in English translation and a master’s degree in communication science and journalism and Business Administration both from the University in Iran. After studying in academia, I decided to move to international business projects and consulting. For nearly 10 years, I worked for a Simense project as a commercial expert and for 2 years as a business counsultant in Finland. Then, I returned to academia to pursue a research career. Currently, I am a doctoral researcher in social anthropology at Tampere University. My working and research interest relates to crisis management, social anthropology, ethnography, social media, media management, and online ethnography.

ethnographer and film documentarist with eyes on feminisms & global politics of post-conflict/disaster reconstruction: stydying intersection of gender and other forms of inequalities in disaster politics, political violence, and national ideologies,

Projects

The politics of impact assessment in framing community 'development' in extractive projects

Dr. Tiina Seppälä is a university lecturer in Qualitative Research at the University of Lapland and adjunct professor of International Development Studies at the University of Jyväskylä, Finland. She has engaged with women’s rights and slum activists in Nepal and Bangladesh, anti-eviction movements in India, asylum seekers in Finland and anti-war activists in the UK. She is interested in development, displacement, social movements, post/decolonial and feminist theory, ethnographic research and arts-based methods.

Projects

Governance, Resistance and Neoliberal Development: Struggles against Development-Induced Displacement and Forced Evictions in South Asia

I am a doctoral researcher interested in segregation, everyday peace and coexistence in socially mixed urban neighborhoods. Methodologically, I am interested in urban ethnography and spatial analysis.

My research focuses on West African traditions of music and dance, especially the Wolof sabar tradition in Senegal. During 2019 - 2022, I am conducting my postdoctoral research project "Moving knowledge: the changing embodiments of cultural knowledge in Senegalese sabar performances", funded by Academy of Finland.

Prof, Ph.D., Laura Stark’s research focuses on gender, sexuality, mobile telephony, urban poverty and early marriage in Tanzania. She is co-editor of the journal Ethnologia Europaea. She has edited the Bloomsbury volume Power and Informality in Urban Africa with Annika Björnsdotter Teppo (2022); and the Routledge volume Gendered Power and Mobile Technology: Intersections in the Global South (2019) with Caroline Wamala Larsson. She has led four major funded research projects, including Mobile Technology, Gender and Development in Africa and India (2010–2013); and Urban Renewal and Income-Generating Spaces for Youth and Women in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania (2013–2017). Email: laura.stark@jyu.fi; Home pages: www.jyu.fi/hytk/fi/laitokset/hela/en/hela-staff/stark-laura www.laurastark.fi

Projects

Urban Poverty, Urban Renewal and Income-Generating Spaces in Ethiopia and Tanzania