IAFOR > The European Conference on Arts & Humanities (ECAH) > ECAH2024 > Speakers

Speakers

The European Conference on Arts & Humanities (ECAH) is an interdisciplinary conference held alongside The European Conference on Education (ECE) and The European Conference on Language Learning (ECLL). Keynote, Featured and Spotlight Speakers will provide a variety of perspectives from different academic and professional backgrounds. Registration for either conference will allow participants to attend sessions in both.

This page provides information about presenters. For details of presentations and other programming, please visit the Programme page.

  • Anne Boddington
    Anne Boddington
    Kingston University, UK
  • Evangelia Chrysikou
    Evangelia Chrysikou
    University College London, UK
  • Sara Custer
    Sara Custer
    Times Higher Education, United Kingdom
  • Eddy Davelaar
    Eddy Davelaar
    Birkbeck, University of London, United Kingdom
  • Maria Delgado
    Maria Delgado
    The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, UK
  • Joseph Haldane
    Joseph Haldane
    The International Academic Forum (IAFOR), Japan
  • Toshiya Hoshino
    Toshiya Hoshino
    UN Inspectorate General, Immediate Past President of IAFOR, and former Japanese Ambassador to the UN
  • Eleonore Kofman
    Eleonore Kofman
    Middlesex University, UK
  • Barbara Lockee
    Barbara Lockee
    Wyoming Truth, United States
  • Fernando Loizides
    Fernando Loizides
    University of Cardiff, Wales
  • Neelam Raina
    Neelam Raina
    Middlesex University, UK
  • Andrea Révész
    Andrea Révész
    IOE, University College London, United Kingdom
  • Li Wei
    Li Wei
    University College London, Institute of Education, UK

Become a Speaker

Excellent plenary speakers are central to our conferences, ensuring that timely, innovative and engaging content is presented to our audiences around the world. If you would like to be considered for a speaking slot at one of our conferences, please apply below.

Apply to Speak

Previous Speakers

View details of speakers at past ECAH conferences via the links below.

ECAH2022 ECAH2021 ECAH2020
ECAH2019 ECAH2018 ECAH2017
ECAH2016 ECAH2015 ECAH2014
ECAH2013
Anne Boddington
Kingston University, UK

Biography

Anne Boddington is Professor of Design Innovation, Pro Vice Chancellor for Research, Business and Innovation at Kingston University in the UK and recently appointed as the Sub Panel Chair for Art & Design: History, Practice & Theory for the UK’s Research Excellence Framework (REF) 2021. Professor Boddington has extensive experience of the leadership, management and evaluation of art and design education and art and design research in higher education across the UK and internationally. She is an experienced chair and has held trustee and governance roles across the creative and cultural sector including as trustee of the Design Council, an independent Governor, Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts (RSA), an affiliate member of the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA), a member of the executive of the Council for Higher Education in Art & Design (CHEAD) and a member of the advisory board of the Arts & Humanities Research Council. She has an international reputation in creative education and research and has been a partner, a collaborator, a reviewer and evaluator for a wide range of international projects and reviews across different nations in Europe, the Middle East, Southern and East Asia and North America.

Previous Presentations

Panel Presentation (2021) | Building Back Better: Are Universities Fit for Purpose?
Keynote Presentation (2020) | Viral Lessons
Plenary Panel (2019) | Reimagining the Future
Plenary Panel Presentation (2018) | Fearful Futures
Featured Panel Presentation (2017) | The Challenges of Doing Research and Creative Activity in the Arts and Humanities Today
Evangelia Chrysikou
University College London, UK

Biography

Dr Evangelia Chrysikou is a registered architect and senior research fellow at UCL. She owns the award-winning SynThesis Architects (London – Athens), that specialises in medical facilities. Her work received prestigious awards (Singapore 2009, Kuala Lumpur 2012, Brisbane 2013, Birmingham 2014, London 2014). Parallel activities include teaching at medical and architectural schools, research (UK, France, Belgium, New Zealand, the Netherlands, Greece and the Middle East) and advisory. She advised the Hellenic Secretary of Health and is the author of the new national guidelines for mental health facilities. Dr Chrysikou is the author of the book ‘Architecture for Psychiatric Environments and Therapeutic Spaces’, healthcare architecture editor, reviewer, active member of several professional and scientific associations and a TED-MED speaker. She is a Trustee, Member of the Board and Director of Research at DIMHN (UK) and Member of the Board at the Scholar’s Association Onassis Foundation.

Sara Custer
Times Higher Education, United Kingdom

Biography

Sara Custer is editor of Campus at Times Higher Education, having previously been digital editor. She has covered global higher education as a journalist for more than 10 years. Before joining THE in 2017, she was editor of international education website and magazine, The PIE News.

Eddy Davelaar
Birkbeck, University of London, United Kingdom

Biography

Professor Eddy Davelaar holds degrees in Biological Health Sciences and in Psychology from Maastricht University, as well as a PhD from Birkbeck, University of London. His early work was on the topic of computational modelling of human memory. After a postdoctoral period in the United States involving modelling perception, attention, and language, he returned to Birkbeck as a lecturer in 2006, where he is currently a full Professor of Psychology and Applied Neuroscience. He conducts research on cognitive ageing, with a particular focus on supporting healthy ageing and preventing/slowing cognitive decline. This work involves experimental testing and population level statistical analyses. Ongoing work is in direct collaboration with the target audience, with whom he co-designs intervention studies. Another area of his research involves neurofeedback for enhancing cognitive performance and mental wellbeing. Within that topic, he leads the way for understanding the neurocognitive mechanisms involved in successful brain training.

Keynote Presentation (2023) | TBA
Maria Delgado
The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, UK

Biography

Professor Maria Delgado is an academic, critic, and curator whose research interests include Spanish-language and European theatres and Spanish-language film. She is a daughter of Spanish refugees and received her education from the Universities of Wales, Leeds, and Newcastle-Upon-Tyne. Professor Delgado has taught at various universities, including Queen Mary University of London, Hull University, and Manchester Metropolitan University, and has held visiting professorships, fellowships, and residences at numerous institutions across the globe.

Professor Delgado’s work in research leadership and assessment involves membership of HEFCE’s Research and Knowledge Exchange Strategic Advisory Group, the inaugural Council of Research England, a range of AHRC panels, and the Leverhulme Trust’s Advisory Panel. She was Chair of Subpanel 33 (Music, Drama, Dance, Performing Arts, Film and Screen Studies) and Deputy Director of Main Panel D for REF2021. She has also been involved in research assessment exercises in Australia and Hong Kong. She has received several awards, including the Cross of the Order of Alfonso X the Wise and the Commander of the Order of Isabel la Católica, and was selected as one of the University of London's 150 'Leading Women'. Professor Delgado is currently a member of the Jisc/Elsevier Open Science Forum, Jisc's Research Strategy Forum, and also serves on the UK Committee on Research Integrity (UK CORI).

Keynote Presentation (2023) | TBA
Joseph Haldane
The International Academic Forum (IAFOR), Japan

Biography

Joseph Haldane is the Founder, Chairman and CEO of IAFOR. He is responsible for devising strategy, setting policies, forging institutional partnerships, implementing projects, and overseeing the organisation’s global business and academic operations.

Dr Haldane’s research and teaching is on history, politics, international affairs and international education, as well as governance and decision making, and he is a Member of the World Economic Forum’s Expert Network for Global Governance. Since 2015 he has been a Guest Professor at The Osaka School of International Public Policy (OSIPP) at Osaka University, where he teaches on the postgraduate Global Governance Course, and, since 2017, Co-Director of the OSIPP-IAFOR Research Centre, an interdisciplinary think tank situated within the University.

In 2020 Dr Haldane was appointed Honorary Professor of UCL (University College London), through the Bartlett School of Sustainable Construction. He holds Visiting Professorships in the Faculty of Philology at the University of Belgrade, and at the Doshisha Business School in Kyoto, where he teaches Ethics and Governance on the MBA, and is a member of the Value Research Center. He is also a Member of the International Advisory Council of the Department of Educational Foundations at the University of Hawaiʻi Mānoa.

Professor Haldane has given invited lectures and presentations to universities and conferences globally, including at the United Nations Headquarters in New York, and advised universities, NGOs and governments on issues relating to international education policy, public-private partnerships, and multi-stakeholder forums. He was the project lead on the 2019 Kansai Resilience Forum, held by the Japanese Government through the Prime Minister’s and Cabinet Office, and oversaw the 2021 Ministry of Foreign Affairs commissioned study on Infectious Diseases on Cruise Ships.

Dr Haldane has a PhD from the University of London in 19th-century French Studies, and has had full-time faculty positions at the Université Paris-Est Créteil, Sciences Po Paris, and Nagoya University of Commerce and Business, as well as visiting positions at the French Press Institute in the Université Paris-Panthéon-Assas, and the schools of Journalism at both Sciences Po Paris, and Moscow State University.

From 2012-2014, Dr Haldane served as Treasurer of the American Chamber of Commerce in Japan (Chubu), and since 2015 has been a Trustee of HOPE International Development Agency (Japan). He was elected Fellow of the Royal Asiatic Society in 2012 and the Royal Society of Arts in 2015. He lives in Japan and holds a black belt in Judo.

Previous Presentations

Featured Interview (2021) | Selfless: Journeys through Identity and Social Class
Plenary Panel Presentation (2018) | Fearful Futures
Toshiya Hoshino
UN Inspectorate General, Immediate Past President of IAFOR, and former Japanese Ambassador to the UN

Biography

His Excellency Professor Hoshino is a UN Inspector General and former President of IAFOR. In this former role, Ambassador Hoshino was the Chair of the International Academic Advisory Board, as well as both the Academic Governing Board and its Executive Committee, and also sat on the IAFOR Board of Directors.

Ambassador Hoshino is an internationally-recognised scholar in the fields of Human Security, International Relations, and Politics, and has had a dual, complementary academic and diplomatic career, culminating in his appointment as Japanese Ambassador and Deputy Permanent Representative of Japan to the United Nations in New York, from 2017–2020, where he was in charge of socio-economic and budgetary affairs. He had previously served as Minister-Counsellor from 2006–2008 at the same mission in charge of political affairs, and earlier in his career, was Special Assistant for Political Affairs at The Embassy of Japan, Washington, D.C., from 1988–1991.

Ambassador Hoshino is currently a Professor of International Politics and United Nations Studies at Osaka University’s Osaka School of International Public Policy (OSIPP). Since 2017, Professor Hoshino has been the Executive Director of the IAFOR Research Centre at OSIPP. His current research interests centres on policy and implementation of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) through international multi-stakeholder public/private partnerships, and is the founding Director of the Environmental, Social, and Governance Integration Research and Education Center (ESG-IREC).

Previous to his second secondment to the United Nations in 2017, Professor Hoshino held a number of senior administrative roles in the University, including Vice-President (2014–2015) and then Executive Vice-President (2015–2016) for Global Affairs, having previously served as Dean of the Osaka School of International Public Policy at Osaka University from 2011–2014.

Before joining Osaka University in 1998, Ambassador Hoshino was a Senior Research Fellow at The Japan Institute of International Affairs (JIIA) from 1991 to 1998, and continued his association with the Institute as an Associate Fellow from 1998 to 2006. He holds a BA from Sophia University, Japan, an MA from the University of Tokyo, and a PhD from Osaka University.

Professor Hoshino has also been a visiting scholar and researcher, principally in the United States. From 1992 to 1993 he was a Visiting Fellow at The Princeton School of Public and International Affairs (formerly the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs); from 2000–2002 he was appointed Special Research Fellow at the Hiroshima Peace Institute, Hiroshima City University; from 2003 to 2006 he was a Research Fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies (formerly The Stanford Institute for International Studies); and from 2007 to 2008 was a Guest Scholar at the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University.

Special Address (2023) | Demographic Change, Ageing, and Human Security
Eleonore Kofman
Middlesex University, UK

Biography

Professor Eleonore Kofman is a Professor of Gender, Migration, and Citizenship and the Co-Director of the Social Policy Research Centre at Middlesex University London. Her research interests include gender and migration, political geography, nationalism, cosmopolitanism, and Henri Lefebvre's urban writings.

Professor Kofman has conducted research funded by various organisations, including the European Commission, AHRC, ESRC, UN Women, and the Office of the UK Children’s Commissioner. Currently, she serves as the Co-Director of the Migration and Displacement stream of the UKRI GCRF Hub – Gender, Justice, and Security (2019-2024), led by the LSE Centre for Women, Peace, and Security. She is also a Co-Investigator of the project Gendered Dynamics of Labour Migrations, with Middlesex collaborating with academic and NGO partners across the Middle East and South Asia.

She was the Joint Editor-in-Chief of Work, Employment and Society (2018-2021), a journal of the British Sociological Association. Additionally, Professor Kofman is a member of the Executive Board and Board of Directors of IMISCOE, the largest European network of scholars in the area of migration and integration.

Featured Panel Presentation (2023) | Schrodinger’s Box of Interdisciplinarity – Inside and Outside the Box Thinking About Global Challenges
Barbara Lockee
Wyoming Truth, United States

Biography

Barbara Lockee is Professor of Instructional Design and Technology and Associate Vice Provost of Faculty Affairs at Virginia Tech. Since 1996, she has engaged in teaching and research related to instructional design and distance education, and has advised the research of more than three dozen doctoral students. Her scholarly inquiry is focused on mediated and online education and has been funded by various federal agencies, including the National Science Foundation, the US Department of Agriculture, and the US Agency for International Development, among others. She has also consulted for a variety of organisations, including the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the US Army Training and Doctrine Command and the USC Institute for Creative Technologies. Her recent co-authored book, Streamlined ID: A Practical Guide for Instructional Design, strives to make the design of learning solutions accessible and pragmatic for those who develop educational courses and programs in workplace contexts.

Dr Lockee is Past President of the Association for Educational Communications and Technology, an international professional organisation for educational technology researchers and practitioners. She earned her PhD in 1996 from Virginia Tech in Curriculum and Instruction (Instructional Technology), MA in 1991 from Appalachian State University in Curriculum and Instruction (Educational Media), and BA in 1986 from Appalachian State University in Communication Arts.

Fernando Loizides
University of Cardiff, Wales

Biography

Professor Fernando Loizides is a Senior Lecturer in Computer Science and Informatics at Cardiff University and the Director of the Data Science Academy, UK. He is also an Honorary Professor at the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid. His main area of research is Information Interaction and User Experience (UX), with a focus on Decision Making and Accessibility. He has extensive experience in user study design and facilitation using cutting-edge technologies, eliciting user requirements, performing systems evaluation, and developing working systems. He has published in leading journals and conferences, won awards such as Best Conference Papers, and secured and completed EU and nationally funded projects.

Professor Loizides is a highly experienced teacher, creating new modules and teaching curricula that have been successfully adopted by departments. He has won awards for both his innovative teaching methods and contributions to higher education. He has over 15 years of industry experience as a developer, creating startups, managing teams, and consulting for technology-focused companies. His work has been featured in various media outlets, including the BBC, radio, and online magazines. Professor Loizides is a co-founder of RapidLab, an initiative that creates rapid working prototypes for testing market validity.

Keynote Presentation (2023) | TBA
Neelam Raina
Middlesex University, UK

Biography

Dr Neelam Raina is an Associate Professor of Design and Development at Middlesex University, London. Her research interests include conflict, security, peace building, material cultures, gender, and livelihood generation in fragile, conflict affected states. Raina’s work explores notions of healing, trauma, peace and reflection through the embodied practices of making, using material culture and tacit knowledge as the underpinning for approaching violence and peace building and for sustainable income generation. Raina is a post conflict reconstruction expert with a focus on South Asia where she has conducted extensive empirical research over the last two decades. The Women, Peace and Security agenda is key to Neelam’s and her research seeks to foreground voices of vulnerable and marginalised women.

Dr Raina has led several large-scale competitively funded research projects which examine material and social practices through which Muslim women in conflict areas reproduce themselves on a daily and generational basis, and through which the social relations and material bases of capitalism are renewed. Her work allows connections to be built between, creative home-based workers who are largely seen as peripheral, to development economics, and on the fringes of formal employment and contributors to GDP; to the larger notions of peace building, countering and preventing violent extremism, poverty spirals and conflict theory through culturally significant, socially relevant practices. She connects the British creative industry into solution-based impactful approaches to global challenges through research.

Raina is a strong advocate for Afghan women and is the Director of the Secretariat to the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Afghan women and girls in UK parliament. Her research in Afghanistan is ongoing as she brings women’s tacit knowledge to commercially viable spaces from the confines of the home.

Raina has a PhD in Design and Development, and a Master’s in Design and Manufacture from De Montfort University, Leicester. From 2018-2021, she was the Challenge Leader for UKRI’s Conflict and Security Portfolio for the Global Challenges Research Fund. Raina has been a Visiting Fellow at the London School of Economics at the Centre for Women, Peace and Security. She is the editor for the International Journal of Traditional Arts, and her new work Creative Economies of Culture in South Asia – Performers and Craftspeople was published in 2021.

Featured Panel Presentation (2023) | Schrodinger’s Box of Interdisciplinarity – Inside and Outside the Box Thinking About Global Challenges
Andrea Révész
IOE, University College London, United Kingdom

Biography

Andrea Révész is a Professor of Second Language Acquisition (SLA) at the IOE, University College London. Her main research interests lie at the interfaces of second language acquisition, instruction, and assessment, with particular emphasis on the roles of task, input, interaction, and individual differences in SLA. Currently, she is also working on projects investigating the neurocognitive processes underlying second language speaking and writing performance. Her work has appeared in international journals such as Applied Linguistics, Applied Psycholinguistics, Language Learning, Language Teaching, Studies in Second Language Acquisition, TESOL Quarterly, and The Modern Language Journal. She is co-winner of the 2017 TBLT Best Research Article Award and co-recipient of the 2018 TESOL Award for Distinguished Research. Currently, she serves as associate editor of Studies in Second Language Acquisition, co-editor of the John Benjamins Task-based Language Teaching series, and president of the International Association for Task-based Language Teaching (TBLT).

Keynote Presentation (2023) | Exploring the Cognitive and Neural Correlates of Speaking and Writing in a Second Language: Methodological Advances and Challenges
Li Wei
University College London, Institute of Education, UK

Biography

Li Wei is Director and Dean of the UCL Institute of Education, where he also holds a Chair of Applied Linguistics. He is Fellow of the British Academy, Academia Europaea, Academy of Social Sciences (UK), and Royal Society of Arts (UK). He is Editor of the International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism and Applied Linguistics Review.

Keynote Presentation (2023) | TBA