Dr. Fernando León Solís is Head of Languages at the University of the West of Scotland and Senior Lecturer in Spanish. He graduated in English Language and Literature at Granada University in Spain and was later awarded a PhD at Glasgow Caledonian University in 2001. He is the Joint Editor of the International Journal of Iberian Studies. His research expertise falls in the field of Cultural Studies, with a special focus on the construction of national identities in the media. He is the author of a book entitled Negotiating Spain: Competing Discourses of National Identity and was published in 2003 by Intellect. He has presented a number of papers in international conferences and published extensively in peer-reviewed academic journals. He is a contributor to the Viajeros Urbanos section of the Spanish paper El Pais.

Jan Misiuna holds PhD in Economics from Warsaw School of Economics and double MA in Political Science and Cultural (American) Studies from University of Warsaw. Often the silent one during official meetings, he has published intensively (both in scholarly journals and regular media) on elections and election campaigns, migrations and migration policy, United States and Europe. He has a soft spot for aviation.

Katerina Antonaki is an independent graphic designer and researcher. She has been a visiting lecturer at Graphic Design Department, TEI of Athens for 3 years. Her work ranges from brand identity and editorial design, to spatial design. Along with her design practice, she is involved in education and urban research projects. Her research interests include, the activist role of graphic design (the visual and textual aspects of communication) at the social and political level, disru-ptive actions in public space, the role of spontaneity in design process and design methodologies. She has studied in London, Helsinki and Athens and she holds an “MA in Design Critical Theory and Practice” from Goldsmiths University of London. She is an IKY scholar. Her practice and research has been presented in international conferences and exhibitions. She lives and works in Athens.

Kinga graduated from the University of Warsaw with a Master's Degree in Linguistics. Since then she has worked as a business assisstant, ESL teacher and IT trainer, translator and web designer - often integrating these areas in creative ways. She is interested in web technologies, games and education, as well as popular science. Moreover, she is a Polish Language Coordinator in the TED Translators project and a member of TEDxWarsaw

 team. In the Alien project she works as a teaching methodology designer and advisor. Feel free to talk to her about the use of games and web tools for education, organizing TEDx events and any of your interests.

Margaret was an undergraduate at the University of St Andrews. She received her Doctorate in Education from the University of Stirling with a thesis entitled: ‘Migrant ESOL Learners: a Foucauldian Discourse Analysis’. She has worked with migrant, refugee and asylum seeking students, as well as learners from settled migrant communities, in the university, college and school sectors both in the UK and in Egypt. She teaches in the School of Education at UWS where she is Programme Leader for the MEd TESOL and coordinates, and teaches, the ‘Analysing Discourse’, ‘Bilingualism’ and ‘Second Language Acquisition’ modules. She also supervises research at both Masters and Doctoral levels.

Maria Leinvuo has a background in design research and strategy. In Aalto University Maria collaborates with external companies and public sector organisations and is responsible for multi-disciplinary student projects. She holds masters degree both in media studies (University of Helsinki) and anthropology (University College London) and currently works also as a service designer.

Sophia graduated from the department of Applied Mathematics & Physical Sciences at NTUA and, looking for something human-oriented, continued with a master's degree in Linguistics at Utrecht University and MIT. During her doctoral research and dissertation she applied Information theory on sentence processing. She has lived in Utrecht, Boston, Munich, Berlin, Santa Barbara as a researcher, consultant and project manager and after 10 years, when she got fed up from the lack of sun, she returned to Athens. Since October 2014, she coordinates, as a programme manager, the actions of INNOVATHENS, for the promotion of creativity, entrepreneurship and innovation in the vibrant and welcoming ambience of Technopolis City of Athens. She would wish to become an all-scientist and live in a world without winter.

Tarja Nieminen is an artist and designer. After graduating from the University of Art and Design in Helsinki, she pursued further studies in photography and motion media at the Academy of Performing Arts, FAMU in Prague and, on Fulbright grant, at the School of Visual Arts, SVA, in New York. She has been a lecturer of visual communication at the School of Arts, Design and Architecture of the Aalto University since 2007. Before that, she served ten years as the Head of the Graphic Design Department at the Institute of Design of the Lahti University of Applied Sciences. In her educational work, she has focused on developing curricula related to dynamic media and international cooperation. For the past eighteen years, her practice has included free-lance design work in visual communication as well as fine arts activity in Europe and in the US.

Adam Cooke was born in 1973 and lives in Liverpool, United Kingdom. Studying Fine Art at UCA, University for the Creative Arts. Completing his Masters in Interactive Multimedia Arts at John Moores University, Liverpool. He is currently Senior Lecturer in Design Communication at School of Creative Arts, Glyndwr University. His research explores open technologies in a community context.

Dr Emilia Pietka-Nykaza is a Lecturer in Sociology and Social Policy at University of the West of Scotland. Prior joining UWS, Emilia was a Research Fellow at the Centre for Population Change (CPC) at the University of Southampton. Emilia’s academic interest is centered on exploring the issues of integration and migrants’ settlement processes from a multidisciplinary and policy-focused perspective. Emilia holds PhD in Education, MPhil in Sociology and MSc in Refugee and Migration Studies from University of Strahclyde. For the last 10 years, Emilia was involved in number of research projects that focus on the process of refugee integration and trajectories of Central and Eastern European migrants the UK. She has presented a number of papers in international conferences and published on refugee integration and Polish migrants settling practices in the UK in peer-reviewed academic journals.

Marta PACHOCKA holds a PhD in Economics (2013). Assistant Professor at the Department of Political Studies of the Collegium of Socio-Economics of the Warsaw School of Economics (WSE). Coordinator of the project EUMIGRO – “Jean Monnet Module on the European Union and the Contemporary International Migration – an Interdisciplinary Approach”

(2016–2019) co-financed by the EU in the framework of Erasmus+ Progra-mme. Key staff member of the Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence of the Warsaw School of Economics (2016–2019). Researcher in the project IMINTEG at the Centre of Migration Research of the University of Warsaw. Involved in many national and international projects co-funded by i.a. EU, Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, National Bank of Poland, Polish National Science Center. Beneficiary of “Young Scientists’ Research Grants” fina-nced by the Polish Ministry of Science and Higher Education since 2012. Visiting Research Fellow at the Centre d’études européennes of the Scie-nces Po Paris (2015). Visiting Professor at the University of Economics in Bratislava (2015) and at the University of Tartu (2016). Secretary of the

Polish European Community Studies Association (PECSA). Member of PTE, UACES, IPSA, IMISCOE, IASFM, AIELF. Her main research interests are i.a. socio-demographic changes in Europe/EU; Europe/EU and international migration; EU policy on migration and asylum; immigration policy and integration policy in France; France’s international position; European economy, world economy, global public goods.