Plenary Speakers
The International Conference on Diversity in Organisations, Communities and Nations will feature plenary sessions by some of the world’s leading thinkers and innovators in the field, as well as numerous parallel presentations by researchers and practitioners.
| Jock Collins | |
| Souad Halila | |
| Andrew Jakubowicz |
Garden Conversations
Plenary Speakers will make formal 30-minute presentations. They will also participate in 60-minute Garden Conversations - unstructured sessions that allow delegates a chance to meet the speakers and talk with them informally about the issues arising from their presentation.
Please return to this page for regular updates.
The Speakers
- Jock Collins
Jock Collins is Professor of Economics at the University Technology, Sydney (UTS), Australia, where he has been teaching since 1977. His research interests centre on an interdisciplinary study of immigration and cultural diversity in the economy and society. His recent research has been on Australian immigration, ethnic crime, immigrant entrepreneurship, immigrant youth, ethnic precincts and tourism, multiculturalism, the Cronulla Beach Riots and the social use of ethnic heritage and the built environment. He is the author or co-author of nine books, the most recent of which is Bin Laden in the Suburbs: criminalizing the Arab other (with Scott Poynting, Greg Noble and Paul Tabar). He is also the author of over 50 articles in international and national academic journals and book chapters. His work has been translated in French, Japanese, Arabic, Dutch, Chinese and Italian. Jock Collins has had visiting academic appointments in the UK, Canada, Sweden and the United States.
- Souad Halila
Souad Halila (Ph.D. in History from the University of Southern California, 1988) is Assistant Professor of History and Cultural Studies at the University of Tunis Al-Manar. Prior to that, she has taught at the University of the Center, in Sousse, Tunisia for eight years, and at King Saud University, in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia for 11 years. Totally dedicated to teaching and research, she makes a point of introducing new subjects to the department’s curricula every two years, teaching contemporary issues in Britain and the USA, research methodology, and focusing on Multiculturalism, Black Studies, Islamic Issues, Civil Society, and Environmental Issues. Dr. Halila researches cross-cultural subjects, especially African American, Middle East and Maghrebi Studies crossing race, class, gender, religion, and environment.
She takes her cues from race relations in Britain, France, and the USA, with the objective of identifying common grounds and divergences. For instance, her ongoing research interest in “Veilophobia &Veilophilia”, Muslim Intellectualism, Islamic Feminism, Hip Hop Culture, and Islamic Rap finds ample material and diversified perspectives from the MENA region, Europe and the United States. A three-time Fulbright scholar to the United States, the last one under the program “Direct Access to the Muslim World”, she is the author of several articles on Black, Islamic, Feminist, and Environmental Issues. She lectured in Saudi Arabia, France, Spain, and the USA, is fluent in Arabic, French, and English, and uses primary sources from these languages.
- Andrew Jakubowicz
Andrew Jakubowicz is Professor of Sociology at the University of Technology Sydney, Head of the Social and Political Change Academic Group, and Co-director of the Cosmopolitan Civil Societies Research Centre. Jakubowicz holds a PhD from UNSW and an honours degree in Government from Sydney University . Since the early 1970s, Jakubowicz’s work has focused on race relations, theories of cultural and ethnic diversity, disability and media. He was foundation director of the Centre for Multicultural Studies at the University of Wollongong and foundation chair of the Disability Studies and Research Institute. Jakubowicz has an international profile, having taught at universities in the United States, Europe and Asia.
