Agenda

Yan Zhang is a lecturer at the Department of Sociology in the East China University of Science and Technology. Her current research projects focus on Community development and IT implementation in community governance. She is the vice president of Shanghai Suxin environment protection association.

Amalia Sabiescu is a Lecturer in Media and Creative Industries at Loughborough University London and a UK Arts and Humanities Research Council ECR Leadership Fellow (2019-2022). Amalia specialises in the study of ICT adoption and influences in cultural and creative practice, international and community development. She has extensive experience in research with museums, cultural institutions and communities on the role of ICT in socio-cultural change and contemporary cultural practice. In parallel, Amalia is researching the intersections between communication and global inequalities, focusing on low-income and minority communities and young people at risk of social exclusion. 

Basile Zimmermann is an anthropologist and a sociologist of technology. He is Senior Lecturer and Director of the Institut Confucius at the University of Geneva in Switzerland, a multidisciplinary research and teaching center on contemporary China. He is the author of Waves and Forms: Electronic Music Devices and Computer Encodings in China (MIT Press, Inside Technology series, 2015), and Popular Humanities, or the Culture of Things [in French] (Les Belles Lettres, Paris, forthcoming). His current research projects focus on anthropology of innovation in China and the Middle East.

Fayez Alrafeea is a researcher in Information systems at the University of Geneva. He is a co-founder of CERTIFY, a project that relies on computational models and social science frameworks to address the issue of fake news on social media.

Sara Vannini is a Lecturer (Assistant Professor) at the University of Sheffield Information School. Previously, she held a position as a Lecturer at the Department of Communications of the University of Washington, and as a Visiting Researcher at the Technology and Social Change Group (TASCHA) of the University of Washington Information School, Seattle, USA. She holds a PhD in Communication Sciences from the Università della Svizzera italiana – USI, Lugano, Switzerland, and a M.A. in Latin American Literatures from the University of Bologna, Italy. Her research is at the intersection of critical studies of technology and society, information and communication technologies and social change, and information ethics. In particular, she focuses on social appropriation of technologies, information privacy in the context of migration, the role of public access to information in mis/dis-information, online learning, and participatory and visual methodologies of inquiry.

Ozan Sahin is a researcher in Information Systems at the University of Geneva. Between May 2015 and June 2016, he has worked as teaching and research assistant at the Confucius Institute in the University of Geneva, where continues his academic activities as Associate Researcher. His current PhD project focuses on the sociocultural integration of Chinese migrants in Beijing within the broader topic of internal migrations in China.

Marylaure Bloch is a researcher and teaching assistant at the Confucius Institute of the University of Geneva (UNIGE), where she graduated from. Her current PhD project focuses on the emerging Social Credit System (SCS) in China, with a boarder interest in technologies of (self-)governance and the growing importance attached to metrics in our everyday life.

Dana Mahr is a sociologist and historian of science, technology, and medicine. She is senior researcher and lecturer at the University of Geneva (Switzerland) and associated member of the Institut Confucius. Her research focuses on intercultural knowledge production, diversity in science, and public participation. She authored and edited various publications on such topics, including the upcoming book De-Sequencing. Identity-work with genes (Palgrave Macmillan).

Jorge Carrillo is a musician and musicologist based in Geneva. In his most recent research project, he compares early Italian opera in the XVII century and the kunqu style of traditional Chinese theater. As a performer he keeps a busy agenda of concerts both as a classical guitar player and lyrical singer.