John R. Bowen is the Dunbar-Van Cleve Professor in Arts & Sciences, in Sociocultural Anthropology at Washington University. Dr. Bowen has done extensive ethnographic research on Muslim populations in Indonesia, France, and in the United Kingdom. He has written a number of books and essays on Indonesian and French Muslim culture, ethnicity, politics, and law. His most recent book Why the French Don’t Like Headscarves has been widely cited in publications throughout the world. Currently, Dr. Bowen has been analyzing the use of Sharia legal practices among Muslim communities in France and the U.K.
Brian Frederking is an Associate Professor of Political Science at McKendree University. His research interests include collective security and the United Nations Security Council. His publications include articles in American Political Science Review and International Studies Quarterly. His most recent book is titled The United States and the Security Council: Collective Security since the Cold War. His research emphasizes global attempts to deal with terrorism, weapons proliferation, and human rights abuses.
Dr. Sheilah Clarke-Ekong is an Associate Professor of Cultural Anthropology at University of Missouri-St. Louis. She is an Africanist specialist who works primarily in West Africa, and especially in Ghana and Nigeria. She is currently conducting comparative research in Ghana, Nigeria and Kenya on how young educated women are navigating and negotiating the traditional protocols of engagement and marriage. Dr. Clarke-Ekong's upper level teaching has an interdisciplinary focus that connects African area studies, women and gender studies, and the politics of ethnicity.
Ms. Ling Thumin came to the United States in 1989 with two bachelor degrees in Chinese Literature and Education respectively from China. Ling and her family were tragic victims of the Cultural Revolution under Mao Zedong. Ling earned her master’s degree in Library Science from Southern Connecticut University in 1991. She worked as a reference librarian and as the Coordinator of Asian Services in the St. Louis County Library. Recently, she has been teaching Chinese language and culture at St. Louis University and Missouri Baptist University. She also started a personal business called TLC International to provide Chinese language and culture services to business organizations and educational institutions.
Robert Bruce Ware is Professor of Philosophy at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville. He is the author of Hegel: The Logic of Self-consciousness and the Legacy of Subjective Freedom. Since completing his doctorate at Oxford University in 1995, Ware has conducted extensive field research in North Caucasus and has published extensively on politics, ethnography, and religion of the region in scholarly journals and in the popular media. He is a noted expert on North Caucasus and a leading specialist on Dagestan. His new book, Dagestan: Russian Hegemony and Islamic Resistance in the North Caucasus was published in June, 2009.
James V. Wertsch is the Marshall S. Snow Professor in Sociocultural Anthropology at Washington University. He is the Director of the McDonnell International Scholars Academy and the International Studies and Area Programs. In addition, Dr. Wertsch is a member of the Philosophy, Neurology, and Psychology program. He has written extensively about collective memory and its impact on various cultures. Dr. Wertsch has done extensive research in Russia, the Republic of Georgia, and Estonia. One of his recent books is called Enough! The Rose Revolution in the Republic of Georgia.
