Category: Fellows October 2023 - September 2024

Dr. Beenish Ijaz Butt is serving as a Chairperson of the Department of Social Work, University of Sargodha, did her PhD in Social Policy and Women in Pakistan from the University of Peshawar, Pakistan in 2016 and won the indigenous scholarship of the HEC Batch- V. More than 18 years’ experience in teaching the courses titled Social Policy, Social Problems, Contemporary Social Work and Social Welfare, and Pakistani Society, its needs and Problems at under-graduate, graduate and post-graduate level and has supervised nine MPhil Scholars. Her research interests focus Contemporary Social Work Theory and Practice, Gender and Social Policy and Social Problems of Asian Countries. She currently serves as Professor/ Chairperson, Department of Social Work, University of Sargodha and is a member and convener of several committees and boards, and has authored several research articles and conference papers. Title of Research Project: Development of a Community-based Post COVID-19 Intervention for Maternal Health in Rural Punjab, Pakistan Host University: Saint Joseph University (USJ), Macao, China Research Advisor: /

Dr. Yousef Methkal Abd Algani is a lecturer in the Mathematics Department at the Arab Academic College for Education in Israel. In September 2019, he was appointed as the Head of Didactic Instruction in the Mathematics Department at the same college. His research interests encompass Topology and Algorithms in mathematics, and he also has a keen interest in mathematics education, particularly in teacher training programs and for teaching and learning mathematics. Dr. Abd Algani is currently a post-doctoral researcher at Bar-Ilan University in Israel. He has actively participated in numerous international conferences and has authored articles in the fields of mathematics and mathematical education.   Research Topic: “ANALYSING MIDDLE SCHOOL STUDENTS’ PERCEPTION OF NUMBER SENSE IN RELATION TO PERCENT; INSIGHTS FROM HIGH SCHOOL TEACHERS”   Host University: University of La Laguna, Spain   Research Advisor: Dr. Carlos Efren Morra, University of La Laguna, Spain

Dr. Tugrul Günay is a highly experienced professional specializing in green marketing within the tourism and hospitality sector. He is a dedicated researcher with a strong focus on various aspects of sustainability in the tourism industry, particularly in the field of destination marketing. Education: Ph.D. in Tourism Management, Eastern Mediterranean University, 2021. MA in Tourism Management, University of Yasar, 2017. B.A. in Tourism Management, University of Nevsehir Hacı Bektas Veli, 2015. Experience: He currently holds the position of Dean of International Students and Director of International Relations at Cyprus Science University. In addition to his administrative roles, he is actively engaged in teaching undergraduate and postgraduate courses within the Faculty of Tourism. Dr. Günay has a robust academic background and a deep-seated passion for research. He has made substantial contributions to the fields of green marketing, interdisciplinary sustainability practices, and destination engagement.   Research Topic: Examining the Relationship Between Extended Theory of Planned Behavior and Revisit Intentions in Green Hotels in the Georgian context. Host University: Grigol Robakidze University, Georgia   Research Advisor: Dr. Vakhtang Charaia, Grigol Robakidze University, Georgia

My academic training is primarily related to Public Health Nutrition where my current research aspirations revolve around food security and healthy food systems and food environments, food literacy education, food anthropology, and innovative nutrition education and awareness through Digitech frameworks. I have been working for the last four years as a Senior Lecturer attached to the Wayamba University of Sri Lanka, where I mainly engage in teaching, research, and national development. Currently, I’m partnering with several local and international research projects including IFPRI and ACIAR. As a young aspiring researcher, my future professional goal is to be a leader in public health nutrition in Sri Lanka enabling digital innovations and frameworks to evaluate and address public health nutrition challenges in the country. Likewise, my role as an educator is to disseminate my knowledge and expertise to inspire and lead the personal and societal growth of others.   Research Topic: Exploring the Use of Digital Storytelling in Influencing Fruit and Vegetable Consumption among Primary School-aged Children in Sri Lanka   Host University: University of Saint Joseph, USJ Macao   Research Advisor: /

An educationist by choice. Saima Aftab has obtained a PhD degree from Foundation University Islamabad. She completed her MS in HRM from Muhammad Ali Jinnah University with a “Very High Distinction” and her MBA (HRM) from the same university with a “Gold Medal.” She has over 15 years of diverse experience of teaching and training in public and private sector organizations in Human Resource Management and Soft Skills Development, respectively. She specializes in teaching, analyzing, and researching people management issues using a people centric approach. The focus of her research is on the broader domains of Leadership, Emotions, Cognitive behaviors, and Organizational development with a proven record of publications in local and international journals of repute. She also has extensive experience in policy making, policy revision and developing performance management systems in organizations.   Research Topic: Leadership in Post Crisis Period   Host University: University of Saint Joseph, Macao   Research Advisor: /

Dr. Saba Ghayas is working as assistant Professor in department of Psychology, University of Sargodha. She completed her PhD in Psychology from GCU Lahore, Pakistan. She has published more than 80 papers in peer reviewed reputed Journals. Her area of interest comprises of psychometry, developmental psychology and psychology of religion. She is working as reviewer of many well reputed journals and she is editorial board member of many journals for instance BMC Psychology. She is currently working on various issues of climate change in collaboration with foreign scholars.   Research Topic: Interpersonal violence in terms of hot weather: Measurement, Psychometric properties and Cross-cultural validation

Ruzica Jurcevic is a post-doc researcher at the Department of Pedagogy in Zagreb, Croatia. She graduated from the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences at the University of Zagreb in 2019 with a PhD degree in Pedagogy. Her academic background is mostly linked to education policies, global democratic citizenship, and peace education. Initially, she began her career as a pedagogue in several primary and secondary schools. Subsequently, she took on the position of a project manager for ESF and Erasmus+ projects prior to her appointment at the Department of Pedagogy in 2019. She actively participates as a member in various civil society associations. She enjoys hiking and piano playing.   Research Topic: Are Young People Prepared for the Challenges of the Future? A Research on Global Competence of University Students Host University: University of Saint Joseph, Macau, China. Research Advisor: /  

Lorena Recalde obtained her Ph.D. at Pompeu Fabra University, Barcelona, Spain, 2018, where she collaborated in the Web Science and Social Computing research group. She completed her master’s degree in Switzerland, at the University of Fribourg and obtained a master’s in computer science with a mention in Advanced Information Processing, 2014. Her main research topics are Recommender Systems, with a special focus on interest modeling of social networks’ users, Web Mining and Natural Language Processing. In addition to publications in conferences and in three journals Q1, Lorena was invited as a keynote at GEITEC2019, Lima, Peru. She is currently a researcher and full-time undergraduate and master’s degree professor in the Department of Informatics and Computer Science of the National Polytechnic School, Quito, Ecuador.   Research Topic: Content Recommender System for Groups of Researchers: Analyzing Collaboration and Consensus Processes Host University: College of Economics and Computer Sciences, WSEI, Poland Research Advisor: Dr. Jan Werewka, WSEI, Krakow  

I’m a Filipino anthropologist and a member of the Dominican Order. I’m affiliated with the Faculty of Philosophy, University of Santo Tomas, Manila and the Department of Anthropology, University of the Philippines Diliman. I hold master’s degrees in theology and anthropology, and doctorate in anthropology. I teach anthropology and phenomenology of religion, area studies-Southeast Asia, world ethnography, psychological anthropology, village community, and anthropological fieldwork methodologies. A recent academic engagement (out in 2024) is a plenary address to the Conference Mondiale des Institutions Universitaires Catholiques de Philosophie (COMIUCAP). In describing Southeast Asian context through Malay metaphors, the worldview of social movements often occluded by colonial historiography, neocolonial institutions and statecraft, finds ethnographic voice. Current fieldwork engagements study collective memory through songs during the period of World War II in Cebu, Central Visayas, and among first-generation descendants of Indonesian migrants in Mindanao, southern Philippines.   Research Topic: ‘SIMBAHAYAN’ in the dunia Melayu: an Ethnographic Context for Intercultural Conviviality Host University: University of St. Joseph, Macao Research Advisor: /

Dr. Derya Agis is an independent scholar and a volunteer instructor at the University of the People. She was a research associate at the Hadassah-Brandeis Institute at Brandeis University. She used to be a visiting scholar there in the summer of 2010. She has a Ph.D. in Italian Language and Literature from Ankara University. She has an M.S. in Social Anthropology from the Middle East Technical University, an M.A. in English Linguistics from Hacettepe University, and a B.A. in Italian Language and Literature. She attended a post-graduate course (Corso di Perfezionamento) on literary translation at the University of Bari. She taught several courses in the Department of Translation and Interpreting at Girne American University in the 2007-2008 academic year. She has written many works on environmental humanities, linguistics, and comparative literature.   Research Topic: : An Ecolinguistic Anthropological Approach To Plants In Romance Languages, Turkish, And English In Literature After The Pandemics   Host University: University Of Catania, Italy   Research Advisor: Dr. Alessandro Lutri, University of Catania, Italy  

Diego Felipe Caicedo recently graduated from the International PhD Program in Taiwan and Transcultural Studies at the National Chung Hsing University, where he received the 2018 Taiwan MOE (Ministry of Education Scholarship). He also earned a Master of Arts in Cultural and Creative Industries from the Taipei National University of the Arts, where he was awarded with the 2015 Taiwan ICDF Scholarship (International Cooperation and Development Found). His research investigates how elements of dark tourism and ecotourism intersect, interact and manifest in multiple tourist geographies using an interdisciplinary theoretical approach that dwells in the environmental humanities, anthropology, tourism studies and cultural studies. Diego is currently conducting research in the Darien jungle (the border of Panama and Colombia), analyzing how migrants that are increasingly crossing this dangerous area to make their way to the United States, problematize human mobility on what he has conceptualized as dark-eco tourism. Research Topic: Issues on Mobility: Travel and Migration in Historical and Contemporary Dark-Eco Tourism Landscapes   Host University: The University of Saint Joseph, USJ Macao Research Advisor: /