Henning Melber studied Political Sciences (PhD 1980) and Sociology (Habilitation in Development Studies 1992). He was Director of The Namibian Economic Policy Research Unit in Windhoek (1992-2000), Research Director of the Nordic Africa Institute (2000-2006) and Director of the Dag Hammarskjöld Foundation (2006-2012), both in Uppsala. He is Extraordinary Professor at the Department of Political Sciences/University of Pretoria and at the Centre for Gender and Africa Studies/University of the Free State in Bloemfontein, Associate with The Nordic Africa Institute and Senior Research Fellow at the Institute for Commonwealth Studies/School for Advanced Study of the University of London. He was President of The European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes (EADI) from 2017 to 2023.

Gabriele Griffin is Professor of Gender Research at the Centre for Gender Research. She is coordinator of the Swedish Research Council-funded PhD School on ‘Gender, Humanities, and Digital Cultures’ (2023-2028), and the Swedish coordinator of the SIDA-funded collaborative research and training program on ‘Mainstreaming Gender’, a collaboration involving Dr Nadine Lake (University of the Free State) and Prof Marta Mendonca of Eduardo Mondlane University (2017-2025), Maputo. Her research focuses on women in research and innovation, gender and technology, female entrepreneurs, women's cultural production, feminist research methodologies, non-normative identities, and higher education and disciplinisation. Recent publications include Griffin, G., ed. (2022) Gender Inequalities in Tech-driven Research and Innovation: Living the Contradiction. Bristol: Bristol University Press; Griffin, G. (2022)”’Making’ and ‘Doing’ Context: Sharing in an all-female co-working hub.” In Women and Global Entrepreneurship: Contextualising Everyday Experiences, Maura McAdam, James Cunningham (eds.) New York: Routledge. 153-167; Griffin, G., Wennerström, E., Foka, A. (2023) ‘AI and Swedish Heritage Organisations: challenges and opportunities.’ AI & Society: The Journal of Human-Centred Systems and Machine Intelligence. Springer Nature. Epub ahead of print.

Sabelo J Ndlovu-Gatsheni is currently Professor and Chair of Epistemologies of the Global South with Emphasis on Africa and Vice-Dean of Research in the Africa Multiple Cluster of Excellence at the University of Bayreuth in Germany; Professor Extraordinarius in the Department of Leadership and Transformation  (DLT) in the Principal & Vice-Chancellor’s Office at the University of South Africa (UNISA); Professor Extraordinarius at the Centre for Gender and Africa Studies at the University of Free State (UFS) in South Africa; Honorary Professor in the School of Education (Education & Development Studies) at the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN) in South Africa; Research Associate at the Ali Mazrui Centre for Higher Education at the University of Johannesburg (UJ) in South Africa; Research Associate at the Department of Political Science at the University of Pretoria (UP) in South Africa; and Research Associate at The Ferguson Centre for African and Asian Studies at The Open University in the United Kingdom. Professor Ndlovu-Gatsheni is a prolific scholar with a hundred publications including more than 20 books to his name. His latest publications include Epistemic Freedom in Africa: Deprovincialization and Decolonization (Routledge, 2018); Decolonization, Development and Knowledge in Africa: Turning Over A New Leaf (Routledge, 2020); Marxism and Decolonization in the 21^st Century: Living Theories and True Ideas (Routledge, 2022) co-edited with Morgan Ndlovu; and Beyond Coloniality of Internationalism: Reworlding the World from the Global South (CODESRIA Book Series-in press).

Cyril Obi is a program director at the Social Science Research Council, New York, where he leads the African Peacebuilding Network (APN) and (since September 2018) the Next Generation Social Sciences in Africa programs. After completing his doctoral studies in political science at the University of Lagos, Nigeria, he joined the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs (NIIA), Lagos, Nigeria, and became an associate research professor in 2004. That same year, Dr. Obi was awarded the Claude Ake Visiting Chair at the Department of Peace and Conflict Research at the University of Uppsala, Sweden. From 2005 to 2011, he was a senior researcher and led the research cluster on “Conflict, Displacement and Transformation” at the Nordic Africa Institute (NAI) in Uppsala, Sweden. He has received numerous prestigious international academic awards and fellowships from Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa (CODESRIA), Dakar; Salzurg Seminar; 21^st Century Trust, London; Social Science Research Council (SSRC), New York; the African Studies Center (ASC), Leiden; Oxford University; Nordic Africa Institute and University of Uppsala; and was also a Visiting Scholar at the Institute of African Studies (IAS), Columbia University, New York. Dr. Obi was also an adjunct professor at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York (CUNY), and served on the Board of Directors of the African Studies Association of the USA. He currently serves on the editorial boards of many international peer-reviewed journals, and is a co-editor of the highly ranked African Security journal. His publications include The Rise of China and India in Africa: Challenges, Opportunities and Critical Interventions (London: Zed Books, 2010), with Fantu Cheru; Oil and Insurgency in the Niger Delta: Managing the Complex Politics of Petro-Violence (London: Zed Books, 2011), with Siri Aas Rustad; The Unfinished Revolution in Nigeria’s Niger Delta: Prospects for Environmental Justice and Peace (London and New York: Routledge, 2018), with Temitope Oriola. His other co-edited books include; Developmental Regionalism and Economic Transformation in Southern Africa (London and New York: Routledge, 2020), with Said Adejumobi;  Regional Economic Communities and Peacebuilding in Africa: Lessons from ECOWAS and IGAD, (London and New York: Routledge, 2020), with Victor Adetula and Redie Bereketeab; Institutions and Popular Will in Africa’s Search for Democracy, Development and Peace (Ibadan: Book Builders, 2023); and, African Youth during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Urban Mobilities and Peacebuilding Trajectories, with Ibrahim Bangura and Irene D. Mngutyo (London and New York: Routledge, 2025) (Forthcoming). Dr. Obi is the Book Series Editor of the Routledge Studies in Peace, Conflict and Security in Africa. He is a recipient of a 2020 International Studies Association (ISA) Distinguished Scholar Award (Peace Studies Section). In 2024, he was appointed an honorary fellow at the Center for African Studies, University of Edinburgh, Scotland; and Extraordinary Professor, Center for Gender and African Studies, Faculty of Humanities, University of the Free State, Bloemfontein, South Africa.

Currently: Senior Research Fellow, Centre for the Advancement of Scholarship, University of Pretoria; Senior Fellow, Public Affairs Research Institute; Nelson Mandela Professor of Politics Emeritus, Rhodes University; Extraordinary Professor UFS; Honorary Professor, African Earth Observatory, Network.

Founded: the Johannesburg Institute for Advanced Study (JIAS); Centre for Southern African Studies, University of the Western Cape; International Relations Unit, Rhodes University.

Elected: Fellow, Royal Society of South Africa; Member, Academy of Science of South Africa; Member, Akademie vir Wetenskap en Kuns; Fellow, World Academy of Art and Science; Fellow, African Academy of Science.

Selected Visitorships: Free University Berlin; Bergen University, Norway; Utrecht University, The Netherlands; New York University; Macquarie University, Australia.

Honours: Honorary Doctorate, University of the Free State, Recipient of the Utrecht University International Medal; Vice-Chancellor’s Book Award; Vice-Chancellor’s Distinguished Research Award, Rhodes University; Lifetime Achievement Award, Political Science Association of South Africa; (With Vineet Thakur), the Francesco Guicciardini Prize for Best Book in Historical International Relations Section, The International Studies Association.