Participants

Abir Ghattas

Abir Ghattas is a Lebanese activist, blogger and a digital communication strategist with a focus on women rights, freedom of speech and digital security in the MENA region. Abir holds a BS in Computer Sciences and a Master's in Communication and Media studies. She is somewhere between Marseille and Beirut.

Arzu Geybulla

Arzu Geybullayeva is an Azerbaijani writer with a focus on human rights and freedom of expression in her country. Her other areas of interest include gender equality and reconciliation in post-conflict states. She is the recipient of 2014-2015 Vaclav Havel Journalist Fellowship and contributes regularly to various international publications writing on Azerbaijan.

Dalia Othman

Dalia is a Research Affiliate at Harvard's Berkman Center for Internet & Society and a former Visiting Scholar at MIT's Center for Civic Media. During her time at Harvard and MIT, Dalia focused her work on researching online civic engagement in the Arab World and exploring different themes around data storytelling. She also co-founded NetStories.org a resource site about data storytelling tools. Prior to that Dalia worked at the mobile tech startup Souktel and was a lecturer of New Media at Birzeit University. She is passionate about digital rights and Civic Tech and continuously strives towards empowering marginalized communities through technology.

Indira Cornelio

Since 2010, Indira has been working in digital communication for social change, involved in projects and also facilitating trainings in Mexico and Latin America. Community coordinator for the Spanish Infoactivism project of Tactical Technology Collective in 2010-2011. In 2011, she joined the Global Voices community as a translator. In 2012-2013, she worked at Oxfam Mexico as digital communications coordinator. At present, she works at the Infoactivism program and women ICT project's in SocialTIC, a ICT for social change Mexican NGO and also with WITNESS, a video for advocacy NGO based in New York.

Marianne Diaz

Marianne Díaz is a lawyer, writer and digital rights activist, specialized in online freedom of speech, censorship, digital security and gender issues. She co-founded and runs the NGO Acceso Libre and serves as a legal lead for Creative Commons Venezuela. Since 2010, she writes for Global Voices Advocacy about issues affecting online freedoms in Venezuela. She also has published three fiction books, and drinks unhealthy amounts of coffee.

Mashiat Mostafa

Mashiat is currently working at AUW as a Research Study Coordinator for a Ford Foundation funded project on Women Empowerment. Ms. Mostafa is also leading a student research group on ICT and New Media at AUW. Social and Policy implications of New Media, Women Empowerment and ICT, and Privacy, are the key focus areas of her research group. She has worked with an NGO, Grameen Bank, to establish ICT based entrepreneurship project for women in rural areas. For this project, Shilpo Nari Ms. Mostafa was nominated as one of the top 10 finalists in the Dell Women Empowerment Project in 2013 and also in 2015 has presented her start up in the World Bank Entrepreneurship Talent House of Support (ETHOS) training program in Korea. She was an intern at BRAC and helped their communication team and ICT department with their overall communication strategy formulation, research portal design, and in drafting the formal online communication policies for their internal workplace. In addition, She was the event coordinator for the Google Business Group, based in Dhaka to develop their long term, new program “Women on the Web” in Bangladesh.

Namita Aavriti

Namita is a writer, lawyer and researcher and she lives in Bangalore, India. She has worked with Alternative Law Forum for 10 years and is a co-founder of the online video archive Pad.ma (Public Access Digital Media Archive). She has written a monograph for Centre for Internet and Society on law, censorship and sexuality. Her interests are in histories of social movements, archiving, technology, law and sexuality. She is currently focused on forced evictions, caste atrocities, censorship in India and South Asia, self-determination in Kashmir and other issues.

Natasha Msonza

Natasha Msonza currently manages operations within Her Zimbabwe, a non-profit women’s rights organization that uses alternative media to bring important commentary to women’s issues and facilitates women’s activism using ICTs and digital tools. Natasha holds an Honors BSc degree in Media and Society studies, and a Masters degree in Human Development. She has a background in communications that spans over eight years. In her other life, Natasha is a human rights activist, Internet governance enthusiast and volunteer digital security trainer, working with a small network of privacy advocates that provides training and technical support to activists and human rights defenders in Zimbabwe.

Nighat Dad

Nighat Dad is the Executive Director of Digital Rights Foundation, Pakistan. She is an accomplished lawyer and a human rights activist. Nighat Dad is one of the pioneers who have been campaigning around access to open internet in Pakistan and globally. She has been actively campaigning and engaging at a policy level on issues focusing on Internet Freedom, Women and technology, Digital Security and Women’s empowerment. Ms.Dad has been recently included in Next Generation Leaders List by TIME's magazine for her work on helping women fight online harassment.

Rosebell Kagumire

Rosebell is a media and communication specialist, digital strategist, public speaker and award-winning blogger. She has an extensive experience in new media advocacy, rights in crisis campaigning, migration, women’s rights, peace and security issues- mostly in Africa.

Sopheap Chak

Sopheap Chak is the Executive Director of the Cambodian Center for Human Rights (CCHR), one of the leading human rights organizations working for the promotion and protection of political and civil rights in Cambodia. As one of the country's most prominent human rights advocates, Sopheap's work has been recognized by US President Barack Obama. Sopheap holds two Bachelor’s Degrees in International Relations and Economics and a Master’s Degree in International Peace Studies, which she completed at the International University of Japan. As one of Cambodia's leading human rights bloggers (http://sopheapfocus.com/), she is also a contributing author to Future Challenges and Global Voices Online. Sopheap also ran the Cambodian Youth Network for Change, which mobilized young activists around the country for greater civic engagement.

Tamara Qiblawi

Tamara, co-founder of KnoozRoom, is a non-fiction storyteller with experience working in film, podcasting, print, and digital story. Her work draws on her background in traditional journalism and her study of international affairs at Georgetown University.

Tanya Lokot

Tanya is a doctoral candidate at the University of Maryland researching the role of digital media in protests in Ukraine and Russia. She is currently working on a dissertation about the Euromaidan protests in Ukraine and augmented dissent, with a focus on the affordances of digital media and social networks to augment protest tactics, and the meaning of ICT use in protests. She is also contributing editor for RuNet Echo, a Global Voices project covering the Russian-language internet and a contributor for the Ukraine chapter of the Freedom House Freedom on the Net report. Her other research interests include: digital activism and political participation online, impact of internet communities on political decisions, social media platforms and social/political change, post-Soviet online spaces, information manipulation and propaganda online, and viral media.