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Meet the Team

Content about the team

Dr Lara Bianchi

Principle Investigator

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Dr Lara Bianchi

Lara is a political scientist with expertise in human rights and responsible business conduct. Currently, she is an Assistant Professor in Business and Society at the International Centre for Corporate Social Responsibility and a Rights Lab expert at the University of Nottingham, working on vulnerable groups and extreme forms of exploitation. Prior to this, she worked as the Programme Lead for the Business and Human Rights Catalyst at Alliance Manchester Business School. Her ongoing research focuses on global governance dynamics and women’s rights, using ethics and dialogism as her main theoretical lenses. During her doctoral programme, she worked in secondment to the II Committee of the 66th United Nations General Assembly in preparation for the Rio+20 Conference, where UN Member States launched the drafting process of the Sustainable Development Goals. While at the University of Manchester, Lara was a co-investigator of an ESRC IAA on Gender Equality in Global Supply Chains, led by Professor Stephanie Barrientos, in partnership with the Ethical Trading Initiative. In 2018, Lara worked with the UN Office of the High Commissioner, drafting the initial report of the OHCHR Accountability and Remedy Project Phase III - "Non-State based non-judicial grievance mechanisms: an exploratory analysis”.

Professor Mihaela Kelemen

UK-based Co-Investigator

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Professor Mihaela Kelemen

Mihaela is Chair in Business and Society at Nottingham University Business School, UK. Prior to joining Nottingham, she taught and researched at Keele University as Professor of Management and Public Engagement and Director of the Community Animation and Social Innovation Centre-CASIC. Her research is underpinned by American Pragmatism and uses participatory creative methodologies of community engagement and knowledge co-production. In particular, she co-created with Sue Moffat the Cultural Animation methodology used in this Project. Her research puts centre stage the experiences and aspirations of various marginalized stakeholders both in the UK and internationally. Her research explores a wide range of societal topics including post disaster reconstruction, food poverty, global health, volunteering, communities in crisis and marketplace exclusion in an international context.

Ms Sue Moffat

UK-based Co-Investigator

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Ms Sue Moffat

Sue is the founder Director of the New Vic Borderlines at the New Vic Theatre in Staffordshire. She works with individuals, groups and communities who exist on ‘the borders’, who are marginalised for various reasons, and as such have reduced prospects to impact on the conditions which effect them, pursue opportunities for positive change, and are deprived of the rights to celebrate as well as contribute to the wider community. She works directly with statutory organisations including local and national government departments, and agencies as wells as NGOs who are charged with reducing isolation, disconnection and social exclusion and creating opportunities to bring disparate groups together in a meaningful and productive way. Her documentary drama ‘All Our Daughters’ about honour based violence and forced marriage was launched nationally from Westminster and described a saving lives by the Chief Crown Prosecutor for the UK. She co-created with Prof Kelemen the Cultural Animation methodology used in this Project.

Professor Todd Landman

UK-based Co-Investigator

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Professor Todd Landman

Todd is a Professor of Political Science and Pro Vice Chancellor of the Faculty of Social Sciences at the University of Nottingham. He researches, teaches, and publishes on significant problems and methods associated with development, democracy and human rights. His current focus is on measuring, analysing, and evaluating interventions to combat contemporary forms of slavery. He is Executive Director of the Rights Lab Beacon of Excellence, member. He has carried out a large number of international consultancies for DFID, the FCO, the European Commission, the United Nations Development Programme, the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands, the Swedish International Development Agency, the Canadian International Development Agency, and Amnesty International. He is also a professional magician, an Associate of the Inner Magic Circle, Vice President of the International Assembly of the Society of American Magicians, Founder and Lifetime Member of the British Society of Mystery Entertainers, Visiting Professor of Performance Magic at the University of Huddersfield, and Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.

Dr Subhan Ullah

UK-based Co-Investigator

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Dr Subhan Ullah

Subhan is Associate Professor in Accounting and Departmental Research Director at Nottingham University Business School. Subhan is a member of the University of Nottingham 'Rights lab' Beacon of Excellence, in the Business and Economies Programme, where he also conducts research on modern slavery in businesses. He is a member of the Advisory Board of research policy ThinkTank, Alternate Solutions Institute, Pakistan.

Dr Angeli Santos

UK-based Co-Investigator

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Dr Angeli Santos

Angeli is an Associate Professor in Applied Psychology at the Faculty of Medicine and Health Science of the University of Nottingham and the Director for the Centre of Organizational Health and Development. She is an applied psychologist with research expertise in vulnerable occupational groups including those exposed to violence and precarious employment conditions. Within the violence research agenda, she has completed projects on the evaluation of conflict management training for healthcare staff and the design and delivery of workplace violence training for rail transport staff, and more recently, research into deviance behaviour at work. Angeli's research experience in applied psychology has been wide ranging; from projects examining the impact of psychosocial factors on the occupational health of migrant workers, the assessment of emotional intelligence and management of emotions at work, and the identification of potential barriers to career-decision making. She has published in a number of book chapters and journal articles on these topics and regularly presents at major international conferences.

Ms Alysha Shivji

Research Assistant

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Ms Alysha Shivji

Alysha is in her final year of doctoral research in the Business and Human Rights Catalyst at the Alliance Manchester Business School. Her research focuses on access to remedy for business-related human rights abuses. While based in the business school, Alysha is conducting an interdisciplinary PhD with supervisors from both the business school and law school. She conducted a case study with the Fair Food Program and its Worker-driven Social Responsibility paradigm for her PhD and to support the Office of the High Commissioner’s Accountability and Remedy Project. Prior to her doctoral studies, Alysha attended Stanford University for her undergraduate and master’s in Sociology. Her master’s research focused on anti-trafficking work. After Stanford she worked as a Research Analyst at Apple for three years. Having conducted research in both academic and private sector settings, Alysha’s approach to Business and Human Rights research aims to apply critical academic research to address global issues.

Mr Rogelio P. Lelis, Jr.

Philippines-based Co-Investigator

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Mr Rogelio P. Lelis, Jr.

Rogelio is Assistant Professor at the Ateneo de Davao University Department of Psychology in Southern Mindanao, Philippines. Currently, he is the Director for External Affairs of the department’s community engagement arm, the Center for Psychological Extension and Research Services and an active affiliate of the Association of Psychologists and Helping Practitioners, Inc. Highly trained for post-disaster mental health and psychosocial support (MHPSS), Rogelio delivers MHPSS interventions and services to a diverse population in times of disasters – both human-initiated and natural disasters. He is also particularly interested in culturally-appropriate applications of social psychology for peacebuilding and conflict resolution.

Ms. Shawana Shah

Pakistan-based Co-investigator

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Ms. Shawana Shah

Shawana is a Pakistani activist focused on the rights of women, young girls, and the transgender community. She co-founded Da Hawwa Lur, a political, social and economic development platform for girls that provides a space for capacity building and connecting members to key stakeholders and policy makers to present their demands for pro-women legislations. Through community mobilization and organization, she fostered a women’s movement that developed the first womanifesto in Pakistan, enlisting demands by women and for women. In 2016, she received the International Humanitarian Award and Fakhre Pakhtunkhwa (National Heroes) Award 2021

Dr Jose Jowel Canuday

Philippines-based Co-Investigator

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Dr Jose Jowel Canuday

Jowel is an anthropologist with an eye towards the study of visual systems, practices, and engagements of communities dealing with conditions uncertainty. His research interests cover visual approaches to the grounded forms and practices of cosmopolitanism, armed conflicts, displacements, primary care, and inter-religious relations. He trained at the University of Oxford Institute of Social and Cultural Anthropology where he earned a DPhil (Doctor of Philosophy) in Social and Cultural Anthropology. He also received training at Xavier University for his MA Anthropology degree and at the Ateneo de Davao University for AB Sociology. He used to work as a professional journalist covering events in Mindanao. Currently, Jowel teaches and pursues research at the Department of Sociology and Anthropology of the Ateneo de Manila University. He continues to engage journalists and journalism through my affiliation with the Mindanao Institute of Journalism, the publisher of the popular Mindanao news website, www.mindanews.com

Ms Clarissa Cecilia R. Mijares

Project Manager

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Ms Clarissa Cecilia R. Mijares

Issa Mijares is a performing artist, teacher, and dance anthropologist. She is on the roster of faculty of the Department of Sociology and Anthropology of the Ateneo de Manila University and manages international research collaborations. She handles transnational education scholarship programs for the same university. Issa has been working on the national standard policies for dance education in higher education institutions in the Philippines through the Commission on Higher Education.

Professor Czarina Saloma-Akpedonu

Philippines-based Co-Investigator

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Professor Czarina Saloma-Akpedonu

Czarina is Professor at the Department of Sociology and Anthropology of the Ateneo de Manila University. Her work examines knowledge mobilization in relation to social development, the built environment, and sustainable consumption and production, and promotes the problem-solving mode in social science engagements. She is the author of Possible Worlds in Impossible Spaces: Globality, Knowledge, Gender and Information Technology in the Philippines (Ateneo de Manila University Press, 2006); Casa Boholana: Vintage Houses of Bohol (with E. Akpedonu, Ateneo de Manila University Press, 2011); Many Voices, Many Journeys: Filipina Overseas Workers, 1960-2010 (with E. Manlapaz and Y. Buencamino, Anvil Publishing, 2015); and Food Consumption in the City: Practices and Patterns in Urban Asia and the Pacific (with M. Sahakian and S. Erkman, Routledge, 2016). She was named “Outstanding Young Scientist” by the Philippine National Academy of Science and Technology in 2007. She is currently the President of the Women’s and Gender Studies Association of the Philippines.

Professor Rob Caruana

UK-based Co-Investigator

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Professor Rob Caruana

Rob is a Professor of Business Ethics at Nottingham University Business School, where he is the Director of the International Centre for Corporate Social Responsibility. His research explores issues of morality, responsibility, freedom and power in corporate and consumer discourse, combining the analysis of human rights, exploitation, socio-economic exclusion, resource allocation and sustainability. He has conducted his research in a number of contexts such as tourism, modern slavery, social media, ethical consumption and, more recently artificial intelligence, always returning to fundamental questions of ethics, language and power. His research in the last five years has moved into extreme forms of labour exploitation, where he has contributed to the development of theorization and observation of slavery business models within the business and management literature, hosting prestigious workshops, special symposia and editing the first special issue on modern slavery within the business and management literature. He is also an active member of the prestigious University of Nottingham ‘Rights Lab’ Beacon of Excellence, dedicated to the study and eradication of modern slavery. He has published extensively on these topics, with his last publication on “Modern Slavery in Business: The Sad and Sorry State of a Non-Field” in the Business and Society Journal.

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