Speakers

• Arshin Adib-Moghaddam

  Arshin Adib-Moghaddam is Professor in Global Thought and Comparative Philosophies at SOAS, University of London and Inaugural Co-Director of the SOAS Centre for AI Futures. In addition, he co-directs the Centre for Iranian Studies and he is a Senior Member of Hughes Hall, University of Cambridge. Adib-Moghaddam is the author of two foundational books in the emerging field of "Critical Artificial Intelligence Studies" entitled "Is Artificial Intelligence Racist? The ethics of AI and the future of humanity" (Bloomsbury, 2023) and "The Myth of Good AI: A Manifesto for Critical Artificial Intelligence" (Manchester University Press, 2025). 

• Ibrahim Al-Marashi

  Ibrahim Al-Marashi (DPhil, University of Oxford), is Associate Professor of History at California State University San Marcos, and a board member of the International Security and Conflict Resolution (ISCOR) program at San Diego State University (SDSU). He is an invited professor at John Cabot University in Rome, the Catholic University of Milan, the School of Humanities at IE University in Madrid, and the Department of Visual Arts at UC San Diego. His works include Iraq’s Armed Forces: An Analytical History (2008), The Modern History of Iraq (2016), and A Concise History of the Middle East (2024), all published by Routledge.

• Juan Cole

  Juan Cole is the Richard P. Mitchell Distinguished University Professor at the University of Michigan.  He is the author most recently of Rethinking the Quran in Late Antiquity (DeGruyter, 2025). He edited Peace Movements in Islam (IB Tauris, 2021), and authored The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam: A New Translation from the Persian (IB Tauris, 2020).  He is past President of the Middle East Studies Association of North America.

• Mohammad Eslami

  Mohammad Eslami is a Max Weber Fellow at the Department of Social and Political Science at the European University Institute in Italy.  He was a researcher at the Research Centre for Political Science (CICP) at the University of Minho in Portugal, where he investigated Iran’s Ballistic Missile and Unmanned Combat Aerial Vehicle Programs. He was also a research fellow of the Arms Control Negotiation Academy led by the Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies at Harvard University. His research interests primarily relate to international security, arms control, nuclear proliferation, and Middle East studies. He has published in International Affairs, Third World Quarterly, Review of International Studies, Global Policy, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, Spanish Journal of Political Science, Journal of Asian Security, Small Wars and Insurgencies, and the Journal for Peace and Nuclear Disarmament and contributed to several edited volumes published by Springer and Palgrave Macmillan, among others.

• Brian Fonseca

  Brian Fonseca is Director of the Jack D. Gordon Institute for Public Policy and an adjunct professor in the Department of Politics and International Relations at Florida International University. He is the founding Executive Director of Cybersecurity@FIU, FIU's university-wide interdisciplinary emerging preeminent program. Brian also serves as a Cybersecurity Policy Fellow and International Security Fellow at the D.C.-based think tank New America. His recent publications include two edited volumes titled Culture and National Security in the Americas (Lexington Books, 2017) with Eduardo A. Gamarra and Democracy and Security in Latin America (Routledge, 2021) with Orlando Perez and Gabriel Marcella, and he is co-author of The New US Security Agenda: Trends and Emerging Threats (Palgrave, 2017) with Jonathan Rosen.

• Mohamed K. Ghumrawi

  Mohamed K. Ghumrawi holds a Ph.D. in International Relations from Florida International University (FIU). He is Assistant Director of the Mohsin & Fauzia Jaffer Center for Muslim World Studies at FIU, the faculty director of the top-ranked FIU Model United Nations program, and the founding faculty director of the “FIU in the Middle East” study abroad program to Jordan, Palestine and Israel. He lectures in the Department of Politics and International Relations at FIU. His research includes dynamics surrounding the Palestinian diaspora, Palestinian-Israeli relations, politics and international relations of the Middle East, conflict resolution, peace studies and state formation.

• Mohammad Homayounvash

  Mohammad Homayounvash holds a Ph.D. in International Relations from Florida International University (FIU) and is Founding Director of the Jaffer Institute for Interfaith Dialogue and Education at Miami Dade College. He lectures in International Relations at the University of Miami and FIU. Dr. Homayounvash is the author of Iran and the Nuclear Question: History and Evolutionary Trajectory (Routledge, 2017), a critical examination of Iran's nuclear diplomacy within the broader context of international nonproliferation regimes. His current research explores the geopolitical and ethical implications of artificial intelligence, algorithmic governance, and digital sovereignty in the Global South, with emphasis on the Muslim world.

• Tugrul Keskin

  Tugrul Keskin is a Visiting Professor at Turan University (Kazakhstan) and Lecturer at Cappadocia University (Turkey). He previously served as Professor and Director of the Center for Global Governance at Shanghai University and taught at James Madison, Portland State, Radford, Virginia Tech and Maltepe Universities. His research focuses on China–Central Asia/Middle East relations, global governance, and the political economy of technology and AI. He was founding editor of Sociology of Islam (Brill) and founder of the Global China Academic Network. His forthcoming book, Shifting Frontiers, explores Islamism, China, and U.S. influence in Central Asia’s geopolitical landscape.

• Muhammet Koçak

  Muhammet Koçak serves as an Associate Professor at the Social Sciences University of Ankara. His research is primarily centered on International Security, with a special emphasis on Turkey, Russia, and the Turkic World. Koçak earned his Ph.D. from Florida International University, where his dissertation on Turkey-Russia Relations was later published by Lexington Books in 2022. He has authored numerous research articles addressing a variety of regional issues. Additionally, Koçak is an active commentator on current developments frequently sharing his insights through various media outlets and on his personal social media.

• Ekaterina Kosevich

  Ekaterina Kosevich, Ph.D. in Political Science, is a Leading Research Fellow and Associate Professor at the Faculty of World Economy and International Affairs, HSE University (Moscow). Her research examines the cultural, economic, and political dimensions of Russia’s foreign policy and its relations with Latin American countries. She has led multiple international research projects and published widely in peer-reviewed journals in English, Spanish, and Russian. Her latest book, Extra-Regional Powers in Latin America: The Impact of the US, EU, China, and Russia (Brill, 2024), analyzes strategies and patterns of extra-regional engagement in Latin America. Her current projects focus on Eurasia’s AI policy, global technology governance, and content regulation.

• Eldar Mamedov

  Eldar Mamedov is a non-resident fellow at the Quincy Institute and a member of the Pugwash Council on Science & World Affairs, a Nobel Peace Prize–winning Track II diplomacy organization committed to pursuing a world free of nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass destruction. Eldar has more than 30 years of professional foreign policy experience. As a Latvian diplomat from 1994–2003, he served in his country’s embassies in Washington D.C. and Madrid, Spain, where he focused on Latvia’s integration to NATO and the E.U.

• Simona E. Merati

  Simona E. Merati is Chief Operating Officer at NeuralAgent, a dual-use AI Startup active in the European defense ecosystem. Previously, she was the Assistant to the CEO and Responsible AI Champ at Microsoft Germany. She is the author of Muslims in Putin’s Russia: Discourse on Identity, Politics, and Security (Palgrave, 2017). Her research interests are Religion (Islam) in International Relations, Security, and Geopolitics, focusing on Eurasia. She lives in Munich, where she has lectured at Ludwig-Maximilians- Universität. Dr. Merati holds a Ph.D. in International Relations from FIU and a degree in Russian Language and Literature from the University of Milan, Italy.

• Mohiaddin Mesbahi

  Mohiaddin Mesbahi is the Founding Director of the Mohsin & Fauzia Jaffer Center for Muslim World Studies at Florida International University and Associate Professor in the Department of Politics and International Relations. His research focuses on Islam and politics, national security and strategic studies, Soviet/Russian foreign policy and international relations of Central Asia. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Miami in 1987.

• Mahmood Monshipouri

  Mahmood Monshipouri is a Professor of International Relations at San Francisco State University and a lecturer at Fall Program for Freshmen at UC-Berkeley. Monshipouri is the author of In the Shadow of Mistrust: The Geopolitics and Diplomacy of US-Iran Relations (New York: Oxford University Press, 2022). He is the editor of Why Human Rights Still Matter in Contemporary Global Affairs (New York: Routledge, 2020), and the author of Middle East Politics: Changing Dynamics (New York: Routledge, 2019). He is currently working on a book entitled, Climate Change, Environmental Refugees, and Human Rights in the Middle East (Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, forthcoming).

• Abdullah Omran

  Abdullah Omran is a Ph.D. candidate in Middle Eastern Languages and Cultures at Indiana University Bloomington, whose interdisciplinary research explores the intersection between technological advancement and Islamic legal studies. He has published peer-reviewed articles such as “Knowledge Disembodied: From Paper to Digital Media” in CyberOrient (2020), and “Thus Spoke a Couple: A Corpus-Based Content Analysis of Spousal Duties Fatwas” in Journal of Digital Islamicate Research (2024). His contributions to edited volumes include “Food Waste and the Contest of Incentives: Egypt as a Case Study” in Food Security and Islamic Ethics (2025). Professionally, he worked as a trainer of AI models at Cohere, a senior translator (Arabic-English) for 11 years, and a project manager for editorial and translation roles.