Prof. Tapio Varis (Professor emeritus) has worked in many functions throughout his career, among others as Chair of Professional Education at the University of Tampere, as UNESCO Chair in Global E-Learning, as a member of the European Commission Media Literacy Expert Group and as Rector of the University for Peace (created by the UN) in Costa Rica. He has authored approximately 200 scientific articles on topics like global peace, new media and cultural identity and continues to contribute to print and broadcast media.

Dr. Stefan Aufenanger is a Professor emeritus of Pedagogy and Media Education at the University of Mainz/Germany. Until 2022 he is Senior Research Professor for Digital Literacy at the University of Mainz. Stefan Aufenanger was a full professor and head of the working group ‘media education’ at the faculty of social sciences at the University of Mainz since 2004. From 2009 to 2014 he served as Dean of the Faculty of social sciences, media, and sports. From 2014 to 2019 he was a member of the Council of the Johannes Gutenberg-University. He holds a university degree in pedagogy, psychology and sociology and a Doctor title in Sociology from the University of Mainz. Previously, he was a professor of Pedagogy and Media Education at the University of Hamburg for eleven years. Also, he has been the Academic Director of the ‘Foundation of Reading Promotion’ (Stiftung Lesen) in Germany from 2006 to 2010. At the same time, he was a Member of the Media Literacy Group at the Directorate „Information, Society, and Media“ of the EU-Commission (Brüssel). Before becoming Professor, he had worked at several universities in Germany and Switzerland. His main research topics are digital media and the family, television and children, children and advertising, multimedia in education, moral education, and qualitative research methods.

Dr. El-Guindy is a Cyber Security and Cybercrime consultant to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) developing and delivering training to Justice, Law Enforcement and Intelligence Departments. Furthermore, he works as a Cybercrime Expert at the Faculty of Law, the British University in Egypt and works as an Information Security advisor to the Assistant of Prime Minister of Egypt (Information and Decision Support Center) and Digital Transformation Advisor to the Prosecutor General’s Office. He was invited by the Ministry of Defense to deliver a speech in front of H.E. President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi about Hybrid Warfare and Social Media.

Lee Hibbard is a Senior Fellow at the Diplo Foundation, a non-profit foundation established by the governments of Malta and Switzerland which works to increase the role of small and developing states and improve global governance and international policy development. In this role, Lee is a regular guest lecturer on the Diplo AI online course, notably modules on (i) governance and regulation of AI, and on (ii) human rights and AI. He currently works in the Bioethics Unit of the Council of Europe responsible for various files concerning human rights and biomedicine, including the application of AI in healthcare. Lee is also a Fellow of the Salzburg Global Seminar. He has a B.A. in Law and Economics and an LL.M. from the University of Leicester, UK.

Prof. Marco Antonio Rodrigues Dias is a Higher Education International Consultant. He worked both as a journalist in Belo Horizonte and So Paulo and as a professor, department head, dean of extension and vice-rector at the University of Brasilia. He served as a Director of UNESCO’s Division of Higher Education in Paris from 1981 to 1999 and as a special adviser to the rector of the United Nations University from 2001 to 2009. Additionally, he was the Head of the UNU’s Liaison Office in Paris (2005 to June 2009). He was awarded the French “Légion d’honneur” in 1999 and the “Ordem do Mérito Educativo” in 1993 (Brazil). In 2003, the Federal University of Minas Gerais (Brazil) presented him with an honorary doctorate “for his outstanding contribution to the development of society.” Professor Marco Antonio is the author of several publications in Portuguese, Spanish, English, and French on communication, education, and politics.

Elena Lamberti (Associate Professor, North American Literatures, qualified for Full Professorship) is a specialist of Modernist Literature, Cultural Memory, Literature and Media Ecology, War Literature, Literature and Cognitive Sciences at the University of Bologna. She is the author of eight volumes and of a number of essays and book-chapters on Anglo-American Modernism and American/Canadian literature and culture. She pursues an interdisciplinary methodology of research where literature stands at the core of innovative investigations of complex ecosystems. Her volume Marshall McLuhan’s Mosaic. Probing the Literary Origins of Media Studies (2012) received the MEA Award 2016 – Award for Outstanding Book in the Field of Media Ecology. She serves in a variety of editorial boards including Explorations in Media Ecology (EME); Wi: Journal of Mobile Media; The International Journal of McLuhan Studies; as well as book series. She has been invited as visiting scholar and course director in various North American and Chinese Universities. She is affiliated to the Mobile Media Lab, Concordia University di Montreal and to the Media Ethics Lab, University of Toronto.