Richard Abrams is a professor emeritus of history at U. C. Berkeley. His expertise is in modern U.S. history, government-business relations, political economy of industrial societies, and the history of deregulation. He was a Fulbright Professor at the University of London and at Moscow State University. He is author of "America Transformed: Sixty Years of Revolutionary Change," (Cambridge University Press, 2006); “Conservatism in a Progressive Era"; "The Burdens of Progress”; the editor of “The Issues of Populist and Progressive Eras" and co-editor of “The Shaping of 20th Century America.”
Contact:abramsr@berkeley.edu
John Hayes received his Ph.D. from the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures at UCLA in 1984. Since then he has taught at U. C. Berkeley in the Department Near Eastern Studies Department, with occasional visiting stints elsewhere. His principal interests are Semitic linguistics; the history of Arabic and the grammatical study of Arabic; Sumerian; the contemporary Middle East.He has guided past ORIAS programs through several ancient Near East topics ranging from the earliest cities to the earliest stories.
Contact: jlhayes@berkeley.edu
David Holloway is the Raymond A. Spruance Professor of International History, a professor of political science, and Senior Fellow at Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies at Stanford University. Holloway’s research has focused on the politics of science and technology in the Soviet Union, the Soviet atomic project, nuclear weapons and international relations. His Stalin and the Bomb: the Soviet Union and Atomic Energy 1939-1956 (Yale University Press, 1994) was selected by the New York Times as one of the 11 best books of 1994. His current research deals with the international history of nuclear weapons and the role of nuclear weapons in a changing international system.
Contact: David.Holloway@stanford.edu
Renate Holub is Director of Interdisciplinary Studies at U. C. Berkeley where she teaches a course on the Introduction to Technology, Society, and Culture. Her research interests include the evolution of predominant knowledge and morality regimes in political philosophy, international relations theory, and international law. She is currently working on a book entitled Human Rights Before the State: On Vico's Theory of Global Justice.
Contact: rholub@berkeley.edu
Tapan Parikh is Assistant Professor in the School of Information at U. C. Berkeley where his research group focuses on the use of computing technologies to support sustainable development. He also works with and advises several social enterprises, including Awaaz.De,Captricity and NextDrop.
Contact: parikh@berkeley.edu
James Petrillo is Professor Emeritus in the Graduate Multimedia Program and Department of Art at California State University East Bay. He is a practicing fine artist whose career includes gallery and museum exhibitions of media art, book art, video and story telling theater works. Petrillo has presented at many national and international conferences and his current project explores the effects of electronic technology on culture making.
Contact: james.petrillo@csueastbay.edu
Hoda Rashad is the author of Rising From Tahrir, a book based on interviews with a diverse group of Egyptians shortly after President Mubarak abdicated his presidency in February of 2011. During the revolution, she was involved with people at the forefront of the protests. During the days of the occupation of Tahrir (Liberation) Square, she wrote a non-political blog under the pseudonym Salma Mokadem, reporting on the dramatic events that were taking place as they occurred (www.egyptsliberationlive.blogspot.com ).
Contact: hrashad98@yahoo.com
Greg Rohlf is associate professor and chair of the history department at University of the Pacific in Stockton. His current projects include a study of the urban morphology of the towns of the Qinghai- Tibet plateau and a global history of international voluntary service in the twentieth century. My training as a historian was shaped by the time I have spent in China and Taiwan. My experiences on a tropical island, a fertile inland basin and on the arid highlands of the Chinese – Tibetan borderlands taught me how deeply history is rooted in local customs and stories. It’s fascinating how local conditions, milestones, heroes and villains create a distinctly local sense of the past and present. Researchers must observe, ask questions and above all listen to all the diverse sources of local data to build a sound foundation for productive work.
Contact: grohlf@pacific.edu
Martha Saavedra is a political scientist and Associate Director of the Center for African Studies, U. C. Berkeley. She has taught at St. Mary’s College of California, UC Berkeley and Ohio University. Her research has ranged from agrarian politics, development and ethnic conflict in the Nuba Mountains of Sudan to gender and sport in Africa to a new collaborative project on representations of Africa in Chinese popular culture.
Contact: martha@berkeley.edu
Alex Saragoza is Associate Professor of History in the Department of Ethnic Studies at U. C. Berkeley. He formerly served as the Chair of the Center for Latin American Studies and was subsequently Director of the U. C. Study Center in Mexico. He is a very popular presenter for ORIAS programs covering Latin America and has been active in teacher institutes on and off-campus for many years.
Contact: alexsara@berkeley.edu
Khaled Sayed is an award-winning documentary director, who worked as a lawyer in Egypt before he moved to the United States, where he studied Multimedia production at San Francisco State University. Khaled has directed and produced commercials, documentaries, online campaigns, promos, and short films for a wide range of industries. He also brings a strong background in editing and storytelling to his work. In addition to his commercial experience, he has worked on multiple documentary projects supporting causes ranging from environmentalism to animal rights. His current project brings him back to his roots, as he explores the story behind the revolution taking place in Egypt, where he was born.
Contact: khaledsayed@hotmail.com