Decolonial Practices in International Cultural Relations: Building Trust

Özlem Canyürek is a sociologist working at the intersection of cultural policy, politics and education. She holds a PhD from the University of Hildesheim, Department of Cultural Policy. Her research centres on marginalised knowledges, narratives and aesthetics in the German cultural field. For the German Performing Arts Fund (2021) and in children’s and youth theatre for ASSITEJ Germany (2023), she has examined diversification processes in the performing arts.

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Luis-Javier Capote-Pérez is a Civil Law Lecturer at the University of La Laguna. He has been visiting professor at the Universities of Sassari (Italy), Opole (Poland) and Cooperativa de Colombia (Colombia). He has been Judge at the Court of Appeal of Santa Cruz de Tenerife between 2006 and 2024. His researchs includes Touristm Law, IP Law and Cultural Heritage Law.

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Alan Ojiig Corbiere, Bne doodem (Ruffed Grouse Clan), is an Anishinaabe from the M'Chigeeng First Nation on Manitoulin Island. He is an Assistant Professor in the Department of History in the Faculty of Liberal Arts and Professional Studies at York University and holds a Tier 2 Canada Research Chair in Indigenous North American History. His research interests include Anishinaabe language revitalisation, storytelling, material culture and history.

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Tetyana Filevska is Creative Director of the Ukrainian Institute, art manager, curator, author and researcher of 20th century Ukrainian art. Her portfolio includes festivals, conferences, exhibitions, educational courses, books and films. She has worked in various art institutions, in particular at the EIDOS Arts Development Foundation and the Contemporary Art Centre, IZOLYATSIA and is co-founder of the NGO Malevich Institute.

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Rafael Lozano-Hemmer is a Mexican-Canadian media artist who works at the interface of architecture and performance art. He creates platforms for public participation by using technologies such as robotic lights or telematic networks. In addition to 18 solo exhibitions, Lozano-Hemmer's art has been shown at several biennials worldwide. He was the first artist to represent Mexico at the Venice Biennale with an exhibition at Palazzo Van Axel in 2007.

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Alan Michelson is an artist, curator, writer, lecturer and Mohawk member of the Six Nations of the Grand River. He is a leading practitioner of a socially engaged, critically aware, site-specific art grounded in local context and informed by the retrieval of repressed histories. Michelson works in a variety of media and materials, including painting, sculpture, photography, sound, video, glass and stone. Michelson is co-founder and co-curator of the Indigenous New York series with the Vera List Centre for Art and Politics at the New School.

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Senayon Olaoluwa is the Pioneer Coordinator of Diaspora and Transnational Studies at the Institute of African Studies, University of Ibadan, Nigeria and founding director of the TETFund Centre of Excellence for Diaspora Studies. His research is at the intersection of migration, environmentalism and culture. His publications have appeared in journals such as African Affairs, Journal of African Cultural Studies and ISLE: Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and Environment.

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Skawennati is a First Nations multimedia artist. She explores history, future and change from her perspective as an urban Kanien'kehá:ka (Mohawk) woman and as a cyberpunk avatar. Her machinima and machinimagraphs (films and stills shot in virtual environments), sculptures and textiles have been exhibited internationally. Skawennati is co-director of Aboriginal Territories in Cyberspace.

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Jeff Thomas is Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) and an independent curator and photographer. His family is from the Six Nations of The Grand River Territory. Thomas focuses on aboriginal issues in what is now Ontario and northern New York State. He has been involved in several major projects at prominent Canadian cultural institutions such as the Canadian Museum of Civilization, the Woodlands Cultural Centre and the Art Gallery of Ontario.

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Lyz Erika Torres Ramos is a colombian artist, curator, researcher, and education policy consultant. In her multidisciplinary work, she focuses on memory, curatorship, and popular knowledge. Working closely with communities, she uses photography, video, drawing, and collective actions to empower local identities. Her role in Latinismo supports self-managed platforms, amplifying Latin American voices and fostering dialogue across geographies.

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Shadrach Teryila Ukuma is a university lecturer at Benue State University in Nigeria. He holds a Master's degree in African Performance Aesthetics and a PhD in Cultural Performance/ Cultural Sustainability from the DAAD SDG Graduate School ‘Performing Sustainability: Cultures and Development in West Africa’, Universities of Hildesheim (Germany) and Maiduguri (Nigeria). His research interests lie in the areas of cultural tourism, performance studies and creative peacebuilding.

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Priscilla Vallejo Doblado is a multidisciplinary visual artist, professor, and cultural manager. Her work is focused on exploring the feminine universe, the body, and its interaction with the environment from a social and anthropological perspective, with a particular emphasis on daily life. Her artistic practice stems from graphic thinking and extends into various disciplines such as object art, installation, painting, and textiles.

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Lucy (Olena) Zoria is an arts and culture manager from Kyiv and the Head of Arts at British Council Ukraine. She is graduate of Cultural Studies from National University “Kyiv-Mohyla Academy” and current student within the Master’s of Public History and Memory Studies programme at Kyiv School of Economics. Her areas of interest include arts and culture in their social and historical dimensions, creative entrepreneurship, public history, community-building and institutional cooperation. 

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Anita Budziszewska is a lecturer and researcher in the Department of Diplomacy and International Institution at the Faculty of Political Science and International Studies at the University of Warsaw, Poland. She has been a Swiss Government Excellence Scholarship Holder at the University of Geneva, Geneva Centre for Philanthropy (2023/2024) and a Swiss based Annelise and Mieczysław Koćwin Foundation Scholarship Holder (2023/2024).

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Lynda Jessup is Vice Dean in the Faculty of Arts and Science at Queen's University on the traditional lands of the Haudenosaunee and Anishinaabe peoples. She is Director of the North American Cultural Diplomacy Initiative (NACDI). A former Canada-U.S. Fulbright Scholar, she focuses on the role of nationalist art histories in advancing international relations in the twentieth century and globalizing dynamics in the twenty-first. She is a member of the International Cultural Relations Research Alliance (ICRRA).

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Meike Lettau holds a Junior Professorship in Cultural and Media Policy Studies at Zeppelin University Friedrichshafen, Germany. Her research interests include foreign cultural policy, international cultural relations, artists as agents of change, cultural activism, sociopolitical transformation processes and culture in conflict regions, among others. She is currently leading the DAAD-funded project تواصل [Tawasol] Cultural Production and Policy Network, which investigates the socio-political dimensions of artistic formats between the WANA region and Germany.

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Sarah Smith is an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Information and Media Studies at Western University, where she holds the Canada Research Chair in Arts, Culture and Global Relations. She focuses on contemporary art and museums, cultural diplomacy and creative labour. Smith is part of several active research networks, including the North American Cultural Diplomacy Initiative (which she co-founded) and the International Cultural Relations Research Alliance (ICRRA).

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Eduardo Luciano Tadeo Hernández is Associate Professor at the Faculty of Politics and Culture of the Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana-Xochimilco (Mexico City) and Profesor de Cátedra at the Faculty of International Studies of the Universidad Iberoamericana. Hernández is co-founder of the Círculo Mexicano de Estudios Coreanos (CMEC). His research interests include public diplomacy, cultural diplomacy, democratisation and foreign policy as well as gender issues in Korea and Mexico.

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César Villanueva is Professor of International Relations and Cultural Diplomacy at the Universidad Iberoamericana in Mexico City. He is also a member of NACDI (North American Diplomacy Initiative) and Level II of the National System of Researchers of Mexico (SNI-CONAHCYT). His work focuses on exploring the intersections between contemporary culture, nation branding, soft power and international relations.

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