José Luis Molina

Full Professor & Member of BRIDGES Advisory Board

José Luis Molina is Full Professor at the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB). He is an Economic Anthropologist interested in the cultural consequences of interconnected personal networks or social fields. He has collected personal network data from migrants, social entrepreneurs and vulnerable groups through his participation in projects in which ethical dilemmas are a constitutive part of the fieldwork. He has conducted research projects on ethnic and social entrepreneurship, and has been the Principal Investigator of several projects in the field of migrations, acculturation, and transnationalism. Currently, he collaborates with an international project on digital platform workers led by the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS). He is author of about one hundred scientific papers and book chapters, as well as four academic books, and director or co-director of 21 PhD dissertations. At BRIDGES, he will monitor ethical issues and provide advice on how they may be addressed.

Sònia Parella Rubio

Director of CER-Migracions & Member of BRIDGES Gender Observatory

Sònia Parella Rubio is Director of CER-Migracions, the interuniversity and interdisciplinary research institute on international migrations affiliated to the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB), where she obtained her PhD cum laude in Sociology in 2002. Her main research interests include the processes of labour market integration of international migrants, the analysis of discrimination against migrant women from an intersectional perspective, and the study of transnational practices in migration contexts. She has published on gender perspective in migration studies, feminist theory of intersectionality, translational families, and the relationship between migrations and the labour market. She has participated in more than 30 competitive projects. At BRIDGES, apart from member of the Scientific Advisory Board, she is part of the Gender Observatory, contributing to the inclusion of the gender perspective all along the project, as an expert in gender and migrations.

Juan-José Igartua

Full Professor of Media Psychology & Member of BRIDGES Advisory Board

Juan-José Igartua is Full Professor of Media Psychology at the University of Salamanca (USAL), where he is also Director of the Observatory for Audiovisual Contents. He has presented papers in more than 150 national and international conferences and has published more than 100 peer-review academic articles, 10 books, and 40 book chapters. He is currently involved in two EU-funded research projects on migration and prejudice reduction toward migrants and refugees and has been principal investigator in 7 research projects dealing with migration from a communication science and media psychology perspective. He is specialised in content analysis in relation to migration framing in mass and social media and has also carried out laboratory and online experiments on narrative persuasion and the framing effect. At BRIDGES, he will provide feedback on the design of the social psychological experiment led by Universitat Pompeu Fabra (UPF) as part of WP5 in order to assess the impact of narratives on individual attitudes towards migrants in Europe

Abdel Ghaffar Ahmed

Professor of Social Anthropology & Member of BRIDGES Advisory Board

Abdel Ghaffar Ahmed is Professor of Social Anthropology at the University of Khartoum (UofK). He holds a PhD in Economic and Political Anthropology from the University of Bergen (1973), where he was Adjunct Professor (2005-2007). He was seconded to the Sudan National Council for Research as Director of the Economic and Social Research Council (1976-1977). He also directed the Organization of Social Research in East and Southern Africa (1992-2002) and the regional office of the International Council for West Africa and North Africa (2002-2004). He has taught social anthropology at universities in Sudan, Norway, the United States and Saudi Arabia. His research covers topics related to political, social and economic development in Africa, with focus on Sudan and the Horn of Africa. At BRIDGES, he will specifically comment on the research results related to the impact of narratives on the decisions of potential migrants living in Sudan.

Ismaila Ceesay

Senior Lecturer of Political Science & Member of BRIDGES Advisory Board

Ismaila Ceesay is a Senior Lecturer and the Head of the Political Science Department at the University of The Gambia (UTG), where he has founded and directs the MSc program in International Relations and Diplomacy. He holds a PhD in African Studies from the University of Edinburgh. His research interests include African politics, ICT and the intersection of security and youth issues. He has participated in many international research projects and has published in African Renaissance and the Journal of African Foreign Affairs, as well as within the London School of Economics’ African Election Series. He co-led the Afrobarometer Round 8 survey in Gambia and has carried out extensive ethnographic research on youth and migration in this country and in West Africa. At BRIDGES, he will provide feedback on the research results related to the impact of narratives on the decisions of potential migrants living in Gambia.