Swati Arora

Junior Fellow - Queen Mary University of London (UK), Performance and Global Studies
Research Project at MaCI: Art, Politics, and Public Space in Delhi
(May/September–December 2026)

A Senior Lecturer in Performance and Global South Studies at Queen Mary University of London, she conducts research at the intersection of minority performance, visual culture, transnational feminisms, and de/postcolonial politics. Her work, writing, and teaching explore how various aesthetic practices refract colonial and imperial histories, the epistemologies that underpin them, and the traces they have left behind. She is the recipient of the 2025–2026 Akademie Schloss Solitude Fellowship and the 2024 Early Career Researcher Prize, awarded by the Theatre and Performance Research Association (United Kingdom).

Before joining Queen Mary University of London, she worked at King’s College London. She previously held two Andrew W. Mellon Postdoctoral Fellowships in visual history and theory at the Center for Humanities Research, and then in the Department of Women’s and Gender Studies at the University of the Western Cape (South Africa), where she remains a Research Fellow today.

Yevgeniya Bondarenko

Senior Fellow - V.N. Kharkiv National University (Ukraine), English Philology

Research Project at MaCI: UKRAINIAN WAR MEMES AS A TOOL OF COUNTERPROPAGANDA
(February–June 2026)

A 1989 graduate of V. N. Kharkiv National University (formerly Kharkiv State University), she has been teaching in the Department of English Philology since 1990, where she has held the positions of Lecturer, Associate Professor, and Full Professor in succession.
In 1994, she defended her doctoral dissertation on the contextual temporal semantics of nouns and verbs in sentences and texts. In 2012, she earned her habilitation by presenting work on the concept of TIME, its historical evolution in the English language, and its use in British scientific, philosophical, and poetic discourse from the 7th to the 21st century.

The author of more than 200 scholarly articles, nine individual and collective monographs, and more than twenty university textbooks, her publications cover, among other topics, English philology, translation studies, and cognitive linguistics.

Eve Edelstein

Distinguished Fellow - Stanford University (U.S.), Neuroarchitecture

Research Project at MaCI: Design to Thrive
(April–December 2026)
An adjunct professor in the Department of Anesthesiology, Perioperative, and Pain Medicine at Stanford University School of Medicine, she has an interdisciplinary academic background that combines neuroscience, architecture, and anthropology. She holds a Ph.D. from the Institute of Neurology at University College London, an M.Sc. from the University of Birmingham, an M.Arch. from the NewSchool for Architecture & Design, and a B.A. in Anthropology from the University of California, Berkeley.

A pioneer in the emerging field of neuroarchitecture and a member of the board of directors of the Academy of Neuroscience for Architecture, she combines research with professional practice as CEO of Neuro-Architecture and co-founder of Clinicians for Design. She designs and delivers training programs internationally, including the Stanford course “Brains, Bodies & Buildings,” which is aimed at faculty, professionals, and students.

Anthony Elliott

Distinguished Fellow - University of Adelaide (Australia), Social Theory

Research Project at MaCI: Understanding Digital Isolation: Investigating Predictive AI and the Loneliness Paradox
(October–November 2026)

Distinguished Professor Anthony Elliott, AM, holds the Bradley Distinguished Chair of Sociology at the University of Adelaide, where he is also Executive Director of the Jean Monnet Center of Excellence for Digital Transformations. He is also a Super-Global Visiting Professor at the Graduate School for Human Relations at Keio University (Japan) and a Full Visiting Professor of Sociology at University College Dublin (Ireland).

His research lies at the intersection of social theory, the social uses of technology, and identity studies. As the author or editor of some fifty books published by major international publishing houses and more than 150 academic chapters and articles, he has exerted a major influence on contemporary social sciences, contributing in particular to the emergence of new fields of research focused on artificial intelligence and psychosocial studies. His works have been translated into more than seventeen languages.

In 2023, he was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia as part of the King’s Birthday Honors, in recognition of his contributions to higher education, research, and public policy in the social sciences. In 2024, he received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the University of Melbourne. Elected a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences in Australia in 2009 and of the Academy of Social Sciences in the United Kingdom in 2020, he has also been a Fellow of the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences since 2026.

Ai Hisano

Junior Fellow - University of Tokyo (Japan), History
Research Project at MaCI: Aesthetic Capitalism: Shaping Modern Perceptions
(October 2026 – July 2027)

An associate professor at the Graduate School of Interdisciplinary Information Studies at the University of Tokyo, she holds a Ph.D. in history from the Hagley Program in the History of Capitalism, Technology, and Culture at the University of Delaware.

Before joining the University of Tokyo in 2021, she was a Newcomen Postdoctoral Fellow in Business History at Harvard Business School and taught at the Graduate School of Economics at Kyoto University.

Her research focuses on the history of the senses, business history, cultural history, and the history of technology. Through an interdisciplinary approach, she examines the interactions between economic practices, technical innovations, and sensory experiences in modern and contemporary societies.

Katrien Jacobs

Senior Fellow - Monash University Malaysia, Digital Media and Communication
Research Project at MaCI: Alterhumans, Deepfakes, and Sex-Gender Politics
(January–June 2026)

An associate professor of digital media and communication at Monash University Malaysia, she has published extensively and taught on issues of sexuality and gender in digital media, contemporary art, and forms of online activism.

She has secured several major research grants and is the author of five books on Internet culture, activism, and issues of gender and sexuality in Chinese and European societies. She is currently working on a new monograph focusing on artificial intelligence and deepfake creation, as well as their effects on global cultures of gender and sexuality.

A researcher and artist, she also pursues an artistic practice alongside her academic and ethnographic work, notably through the creation of documentaries and performances. She was awarded a fellowship and an artist residency at the Bogliasco Foundation (Italy) in 2024.

Zaman Muhammad

Senior Fellow - Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad (Pakistan), Sociology
Research Project at MaCI: Marriage, Mobility, and Mediation: Consanguinity and Early Marriage Among the South Asian Diaspora in the UK and France
(January–July 2026)

A full professor of sociology at Quaid-i-Azam University in Islamabad, he is also the founder of the university’s School of Sociology.

He earned his Ph.D. in sociology from the University of Leipzig and subsequently completed several postdoctoral fellowships in Warsaw and Zurich. His research focuses on marriage and kinship systems, the well-being of children and youth, and road safety.

The author of one book and more than thirty-five peer-reviewed articles, he has received major research grants from the Higher Education Commission of Pakistan, the DAAD, the DFG, and other international organizations. Recognized by PLOS Biology (2020) as one of the top 2% of most-cited scientists worldwide, he also received the HEC Best Young Researcher Award in 2021.

Karen Pearlman

Senior Fellow - Macquarie University (Australia), Performance - Media
Research Project at MaCI: THIS COULD HAPPEN
(April–June 2026)

Associate Professor Karen Pearlman at Macquarie University writes, directs, and edits audiovisual productions. Her research focuses on creative practices, distributed cognition, and the feminist history of cinema.

His short films devoted to historic film editors (2016, 2018, and 2020) have won 34 awards in official selection. Her film *Breaking Plates* received the Best Short Documentary Award at the 2025 Antenna International Film Festival, praised by the jury as “a playful invitation to consider very serious issues related to feminism and voice, as well as the dynamics of structure and agency.”

She was accredited by the Australian Screen Editors (ASE) Guild in 2024. A five-time nominee for the ASE Award for Best Editing (including two wins), she is the author of Cutting Rhythms, Creative Film Editing (3rd edition, 2025), a book in which she draws on her experience as a professional dancer to explore editing as a choreographic art form. Her 2025 monograph, Shirley Clarke: Thinking Through Movement, offers a feminist approach to auteurism in cinema through an analysis of Shirley Clarke’s work.

Richard C. Sha

Distinguished Fellow - Center for Neuroscience and Behavior at American University (U.S.), Literature
Research Project at MaCI: Lashed to the Mast: The Cost of Our Emotion Models
(June 2026 – June 2027)

A professor at American University (Washington, D.C.), he is also an Affiliate Professor of Philosophy and affiliated with the Center for Neuroscience and Behavior. He is a recognized expert on European Romanticism, as well as on the connections between literature, history, and the philosophy of science, medicine, and sexuality.

His book *Imagination and Science in Romanticism* (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2018) received the Jean Pierre Barricelli Prize that same year. In 2026, he was honored by the Keats-Shelley Association of America as a Distinguished Scholar.

His work also focuses on the theory of affects, emotions, and their relationship to consciousness, contributing to an interdisciplinary approach to the study of emotions.

Filip Van Opstal

Senior Fellow - University of Amsterdam (The Netherlands), Cognitive Neuroscience
Research Project at MaCI: Inspired by Distraction: The Relationship Between Mind Wandering and Creativity
(February–May 2026)

An associate professor of cognitive neuroscience at the University of Amsterdam, he studied experimental and theoretical psychology at Ghent University, where he also conducted part of his postdoctoral research, as well as at the Université Libre de Bruxelles and at NeuroSpin in Paris.

Before assuming his current position, he served as a guest professor at the Ghent Royal Academy of Fine Arts and as a specially appointed assistant professor at the Immunology Frontier Research Center and the Institute for Academic Initiatives at Osaka University.

His research focuses on various aspects of human cognition, including numerical cognition, cognitive control, metacognition, and consciousness.

Andrew Yarrow

Distinguished Fellow - George Mason University (U.S.), Political Science
Research Project at MaCI: “Masculinism” and Right-Wing Politics Among Young Men in France and the United States
(March–July 2026)

A journalist and historian, he has taught at George Mason University, American University, and Sciences Po Grenoble. He is the author of six books, including *LOOK: How a Highly Influential Magazine Helped Define Mid-20th-Century America*, *Man Out: Men on the Sidelines of American Life*, and *Measuring America: How Economic Growth Came to Define American Greatness*.

A former journalist at The New York Times, he has been published in numerous leading media outlets and is currently developing a documentary film project. He also served as a speechwriter in the Clinton administration and has worked or collaborated with several institutions, including the Brookings Institution, Public Agenda,
Oxfam, the World Bank, UNICEF, the U.S. Department of Education, and the U.S. Export-Import Bank.

He holds a Ph.D. from George Mason University, master’s degrees from Princeton University and Harvard University, and a bachelor’s degree from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).