SEASON 9: Human Rights in the Age of Polycrisis

Shubham Jain is a doctoral candidate in law and WM Tapp scholar at the University of Cambridge. He is a Researcher at the Centre for Sport & Human Rights and is the Associate Editor of ‘The Routledge Handbook of Mega-Sporting Events and Human Rights’. He researches, writes, and lectures on the intersection of sports, governance, human rights, public law, and inclusion.

Sarah Awan is a doctoral candidate in Sociology at the University of Cambridge. As a researcher her work examines how technological, social and political shifts in society impact gender and human rights. Sarah currently serves as Chief of Staff at the United Nations Foundation. She has over 15 years of experience in mobilising private sector and public coalitions to drive social impact initiatives.

Ed is a final year undergraduate, studying History and Politics at Clare College, Cambridge. His studies incorporate transnational European History, modern political philosophy, and the Politics of Sub-Saharan Africa. Ed has a particular research interest in conceptions of Human Rights in foreign policy activism, which he aspires to develop further through postgraduate study. Ed was President of the Clare Politics Society in the last academic year and spent the Summer working as a Political Research Consultant.

Ali is an MPhil student in Sociology (New Media and Culture) at the University of Cambridge, specializing in the intersection of digital environments, societal structures, and collective consciousness. His research examines how digital and alternative media platforms shape community dynamics, collective memory, and social interactions. Currently, he is investigating the emergence of digital counterpublics during 2023–2024. In addition to his academic work, Ali is the founder of Irteqa, Pakistan's first Media Manipulation Casebook.

Evie is an MPhil student in Modern British History at Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge. Her research explores feminist interventions in the built environment of the 1980s. She has a particular interest in the emotional and archival politics of the city. Evie also writes investigative pieces for Varsity, hosts a radio show and is part of Amnesty International’s DVC Verification Corps. She writes creative non-fiction in her spare time.

Yusan is a second year HSPSer at St Johns. She has an intrinsic interest in the nuances of Post-Colonial African governance, owed to her Eritrean background and its status as a continental ‘pariah.’ Her studies this year delve on analysing the Geographies of Power between Kenya and Uganda, the History of Political Thought, Social Theory and Statistics. Yusan has independently interviewed members of the People’s Front for Democracy and Justice, and spent last summer working as a Comparative Banking Intern in the Commercial Bank of Eritrea.

Erkan Gürsel is currently undertaking an M.Phil in Sociology at the University of Cambridge, researching protracted state violence in the Republic of Türkiye in the aftermath of the February 2023 earthquakes. He is also a staff member in the Geography department at UCL, where he teaches on the M.Sc. Global Migration programme. He released a documentary film titled “No.910” in February 2024, exploring the impact of the 2023 earthquakes on his family in the eastern Mediterranean city of Antakya, Türkiye.

Eve is a doctoral researcher in Education at the University of Cambridge, focusing on disadvantaged students’ experience in higher education. Her research investigates how social inequality is reproduced during the transition from campus to labour market, especially for students from socio-economically disadvantaged backgrounds. Outside academic life, she actively works as a life design coach and a volunteer for non-profit organization such as Education Without Barriers.

Martha is pursuing an MPhil in Politics and International Studies at Selwyn College, Cambridge. Her research focuses on student movements against US imperialism in Brazil and wider Latin America, inspired by her time as an archivist for the Memory and Human Rights Institute (IMDH), the Federal University of Santa Catarina’s branch of the National Truth Commission for human rights abuses perpetrated during Brazil’s dictatorship. With the social and human impacts of geopolitics and breakdowns of diplomacy at the forefront of her interests, she currently works as a geopolitical analyst, and aspires to work in diplomacy after completing her studies.