Michael J. Balick (New York Botanical Garden and Columbia University) Vice President for Botanical Science, Director and Philecology Senior Curator Institute of Economic Botany, The New York Botanical Garden. For more than four decades, Dr. Balick has studied the relationship between plants and people, working with traditional cultures in tropical, subtropical, and desert environments. He is a specialist in the field known as ethnobotany, working with indigenous cultures in many parts of the world to document their plant knowledge, understand the environmental effects of their traditional management systems, and develop sustainable utilization systems-while ensuring that the benefits of such work are always shared with local communities. Dr. Balick has also conducted research in New York City, studying traditional healing practices in ethnic communities of the urban environment. He is the author or editor of 30 books and monographs.
4, GRADUATE FELLOW, GRADUATE -A-C, Women Mobilizing Memory
Doctoral Student, Cultural Studies, Sabanci University
Bürge Abiral is a PhD candidate in Anthropology at Johns Hopkins University. She received her BA from Williams College and her MA in Cultural Studies from Sabancı University, Turkey. Her research interests include human- environment relations, climate change, agriculture, political violence, and gender and sexuality. Her translation of Toward an Anthropology of Women (ed.
VISITING FELLOW, VISITING -A-B
Fellow, Anthropology, Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales
Fariba Adelkhah is Senior Research Fellow at Sciences Po in Paris. She received her Ph.D. in anthropology from Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales (EHESS, 1989). An anthropologist, her main research interests focus on the relationships and interplay between social changes and political transformations throughout the second half of the 20th century in Iran.
VISITING -A-B, RGFGV
Fellow, Economics, Mount Holyoke College
Nissreen Haram holds a B.A. in economics from Mount Holyoke College in Massachusetts and an M.A. in Islamic Studies from McGill University in Montreal. She has had a diverse career as a Trade Policy Advisor, Law Firm Director, Children’s Museum Director, and Artisan Cheese maker. She has also been member of the Yale Law School Middle East Seminar, and its organizing committee for more than 15 years. She is actively interested in Islamic legal and intellectual history, and contemporary approaches to religious reform.
4, GRADUATE FELLOW, GRADUATE -A-C
PhD Student, Sociology and Social Policy, Corvinus University of Budapest
