Alexei “Lex” Taylor (Independent) is an award-winning chef, cookbook author, TV personality, and explorer. Through BBQ, bushcraft, leather craft, knife making, and foraging, Lex explores traditional knowledge, skills, and how the understanding of these principles forges a strong bond and appreciation for the natural world. As a chef, he hosts private, forest-table tasting menus in alternative spaces such as in the forest, barns, and even abandoned castles. He is the author of Grill Fire (Sterling Epicure 2016) and The Unofficial Bridgerton Cookbook (Simon & Shuster, 2021). He has made several appearances on Food Network, Esquire, and Sponsored Media Tours. As an explorer, Lex has travelled extensively throughout the world, learning and working with cultures who still rely on ancestral knowledge for survival. From the Sahara and Atacama deserts, to the jungles of Central America, West Africa, Europe, the Middle East, Asia, and as far north as Inuit hunting villages on Baffin Island, his quest is not just to learn but to share that knowledge back home through field guides, workshops, and lectures with the outdoor company, Fjällräven (Field guide and spokesman since 2016).
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
