Gurpreet Kalra
Gurpreet is a graduate student from the University of Oxford, currently pursuing an MPhil in Politics (Comparative Government). She received a B.A. in Political Science from the University of Pennsylvania and has worked with various government institutions and NGOs, like USAID, AmeriCorps, and Asylum Access. Her research interests revolve around social capital, ethnicity, and collective action. She is currently doing fieldwork on the grassroots social movement known as Bunge la Mwananchi, focusing on differences in constitutional discourse and collective action in Kisumu and Nairobi. She plans to pursue a career in academia, with a focus on African politics.
Dominic Burbidge
Dominic James Burbidge completed a BSc at the University of London before studying a Masters in Comparative Government at St Antony's College of the University of Oxford. At St Antony's he was awarded the title Dahrendorf Scholar for research into free speech and acted as head researcher to Prof Timothy Garton Ash. He has worked for two years for the UK Parliament and is currently pursuing doctoral research at Oriel College, Oxford. His research interest covers trust and community in Kenya and Tanzania. For work in this area he received the Frankel Studentship in Economics from Oriel College in 2011. He has presented research findings in Nairobi, Oxford and Frankfurt.
Jane Okwako
Jane Okwako (Lwande) is a PhD candidate at Western Michigan University, Michigan, USA. She is pursuing a doctoral degree in Political Science. Her doctoral training is in Comparative Politics and American Politics and Institutions. She has a Master of Development Administration from Western Michigan University and Bachelors in Political Science and Geography from the University of Nairobi. Her fields of specialization are: (i) Democratization and Institutional Design, in which her interest is in describing and analyzing how various variables influence democratic transitions and consolidation globally.
Samantha Balaton-Chrimes
Samantha Balaton-Chrimes is a PhD candidate in the School of Political and Social Inquiry, Faculty of Arts, Monash University. Her doctoral research focuses on citizenship and recognition, including in relation to land, amongst the Nubians of Kenya. Her work is both empirical and theoretical in nature, seeking to shed light on the meaning and practice of citizenship in Kenya, and specifically what it means to be a ‘full citizen’. Her broader research interests include statelessness, minority rights and political participation, indigeneity, autochthony, and ethnicity in citizen-level politics. Sam also works part-time as a research assistant at the University of Melbourne on projects relating to business and human rights.
