Prof. Beatrice Nicolini Ph.D. studied International Relations and Comparative Government at Harvard University, Cambridge, U.S.A. and graduated in Political Sciences, Catholic University, Milan, Italy. She has a Ph.D. in History of Africa from Siena University, Italy. She teaches History and Institutions of Africa; Religions, Conflicts and Slavery; Indian Ocean World, and in numerous International Relations Masters. She is member of Ph.D. School Committee ‘History and Politics’ at the Faculty of Political and Social Sciences, Catholic University of the Sacred Heart, Milan, Italy. The history of the Indian Ocean, trade routes, strategic and development issues are her main research topics.

Prof. Colin Crouch is an external scientific member of the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies at Cologne and professor emeritus of the University of Warwick. He previously taught at the London School of Economics and Political Science, the University of Oxford (Fellow of Trinity College), and the European University Institute, Florence. He is a Fellow of the British Academy, and of the Academy of Social Sciences, and a member of the Accademia delle Scienze di Torino. His most recent books include The Globalization Backlash (2019); Will the Gig Economy Prevail? (2019); Manifesto for Social Europe (2020); and Post-Democracy after the Crises (2020).

Jasminko Halilovic is the founder and general director of the War Childhood Museum—the world's only museum exclusively focused on the experience of childhood affected by war—which has been awarded the Council of Europe Museum Prize under the European Museum of the Year scheme. Halilovic developed the War Childhood Museum from the War Childhood book, a mosaic of short memories that he collected from more than 1,000 people. Before the WCM, he founded several not-for-profit and for-profit entities. His books have been translated into six languages. Halilovic is the first Bosnian selected for the Forbes “30 under 30” list.

Dr. Heidi Tworek is a Canada Research Chair and associate professor of international history and public policy at UBC. She directs the Centre for the Study of Democratic Institutions. Her work examines history and policy around communications, particularly the effects of new media technologies on democracy. She is a senior fellow at the Centre for International Governance Innovation as well as a non-resident fellow at the German Marshall Fund of the United States and the Canadian Global Affairs Institute. Tworek's interest in democracy was spurred by writing her prize-winning book, News from Germany: The Competition to Control World Communications, 1900-1945 (Harvard University Press, 2019).

Evert van der Zweerde (born 1958) studied philosophy and Russian in Nijmegen (Netherlands), Moscow (USSR) and Fribourg (Switzerland). After defending his PhD, Soviet Historiography of Philosophy; Istoriko-filosofskaja nauka (Dordrecht: Kluwer 1997), he has worked as lecturer and professor of Social and Political Philosophy at Radboud University (Nijmegen, Netherlands). His research focuses on political philosophy, esp. theory of democracy, and Russian philosophy. He has led and supervised several collective research projects, including “Repertoires of Democracy”, which resulted in Creative Crises of Democracy (Peter Lang, 2011), “Religion, Nation and Democracy in the South Caucasus”, which yielded a book with the same title (Routledge, 2015), and, currently, “Vive la commune! Communalism as a Democratic Repertoire”. He is also co-founder of the Radboud-based “Democratisch Laboratorium”. Most recent publication: Russian Political Philosophy: Anarchy, Authority, Autocracy (Edinburgh UP, 2022).

It is a timely question – whether there is a new hope for democracy – given democratic backsliding in a number of countries, including those on the European continent. As never before, democracy needs to be protected! In these complicated and unpredictable times, discussions such as this, among young people in the fight for democracy, are vital. I am currently involved in a research project focused on the shifting balance between Autocracy and Democracy. Therefore, it is a great pleasure for me to be able to participate in the WFD and expand my knowledge of democratic processes around the globe so that I can further my academic research, as well as share my knowledge with other like-minded young people.