Contributors

Veronika Bajt, PhD holds a PhD in Sociology from the University of Bristol, UK. She works as a researcher at the Peace Institute - Institute for Contemporary Social and Political Studies in Ljubljana, Slovenia. Her field of research includes migration, gender, nationalism and national identity construction; she has published on topics of migration, gender and labor market, nationalism, Muslims' religious discrimination, national identity construction and practices of Othering in media discourse. She has also been a visiting lecturer at the International University Institute for European Studies in Gorizia, Italy and taught at the Sociology Department of the Masaryk University in Brno, Czech Republic.

Denis Brylov, PhD is assistant professor at the Department of Cultural and Religious Studies of the Institute of Philosophical Education of the National Pedagogical University. He graduated from the Institute of Social Education, Donetsk, Ukraine by completing MA in Social Psychology. In 2011 he defended a PhD thesis in Religious Studies titled Sufism and Islamism: global and local dimensions at the Institute of Philosophical Education of the National Pedagogical University in Kyiv. Fields of academic inquiry include history and doctrine of Sufism, contemporary Islamist movements, Islamic culture and theology. Author of a monograph: Islam. Religions of the World (in Russian, 2006), and numerous articles on the history and doctrine of Sufism and Islamist movements.

Michal Cenker studied sociology and international relations in Amsterdam and Bratislava. Currently he is a graduate student at the Department of Social Anthropology at the Comenius University in Bratislava, Slovakia. His research is focused on Muslim migrants living in Bratislava. He teaches courses on international migration and political anthropology. At the Pontis Foundation he supervises a project on the support of civil society in Upper Egypt and coordinates another project aiming to engage political and academic institutions in Slovakia to cooperate in the field of international development and development education.

Prof. Janusz Danecki, PhD teaches Arabic language and Islamic culture in the Department of Arabic and Islamic Studies, Faculty of Oriental Studies at the University of Warsaw and in Warsaw School of Social Sciences and Humanities. He is the editor-in-chief of an international journal "Studia Arabistyczne i Islamistyczne" (Arabic and Islamic Studies), and of "The Middle East" (in Polish). He specializes in Arabic linguistics and Islam, especially Islam in the Arab World. He is the author of a number of essential works on the Arabic language and Islam (Arabic Grammar, Arabic-Polish Dictionary, Introduction to Islam, Political Thought in Islam; in Polish). He also translated into Polish a number of essential books of classical and modern Arabic literature (i.a. Ibn Hazm, the Mu'allaqat, Al-Hamadhani's Maqamat; G. Kanafani, Yusuf Idris, Tawfiq al-Hakim).

Jacek Duda completed MA in International Relations (Warsaw School of Economics, 2005) and Serbian Philology (University of Warsaw, 2008), and is currently a PhD student at the University of Warsaw. His main interests include linguistics (comparative and corpora of texts), internal and international situation and relations of the Balkan states, as well as Balkan popular culture.

Prof. Marek Dziekan, PhD is the head of the Department of Middle East and North Africa, University of Łódź, Poland. His main interests include: history of Islam; history of Arabic culture and literature; contemporary Islam in political context; Islam-West relations; ideologies of Arabic World; anthropology of Arabic World. Selected books (in Polish): Arabia Magica. The Recondite Wisdom among the Arabs in pre-Islamic Times (1993), The History of Iraq (2002, 2nd ed. 2007), Civilization of Islam in Asia and Africa (2007), History of Arabic Culture (2008). Editor-in-chief of "Rocznik Orientalistyczny".

Prof. Kristen Ghodsee, PhD is the John S. Osterweis Associate Professor and the Director of Gender and Women's Studies at Bowdoin College. She is the author of three books: The Red Riviera: Gender, Tourism and Postsocialism on the Black Sea (Duke University Press, 2005), Muslim Lives in Eastern Europe: Gender, Ethnicity and the Transformation of Islam in Postsocialist Bulgaria (Princeton University Press 2009), Lost In Transition: Ethnographies of Everyday Life After Socialism (Duke University Press 2011), and over 35 articles on gender, civil society and Eastern Europe. She is a winner of national fellowships from NSF, Fulbright, NCEEER, IREX and ACLS as well as a recipient of residential research fellowships at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington DC, the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, and the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University.

Katarzyna Górak-Sosnowska, PhD is assistant professor at the Department of Economic Sociology, Warsaw School of Economics and at the Department of Arab and Islamic Studies, Faculty of Oriental Studies, University of Warsaw, Poland. Her research interests focus on socio-economic problems of the Middle East and North Africa, and Islam in Poland and wider Europe. She published three monographs (in Polish): Arab world towards globalization (2007), The prospects of the Arab world through the lens of the MDGs (2007) and Muslim consumer culture (2011) and developed teaching materials in intercultural and development education, of which one In the world of Islam (co-author, 2007) has been translated into English and Estonian (2009). A member of editorial boards of "The Middle East", "Studies and works of the College of Socio-Economics" (in Polish) and "Warsaw Forum of Economic Sociology".

Prof. Halina Grzymała-Moszczyńska, PhD is a full professor of psychology at the Jagiellonian University in Cracow and the School of Social Psychology in Warsaw. She teaches courses such as Psychology of Religion, Multiculturalism and Religion, Cultural Psychology and Applied Cross-Cultural Communication. Her research focuses on psychological processes involved in cultural adaptation of migrants, a response of local communities to refugee reception centers and immigrants, and the role of religion in the process of cultural adaptation of immigrants. She conducts trainings of cross-cultural competencies for international companies and NGO's. She also conducts research on cross-cultural communication in business context. Her most current research projects relates to the role of religion in the acculturation of Polish migrants to UK and Ireland. She is a member of many national and international professional organizations and serves on the editorial boards of several professional journals. She has published 12 volumes as well as 55 articles in national and international journals and edited books.

Joanna Krotofil studied Psychology at Jagiellonian University, currently is approaching completion of her PhD postgraduate course at the Institute for the Study of Religions (Jagiellonian University). Her thesis is focusing on the pressures of identity negotiation among recent Polish migrants in UK and the dialogical relationships between institutions and individuals undergoing identity re-negotiation. She is a member of Dialogical Practice Network. Currently she works as a Research Fellow at Centre for Research on Nationalism, Ethnicity and Multiculturalism (CRONEM), Roehappton University. Since joining CROENM in 2007 she has worked on various projects related to migration from A10 countries. She has also worked on a joint project conducted by the University of Aberdeen and the Jagiellonian University, which was a study of Polish religious communities in UK and Ireland. Krotofil published a few articles exploring the issues of religion, culture and identity.

Karolina Łukasiewicz is a researcher and a PhD candidate in the Institute of Sociology, Jagiellonian University. She completed her MA in Sociology at the Jagiellonian Univeristy, and a MA European Political Sociology at Dalarna Univeristy, Sweden. She is a member of International Sociological Association and European Sociological Association. Her research focuses on forced migration and Chechen refugees. She published articles about Chechens in "The Journal of Diversity, in Organizations, Communities and Nations", "Studia Migracyjne - Przegląd Polonijny", "Chechens in the European Union", and "Politics of Culture".

Michał Łyszczarz, PhD is a sociologist and political scientist connected with the University of Silesia in Katowice; a member of the Common Council of Catholics and Muslims. His Ph.D. dissertation was titled: Religion and Identity. Sociological Study of the Young Generation of Polish Tatars (2011). He is interested in the sociology of ethnic minorities, in particular the Polish Tatar community. His research work focuses on sociology of culture and religion, especially the process of conversion to Islam and the religious dialogue between Christianity and Islam. Łyszczarz is also engaged in studies of assimilation and integration problems of Arab emigrant community in Poland, and the specificity of multicultural borderline area, for the most part in Podlasie and Subcarpathian Region.

Irina Molodikova, PhD graduated from the Moscow State University in Russia (PhD in Social Geography) and the European Peace University (Austria). A Director of Migration and Security program in CENSE Center of Central European University (Budapest, Hungary). Her subject of interest is migration and conflicts in the post-Soviet dimension. A member of IMISCOE network (EU) and Expert of Research Council of CIS countries and Baltic States on Forced Migration. For years she has been supervising the North Caucasus Initiative of the Open Society Institute (Budapest) in Chechnya, Ingushetia and North Ossetia. Author and editor of books on migration and conflicts: 'Transit migration: theory and practice of regulation' (2009, Russian), Education in Risk in North Caucasian Republics (2008), Migration Processes in NIS Countries. Youth Context (ed., 2006, Russian,), Migration studies in the context of social science (ed., 2005, Russian).

Agata S. Nalborczyk, PhD is assistant professor in the Department for European Islam Studies, Faculty of Oriental Studies, University of Warsaw. Her areas of research include: Islam in Europe (esp. the legal status of Muslim minorities in Europe), Christian-Muslim relations, the image of Islam and Muslims in Europe, women's issues in Islam She is one of the editorial advisors and authors in the Yearbook of Muslims in Europe ed. by J.S. Nielsen et. al. (Brill: Leiden 2009-2011) and a member of the editorial board of the research project "Annotated legal documents on Islam in Europe". She is also a co-author of the lexicon for journalists Do Not Fear Islam (http//www.wiez.com.pl/islam; in Polish) awarded in 2007 with the International Award for Inter-religious Dialogue by the (International Catholic Union of the Press).

Magdalena Nowaczek-Walczak is a PhD student at the Department of Arabic and Islamic Studies, Faculty of Oriental Studies at the University of Warsaw, Poland. An author of several publications about pop culture in Arabic World (Muslim Barbie, Arabic reality shows and entertainment programs, Arabic Harry Potter). Main interests: globalization, gender, Muslim minorities in Europe and intercultural relations.

Konrad Pędziwiatr, PhD is assistant professor at the Tischner European University and researcher at the Centre of Migration Research, University of Warsaw. Sociologist and anthropologist by training (Jagiellonian University, University of Exeter and University of
Oxford) specializing in sociology of migration, new social movements and religion (especially Islam), holding a PhD in Social Sciences from the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (Belgium). Author of monographs The New Muslim Elites in European Cities: Religion and Active Social Citizenship Amongst Young Organized Muslims in Brussels and London (2010) and From Islam of Immigrants to Islam of Citizens: Muslims in the Countries of Western Europe (in Polish, 2005, 2007) and numerous other scientific and non-scientific publications on Islam and Muslims in Europe and social movements in Europe and the Middle East. Editor of www.arabia.pl and www.euro-islam.info and a member of the Committee on Migration Research of the Polish Academy of Science.

Egdunas Račius, PhD received his PhD from the University of Helsinki. He is Professor of Middle Eastern and Islamic studies at the Faculty of Political Science and Diplomacy of Vytautas Magnus University, Lithuania. He is a contributing author of the Yearbook of Muslims in Europe (Brill) and reviews editor of the "Journal of Muslims in Europe" (Brill). Račius is author of the chapter on Islam in Lithuania in Göran Larsson (ed.) Islam in the Nordic and Baltic Countries, Routledge, 2009, and "Muslims in Catholic Lithuania: between the status quo and alternatives", in M. Ališauskiene and I.W. Schröder (eds.). Religious Diversity in Lithuania: Ethnographies of Hegemony and Pluralism, Ashgate, 2011.

Prof. Eugeniusz Sakowicz, PhD is a theologian, specialist in religious studies, encyclopedist and lexicographer. Currently he is the Head of the Chair of the Pedagogy of Culture and Intercultural Education at the CSWU Faculty of Pedagogy, and a consultor of the Polish Episcopate's Council for Religious Dialogue and member of the Council's Committee for Dialogue with Non-Christian Religions. He specializes in intercultural and inter-religious dialogue, education in the cultures and religions of the world as well as comparative religion. He is an author of more than 300 publications and over 1,600 entries and articles in encyclopedias and dictionaries, including The Catholic Encyclopaedia of the John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin. He is also editor-in-chief of "Bulletin of Mission and Religious Studies", "Bulletin of the Polish Community Abroad" and "Bulletin of Sociology of Religion" (in Polish).

Daniela Stoica is a Sociology PhD student of Babes-Bolyai University (Cluj-Napoca, Romania), working on her dissertation in joint supervision with Tilburg University, Netherlands. Developed within a comparative perspective, her research concerns the experience of Romanian and Dutch women who convert to Islam. Focusing on conversion narratives produced by women from two structurally different contexts, where local Muslim communities have different profiles, the project approaches the way in which Muslim women define and enact their religious identity in relation with their religious background, ethnicity, and gender. Stoica has a B.A. in Journalism (2007) and a M.A. in Gender Studies (2009).

Magdalena Trojanek graduated in sociology from University of Science and Technology and in psychology from the Jagiellonian University. For many years she has been cooperating with NGOs, working in the field of sustainable development, antidiscrimination and global and multicultural education. Scientific interests: development cooperation, development and migration politics, psychotraumatology and cultural psychology.

Gaweł Walczak is a PhD student at the Institute for Social Studies at the University of Warsaw. He also cooperates with various NGOs working with immigrants and refugees. His main interests include: migration, refugees, nongovernmental organizations, development.

Marta Woźniak, PhD is a Polish scholar specializing in the Middle East and assistant professor based at the University of Łódź. She graduated from the Department of International Relations, University of Łódź, in 2006, receiving the Best Polish Student's Award ('Primus Inter Pares'). In 2010 she completed her Ph.D. dissertation titled Modern Assyrians and Arameans in Search for National Identity based on her research conducted in Syria, Turkey, Sweden, Germany and Brazil. She studied Arabic language in Damascus and Cairo, where she also worked in the Polish embassy. So far she has presented papers at about 50 conferences and published 30 articles. She is currently working on a book on political role of Copts - the Egyptian Christians.

Oleg Yarosh, PhD heads the Oriental Philosophy Department at the Institute of Philosophy of National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine. He graduated from the History Department of the Odessa State University with MA in History. In 2002 he defended his PhD thesis in Philosophical Anthropology on Man in the mystical paradigm: anthropology of Sufism at the Institute of Philosophy of NASU. Scholarships include: Balliol College, University of Oxford (Oxford Theological Exchange Program), Graduate School for Social Research, Warsaw, Zentrum Moderner Orient, Berlin (DAAD) and Kennen Institute, Washington DC (Fulbright-Kennan Senior Scholarship). Member of Central Eurasian Studies Society (CESS), USA. Fields of academic inquiry include History and doctrine of Sufism, modern Islamic missionary movements, Islam in Central and Western Europe.