Fereydoon Rahmani is an Associate Professor of Sociology in the Department of Equity Studies at York University, Canada. He received his PhD and MA in Sociology from the University of Vienna. His teaching and research focus on sociology, human rights, quality of life, social indicators, spatial justice, ethnic inequality, social movements, and Middle Eastern societies. He previously served as Chair of the Department of Sociology at the University of Duhok. At York University, he has served as Undergraduate Program Director in the Department of Equity Studies, held executive and committee leadership roles within DES, and served on the Senate Review Committee on Tenure and Promotions. He also supervises graduate students at universities across Canada and in Kurdistan. Dr. Rahmani is the author of Rooftop Societies: The Middle East Paradox and introduced the concept of 'Rooftop Societies' to analyze socio-cultural and political incongruities in Middle Eastern societies.

Email: rahmanif@yorku.ca

Livy Visano's research critically examines the contradictions embedded within liberal democratic states, particularly in relation to human rights, culture, law, and enduring structures of inequality. His scholarship approaches social justice through comparative and historical perspectives, with particular attention to political economy, cultural reproduction, and hegemonic state practices.

His research interrogates the ways human rights discourses, laws, institutions, and policies can both challenge and reproduce existing relations of power. Moving between normative approaches to rights and an emphasis on praxis, his work explores law and culture as texts and narratives through which inequality, morality, identity, and justice are constructed and contested. Particular attention is given to the tensions between law's claims to justice and its operation within structures of privilege, neoliberal political economy, and unequal social and cultural relations.

Drawing on critical hermeneutics and interdisciplinary approaches, Visano examines how recognition, representation, and regulation intersect with identity, institutions, and ideology. His work asks how law and dominant political discourses produce particular social subjects, how culture mediates the differential experience of rights and inequality, and how resistance and struggle emerge within established structures of power.

His current research continues to investigate the relationship between human rights, law, culture, identity, and inequality, including the capacity of legal and political institutions to respond meaningfully to competing narratives of justice and belonging. This critical perspective provides an important framework for examining human rights and social justice across diverse local, transnational, and international contexts.

Email: lavisano@yorku.ca

Merle A. Jacobs is Associate Professor in the Department of Equity Studies, Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies (LA&PS), York University. Her interdisciplinary scholarship and teaching focus on human rights and equity, race and racialization, health and social inequalities, Indigenous issues, and social justice. She is affiliated with graduate programs including Sociology, Public Policy and Administration, Social and Political Thought, and Interdisciplinary Studies.

Dr. Jacobs brings a distinctive combination of academic scholarship and professional health-care experience to her work. Prior to her academic career, she worked as a Registered Nurse, Mental Health Nurse Manager, and psychotherapist in Toronto, with professional training in ethnocultural psychiatry, trauma and grief counselling, group psychotherapy, stress management, and patient and family education.

Her research has examined employment equity, systemic racism and workplace discrimination, health inequalities, and human rights. She was co-principal investigator on research supported by the Canadian Race Relations Foundation examining employment equity for racialized minorities and Indigenous peoples. Her publications include work on social justice, human rights and health inequalities, as well as race and equity in Canadian society.

Dr. Jacobs has held extensive leadership and governance roles at York University, including Chair of the Department of Equity Studies, membership in the York University Senate, and service on numerous university and faculty committees concerned with academic policy, curriculum, tenure and promotion, and equity. Her longstanding community engagement has also included leadership and advisory roles with health, mental-health, anti-racism, human-rights, and international civil-society organizations.

Email: merlej@yorku.ca

Dr. Zubeida Salih Abdulkhaliq is a sociologist, researcher, academic, and journalist specializing in media studies, gender studies, social change, and community development in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. She earned her PhD in Sociology from the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales (EHESS) in Paris, France, with highest honours. She also holds a Master's degree and a D.E.R.A. diploma from Sorbonne Nouvelle University - Paris III. Dr. Abdulkhaliq currently serves as Head of the Department of Sociology at the University of Duhok. She previously served as Director of the Skills Development Center at Duhok Polytechnic University. In addition to her academic and administrative roles, she has contributed to several international research and development projects in collaboration with institutions in France, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Her scholarly work focuses on Kurdish media, democracy, identity, civil society, and social transformation. She has also organized and facilitated numerous academic workshops and professional training programs on research methodology, academic publishing, higher education development, social research, and community engagement. Alongside her academic career, Dr. Abdulkhaliq has been active in journalism since 1999, contributing to local and international journals and media platforms on issues related to society, media, democracy, religious equality, and women's rights. Dr. Abdulkhaliq is fluent in Kurdish, Persian, French, and English, and has a good command of Arabic.

Email: zubeida.abdulkhaliq@uod.ac