Darsha Indrajith (she/they) is a PhD candidate at the University of Cape Town’s Centre for Film and Media Studies where she is a part of the National Research Foundation funded Digital Media Sociology Lab. Her PhD research focuses on the affective relationships that South Africans have with their AI companions using, and how these accounts can contribute to feminist, decolonial and affective theories of human-machine relationality.  She has worked in civil society in South Africa for over a decade, across areas such as housing, sanitation, gender-based violence, education, AI and public health.

Fabio de Castro (he/him) is a senior lecturer at the Centre for Latin American Research and Documentation (CEDLA), Faculty of Humanities, University of Amsterdam (UvA). He is specialized in environmental justice in Latin America, with a particular focus on traditional populations, sustainable production systems, and local governance of natural resources. His research and teaching practice is grounded in principles of knowledge co-production and transdisciplinarity. In his courses, he adopts an activist teaching approach, conceptualizing the classroom as a co-learning community and a space for knowledge co-production. In his research projects, he engages directly with farmers, grassroots organizations and NGOs as equal partners throughout the research process.

Alice Fleerackers (she/her) is Assistant Professor of Journalism and Civic Engagement in the Department of Media Studies at the University of Amsterdam. Her research examines the role of journalists in the open science movement, as key intermediaries who help make research publicly accessible and understandable. She is a member of the UvA’s Amsterdam School for Cultural Analysis and the Empowering Language sector plan programme. She also contributes to connecting science and society through her role as a core team member of the UvA's newly formed research priority area, Shaping Interfaces Between Science and the Public.