The Doyle Engaging Difference Program - Georgetown University

Deirdre Jonese Austin graduated from the Walsh School of Foreign Service in 2019 with a major in culture and politics with a focus on religion and social justice. She minored in African-American studies with a certificate in religion, ethics, and world affairs. Her research interests include reconciliation as a means for conflict-resolution to global problems, the role of the Black Church in society today, and how different religions conceptualize and understand social justice. Outside of the classroom, Deirdre was involved in several Protestant Ministry organizations and was also on the boards for the B.R.A.V.E. Summit and Resonant Essence Live A cappella Ensemble. At the Berkley Center, Jonese Austin was a student fellow in the 2017-2018 Doyle Undergraduate Fellows program.

Marjorie Mandelstam Balzer is a research professor in the School of Foreign Service, co-convener of the Indigenous Studies Working Group, and a Berkley Center faculty fellow. She has been at Georgetown since 1987 in the Center for Eurasian, Russian and East European Studies (CERES) and the Anthropology Department, and has twice been a Doyle Faculty Fellow through the Berkley Center. She is editor of the Taylor and Francis journal Anthropology and Archeology of Eurasia and is author or editor of six books on Russia, Central Asia, and the Circumpolar North. Her research interests focus on the intersections of religion, politics, ecology, human rights, and comparative indigenous activism. Her latest book, based on fieldwork in three republics, is Galvanizing Nostalgia: Indigeneity and Sovereignty in Siberia (Cornell University Press, 2021).

Rev. Ludovic Lado, S.J., is the director of Centre d’Etude et de Formation pour le Développement (CEFOD) in N’Djamena, Chad. A native of Cameroon, he specializes in the anthropology of religion, focusing on current trends in African Catholicism. His publications include Catholic Pentecostalism and The Paradoxes of Africanization (2009); Le pluralisme religieux en Afrique (2013); and several journal articles. He is currently working on two book manuscripts: The Politics of Gender Reforms in Côte d’Ivoire (forthcoming from Notre Dame University Press) and Towards an Anthropology of African Catholicism (forthcoming from Brill). A member of the Society of Jesus (Jesuits), Lado holds a D.Phil. in social and cultural anthropology from University of Oxford.

Cheryl Suzack is an associate professor at the University of Toronto's Department of English and Centre for Indigenous Studies. Her research focuses on indigenous law and literature, particularly literature produced by indigenous women. Her book Indigenous Women's Writing and the Cultural Study of Law (2017) examines tribal membership, residential schools, and land claims.

Andrew Walker is a program associate in the Office of the Vice President of Global Engagement at Georgetown University, and a previous fellow at the Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace and Security. He holds a B.S. in Foreign Service from Georgetown University, where he studied international politics and women's and gender studies.