Nira Yuval-Davis is Professor of Gender & Ethnic Studies at the University of Greenwich, London and Visiting Professor at the Department of Cultural Studies at the University of East London. Professor Yuval-Davis has written extensively on theoretical and empirical aspects of women, nationalism, racism, fundamentalism and citizenship in Europe, Israel and elsewhere. She is the author or co-author of ten books, including Gender and Nation, which has been translated into six languages.

R.W.Connell is University Professor of Education at the University of Sydney, formerly at the University of California-Santa Cruz and Macquarie University. Professor Connell is a researcher and theorist concerned with human experience, social dynamics, social justice and peace. He is the author of sixteen books, including Gender (Cambridge, Polity, 2002), The Men and the Boys (Berkeley, University of California Press, 2000), Masculinities (Berkeley, University of California Press, 1995), Schools and Social Justice (Philadelphia, Temple University Press, 1993), and Gender and Power (Stanford, Stanford University Press, 1987).

Dr. Rose M. Brewer is Professor, Morse-Alumni Distinguished Teaching Professor, and past chair of the African American & African Studies Department at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities. Professor Brewer also holds affiliated appointments in the Departments of Sociology and Gender, Sexuality and Women’s Studies. She received her M.A and Ph.D degrees in Sociology from Indiana University, and did post-doctoral studies at the University of Chicago. She has written extensively on black families, race, class and gender, and public policy, publishing over 40 refereed journal articles, book chapters, and scholarly essays in these areas. She is the editor with Lisa Albrecht of Bridges of Power: Women’s Multicultural Alliances. She is also co-editor of Is Academic Feminism Dead?: Theory in Practice (New York University Press, 2000), with the Social Justice Group, Center for Advanced Feminist Studies, University of Minnesota. Her most recent co-authored book is The Color of Wealth (The New Press, 2006), which was selected as one of the top l0 books for 2006, receiving the Gustavus-Meyers Book Award for best books on bigotry and human rights.

Professor Brewer’s commitment to undergraduate education and her scholarly achievements have been widely recognized. She is one of ten University of Minnesota faculty recipients of the Morse-Alumni Teaching Award for Teaching Excellence and Outstanding Contributions to Undergraduate Education. She has also received the African American Learning Resources Center Award for Teaching Excellence, among numerous other awards. In 1999 she was inducted into the National Academy of Distinguished Teachers, University of Minnesota-Twin Cities. Professor Brewer has spent over a decade working on curriculum transformation and progressive pedagogy, and consults nationally on issues of race, class, and gender in the curriculum.

Rose Brewer defines herself as a scholar-activist. For over a decade, she has been a member of the board of Project South: Institute for the Elimination of Poverty and Genocide. She has also served on the board of United for a Fair Economy, and is a founding member of the Black Radical Congress.