IGNITE! Festival of Radical Ideas

Abir Kopty is a Palestinian journalist and writer based in Berlin. She has worked as a communication officer/ spokesperson for Palestinian human rights organizations in Haifa and Ramallah. Her political analysis and reporting appeared in several media outlets including Middle East Eye, TRT, Mondoweiss and The Nation. She has also produced podcasts with Sowt podcasting. As a researcher she has worked on topics that include Israeli politics, Palestinian activism on social media and others. 

Dr. Jason Hickel is an economic anthropologist, author, and Professor at the Institute for Environmental Science and Technology at the Autonomous University of Barcelona. Jason’s research focuses on global political economy, inequality, and ecological economics, which are the subjects of his two most recent books: The Divide: A Brief Guide to Global Inequality and its Solutions (Penguin, 2017), and Less is More: How Degrowth Will Save the World (Penguin, 2020). In addition to his academic work, Jason contributes regularly to The Guardian, Foreign Policy, Al Jazeera and other outlets.

Jayati Ghosh is Professor of Economics at the Centre for Economic Studies and Planning, School of Social Sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. She has authored and/or edited a dozen books and more than 160 scholarly articles, including Demonetisation Decoded: A critique of India’s monetary experiment (with CP Chandrasekhar and Prabhat Patnaik, Routledge 2017), the Elgar Handbook of Alternative Theories of Economic Development (co-edited with Erik Reinert and Rainer Kattel, Edward Elgar 2016). In addition to her academic work, she is also a columnist for several newspapers in India, and regularly contributes to The Guardian and other media outlets.

Aderonke Ige is a humanitarian lawyer, development practitioner and activist based in Nigeria. She has since been a human rights advocate, and social impact crusader in the non-profit space over the last 14 years. She is currently Associate Director at CAPPA, previously led legislative efforts in Oyo state, Nigeria, resulting in the Community Service Law. She’s pursuing a postgraduate degree in Development Studies at SOAS, focusing on decolonising development and resource governance.

Jerome Roos is a Fellow in International Political Economy at the London School of Economics and is working on a forthcoming book, ‘CRISIS: The Origins of Our Times’, a groundbreaking history of global crises that can help explain our own. He is author of Why Not Default? The Political Economy of Sovereign Debt (Princeton University Press, 2019) and holds a PhD in Political and Social Sciences from the European University Institute in Florence.

Moderator, Laura Flanders is TNI Associate and host and executive producer of The Laura Flanders Show), a nationally-syndicated TV and radio program that reports on real-life models of shifting power in the arts, economics and governance around the US and the world.

Artist, Shishani is a multi award-winning and internationally touring artist whose versatility in music transcends genres and cultures. Born in Namibia, based in Amsterdam, Shishani’s work expresses a strong sense of social consciousness and intersects between music, multidisciplinary performances and research. Shishani’s work focuses on Human Rights (e.g. women's rights, indigenous populations & LGBTIQ+ community), decolonial awareness and climate justice. Their academic writing focuses on Namibia’s cultural heritage. Shishani has been a trailblazer founding various projects highlighting globally marginalized perspectives offering inspiring counter narratives through their work with Namibian Tales, Sisterhood, Shakuar and Miss Catharsis. A gentle warrior at heart, Shishani is a unique artist and activist that brings hope.