Joseph Massad teaches and writes about modern Arab politics and intellectual history. He has a particular interest in theories of identity and culture – including theories of nationalism, sexuality, race and religion. He received his Ph.D. from Columbia University in 1998. He is the author of Desiring Arabs (2007), which was awarded the Lionel Trilling Book Award; The Persistence of the Palestinian Question: Essays on Zionism and the Palestinian Question (2006); and Colonial Effects: The Making of National Identity in Jordan (2001).  His book Daymumat al-Mas'alah al-Filastiniyyah was published by Dar Al-Adab in 2009, and La persistance de la question palestinienne was published by La Fabrique in 2009. The Arabic translation of Desiring Arabs was published in 2013 by Dar Al-Shuruq Press in Cairo under the title Ishtiha' Al-‘Arab. His latest book is Islam in Liberalism, forthcoming from the University of Chicago Press.

James Gelvin earned his B.A. from Columbia University in 1983, M.A. from the School of International and Public Affairs of Columbia University in 1985, and Ph.D. from Harvard University in 1992. Before joining the faculty at UCLA, Gelvin taught at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Boston College, and Harvard University. He has been a fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars (1999–2000) and the recipient of a U.C. President's Fellowship in the Humanities (1999–2000). In 2002-3, he was Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan Visiting Professor of History at the American University in Beirut.

Musa Budeiri teaches Politics in the Program about Democracy and Human Rights in the Faculty of Graduate Students at the University of Birzeit. Budeiri has workded in Al-Quds University (1997-2003) as Director for the Israeli Studies Center. Among his last publications, we can find: "Democracy & The Experience of National Liberation: The Palestinian Case" (2010); The Palestine Communist Party 1919-1948: Arab and Jew in the Struggle for Internationalism (2010); The Palestine Communist Party, 1919-1948 : Arab and Jew in the struggle for internationalism (1979).

Bernard Botiveau is Emeritus Director of Research at the CNRS, with the IREMAM at Aix-en-Provence. He has made a great number of research and teaching trips to the Middle East and in particular to Egypt and the Palestinian Territories. He has published Loi islamique et droit dans les sociétés arabes, Karthala-IREMAM, Paris 1993; Géopolitique des Islams (with Joselyne Césari), Economica, Paris 1997; D'une Intifada l'autre. La Palestine au quotidien (ed.), CEDEJ-Complexe, Le Caire-Bruxelles 2004. From 2008 until 2011 he has been member of the équipe Political Transitions and Social Ri-compositions in the Arab and Muslim World, and since 2012 he is member of the disciplinary center on Contemporary Social Sciences.

Denise Helly is full-time professor at the National Institute of Scientific Research, at Montreal. She obtained a PhD in Anthropology (La Sorbone, 1975), and has also MBA studies in sociology, political science and sinology (Oriental Languages School, Paris). Her research interests include: theories of citizenship and nationalism; politics in cultural pluralism; regimes regarding the relation between State and religion; Muslim insertion in the West. She has published 10 books, as author, and 3 collectively, as well as multiple articles about Chinese in offshore (Cuba and Quebec); national minorities in China; Canadian multiculturalism and migration policies in Canada; polls about the insertion of québécois immigrants; history of the notions about citizenship and nation; Muslim insertion in Canada and Europe; temporary immigrant labor force.

Jean Meyer is researcher-professor and founder of the History Division at Centro de Investigación y Docencia Económicas, and Emeritus Researcher from the National Researcher System. He is a Mexican historian from French origin. He has a PhD in History from La Sorbonne. He is member of the Mexican History Academy since 2000, and Director of the international history magazine ISTOR. Among his books, we can find: "La revolución Mexicana" (1997); "Breve Historia de Nayarit" (2000); "Samuel Ruiz en San Cristóbal" (2000).

Hilda Varela is researcher-professor and Director of the Asian and African Studies Center at El Colegio de México. She has a PhD in Political Science at UNAM and is specialist of the African continent. Varela has taught geo-history of Africa, Introduction to political economy of Africa, African political thinking, African contemporary politics, African political culture, International Relations of Subsaharan Africa and Mexican foreign policy to Subsaharan Africa. Among her last publications, we can find: "Zimbabwe: treinta años de vida independiente" (co-author, 2013); "Túnez y Libia" (2012); "Páginas sueltas de una historia ignorada: las relaciones internacionales de México con África subsahariana, 1821-2010".