Professor Jessica Ringrose (she/her) PhD (York University Canada) is co-Director of the Centre for Sociology of Education and Equity at UCL Institute of Education and cofounder of Postdigital Intimacies research network. Prof Ringrose is a widely cited expert on teens and social media, youth activism, young people’s gender and sexual cultures, sex education and digital literacy in school settings. She has also worked with a wide range of global and UK stakeholders to shape policy and practice in areas of education, gender, media, communications and justice. Her recent projects focus on developing educational interventions to prevent  tech facilitated gender based and sexual violence,  and the impact of Smartphone and social media bans upon youth.  In 2020 she was the recipient of The American Educational Research Association (AERA) Distinguished Contributions to Gender Equity in Education Award. Her latest book is, Teens, Social Media and Image Based Abuse (Palgrave).

Deevia Bhana holds the South African Research Chair in Gender and Childhood Sexuality at the University of KwaZulu-Natal. She is co-Chief Editor of Children & Society; Pedagogy, Culture, Society and Associate Editor of Sex Education. Her research focuses on the how gender and sexuality come to matter in the young life course and the implications for childhood sexual well-being and gender justice. In this research, she traces the intersection of heteronormativity, gender, race, poverty, class in shaping young sexualities, pleasures, desires and risk in schools, families, intimate relationships and digital spaces. Her recent books are Girls and the Negotiation of Porn in South Africa: Power, Play and Sexuality (Routledge, 2023) and Gender and Young People’s Digital Sexual Cultures (Ed.) (Palgrave MacMillan, 2025) and Gendered and Sexual Norms in Global South Early Childhood Education Understanding Normative Discourses in Post-Colonial Contexts (Eds.) (Routledge).

Professor Kath Albury is an Australian Research Council (ARC) Future Fellow, leading the ‘Digital and data capabilities for sexual health policy and practice’ reseach project (2022-2026). The project’s  knowledge translation resources are available at https://ddcsrh.com. Past projects have investigated young people’s practices of digital self-representation, and the role of user-generated media (including social networking platforms and dating apps) in young people’s formal and informal sexual learning, safety and wellbeing practices. Kath is also an Associate Investigator in the Swinburne University of Technology Node of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Automated Decision-Making and Society (ADMS), where she co-leads the Signature Project ‘Critical Capabilities for Inclusive AI.’ Recent co-authored books include: ‘Everyday Data Cultures’ (with Jean Burgess, Anthony McCosker and Rowan Wilken, Polity 2022) and ‘Data for Social Good: Non-Profit Sector Data Projects’ (with Jane Farmer, Anthony McCosker and Amir Aryani, Palgrave Macmillan Open Access 2023).

Dr. Sanna Spišák is a researcher who’s not afraid to ask difficult questions about power, intimacy, and technology. She leads the Consent Spectrum: The Many Facets of Consent (C-SPECT, 2024–2028) project at the University of Helsinki’s Helsinki Inequality Initiative (INEQ), funded by the Research Council of Finland. Her work focuses on mediated sexualities, sexual rights, and digital media, topics she explores not only in academic journals but also in classrooms, workshops, and public discussions. Whether teaching future professionals in sexology, youth work, or healthcare, she brings clarity and critical depth to complex issues that matter. Sanna has served on the board of the Finnish Society on Media Education for eight years, including two as vice chair, contributing to national dialogue on how media shapes learning and life. Most recently, she co-edited the first Finnish textbook on co-research, Kanssatutkimus: Ihanteet ja käytännöt (Co-research: Ideals and Practices, Tampere University Press, 2023), opening up new ways of thinking about research with – not just on – communities.

María Elvira Díaz Benítez has been an Associate Professor in the Graduate Program in Social Anthropology at the National Museum, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, since 2013. She is the coordinator of the Núcleo de Estudos em Gênero, Sexualidade e Raça (NuSEX) at the same institution. Between 2020 and 2025, she served as Editor-in-Chief of Mana: Estudos em Antropologia Social. She is currently Editor-in-Chief of the anthropology and social sciences collections at Papéis Selvagens publishing house.

Her research experience includes urban anthropology, ethnic-racial relations, intersectionality, pornography, and humiliation. She is currently conducting two research projects: one on expressions of racism and imaginations of the future among Black people, and another on violent attacks involving the use of chemical agents.

Dr. Kristen Cheney is an independent scholar and a research associate for Child Frontiers. She is a leading expert on child and youth participatory research, particularly in the area of Adolescent Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (ASRHR). Her work takes an explicitly child/youth-centered approach that considers how young people experience and respond to the various hegemonic institutional and structural elements of global and local development practices. She has led several projects using youth participatory research to explore issues of young people’s sexual and reproductive health for Oak Foundation, Save the Children, and ECPAT International. She was also a member of the international expert group that created the Verona Principles international guidelines on surrogacy and served on the Children’s Rights European Academic Network (CREAN) and Share-Net NL (Netherlands Network on Sexual and Reproductive Health).

She has written extensively on these and other issues of intergenerational reproductive justice: https://publicationslist.org/kristen.cheney