Ievgen Bilyk is a PhD candidate at the International Graduate Centre for the Study of Culture. In his doctoral project titled “How Knowledge About Open Data Is Created: Analysis of Formal International Rankings and Community-Based Practices,” he seeks to demonstrate how knowledge about open data can be constructed more democratically by looking into formal international rankings of open data development and community-based practices of open data use in specific countries from a critical perspective of the social studies of knowledge.  

Editorial Team Membership: Since January 2024

Ievgen.Bilyk@on-culture.org 

João Henrique da Costa Sol Afonso is a PhD candidate at the International Graduate Centre for the Study of Culture (GCSC) and the International PhD Programme Literary and Cultural Studies (IPP). He is also a member of the European PhDnet Literary and Cultural Studies (PhDnet). In his doctoral research, grounded in Comparative Literary and Cultural Studies, he investigates the figure of animals in modern poetry, bringing Zoopoetics into dialogue with Zoofolkloristics.

Editorial Team Membership: Since February 2026

Joao.Afonso@on-culture.org

Ivana Dinic is a PhD Candidate at the International Graduate Centre for the Study of Culture (GCSC), at the Justus-Liebig-University of Gießen. Her dissertation, at the intersection of Political History, Sociology and Cultural Studies, examines the social mobility and advancement in early socialist Yugoslavia with the aim of incorporating the often overlooked Southeast European experience into the broader narrative of post-World War II socioeconomic transformation in Europe.

Editorial Team Membership: Since June 2025

Ivana.Dinic@on-culture.org

Erzhena Dugarova is a PhD candidate at the International Graduate Centre for the Study of Culture. In her PhD project, grounded in cultural anthropology and ethnographic methods, she deals with the emergence of Buryat ethnic activism and articulations and (re)constructions of indigenous identities.

Editorial Team Membership: Since January 2024

Erzhena.Dugarova@on-culture.org

Katharina Hacker is a PhD candidate at the International Graduate Centre for the Study of Culture. Her doctoral project is situated in the fields of Sociology, Cultural and Collective Memory Studies and Political Science. She analyzes the (trans-)collective memory structures of the Ovaherero and Nama genocide in the face of transnational recognition processes.  

Editorial Team Membership: Since January 2024

Katharina.Hacker@on-culture.org

Isabella Kalte is publications coordinator and PhD candidate at the International Graduate Centre for the Study of Culture. She is a member of the International PhD Programme Literary and Cultural Studies (IPP). In her doctoral project, she explores how gender and genre intersect in the representation of femininity and resistance in post-millennial Anglo-Caribbean literature.

Editorial Team Membership: Since May 2021

Isabella.Kalte@on-culture.org

ORCID iD: 0000-0002-2569-2133

Jens Kugele is Head of Research Coordination and member of the Executive Board of the International Graduate Centre for the Study of Culture. Anchored in the disciplines of Literary Studies and History of Religion, Jens’s postdoctoral research focuses on the construction of sacred spaces in literary and cultural history.

Editorial Team Membership: Since October 2014

Jens.Kugele@on-culture.org

ORCID-ID: 0000-0001-8282-0341

Lucía Mesa Vélez is a doctoral candidate at the Graduate Center for the Study of Culture (GCSC). From a decolonial feminist perspective, Lucía researches the ethical, epistemological and material impacts, implications and possibilities of using artificial intelligence to address social issues (what’s referred to as “AI for good” or “AI for development”) and its role in the reproduction or resistance to the modern/colonial order.

Editorial Team Membership: Since February 2026

Lucia.Mesa@on-culture.org 

Ansgar Nünning is the Academic Director of the International Graduate Centre for the Study of Culture (GCSC) and Professor of English and American Literature and Cultural Studies in Giessen. He has published widely on English and American literature, cultures of memory, narratology, and literary and cultural theory.

Editorial Team Membership: Since 2013

Ansgar.Nünning@on-culture.org

Kacper Radny is a research assistant and a PhD candidate in art history at the international Graduate Centre for the Study of Culture. He is active at the JLU’s Faculty of History and Cultural Studies and Institute for Art History, as well as GCSC’s Europe’s East and Game Studies working groups. His research focuses on the nineteenth century Eastern European painting and modern queer art.

Editorial Team Membership: Since February 2023

Kacper.Radny@on-culture.org

Editorial Team Membership: Since February 2026

Nubia.Sanches.Martins@on-culture.org 

Luis Guillermo Zazueta Beltran is a PhD Candidate at the International Graduate Centre for the Study of Culture (GCSC). Working at the intersection of death, body, and politics in Mexico, he examines how processes of aestheticization and post-populist narratives influence political decision making.

Editorial Team Membership: Since February 2026

Guillermo.Zazueta.Beltran@on-culture.org