Professor Bridget Anderson is a British, internationally renowned scholar of migration, mobilities, citizenship, and labour. She is Professor of Migration, Mobilities and Citizenship at the University of Bristol and Director of Migration Mobilities Bristol (MMB), which she has led since 2017. Her research has shaped global scholarship on how distinctions between “migrants” and “citizens” are legally and socially constructed. Anderson has collaborated extensively with migrant organisations, legal practitioners, trade unions, and international partners. In 2026 she was appointed the inaugural Director of the Migrant Futures Institute at Goldsmiths, University of London, a major new centre advancing innovative, socially engaged migration research.
Bridget Anderson has also worked closely with the University of Helsinki since 2015 through teaching, keynote lectures, joint publications, and long‑term partnerships with the Centre of Excellence “Migration, Care and Ageing,” while supporting early‑career researchers and contributing significantly to the university’s international research networks.
Professor emeritus Walden Bello is a Filipino scholar, activist, and public intellectual who co‑founded Focus on the Global South and previously taught sociology at the University of the Philippines and the State University of New York at Binghamton. A former member of the Philippine House of Representatives (2009–2015) and a 2022 vice‑presidential candidate, he has written 26 books and hundreds of articles on global politics and economics, earning major honors such as the Right Livelihood Award, Amnesty International Philippines’ Most Distinguished Human Rights Defender, and the ISA Outstanding Public Scholar Award. Known for his anti‑Marcos activism, most notably exposing World Bank practices and taking part in high‑profile protest actions in the U.S., he played a role in the 1986 EDSA Revolution and later resigned from Congress on principle in 2015.
Waldon Bello has been actively involved with both Finnish academia and civil society, holds honorary doctorates from Panteion University and Murdoch University, and remains a prominent critic of Philippine governments while continuing to write and comment widely in international and local media.
Member of Parliament Pekka Haavisto is a long‑standing Finnish politician and an influential figure in international diplomacy. He has served in Parliament across five decades and has been a member of the Council of State three times, most recently as Minister for Foreign Affairs when Finland decided to join NATO. Haavisto has extensive experience with international crises: he worked for six years with the United Nations assessing the environmental impacts of conflicts and served as the European Union’s Special Representative for the Darfur crisis. He has lectured on international environmental policy at the University of Helsinki and the University of Bristol, and has served as Chair of the European Institute of Peace. Haavisto is also one of the founders of the green movement and of the European Greens, and he has an extensive body of published work.
Pekka Haavisto has close ties with researchers at the University of Helsinki’s Faculty of Social Sciences and offers the academic community deep and multidisciplinary expertise, particularly in peace mediation, thanks to his foreign and security policy experience and his extensive international network.
Professor James A. Robinson is a British‑American economist and political scientist, and a University Professor at the University of Chicago’s Harris School of Public Policy. He was awarded the 2024 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences for his pioneering research with Daron Acemoglu and Simon Johnson on how political and economic institutions are formed and how they shape long‑term prosperity. Robinson is internationally recognized for his influential scholarship on political economy, global inequality, and institutional development, and is the co‑author of landmark works such as Why Nations Fail and The Narrow Corridor. Before joining the University of Chicago, he taught at Harvard University and has conducted extensive fieldwork in countries across Latin America, Africa, and beyond. As one of the world’s leading thinkers on institutions and development, his contributions continue to shape research and policy debates globally.
In 2023 James Robinson received the University of Helsinki Rule of Law Center’s Leo Mechelin Award, and he has visited Helsinki multiple times, maintaining active collaborations with scholars at the university.