Dara Culhane began her academic career with the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at SFU in 1994, after serving as deputy director of the Canadian Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples from 1992–94. She has held positions as a visiting scholar at the University of Southern California, and the National University of Ireland/Galway. Her work has concentrated on historical and contemporary relations between Aboriginal peoples and the Canadian Nation State; politics of indigenous women's health; collaborative research methodologies; and urban studies. Dara receives the Shadbolt Felowship for her project: "Encore! Travels with the Ghost of Margaret Sheehy"

Gerardo Otero is Professor of Sociology, an Associate Member of the Latin American Studies Program and of the School of International Studies at SFU, and he is an Adjunct Professor in the Development Studies Doctoral Program at the Universidad Autónoma de Zacatecas, in Mexico.(Sociology and Anthropology). His work has focused on social movements, rural sociology, political economy, state-society relations in semiperipheral nations, neoliberal globalism and agricultural biotechnology in Latin America. Gerardo receives the Shadbolt Felowship for his project: "Empowerment Theory: Political-Cultural Formation and Social Movements from Below"