Convener, Constitutionalism in Developing Democracies, Socio-Legal Studies Association.

Nauman coordinates the affairs of GSN PGR Community . If you wish to join or for any query regarding this group, please write to Nauman at leicgsn@gmail.com or visit the contact page of this website.

IONA MCENTEE, PGR REP, UNIVERSITY OF STRATHCLYDE

Iona McEntee is a PhD Candidate at the University of Strathclyde. After completing the LLM in Global Environmental Law and Governance in 2020 and becoming a member of the Strathclyde Centre for Environmental Law and Governance in 2021, Iona has been developing her research within global environmental studies. Iona’s research is grounded within the Rights of Nature discourse, with a focus on analysing the extent to which inter-judicial exchanges can accommodate the diffusion of subaltern epistemologies, and act as a gradual and piece-meal approach towards the cosmopolitan transition of law.

Yusuf Sulayman

GSN PGR Representative, University of Portsmouth.

Yusuf is a lawyer with over 8 years of experience teaching and practicing in Nigeria. He specializes in helping clients resolve a variety of issues from corporate to property and election disputes. He has also worked for non-profits especially in the education and policy spaces to provide sustainable and replicable solutions to challenging issues that affect mostly the underprivileged members of society. He has authored and published several scholarly papers that are well-read and cited. He is currently an Associate Lecturer in Law at the University of Chichester, and a third year PhD researcher at the University of Portsmouth, UK. His research focus is on public law, especially as relates to the empirical assessment of the working of courts in Nigeria.

His thesis challenges the existing order of assessing judicial independence by shifting attention to the role of normative social influence on institutions and how that plays out within the judiciary. He loves to explore new creative ideas and visits the beach for leisure.

Natalia Morales Cerda

PhD Candidate and Postgraduate Teaching Assistant in Public Law at University College London.

Natalia Morales Cerda (she/her) is a PhD Candidate and Postgraduate Teaching Assistant in Public Law at University College London. Her PhD research project contributes to the literature on women’s political participation and representation in constitution-making through examining the 2021-2022 Chilean constituent process. Adopting a theoretically informed socio-legal methodology, her research critically assesses women’s direct participation in constituent processes in both democratic and feminist theory. Through this examination, her research also provides a feminist critique of the ‘crisis’ of democratic representation. Natalia has been a visiting scholar at the Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México (ITAM) and at Università degli Studi di Milano.

Isobel T. Webster

Isobel T. Webster (she/her) is a doctoral student at the University of Leicester, currently researching British Latinx Literature in the 21st Century. She recently completed an MPhil at Leicester, her thesis exploring the representations of queer Puerto Ricans in documentary film. Her research interests include Latin American and Latinx visual and literary cultures, particularly looking at the intersections with gender studies, queer studies and disability studies.

Yelyzaveta Monastyrova

Yelyzaveta Monastyrova is a PhD candidate (2022-2025) at the Law School of the Open University. Her dissertation focuses on the inclusion of exploitation of citizens into the anti-trafficking regimes in Spain, Ukraine and the UK, and the relationship between victimhood and citizenship. Yelyzaveta holds an Erasmus Mundus Joint Master degree in South European Studies from the University of Glasgow, Autonomous University of Madrid and LUISS Guido Carli, and a BA in International Relations from the Oles Honchar Dnipro National University.

Samuel González Cataño

Samuel González Cataño is a Mexican lawyer and political scientist currently pursuing a J.S.D. at Yale Law School, where he also obtained his LL.M. in 2022. He has collaborated at Isonomía, a prestigious Mexican journal on law and philosophy, and served in several positions at the Mexican Supreme Court and the General Consulate of Mexico in New York. Samuel’s research interests include comparative law in Latin America & the Global South, legal & judicial politics, and human rights & democracy.

ANTELE MADUGU

Antele Madugu is a passionate and driven individual from Nigeria. Antele holds a law degree from the University of Abuja, Nigeria, with a Master’s in International Commercial Law from the University of South Wales. 

Antele Madugu has worked in several organisations, most recently as a Legal Officer with the Nigerian Ministry of Works and Housing before actively engaging in the world of academia in pursuit of a PhD degree. Their research focus is “The African Single Market: An Analysis of Competition Law in the ECOWAS and Its Impact on the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA)”

Xiyuan Gao

PhD Candidate in Film Studies, Dept. of Film Studies; School of Arts, Media, and Communication, University of Leicester.

Xiyuan (Samantha) Gao is a PhD Candidate in the Department of Film Studies at the University of Leicester. Her research interests are fandom studies, science-fiction film studies, cultural studies in the Star Wars franchise, and feminist film studies. Her PhD project, “The Re-creation of Female Star Wars Spectators: Fanfiction and Fandom Community”, is collaborative research to the combined discipline of film and media studies. She received her master’s degree in media and communication with Merit from Xi’an-Jiaotong Liverpool University (Suzhou, China) and a bachelor’s degree in art management and cultural communication from the National Academy of Chinese Theatre Arts (Beijing, China). She is also a member of the British Association of Film, Television and Screen Studies and the Disney, Culture & Society Research Network.

OBERT DANIEL MAWADZE

An accomplished legal professional with extensive experience in various facets of law and academia, A Doctoral of Laws (LLD) researcher at the University of Pretoria (UP), specializing in Comparative Constitutional, International law and Electoral law. My research area of interest focuses on the impact of constitutional amendments in Africa.

My journey in the legal field began with a Bachelor of Laws (LLBs) (Honours) degree from the University of Zimbabwe, followed by a Postgraduate Diploma in Law, Conciliation, and Arbitration from the same institution.

I  pursued a Master of Laws in Constitutional and International Law degree at the University of Zimbabwe, an LLM-Master of Laws in Extractive Industry Law in Africa from the University of Pretoria, a Postgraduate Certificate in Risk, Compliance & Governance from the University of the Witwatersrand (WITS), South Africa which qualification reflects my commitment to staying abreast of contemporary issues in governance and regulatory compliance. I pursued a Master of Science degree  in International Relations from Midlands State University Zimbabwe. My professional experience spans over 13 years as a Legal Practitioner or Advocate in Zimbabwe, where I have  honed  skills in litigation, legal research, advocacy, and client representation. This experience was further enriched by my role as a lecturer of law at the University of Zimbabwe where I imparted legal knowledge to the next generation of legal professionals.

Additionally, I served and am currently serving as a legal advisor and board member to private mining and investment organizations, including government agencies focusing on rural infrastructural development, Labour law, Investment and property law, Commercial law litigation, Criminal law and Corporate law. My future aspirations include completing the Doctor of Laws (LLD) degree, further enhancing my expertise in comparative Constitutional and International law, Electoral law, Extractive (Mining) Industry law, Environmental law, corporate law, joining the academia  or political leadership in my country Zimbabwe.

BERNARDO CARVALHO DE MELLO

GSN PGR Rep, Newcastle University.

Carvalho began their legal career as a Senior Partner at the esteemed law firm Goodman & Associates, where he honed their skills in various aspects of Civil law, especially Family Law. He is currently pursuing a PhD in Law, specialising in International Human Rights Law at Newcastle University, showcasing their commitment to staying at the forefront of legal scholarship. Their previous academic achievements include a Master’s in Constitutional Law and State Theory and a Bachelor’s degree in Law both in Brazil, and a BA in History.

ERINI YEMENTIZIS

Erini is currently a PhD candidate at the University of Strathclyde in the UK, where she is currently pursuing her doctorate in the field of Law. Erini’s areas of interest span the legal field, ranging from competition law to data protection and technology. Her research currently delves into the intricate world of digital platforms within the digital economy. Erini’s primary focus is on the market power held by these digital giants and the regulatory landscapes that govern them across various countries.

Federico Jorge Gaxiola Lappe

Federico Jorge Gaxiola Lappe is a JSD student from Mexico at NYU. He completed an LL.M. in Legal Theory at NYU as a Hauser Global Scholar and a Bachelor of Arts in Law at Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México. He worked for approximately 6 years at the National Supreme Court of Mexico, where he was a judicial assistant to Justice Cossío Díaz and Justice Medina Mora, and a law clerk to Justice González Alcántara Carrancá. In 2022, Jorge was professor at Escuela Libre de Derecho, where he taught the course Legal Theory. Jorge is interested in the way in which law deals with and resolves conflicts of values. Particularly, he is interested in researching new challenges to democratic practices, like the proliferation of disinformation, that require us to adjust preconceptions about how human rights and democratic processes operate as reciprocal limits and conditions to each other, and about the value of acknowledging the existence of conflict, moral remainders, and moral loss.

Roman Gnaegi

Roman Gnaegi is a development/humanitarian professional and research student in the Doctor of Social Science (DSocSci) programme at University of Leicester. Over the last fifteen years he has worked as a staffer, consultant and advisor for non-governmental organizations in Burkina Faso, Uganda, Tanzania, Cambodia, Nepal, Chile, Argentina and his home country Switzerland. He currently lives in La Paz, Bolivia. Roman’s academic background is in Social Anthropology, Peace and Development Studies and Global Health. His research focuses on the peace building contributions of health workers and other non-professional peace builders.

NOEMI CARDENAS VALTIERRA

Noemi is a talent development professional in the private sector and a research student in the DSocSci Programme (Doctor of Social Science) at the University of Leicester. She has experience in the private sector in México in the automobile and beverage industries in talent management, strategic human resources, and labour relations. She has held the positions of Human Resources Manager, Manager of Labour and Union Relations, and her current role is Senior Manager of Talent Management and Diversity and Inclusion. The main responsibilities are strategising and deploying talent development and fostering an inclusive environment in Mexico and Brazil.

She has a master’s degree in Organizational Development and Change from the Universidad de Monterrey and presented a thesis related to motivation triggers for change in senior workers in public organisations. Her research interests encompass gender dynamics in executive roles by studying the talent pipelines in managerial positions. Noemi lives in Guanajuato, México.

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