Lily Golden, Distinguished Scholar in Residence at the Chicago State University, Professor of African-American Studies, received her doctorate in African history from the Soviet Academy of Science, Moscow. She has published widely on the African Diaspora and Pan-Africanism. She is co-founder of the Institute of Russian African Studies in Moscow. Before moving to the USA, Lily Golden had taken on research and teaching positions in Russia, South Africa, Senegal, Switzerland, Italy and France. "Long Journey Home: Memoirs" (2003), her most recent book, recounts the story of her life as the daughter of an Afro-American expatriate and agrarian activist. Lily Golden is a member of many international organisations including the Cross-Cultural Black Women's Institute in New York.

Fatima El-Tayeb, historian and filmmaker, received her doctorate in Modern German History. She currently holds the position of Assistant Professor of African American Film and Literature at the University of California (UC), San Diego. In 2001 she published "Schwarze Deutsche. 'Rasse' und nationale Identität 1890-1933" and has written numerous articles on race, gender and national identity. She is also a filmmaker and co-authored the feature film "Alles wird gut/Everything will be fine" (with Angelina Maccarone).
Fatima El-Tayeb has advised on the concept behind the "Black Atlantic" project, and devised the "Becoming Black Europe" Panel Discussion in the first platform.

Lena Sawyer teaches social work at the Mid Sweden University in Ostersund, Sweden. She received her doctorate in Cultural Anthropology in 2000 from the University of California in Santa Cruz for her thesis on "Black and Swedish: Racialization and the Cultural Politics of Belonging in Stockholm". Last year she was involved in the EU project headed by Professor Masoud Kamali on "The European Dilemma: Institutional Patterns of 'Racial' Discrimination". Her work centres on feminist and anti-racist social work and the topics of migration and identity. She is also currently working for an NGO in Gambia concerned with children's rights.

Gloria Wekker is Professor of Women Studies in the Arts at the Institute for Media and Representation and Director of GEM, Centre of Expertise on Gender, Ethnicity and Multiculturality at the University of Utrecht. Her doctoral thesis on constructions of subjectivity and sexuality among Creole working-class women in Suriname developed into a longitudinal project (1990-2002). Her new book on the influence women migrants have had on contemporary everyday culture in the Netherlands is due out next year. Over the last few years, Gloria Wekker has advanced to become a leading figure in critical debate in the Netherlands. She describes herself as a representative of an intersectional gender theory, an approach simultaneously analysing operations of gender, ethnicity, class and sexuality.

Sheila Mysorekar, journalist and author, read English Literature, Anthropology and Drama in London and Cologne, and is the co-founder of the "Initiative Schwarzer Deutscher" (ISD). Sheila Mysorekar is an editor for political and economic affairs in the DW German Programme, and writes for the "Daily Gleaner" newspaper in Kingston. Since 1992, she has been a freelance journalist covering politics and economics for the radio programme of German public broadcaster ARD. Sheila Mysorekar was one of the publishing editors for the first anthology of Black German literature "Macht der Nacht", (1992), and has also published her own writings and poems, dealing with the experiences and social realities of Black people in Germany.