Keynote speakers confirmed

Dianne Gereluk

Dianne Gereluk is Dean and Professor at the Werklund School of Education, University of Calgary. Her research focuses on the normative dimensions of educational policy and practice, particularly concerning politically contested and controversial educational issues. She is dedicated to exploring how educators can foster environments conducive to constructive political deliberation in today’s polarized civil society. Dr. Gereluk’s scholarly inquiries have delved into various political controversies in educational settings, including but not limited to gun violence, gender and sexual identity, and youth radicalization. At the core of Gereluk’s philosophical work is her commitment to foster learning environments for children to learn how to live well together in society despite their diverse fundamental political, social, and religious perspectives.  Her research has examined educational contexts in England, United States, and Canada.

She is the author of several influential works, including Education and Community (Continuum, 2006), Symbolic Clothing in Schools (Bloomsbury, 2008), Education, Extremism and Terrorism (Bloomsbury, 2012), Questioning the Classroom (Oxford University Press, 2016, co-authored with Christopher Martin, Bruce Maxwell, and Trevor Norris), Understanding School Choice in Canada (University of Toronto Press, 2016, co-authored with Lynn Bosetti), Rural Teacher Education in Canada: Connecting Land and People (Springer, 2019, co-edited with Michael Corbett), and Professional Ethics and Law in Education (2022, co-authored with Bruce Maxwell and Christopher Martin).

Alison Phipps OBE

Alison Phipps UNESCO Chair in Refugee Integration through Languages and the Arts at the University of Glasgow and Professor of Languages and Intercultural Studies. She was De Carle Distinguished Visiting Professor at Otago University, Aotearoa New Zealand 2019-2020, Thinker in Residence at the EU Hawke Centre, University of South Australia in 2016, Visiting Professor at Auckland University of Technology, and Principal Investigator for AHRC Large Grant ‘Researching Multilingually at the Borders of Language, the body, law and the state’; for Cultures of Sustainable and Inclusive Peace, and was Co-Director of the Global Challenge Research Fund South South Migration Hub 2019-2024. She is an Ambassador for the Scottish Refugee Council. She received an OBE in 2012  and Honorary Doctorates from the University of Edinburgh, and the University of Waterloo, Canada in 2023. She is an academic, activist, educator and published poet and a member of the Iona Community.