Leah Cross joined Index in October 2019, focusing on Index events and partnerships. She has a background in publishing and literature programming and has previously worked for organisations such as the Royal Society of Literature, British Council and Amnesty International. Leah holds an MA in English Literature from King’s College London, where she specialised in medical humanities and modernist art and literature.
Contact: [email protected]
Julia Farrington started Index on Censorship’s arts programme in 2010 working with young people, self-censorship in UK arts and artists working under a dictatorship. Julia organised Index’s conference Taking the Offensive, ran Art in Transition, a conference in Yangon when the censorship laws in Myanmar were repealed, and edited information packs on the laws that impact on what is sayable in the arts. In 2014 she left Index and now works freelance as Associate Arts Producer, running Index’s UK arts programme Risks, Rights, Reputations – Challenging a Risk Averse Culture.
Contact: [email protected]
Orna Herr is the editorial assistant at Index on Censorship magazine and the 2019-2020 Tim Hetherington fellow. She recently completed a Master’s degree in journalism at Liverpool John Moores University. After graduating from Manchester Metropolitan University in 2010 with a BA (hons) in English, she spent time travelling, including a stay on a kibbutz in Israel, and backpacking through Australia.
Contact: [email protected]
Jessica Ní Mhainín has experience in international human rights advocacy through her work at Front Line Defenders and the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR). She holds a Master’s degree in EU International Relations and Diplomacy Studies from the College of Europe (Bruges), where she specialised in peace and conflict studies.
Contact: [email protected]
Rachael Jolley is the award-winning editor of Index on Censorship magazine and editor-in-chief of Index on Censorship. In 2016 she was named specialist editor of the year by the British Society of Magazine Editors. And in 2017, the magazine was given a grand award in the Awards for Publication Excellence. She previously won a merit award in the Telegraph’s Young Science Writer of the Year awards. She has written for newspapers and websites in the UK and internationally (including The Times, the Financial Times, The Telegraph, Irish Times, Big Issue, New Statesman and The Guardian). She has been editorial director at think tank British Future, managing editor for monthly magazine Business Traveller, and editor of Business Traveller Middle East. She was a judge at the Rory Peck journalism awards and regularly speaks at the world’s biggest literature festival, the Hay Festival. She co-wrote the play Murdering The Truth (Greenwich Theatre). She is currently a visiting fellow in journalism at Sheffield University.
Contact: [email protected]
Jemimah Steinfeld has lived and worked in both Shanghai and Beijing where she has written on a wide range of topics, with a particular focus on youth culture, gender and censorship. She is the author of the book Little Emperors and Material Girls: Sex and Youth in Modern China, which was described by the FT as “meticulously researched and highly readable”. Jemimah has freelanced for a variety of publications, including The Guardian, The Telegraph, The Independent, Vice, CNN, Time Out and the Huffington Post. She has a degree in history from Bristol University and went on to study an MA in Chinese Studies at SOAS. She can be found tweeting @JFSteinfeld.
Contact: [email protected]
Matt has 20 years of management experience, mostly in the not-for-profit and social enterprise sectors. His role at Index on Censorship covers HR, Finance, IT and Fundraising and he is a member of the Senior Management Team. Previously he was chief executive of The Feed, a homelessness social enterprise and a community transport charity, and held board roles. He is a fellow of the School for Social Entrepreneurs, has given talks on leadership within not for profits and written for publications including Pioneers Post and Open Democracy UK.
Contact: [email protected]
David Sewell had 20 years of experience of finance management in retail before joining Index in 2009. He is a highly experienced and talented finance professional. He leads Index’s financial reporting, budget management and ensures sound governance according to charities laws and guidelines. He has also taken on the role of HR director and is responsible for office management.
Contact: [email protected]
Kaya Genc is a contributing editor for Index on Censorship based in Istanbul. Kaya is a novelist and journalist whose work has been published in The New York Times, The Paris Review and The London Review of Books among others. He is has a PhD in English literature and his first novel, L’Avventura (Macera), was published in 2008. His latest book is The Lion and the Nightingale, which tells of his extraordinary quest to find the places and people in whom the contrasts of Turkey’s rich past meet.
Laura Silvia Battaglia is a contrbuting editor to Index on Censorship, living between Italy and Sanaa, Yemen. She is an Italian freelance journalist and documentary filmmaker who contributes from Yemen for several international media outlets.
She has focused on reporting from conflict zones since 2007, including Lebanon, Israel and Palestine, Afghanistan, Kosovo, Egypt, Tunisia, Libya, Iraq, Iran, Yemen and the Syrian border.
Stephen Woodman is a contributing editor to Index on Censorship, based in Guadalajara, Mexico. A British freelance journalist, he covers current affairs, religion, politics and culture in Mexico and Central America. He has also written for the Financial Times, BBC News, the Thomson Reuters Foundation, Al Jazeera English and The Daily Beast.
Karoline Kan is a contributing writer to Index on Censorship, based in Beijing, China. Originally from Tianjin, she writes about Chinese politics, history, ethnic policies and other social issues.
She spent three years after graduation working for That’s Beijing, writing long-form features in English about Chinese people’s lives in a society shaped by a changing culture, economy and politics and has since worked for The New York Times and Radio France International. She is now an editor with China Dialogue.
Her debut work of non-fiction, Under Red Skies: Three Generations of Life, Loss and Hope in China, was published in spring 2019 by Hachette (USA) and Hurst (UK).
Saffiyah Khalique is an international journalism masters student at Liverpool John Moores University. She is an ex-Muslim activist, who advocates for the right to leave a religion freely, and campaigns against repressive apostasy and blasphemy laws. On her blog, The Amber Journals, she discusses politics, religion and women’s rights issues focusing on abuses in the Middle East and South Asia. She is the co-founder and host of The Sinning Skeptics podcast, on which young ex-Muslims and Muslims talk about their experiences with doubting Islam and leaving their religion.
Samarth Mishra is pursuing a bachelor’s degree in journalism and mass communication at Amity University Madhya Pradesh, India. Mishra’s attention to detail has led him to opt for writing as the tool for putting his views across. He has written for e-magazines including E Hacking News, and also has experience in administering blogs and editing articles. Besides writing and reading, he enjoys outdoor sports like basketball.
Satyabhama Rajoria is MPhil scholar at The University of Hyderabad. She is a singer, theatre artist and a cultural activist. She has been an active member of Indian People’s Theatre Association and Progressive Writers Association and has also performed with National School of Drama, New Delhi. She has also worked in the field of children’s theatre. Rajoria is passionate about literature, performing arts and translation. In the future she hopes to fight against gender, cast, class and cultural hegemony in Indian society.
Aliyah Kaitlyn Orr (pen name A.K. Nephtali) is a college student in Britain. Orr has been inspired by the power of words ever since a novel helped them realise their gender-neutral identity. Orr writes inclusive fiction that aims to empower LGBTQ+ people around the world. One of their short stories will be published in a digital anthology by the end of 2020.
Egil Sturk is an intern at the Swedish human rights NGO Civil Rights Defenders. He has studied international relations and global studies at the University of Gothenburg, and Yonsei University in Seoul, South Korea. Sturk is currently the Swedish ambassador for the European Student Think Tank and the former editor-in-chief of the foreign affairs-oriented publication Utblick magazine. He has an avid interest in all issues pertaining to democracy, freedom of expression, the resurgence of nationalism, populism and global governance.
Emily Boyle is studying for a bachelor’s degree in politics and international relations at the University of Exeter in the UK. Boyle is an aspiring writer, journalist and documentary-maker. She filmed and produced her first documentary about women’s economic emancipation in Tamil Nadu, India, in 2017, where she further developed her interest in free speech and censorship. Following her documentary, she has worked with Swiss NGOs active in Cambodia and India. Boyle is interested in the relationship between censorship and technology, as well as the protection of free speech in the digital era.
Faye Gear is a psychology undergraduate based in Ontario, Canada. She has a keen interest in advocating the right to free speech, especially for women. Gear is the founding member of caWsbar.ca, a women’s rights organisation in Canada which promotes women’s right to speak out on sex-based issues. She intends on pursuing a career in women’s advocacy and law.
Hana Meihan Davis is a senior at Yale University, in the USA, where she studies architecture and human rights. She dedicates her non-academic time to journalism, which she hopes to pursue professionally. She has interned with the editorial board of The Washington Post, and with the city desk of the South China Morning Post in Hong Kong, where she is from. On campus, she has written and edited for the student-run Yale Daily News. Davis hopes to use a hybrid storytelling, which combines writing and design for the protection of human rights.
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