Forced human migration stands at the nexus of the greatest diplomatic challenges and opportunities our global human community currently faces. Driven by war, climate change, and other factors giving rise to political instabilities, forced migration is serving to reshape our understanding of transnational networks and sovereignty while providing leverage and justification for political actors promoting the rise of illiberal democracies across the globe.
This conference aims to examine the diplomatic implications of these phenomena through a series of keynote talks and roundtables broadcast from Germany, Mexico, Bangladesh, the United States, Jordan, and Sudan by state-sponsored, non-state actors, grassroots practitioners, and diplomacy scholars.
The mission of The Grace School is to train future diplomacy practitioners across all vocations—from those pursuing careers in the foreign service to those who want to build bridges as NGO leaders, private sector actors, scientists, artists, religious leaders, community organizers, and activists. Our goal is to create cohorts of students with a wide range of vocational trajectories who engage in the study and practice of diplomacy together and, in so doing, establish networks that they will take with them as they pursue or redirect their respective careers upon graduation. Examining the transprofessional diplomatic work which is currently taking place in response to forced human migration is the theme of our conference.
Welcome + Remarks
David Wellman, DePaul University
David Joseph Wellman’s work focuses on the relationship between diplomacy and religion, ecological sustainability, and interconvictional engagement. He is an Associate Professor and the Director of The Grace School of Applied Diplomacy at DePaul University in Chicago. Wellman is the author of Sustainable Diplomacy: Ecology, Religion and Ethics in Muslim-Christian Relations (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2004) and Sustainable Communities (Geneva: World Council of Churches, 2001). Wellman's writing on diplomacy was used as the basis for an international conference, whose outcome was the collaborative volume Sustainable Diplomacies, edited by Costas Constantinou and James Der Derian, (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2010). His more recent work has focused on European Union integration, non-state actors and grassroots diplomacy, and the role of religious culture in building bridges across boundaries of difference. Wellman's current book project focuses on urban diplomacy among non-state actors and grassroots practitioners in Paris and Chicago.
Day 1 - Bangladesh Round Table
Ranabir Samaddar, Distinguished Chair of Forced Migration Studies, Mahanirvan Calcutta Research Group
Ranabir Samaddar is currently the Distinguished Chair in Migration and Forced Migration Studies at the Calcutta Research Group. He belongs to the critical school of thinking and is considered one of the foremost theorists in the field of migration and forced migration studies. His writings on migration, forms of labor, urbanization, and political struggles have signaled a new turn in post-colonial thinking. Among his influential works are The Marginal Nation: Transborder Migration from Bangladesh to West Bengal (1999) and The Postcolonial Age of Migration (2020). His other well-known works are Karl Marx and the Postcolonial Age (2018) and A Pandemic and the Politics of Life (2021).
Nasreen Chowdhory, University of Delhi
Nasreen Chowdhory is a professor at the Department of Political Science, University of Delhi. She received her PhD from McGill University, Canada. Some of her significant publications are Refugees, Citizenship and Belonging: A Contested Terrains (Springer 2018); edited volumes on Deterritorialised Identities and Transborder Movement in South Asia with Nasir Uddin Springer 2019; Citizenship, Nationalism and Refugeehood of Rohingyas in Southern Asia with co-edited with Biswajit Mohanty, Springer 2020, and Gender, Identity, and Migration in India (Palgrave 2022) with Paula Banerjee and New Frontiers in the Register of Migration and Refugee Studies forthcoming with Springer (2025). She has contributed to several journals: Journal of Borderlands Studies, Citizenship Studies, Social Change, Refugee Watch, etc. Previously, she was the Vice President of Mahanirban Calcutta Research Group and the International Association for Studies on Forced Migration (IASFM).
Mizan Rahman, Refugee Relief and Repatriation Commissioner for the Government of Bangladesh's Ministry of Disaster Management
Mr. Mohammed Mizanur Rahman is an additional secretary to the government with more than two decades of bureaucratic career experience at the Bangladesh Civil Service (Administration). He is the incumbent Refugee Relief and Repatriation Commissioner (RRRC) at Cox’s Bazar, under the Ministry of Disaster Management and Relief (MoDMR) serving since 18 September 2022. Prior to that, he discharged his duties as an Additional Divisional Commissioner, Chattogram. He also served as the Additional Refugee Relief and Repatriation Commissioner from 2017 to 2020 at his current workplace. He collaborated in several significant roles, administering the toughest phase of the Rohingya exodus to Bangladesh from Myanmar.
With a genuine patriotic intent to serve his country and countrymen, his career took off in 1998 when he joined the prestigious Bangladesh Civil Service. His broad endeavor spectrum was dispersed from the Divisional Commissioner’s Office, Rajshahi, as an Assistant Commissioner and Magistrate to a wide range of positions at different public offices in the field administration.
Mr. Mohammed Mizanur Rahman came from a noble Muslim family from Feni Sadar of Feni District. He obtained his Bachelor's and Master of Arts in English Literature from the University of Chittagong and a Postgraduate Diploma in Project Management from the University of Bedfordshire, UK. He successfully accomplished training on ICT for Rural Development at NIRD, Hyderabad, India, and Mid-Career Training on Field Administration at the Lal Bahadur Shastri Academy, Mussoorie, India. He also received a fellowship for the Professional Development Program for Mid-Career at Monash University, Australia. In 2018, he collaborated in a workshop on Humanitarian Negotiation in Bangkok, Thailand, arranged by UNHCR. The same year, he participated as a Panelist in a 3-day conference on the Rohingya Crisis at the Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. He also accomplished the Senior Staff Course at BPATC in 2022. He recently contributed to a Seminar on Migration and Refugee Settlement organized by Metropolitan University, Toronto, Canada. Mr. Rahman also traveled to Germany, France, Switzerland, Belgium, Luxembourg, KSA, Myanmar, and Malaysia on several occasions. His travelogue titled ‘Shakespeare Barite Rabindranath (Rabindranath at Shakespeare’s Home)’ was published in 2019. His wife, Mrs. Rahela Begum, is a homemaker, and they are blessed with two offspring.
Day 1- Sudan Round Table
Lena Mahgoub, Former Sudanese Minister of Labor and Development
Lena was the Minister of Labour and Social Development in the Sudan Government after the Revolution in 2019 and was in that post till February 2021. She is a cofounder of Impact Hub Khartoum since 2015, which is part of a global network focused on social entrepreneurship and social impact. She has been appointed as a board member of the Impact Hub Association Board since 2022. She also recently joined as a board member of the Caucus for Women in Politics in the Arab Region (CPWAR).
Lena also established the CSR Department in DAL Group in 2009 and was the Corporate Responsibility and Sustainability Manager for Sayga/DAL Food. and has supported in winning international awards, namely the CSR Arabia Awards in 2010 & 2013 and the UN/PSI Awards for Social Investment in 2013. She was the Sudan adviser for the UN Global Compact Office in New York and had launched the Sudan network in 2008.
Lena holds an MA (ECON) in Development Studies from the University of Manchester and a BSC (Business Administration) from Ahfad University for Women (AUW). With over 20 years of work experience and having also worked as a lecturer for Ahfad University for Women, as a Senior Program Officer for CARE International, and then as the External Affairs Manager for the Shell Company of the Sudan Ltd., she is a firm believer in the vast opportunities a partnership between the different stakeholders can bring and how that can contribute to the SDGs and creating the societal impact needed to bring about positive change.
Since 2017, Lena has been a national coordinator for Ubuntu Lab Africa and a member of the Global Transformation Thinkers Network, which focuses on democracy and good governance. She is passionate about advancing social justice and human rights and is a perpetual optimist.
President, African Middle Eastern Leadership Project (Washington, D.C.) Mohamed Abubakr is a Sudanese human rights activist and peacemaker with a decade and a half of civil society experience. Since high school, he has founded and led organizations and initiatives focused on humanitarian, human rights, youth empowerment, and peace programs across the Middle East and Africa (MEA), including in Darfur, South Sudan, Sudan, Egypt, Israel, the Palestinian Territories, and beyond. Mohamed has also documented, reported, and mobilized against human rights abuses across MEA and, since arriving in the United States, has become a sought-after voice at the State Department and in Congress concerning policy and human rights issues in the region.
Hamid Khalafallah, University of Manchester
Hamid Khalafallah is a development practitioner, researcher, and policy analyst. He is currently a PhD student researching political transitions and grassroots movements in Africa at the Global Development Institute of the University of Manchester, UK. Before that, Hamid worked for various international organizations, working on governance and development issues in Sudan. He holds a master’s degree in International Development from the University of Bradford, where he studied as a Chevening Scholar and was awarded the Development Studies Association (DSA) dissertation prize. Moreover, Hamid is a former fellow of the Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy (TIMEP) in the US and an alumnus of the Young African Leaders’ Programme at the School of Transnational Governance of the European University Institute (EUI) in Italy. Hamid’s research interests include participatory governance, democracy and democratization processes, citizen-state engagement, and inclusive development.
Day 1 - Keynote
Shailja Sharma, DePaul University
Shailja Sharma is a Professor of International Studies and the co-director of the DePaul Migration Collaborative. She is the author of Postcolonial Minorities in Britain and France: In the Hyphen of the Nation-State(Manchester 2016) and editor of New Cosmopolitanisms: South Asians in the United States (Stanford 2006). She was a Fulbright Fellow in India from 2018 to 2019, working on a project on violence, memory, and citizenship. She writes for public outlets, including newspapers and journals in the US and India. You can hear her TedX talk about refugees and the Indian Partition at the link here.
Day 1 - United States Round Table
Johannes Favi, Deputy Director, Illinois Community for Displaced Immigrants
Johannes Favi is a community and human rights activist who received the 2021 Jeanne and Joseph Sullivan Human Rights Award from the National Immigrant Justice Center.
Johannes Favi is the Deputy Director of the Illinois Community for Displaced Immigrants (ICDI). In his role, he oversees the strategic planning, fundraising, and development of ICDI. He has led and participated in various actions and meetings with elected officials, community leaders, local organizations, and universities at both the local and national levels. Johannes has authored several articles advocating for the abolition of immigrant detention centers in Illinois, efforts that culminated in the passage of The Illinois Way Forward Act.
Suzanne Akhras Sahloul, Executive Director, Syrian Community Network
Suzanne Akhras is the Democratic candidate for IL State Representative District 82. She is known as the founder and Co-Executive Director of the Syrian Community Network (SCN). Under her leadership, SCN has grown exponentially to become a strong voice for refugee and immigrant rights and a community-based refugee support organization working in partnership with local and national refugee, immigrant rights, and faith-based organizations. She has led several community-based foundations and raised funds for many causes in Chicago and her homeland. Suzanne is passionate about community service, advocacy, and human rights. She received the UNICEF Chicago Humanitarian Award and the Illinois Coalition for Immigrants and Refugee Rights annual humanitarian award. Suzanne was inducted into the Moraine Valley Community College Alumni Hall of Fame in 2020 for her work with SCN. In 2022, she was awarded empower10, one of ten Arab American women making a difference in her community. She is educated in Nonprofit management and leadership from Lewis University and the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University. Suzanne has also served as a PTA president and a board member at Universal Islamic School. She is married with three children and one grandchild.
Katie Tobin, Former Deputy Assistant to the President and Senior Director of Transborder Matters, U.S National Security Council
Katie is a nonresident scholar at Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in the American Statecraft Program, a Pritzker fellow with the University of Chicago Institute of Politics, and a senior advisor for WestExec Advisory LLC. She is also an active press contributor to print and TV media, including the Wall Street Journal, MSNBC, and News Nation.
From 2021 to 2024, Katie served in the Biden-Harris Administration as Deputy Assistant to the President and Senior Director for Transborder in the White House National Security Council. During her tenure in the White House, she spearheaded the Los Angeles Declaration on Migration and Protection, President Biden’s signature migration framework, adopted by 21 countries in the Western Hemisphere in June 2022. She was also a lead architect of Operation Allies Welcome (2021), Uniting for Ukraine humanitarian parole program (April 2022), the Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela Parole Process (January 2023), and the Safe Mobility Offices Initiative (June 2023). In the aviation sphere, she drove the launch of the Domestic Counter-Unmanned Aircraft Systems (C-UAS) National Action Plan in April 2022, the first whole-of-government strategy to protect against the nefarious use of commercial drones.
Prior to joining the Biden-Harris Administration, Tobin served for nearly a decade with the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), advising the United States and governments across Latin America and the Caribbean on refugee and migration response. She has also served as a Refugee Officer at the Department of Homeland Security and as an attorney in private practice in Chicago. During law school, she clerked for Senator Edward Kennedy and Senator Richard Durbin on the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee. Katie started her career working at Annunciation House, an organization that runs migrant shelters on the U.S.-Mexico border.
Katie grew up in Chicago. She earned her B.A. from Villanova University and a J.D. from The Catholic University of America, Columbus School of Law.
Day 2 Welcome and Remarks
Geoffrey Wiseman, DePaul University
Geoffrey Wiseman came to DePaul in 2021 as a Professor and Inaugural Endowed Chair in Applied Diplomacy at the Grace School of Applied Diplomacy. His recent publications explore public diplomacy and hostile nations, the politics–diplomacy nexus, and contemporary challenges for foreign ministries. He teaches courses on Diplomacy's Past and Present, Leadership and Diplomacy, Citizen Diplomacy, and International Relations Theory. Professor Wiseman is a former Australian diplomat who has served in Stockholm, Hanoi, and Brussels and was an advisor to the Australian Foreign Minister, Gareth Evans. He has also worked in the Strategic Planning Unit of the United Nations Secretary-General's Executive Office and as a peace and security program officer at the Ford Foundation. He has held academic positions at the University of Southern California and the Australian National University. He is the author of Concepts of Non-Provocative Defense (Palgrave Macmillan); editor of Isolate or Engage: Adversarial States, US Foreign Policy and Public Diplomacy (Stanford University Press); and co-editor with Pauline Kerr of Diplomacy in a Globalizing World: Theories and Practices (Oxford University Press).
Day 2 Germany Round Table
Michael Ahrens, Consul General of Germany, Chicago
Michael Ahrens took up his position as Consul General of Germany in Chicago in August 2023. Before arriving in Chicago, he served as Minister Counselor for Security and Defense Policy at the German Embassy in Washington, DC. Prior to that, he was the Deputy Head of Division for Humanitarian Assistance at the Federal Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Berlin from 2015 to 2019.
His previous postings included Counselor for Cultural and Legal Affairs at the German Embassy in Seoul (2012-2015), Consul at the German Consulate General in San Francisco (2009-2012) as well as at the German Consulate General in Shanghai (2003-2006). He also worked from 2006 to 2009 at the Federal Foreign Office on Humanitarian Assistance in Asia.
Michael joined the Diplomatic Service in 1989. After three years of training at the Diplomatic Academy of the Federal Foreign Office, he was a German Consulate General in Los Angeles. He served at the German Embassy in Belgrade before returning to the Crisis Reaction Centre. He re-joined the Diplomatic Academy for a year in 2002.
Simon Morris-Lange, Allianz Foundation, Berlin
Dr. Simon Morris-Lange is leading the research and knowledge-sharing portfolio at the Allianz Foundation in Berlin. Before joining the Foundation, Simon served as Deputy Head of Research with the Expert Council on Integration and Migration (SVR) in Berlin, a leading non-partisan think tank devoted to migration and immigrant integration. His research and policy work in Europe and North America focuses on social justice, education reform, and migration. Simon holds a PhD in Comparative and International Education from Humboldt University in Berlin. He was educated in Germany, the United States, and Singapore.
Simon’s latest project is a comparative study of how young Europeans imagine and shape the world of tomorrow.
Imad al-Suliman, Human Rights Activist, Berlin
Imad Al Suliman is a refugee author, human rights advocate, and voice for refugees and migrants. Born in Syria, he sought asylum in Germany in 2015, an experience that profoundly shaped his writing and activism. His first book, The Jasmine Inferno—An Escape Story, vividly captures the harrowing journey of Syrian refugees, drawing deeply from his own experiences.
In addition to his literary work, Imad Al Suliman actively raises awareness about the challenges faced by refugees and migrants through his reading tours, panel discussions, and political events. His firsthand accounts and insights provide a critical perspective on European migration policy and human rights issues.
Imad Al Suliman is currently pursuing a Master's degree in Socio-Political Science at Humboldt Universität zu Berlin, where he continues to deepen his understanding of the complexities surrounding migration and social justice. Residing in Germany, he remains dedicated to writing and advocating for the rights of refugees and migrants, striving for a more compassionate and just world.
Day 2 Keynote
Marta Costanzo Youth, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration, U.S. Department of State
Marta Youth joined the Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration (PRM) as Deputy Assistant Secretary in November 2020. Marta assumed the role of Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary in April 2022 and has responsibility for overseeing the Office of the Executive Director, the Office of International Migration, and the Office of Assistance for Western Hemisphere. Ms. Youth was previously the Director of Central American Affairs in the Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs.Prior assignments include Director of the Office of Europe, Central Asia, and the Americas in PRM from 2017 to 2019;Deputy Chief of Mission at the U.S. Embassy in Managua, Nicaragua, from 2014 to 2017; and Economic Counselor at the U.S. Embassy in Ottawa, Canada, from 2011 to 2014.She also worked at the U.S. Embassy in Quito, Ecuador, as a Press Attaché from 2008 to 2011.Ms. Youth also served overseas at the U.S. Embassy in Madrid, Spain, as a Trade Officer from 2000 to 2004 and at the U.S. Consulate in Chennai, India, as a Consular Officer from 1992 to 1994. During her State Department career, additional Washington, DC assignments included Country Assistance Coordinator for Russia and Moldova, South Africa Desk Officer, Portugal, Malta, and Vatican City Desk Officer.She has also been assigned twice to the State Department’s Economic and Business Affairs Bureau. Ms. Youth has been a Foreign Service Officer for more than 25 years and is a member of the Senior Foreign Service. She has a B.A. in Political Science and Economics from St. Peter’s University in New Jersey, and she pursued graduate studies at the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) in Bologna, Italy, and Washington, DC.
Day 2 Mexico Round Table
Reyna Torres Mendivil, Consul General of Mexico and Dean of Chicago Consular Corps
Ambassador Reyna Torres Mendivil took office as Consul General of Mexico in Chicago on July 14th, 2019.
During her diplomatic career, she has held various positions in the Mexican Ministry of Foreign Affairs, including General Director for Latin America and the Caribbean, Deputy General Director for International Policy on Human Rights, and Deputy Chief of Staff to the Secretary of Foreign Relations. She was Deputy Chief of Mission at the Mexican Embassy in the Czech Republic and political liaison at the Embassy of Mexico in the United States. Ambassador Torres also served as General Director for the Protection of Mexicans Abroad. Before her current position in Chicago, she served as Consul General in San Antonio, Texas.
Ambassador Torres Mendivil was a resident Fellow at Harvard University's Weatherhead Center for International Affairs and participated in the Hemispheric Security Program at the Inter-American Defense College in Washington DC. She graduated from Universidad Nacional Autónoma de Mexico (UNAM) and holds a Masters degree in International Relations from the London School of Economics.
Antonio Alejo, University of Granada
Antonio Alejo is a Professor of the Department of Political Science and Administration of the Faculty of Political Science and Sociology of the University of Granada. He has completed postdoctoral stays at the Center for Interdisciplinary Research in Sciences and Humanities of the UNAM and at the International Institute of Social Studies of the Erasmus University of Rotterdam, based in The Hague. His research agenda is focused on the transformations of contemporary diplomacy beyond state-centric perspectives, with an interdisciplinary dialogue between global studies, critical diplomatic studies, and nomadic thought. He has published in journals such as The Hague Journal of Diplomacy; International Studies in Sociology of Education; Education, Citizenship and Social Justice; Migration Letters; Migraciones; Colombia Internacional; Latin America Policy; Politics and Policy, and CIDOB d’Afers Internacionais.
Janny Cornejo, Community Organizer, CEDES
Janny Cornejo was born in Guatemala, and her family later relocated to Mexico before ultimately migrating to the United States. Since the age of 17, Jenny has been actively involved in community groups supporting migrants, providing translation services, and helping ease their transition into life in the U.S. She began her journey with Latinos Unidos in Northern Virginia, later collaborating with Unidad Latina and Accion in 2007. Today, Jenny serves as a community organizer for Centro de Educación y Formación para el Desarrollo Social in Mexico, founded by return migrants in Mexico City. The center advocates for migrants, addressing the challenges and vulnerabilities associated with human mobility.
