Kathleen Adams received her Ph.D from the University of Washington in 1988. She is a sociocultural anthropologist with field research experience in Indonesia (Toraja and Alor) and San-Juan Capistrano, CA. Much of Dr. Adams's research focuses on the inter-relationships between the arts, tourism, and identity among the Toraja of Sulawesi, Indonesia. She is also researching the construction of a pan-group identity on the ethnically, linguistically and religiously diverse Eastern Indonesian Island of Alor. In 2001, she began new research on heritage, touristic pageantry and community-building in the Mission town of San Juan Capistrano, CA.  

Mark Allee (PhD, University of Pennsylvania, 1987; BA University of Kansas, BA, 1975) is Associate Professor of History at Loyola University Chicago, where he teaches courses on East Asian and Chinese history. He previously at the University of Pennsylvania and the University of Kansas.

Dr. Janet Fair holds a Ph.D. in anthropology from the University of Chicago. Her dissertation research, done in Tokyo, focused on elite Japanese women's language and the ideology of Japanese uniqueness. At Southern Illinois University, the University of Chicago MBA Program in International Studies, and Harold Washington College she has taught Japanese at all levels, as well as the anthropology of Japan, Japanese literature in translation, Japanese and Chinese history, and cultural linguistics. She has been at Loyola since 2004 offering classes in Japanese language, Japanese literature in translation, and Japanese film. She is activity involved in co-curricular activities, advising Anime Club and Japanese Club, leading Japanese Table (conversation) and recruiting preparing students to study and work in Japan. She is very interested in language pedagogy and has given talks and presentations on using native speakers in the language classroom. Her favorite Pokemon is Sandschrew.

Dr. Marcia Hermansen is a Professor of Theology at Loyola University Chicago where she teaches courses in Islamic Studies and World Religions. She also directs the Islamic World Studies Program. She received her Ph.D. from the University of Chicago in Arabic and Islamic Studies. In the course of her research and language training she lived for extended periods in Egypt, Jordan, India, Iran, Turkey and Pakistan. She conducts research in Arabic, Persian, Turkish, and Urdu as well as the major European languages. Her book, The Conclusive Argument from God, a study and translation from the Arabic of Shah Wali Allah of Delhi's, Hujjat Allah al-Baligha, was published in 1996. She also co-edited the MacMillan Encyclopedia of Islam and the Muslim World. Dr. Hermansen has also contributed numerous academic articles in the fields of Islamic thought, Islam and Muslims in South Asia, Muslims in America and Women in Islam.

Harveen Mann has a B.A. and M.A. from Panjab University (India) and a Ph.D. in English from Purdue University (USA). She specializes in postcolonial studies, South Asian literature, and third world feminism. She taught at Purdue University and Penn State University before coming to Loyola University Chicago in 1990, where she is Associate Professor of English and Pre-Law Advisor. She has published on topics ranging from third world feminism to postcolonial pedagogy, and on South Asian writers including R. K. Narayan, V. S. Naipaul, Anita Desai, Salman Rushdie, Saadat Hasan Manto, Mahasweta Devi, and Suniti Namjoshi among others.  She is currently completing a project on feminism and nationalism in South Asian women's literature.

Tracy Pintchman holds a PhD in Religious Studies from the University of California in Santa Barbara (1992). She specializes in the study of Hinduism, with a focus on gender issues, Goddess traditions, and Hindu women's rituals. She has held grants from the American Academy of Religion, American Institute of Indian Studies, and the National Endowment of the Humanities. She has also taught at Northwestern University and Harvard University, where she was a visiting scholar in the Women's Studies in religion Program at Harvard Divinity School in 2000-2001.

Elena Valussi completed an MA (1995) in Chinese Studies at the University of Venice, an MA (1996) in Chinese Religions and a Ph.D. (2003) in Chinese History from the University of London, School of Oriental and African Studies. Her interests are the History of Chinese Religions, and the intersection between Religion, Gender and Health in late imperial and Modern China. She has published several articles and book reviews in refereed journals on the topic of Gender and Religion in China, ideas of the female body in Chinese religion and medicine, as well as on the transmission of religious knowledge among intellectuals in late imperial China. She is continuing to  do research in these areas, moving towards a more modern period. Elena has organized panels and conferences, and has been invited to give  lectures at several university in the US, Europe, China and Japan.

Shweta Singh is an Associate Professor in the School of Social Work at Loyola University Chicago. Her research and teaching is interdisciplinary. Her teaching is focused on global research and policy, social work research, social development, global feminism and the women and children in the Indian Subcontinent. Her research projects focus on issues of work, education, migration, work, health and mental health, identity in women from the Indian Subcontinent and East Asia. She holds an M.S.W. from The Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai, India, and a Doctorate from The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, USA. Her international work includes documentary and media work on women and child rights and social advocacy. Her new edited book is called Social Work and Social Development: Perspectives from India and the United Sates published by Lyceum Chicago.