You can find the profiles of our invited keynote speakers for the conference below.
Abram de Swaan
Emeritus Professor, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Abram de Swaan is Emeritus Professor of Social Science at the University of Amsterdam, where he has been a Professor of Sociology since 1973. His first publication was Amerika in termijnen. Een ademloos verslag uit de USA (America in Installments: A Breathless Report from the USA) in 1968. In 1973, he obtained his doctorate degree cum laude with ‘Coalition Theories and Cabinet Formations’. From 1969 to 1991, he was Editor of the general cultural monthly magazine De Gids. Together with Paul van den Bos, he made a series of television documentaries. In 1971, a television movie appeared, and a book with the title Een boterham met tevredenheid. Gesprekken met fabrieksarbeiders (And a Pat on the Back to Boot: Conversations with Factory Workers) was published. In 2001, Words of the World: The Global Language System was published, together with a special edition of De Gids: De woorden van de Swaan. Dutch Welfare Reforms in an Expanding Europe: The Neighbours’ View was published in 2004. He has been director of the Academia Europea de Yuste, España, since 2004.
Marta Bucholc
Professor, University of Warsaw, Poland
Marta Bucholc is a Professor of Sociology at the University of Warsaw’s Institute of Sociology, where she has worked since 2021, and a Permanent Fellow at the Institute for Human Sciences (IWM Vienna). Trained across sociology, philosophy, and law, she earned her doctorate in sociology in 2006 and completed her habilitation in 2014. Her research explores socio-legal studies, sociological theory, human rights, and the sociology of knowledge, often through comparative and historically informed analysis. She leads major international projects, including the European Research Council-funded “Abortion Figurations: Using Human Rights to Change Abortion Law” (2022–2027), and has directed further research on post-1989 transformation in Poland and illiberal constitutionalism in East Central Europe. She is also the Director of the Centre of Figurational Research.
Ad van Iterson
Associate Professor (Retired), Maastricht University, The Netherlands
Ad van Iterson is a Dutch sociologist and writer. He was an Associate Professor of Organisation Studies at the School of Business and Economics at Maastricht University. He received his doctorate in the discipline project of the first pottery manufacturers. He mainly publishes in the areas of gossip, humor, impression management, carnivalisation, and creativity. The city of Maastricht, where he lives and works, is the backdrop for much of his fiction and journalistic work. He was the Editor of the Amsterdam student magazine Propria Cures and a reviewer for the weekly magazine Vrij Nederland. To date, he has published five novels, four collections of stories, and a memoir. He is now retired, and his most recent work is titled J.J. Voittastraat 13: Norbert Elias en zijn Amsterdamse kring (J.J. Voittastraat 13: Norbert Elias and his Amsterdam Circle) in 2025.
Jennifer Smith Maguire
Professor, Sheffield Hallam University, United Kingdom
Jennifer Smith Maguire is Executive Dean of Business, Technology and Engineering and Professor of Cultural Production and Consumption at Sheffield Hallam University. She is responsible for the overall strategic and academic leadership of the College, spanning business planning and portfolio performance, strategic marketing and recruitment, and excellence across the taught portfolio, partnerships and networks, and research, innovation and knowledge exchange, with a strong emphasis on how these areas reinforce one another. Her most recent publication is titled The Research Handbook on the Sociology of Consumption in 2026.