ISIC 2023, Miyajima, Japan
In 2023 SICRI announced its brand new network for early career scholars and island activists and practitioners.
It is a free network that helps connecting the dots between early career scholars all around the world.
The New Voices network celebrates “all things islands” and kindly invites individuals engaged in any sort of island-based activities, such as research, creative approaches, story-telling and activism to join our network.
Aim: The new initiative aims to support young and/or emerging researchers in the interdisciplinary field of island studies through providing a space for networking, project sharing and ideas generating.
"New Voices" in Island Studies Initiative
New Voices in Island Studies (NVIS) events and activities:
Quarterly online networking events are the cornerstone of the NVIS network. Our events are designed to offer a mix of information and discussion to help those who are just starting in Island Studies exchange knowledge and build networks. As a global network, the timing of these events can pose problems for people joining from different time zones. Following feedback from our members, we have agreed to:
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vary the time of day that meetings are held to help ensure as many people as possible can engage with the network;
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record any presentation elements of events where possible, and make these available to those unable to join an event due to time zone issues;
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where there is demand, offer informal catch-ups a few weeks after each quarterly event, timed for those who could not make the event due to timezone issues.
If you would like to help organize these events or other activities in the network, please contact your co-convenors (information below)
Co-Convenors
The New Voices network is co-convened by Ben Biedermann (doctoral student at the University of Malta, bb@acurraent.com) and Emily Linane (doctoral student at the Newcastle University, emily.jane.linane@gmail.com). Feel free to reach out to them if you have any questions concerning the network or wish to become a part of it.
Ben Biedermann is a PhD candidate at the Islands and Small States Institute, University of Malta, where he researches public policies on digital infrastructure in small jurisdictions, with a focus on decentralised technologies, sovereignty, and governance. His doctoral work assesses how small states deploy digital infrastructures, under conditions of limited scale and external dependency. He has conducted fieldwork in Aruba, Curaçao, Dominica, and the Republic of the Marshall Islands. His research combines ethnographic methods with macroeconomic analysis and the development of policy assessment tools, including the Digital Infrastructure Maturity Framework (DIMF), which builds on his earlier work on the Grant Maturity Index. His work has been published in Small States and Territories, IEEE conferences (ICBC, Blockchain), and ACM Distributed Ledger Technologies.
Alongside his academic work, Ben co-founded acurraent UG, securing multiple EU grants and leading the WID3+ Consortium under the NGI TrustChain programme. He has worked on eIDAS 2.0-compliant identity systems since 2020 leading to advisory to EU member states on the European Digital Identity Wallet. Since April 2025, he serves as Product Lead and Tech Resident at Builder DAO, working on decentralised governance for on-chain treasury management. In early 2026, he joined the Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance as a Digital Public Infrastructure Intern, contributing to a Gates Foundation-funded report on governance models for digital identity architectures. He is a lifetime member of ISISA and regularly presents research on decentralised governance, digital infrastructure, and small states policy at academic and practitioner forums.
Find out more about his work and perspectives on island studies:
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Ben Biedermann, Matthew Scerri, Victoria Kozlova, and Joshua Ellul. 2025. Aggregating Digital Identities through Bridging: An Integration of Open Authentication Protocols for Web3 Identifiers. Distrib. Ledger Technol. 5, 1, Article 1 (March 2026), 17 pages. https://doi.org/10.1145/3719661
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B. Biedermann, V. Kozlova and F. Gibrel, "Crypto-Economic Analysis of Web3 Funding Programs Using the Grant Maturity Framework," 2025 IEEE International Conference on Blockchain and Cryptocurrency (ICBC), Pisa, Italy, 2025, pp. 1-8, doi: 10.1109/ICBC64466.2025.11185099.
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Biedermann, B., & Moncada, S. (2024). Islands unchained : The case of regulating virtual financial assets in Malta. University of Malta. Islands and Small States Institute. Small States and Territories, 7(1), 75–94. url: https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/121741.
Emily Linane is a researcher, composer, and performer from Guernsey, Channel Islands. She is currently undertaking her PhD at Newcastle University, supported by Northern Bridge (part of the Arts and Humanities Research Council).
Drawing upon her own island roots, Emily’s research focuses on reimagining the Bailiwick of Guernsey’s cultural heritage through creative practice.
She explores tangible and intangible heritage, language, and social memory as stimuli for her compositions and mixed-media work, responding to historical materials to provide new ways for audiences to engage with them.
Emily's upbringing and personal experiences of the Bailiwick of Guernsey are central to her practice. Currently, her work revolves around the theme of ‘decay,’ exploring tangible and intangible heritage that embodies this theme.
As an islander, she brings a deep understanding of Guernsey's unique community and landscape, adding a profound layer of authenticity and complexity to her musical output.
Find out more about her work and perspectives on island studies: www.emilylinane.co.uk
Founding Co-Convenor
Jens Westerskov Andersen - Co-Convener / Doctoral Candidate
Affiliation: Lund University, Sweden.
Research interests: social reorganization of small islands in Denmark, distribution and concentration of population, second home tourism, and seasonal tourism in the past 100 years
Contact: jens.westerskov_andersen@soc.lu.se
Dr Kirsten Gow - Co-Convener
Affiliation: University of Aberdeen and James Hutton Institute, Scotland, UK.
Research interests: islands diaspora and return migration to Scottish islands, island depopulation
Contact: kirsten@islandsresearcher.uk kirsten@islandsresearcher.uk
Founding Group Members
Jens Westerskov Andersen - Co-Convener / Doctoral Candidate
Contact: jens.westerskov_andersen@soc.lu.se
Kirsten Gow - Co-Convener
Contact: kirsten@islandsresearcher.uk k
Yan Yan - Doctoral Candidate
Affiliation: Department of Chinese Culture, Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU).
Research interests: Epistemology, Li Brocade, Hainan Islandness, Anthropocene
Contact: 22041765r@connect.polyu.hk
Wu Yeiling - Doctoral Candidate / Curator, Art Writer
Affiliation: Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU)
Research Interests: Lamma Island, Anthropocene, Infrastructure, Public and Visual Art, Cultural Heritage; 2020 Asia Collection Research Fellow, Kadist Art Foundation, San Francisco.
Contact: weiying.yu@connect.polyu.hk
Chiya Amos - Singaporean artist and Research Fellow
Affiliation: Permanent Conductor and Advisor of the Hirodai Symphony Orchestra, Hiroshima University Research Fellow in Sustainability Science, and Representative for Music and Culture of the International Council of Environmental Law
Research interests: Music festival, rural communities, island communities, social sustainability
Contact: d225330@hiroshima-u.ac.jp
Christopher Cabrera - Doctoral Candidate
Affiliation: Screen Studies Program, Nagoya University, Nagoya, Japan
Research interests: Documentary film, Oceania, archipelagos, representation
Contact: christophermcabrera@gmail.com
Paljaljim / You Ren Chung - MA - Island Practitioner
Research interests: Paiwanese traditional stone slab houses, indigenous community currency, technological agriculture, and circular agriculture
Affiliation: National Taiwan University and Taiwan Agriculture Tek Corporation (TATC)
Contact: paljaljimgadu@gmail.com
Kelly Rivera - MA student, international student from Ecuador
Affiliation: Prince Edward Island, Master of Arts in Island Studies.
Research interests: Housing crisis, international students, Island
Contact: krivera@upTei.ca
Eufrasio Maratas Jr.- Affiliate researcher/trainer
Affiliation: Restoration Initiative for Sustainable Ecosystems (www.rise.org.ph) & Visayas State University’s Institute Of Tropical Ecology & Environmental Management, Philippines.
Contact: fresh_maratas@yahoo.com
NVIS Webinars
New Voices in Island Studies: Island Habitability Index
Join us on the 26th of February 2026!
New Voices in Island Studies: Coffee Catch Up
Join us on the 15th of October 2024!
New Voices in Island Studies: Coffee Catch Up
Join us on the 4th of February 2025!
New Voices in Island Studies: 2nd Event
Join us on the 16th of September 2024!
New Voices in Island Studies: Origins and Journeys
Join us on the 10-11th of December 2024!
