diane is a london-based academic researcher. she is in the penultimate year of her phd in peace and conflict studies at the university of sydney, australia. her current academic research focusses afghanistan. she teaches law, politics/ir and criminology at undergrad and postgrad levels and works as a research assistant on multiple australian research council projects. more info and contact <www.dianetippett.com>

kamila is a london-based photographer who travels frequently to moscow and makhachkala. kamila’s main artistic focus is portraiture, and her goal is to redefine the understanding of the classical portrait with an attempt to reveal the non-obvious psychology of the subject. born in moscow, kamila studied photography at the university of the arts in london, before she returned to her native dagestan. kamila lived and worked in dagestan until 2022, becoming the leading female photographer in the region. see more of her work and contact: <www.kamilabanks.com/>

alexey ulko (MEd TTELT) is a contemporary art consultant, researcher, curator, teacher and experimental filmmaker from samarkand. whilst based in tashkent, alexey regularly travels to europe for projects (exhibitions and artistic/musical/educational projects) based on his interests – which span from postcolonial studies and contemporary central asian art to new metaphysics and esotericism. recently, he contributed to award-winning we treasure our lucid dreams at garagemca as a researcher. he has written and contributed to several books, including ἀγάπη, censoring art and culture smart! uzbekistan and written more than 50 articles. contact <alexulko@yahoo.co.uk>