International Colloquium of Social Sciences and Communication - ACUM 2026 - 13th Edition
4 - 7 November 2026
Keynote Speakers
Cristina Grasseni, PhD, is Professor of Anthropology at Leiden University and an internationally recognized scholar in economic and multimodal anthropology. Her research explores sustainability, citizenship, food heritage, responsible innovation, and alternative economies, with a particular focus on how communities create new forms of social belonging and collective action.
Professor Grasseni is widely known for her influential work on visual and digital ethnography, as well as for leading the European Research Council (ERC) Consolidator project Food Citizens? (2017–2024), which examined collective food procurement and solidarity networks across European cities. She is also co-editor of the Elgar Encyclopedia of Economic Anthropology (2025) and a leading voice in contemporary debates on sustainability, food citizenship, and collaborative economies.
Eszter Hargittai, PhD, is Professor and Chair of Internet Use and Society at University of Zurich and one of the world’s leading scholars on digital inequality, internet use, and digital literacy. Her research examines how differences in online skills and access to digital technologies shape participation, opportunities, and life chances in contemporary societies.
Professor Hargittai’s influential work on the social implications of digital media has received major international recognition, including awards from the American Sociological Association and the International Communication Association, which elected her as an ICA Fellow in 2019. She is editor of the Handbook of Digital Inequality and co-author of Wired Wisdom (University of Chicago Press, 2025).
Michael Ungar, PhD, is Professor at the School of Social Work and founder and Director of the Resilience Research Centre at Dalhousie University, where he holds the Canada Research Chair in Child, Family and Community Resilience.
Recognized in 2022 as the world’s leading social work scholar, Professor Ungar is internationally renowned for his pioneering research on resilience as a multisystemic, socially and culturally embedded process. His work has significantly shaped contemporary understanding of how children, families, communities, and organizations adapt to adversity, with major contributions spanning social work, mental health, education, family therapy, and organizational resilience.
A Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and author of over 250 peer-reviewed publications and 17 books, he has also advised international NGOs, governments, and major global organizations on resilience, wellbeing, and adaptive capacity in contexts of crisis and change.
Malissa Clark, PhD, is Professor of Industrial-Organizational Psychology, Head of the Department of Psychology, and Director of the Healthy Work Lab at the University of Georgia. An internationally recognized expert on employee well-being, her research examines workaholism and overwork, work-family dynamics, burnout, and the effects of workplace stressors on health and well-being. A Fellow of the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology (SIOP), Professor Clark was named to the Thinkers50 Radar Class of 2024 and shortlisted for the 2025 Thinkers50 Radar Award, recognizing emerging thinkers shaping the future of management. She is the author of Never Not Working: Why the Always-On Culture Is Bad for Business - and How to Fix It (Harvard Business Review Press, 2024), an acclaimed evidence-based examination of the costs of always-on work cultures and how organizations can create healthier, more sustainable ways of working.
