Experts on countries of origin by surname

Dr. Guita G. Hourani is an independent consultant following an academic career as a professor and researcher. She is a recognized migration specialist and expert witness in legal migration cases, holding a Ph.D. from the Tokyo University of Foreign Studies. Dr. Hourani currently serves as an Expert on Citizenship for the European Union Democracy Observatory and holds senior research appointments at her alma mater in Japan and at the Holy Spirit University of Kaslik (USEK) in Lebanon. As a consultant, she worked on projects for ILO, IOM, UNDP, the EU among others. Her research is widely recognized for spotlighting marginalized populations—such as Kurds in Lebanon, Ukrainian women in Lebanon, Lebanese migrants in Gulf countries, Lebanese returnees, Syrian refugees, and parents of Lebanese emigrants—and for shaping migration policy through grounded, field-based scholarship. She was also the founding director of the world’s first academic center dedicated to Lebanese migration and diaspora studies.

C. Julia Huang is until recently a Professor of Anthropology at National Tsing Hua University, Taiwan. Huang’s specialty includes religion, gender, and migration. She has done fieldwork in Taiwan, Malaysia, the United States, and shorter periods of research in Singapore, Vietnam, Japan, and China.  Huang has published articles in the Journal of Asian Studies, Ethnology, Positions, Nova Religio, the Eastern Buddhist, and the European Journal for East Asian Studies. She is the author of Charisma and Compassion: Cheng Yen and the Buddhist Tzu Chi Movement (Harvard University Press, 2009) and a co-author of Religion and Charity: The Social Life of Goodness in Chinese Societies (co-authored with Weller and Wu)(Cambridge University Press, 2017).

Third-generation Senior Legal Practitioner and Managing Partner of Credence LP, one of Bangladesh’s leading law firms, with over 15 years of experience. Regularly provides expert legal opinions and appears in proceedings from lower courts and tribunals to the Appellate Division, with expertise spanning constitution, fundamental rights, criminal law, maritime, commercial, and Islamic inheritance law.