Published: September 29, 2023
We are delighted to announce the appointment of a new co-chair of trustees, Míriam Juan-Torres, to Belong – the Cohesion and Integration Network.
Míriam Juan-Torres is a multidisciplinary researcher, writer, and public speaker with expertise on authoritarian populism, polarization, and human rights.
Míriam joins our existing co-chair Shalni Arora and our wider board of trustees in guiding Belong Network’s future and supporting our work and that of our members.
Míriam will be delivering our afternoon keynote speech ‘Places and Spaces where we Belong’ at Belong’s annual conference Belonging 2023: Building Resilient Communities on 15 November in Manchester.
About Míriam
Míriam currently works as the Head of Research at OBI’s Democracy & Belonging Forum at UC Berkeley, and advisor to Our Common Home. She also worked as a senior researcher for More in Common, where she was the co-author of Hidden Tribes: A Study of America’s Polarized Landscape and the lead author of Britain’s Choice: Common Ground and Division in 2020s Britain and has worked as an associate professor at the Autonomous Universiy of Barcelona where she teaches courses on human rights and international criminal law. She has also contributed as a consultant to a variety of projects across the globe and is a board member of FundiPau, Foundation for Peace in Catalonia.
Míriam has fieldwork experience in Ghana and Colombia, where she worked for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and interned at the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. She holds a masters in Global Affairs from Yale University and a law degree from the Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona. She has received several awards, including the Fox Fellowship from Yale University and the la Caixa Fellowship in Spain.
Belong Network CEO Jo Broadwood said: “We are delighted to welcome Míriam to the Belong Network. She brings a wealth of academic expertise and experience to the organisation alongside links to organisations working to strengthen our social connections and belonging in both the UK, Europe and US, giving us a global perspective on social cohesion work.”
Belong co-chair of trustees Shalni Arora said: “Míriam will be a fantastic asset to guide Belong as we increase our membership and influence around the UK and continue to promote and support the work of our members.”