My initial interest in ocean related studies was triggered by my curiosity about the complex life realities of fishing communities in coastal Sri Lanka, that warrants an 'embedded' or more social anthropological lens, a methodological approach of which I have always been passionate about. In Sri Lanka, as a lead researcher in a local think tank, this interest led me to study how small-scale fisheries were re/shaped by the civil war in the country, and coast-to-coast migration patterns, drawing out relevant policy messages. This interest culminated in my PhD, as part of an eight-year cross-country research cluster, studying how different identity categories of people shape fishers' livelihoods, using theoretical lenses of sociology of economic life, intersectionality and masculinities studies, via ethnographic methods, which provided the basis for journal publications, working papers, photo essays and infographic posters. My regional and global fisheries related networks include being PI of a Transregional Collaboratory on the Indian Ocean funded grant titled "Rupture, Gendered Adaptation, and the Social Economy of Indian Ocean Fisheries,” a member of the Too Big To Ignore and Dried Fish Matters. These networks exposed me to a rich set of ideas, inter-disciplinary approaches to the study of the ocean and the people dependent on it, and the space to share, reflect and learn. My current post-doctoral research in Cambodia, through the Dried Fish Matters project, coordinating the scoping research phase of the seven-year study, has exposed me further to the regional dynamics of fisheries.

Dr. Holly Hapke is a geographer and interdisciplinary social scientist with research interests in political economy, rural development, gender, fisheries and food production systems, livelihoods, migration, and ecological conflict. Her research projects have examined the impact of technological transformation and globalization on artisanal fishing communities, fish markets, and fisherfolk livelihoods in India; technological transformation in the flue-cured tobacco industry of eastern North Carolina; transnational Latinx migration in the US South; and the cultural impacts of Gulf migration in India. In addition to this project, other current projects include a transdisciplinary study of the role of fisheries in food security for the urban poor in India and Ghana (FISH4FOOD) and a study of the social economy of dried fish in India with collaborators in India and Canada (Dried Fish Matters). She has delivered over 60 conference presentations and is the author of 45 publications including peer-reviewed journal articles and book chapters, review essays, project reports, training manuals, and two textbooks. Dr. Hapke is passionate about integrating robust gender analysis into fisheries research. She is currently a research scientist and director of research development in the School of Social Sciences at the University of California, Irvine where she facilitates the development of inter- and transdisciplinary team science research projects. Previously she was on the faculty of the Department of Geography, Planning and Environment at East Carolina University.

Dr. Amalendu Jyotishi is professor at School of Development, Azim Premji University. His research work covers issues relating to natural resources & institutions on one hand and innovation, entrepreneurship in information technology business on the other, both from an institutional economics perspective. He has two books and about 35 research papers published in journals and book chapters to his credit apart from several conference papers and proceedings, popular articles and book reviews. He acts as reviewer for several reputed journals. He is one of the core research members of ‘Asian Initiative on Legal Pluralism' and was the coordinator of the group during the period 2012 to 2015. He was also an executive committee member of Indian Society for Ecological Economics (INSEE) during 2018-2020. His current portfolio of research interests includes fish for food security, informal mining, and entrepreneurship and innovation in information technology. Dr. Jyotishi has collaborated in research projects supported by organizations like the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO), Swedish International Development Agency (SIDA), World Bank, International Water Management Institute (IWMI), Oxfam (GB) Trust, Aga Khan Rural Support Program (India), South Asian Network for Development and Environmental Economics (SANDEE), Australian Research Council (ARC), Social Science and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) Canada. He is also an advisor to an online video magazine on development and environmental issues named as Re[View], thereview.org.in. He writes poems on his personal blog shyamalee.blogspot.com and on http://www.mirakee.com/amalendu.