Melissa Fisher, Professor
E-mail: msf4@nyu.edu

Melissa Fisher, a cultural anthropologist affiliated with New York Uni-
versity’s Institute for Public Knowledge and the Conference Board,
contributes to the Global Foresight Project by examining how workplace
futurists shape the design and experience of future workplaces in the
context of pandemics. This research aims to understand the know-
ledge and cultural dynamics involved in creating Covid and Post-Covid work environments, with
a focus on the potential for either promoting equity and justice or perpetuating hierarchies of class,
race, gender, and power. Fisher’s study draws on four years of fieldwork with professionals in
facility management, corporate real estate, and architectural think tanks and design consultancies
in Europe and the United States. She is also known for her expertise in organizational studies,
globalization, technology, and work, as showcased in her books Frontiers of Capital: Ethnographic
Reflections on the New Economy (2006) and Wall Street Women (2012). Fisher’s ongoing research,
teaching experience, and active involvement in gender-focused initiatives and advisory boards further
contribute to her distinguished background in the field. She holds a Ph.D. and M.A. in Anthropology
from Columbia University.

Douglas R. Holmes, Professor
E-mail: dholmes@binghamton.edu

For many years Douglas Holmes has investigated the emergence of contem-
porary fascism across Europe, a fascism that unfolds in our midst, at “eye-
level.” Broadly, his work addresses how and why the most discredited ideas
and sensibilities of the modern era—ideas that yielded the indelible horrors
of the twentieth century—have become persuasive, compelling even, in the
new century. More recently, he has turned his attention to the operations of central banks and the
design of a distinctive monetary policy regime. In Stockholm, London, Wellington, and two venues
in Frankfurt, he has spoken to bank personnel and to policy makers examining how they model the
economy and the financial system with language, establishing a radically communicative and relational
dynamic at the center of monetary affairs. Holmes is the author of an ethnographic trilogy: Cultural
Disenchantments: Worker Peasantries in Northeast Italy (Princeton 1989); Integral Europe: Fast-
Capitalism, Multiculturalism, Neofascism (Princeton 2000); and Economy of Words: Communicative
Imperatives in Central Banks (Chicago 2014). He has also authored with George E. Marcus a series
of texts exploring experiments in ethnographic collaboration particularly as they are achieved within
cultures of expertise.

Afshin Mehrpouya, Professor
E-mail: afshin.mehrpouya@ed.ac.uk

Afshin Mehrpouya, professor in and chair in accounting at the University
of Edinburgh Business School, has extensively researched the influence
of calculative knowledge, such as ratings and rankings, in business regu-
lation. Recently, he has focused on the epistemic processes involved in
healthcare rankings. In the Global Foresight Project, Mehrpouya con-
tributes by examining the role of various calculative regimes in anticipation and regulatory inter-
vention. His expertise in the sociology of knowledge in global governance sheds light on the pro-
duction, dissemination, adaptation, and utilization of regulatory knowledge, as well as its relation-
ship with time and organizational management.

David A. Westbrook, Professor
E-mail: dwestbro@buffalo.edu

David A. Westbrook’s contribution to the Global Foresight project
explores the senses in which ‘the future’ can stand in for teleology,
thus filling oft remarked lacunae in liberalism. He is also interested in
how ostensibly participatory modes of projection can be used as tech-
niques of management and even coercion, rule by ostensible consensus.
Westbrook, Louis Del Cotto Professor at SUNY Buffalo Law School, thinks and writes about
the social and intellectual consequences of contemporary political economy. His work influences
numerous disciplines, and he has spoken on six continents to academics, business and financia
l leaders, members of the security community, civil institutions and governments, often with the
sponsorship of the U.S. State Department. Among his many books and articles, perhaps the most
relevant to this project are Navigators of the Contemporary: Why Ethnography Matters; Deploying
Ourselves: Islamist Violence and the Responsible Projection of US Force; and Out of Crisis: Re-
thinking Our Financial Markets.

Photo credits: Danish Saroee (Mehrpouya)