CTDC was founded on the belief that justice must be intersectional, transnational, and transformative, crossing borders, disciplines, and binaries. Based in London and working globally, we are a multidisciplinary consultancy advancing social justice through feminist and decolonial methodologies.
Since 2013, CTDC has bridged divides between theory and practice, academia and activism, and global power asymmetries, not by simplifying complexity, but by holding space for care, reflection, and collaboration. We prioritise partnerships over competition and believe imagination is a political necessity, not a luxury.
Our team draws from sociology, political science, history, psychology, and Indigenous knowledges to design context-responsive solutions. Through education, research, facilitation, and framework development, we support organisations and communities to embed inclusion, respond to conflict, and sustain accountability and safeguarding.
CTDC’s work spans over 50 countries, reaching more than 120 entities and 4,500 individuals. While we collaborate with global academic institutions, our work is firmly rooted in lived realities, ensuring our methods remain responsive, grounded, and transformative.
More than a consultancy, CTDC is a platform for critical reflection, collective learning, and structural change. We co-create the conditions where justice can take root, and where difference is held, not erased.
Dr Nour Abu-Assab is a interdisciplinary scholar, practitioner, mentor, and consultant with over 20 years of experience advancing social justice across the Global South and beyond. She holds a PhD in Sociology from the University of Warwick (2012) and is Co-Founder and Co-Director of CTDC. Her expertise spans research, policy, education, safeguarding, and organisational development, with a focus on governance, organisational and collective change and transformation, as well as leadership, diversity and inclusion, and decolonising in practice. A published academic, Dr Abu-Assab writes on identities, migration, sexualities, post-colonialism, and decolonial and intersectional methodologies. She is particularly interested in race theories, sociolinguistics, organisational psychology, collective and institutional trauma, conflict management, mediation, and non-violent communication as tools for deep, systemic transformation.
Dr Nof Nasser-Eddin is a interdisciplinary academic and practitioner with over 20 years of global experience in research, education, capacity building, conflict settings, and organisational change. She holds a PhD in Sociology from the University of Warwick (2011) and is the Co-Founder and Co-Director of CTDC. A published scholar, her work draws on feminist, decolonial, intersectional and interdisciplinary approaches to refugees and migration, gender performances, sexualities, and safeguarding. She brings extensive multisectoral expertise through collaborations with international, intergovernmental, and non-governmental agencies, as well as academic institutions, grassroots movements, and private sector partners, co-creating context-specific, innovative solutions. She is especially interested in psychotherapy, trauma-informed approaches, attachment theory, healing practices, internal power and agency, and the role of class in shaping lived experience and institutional dynamics.
Mais Belal Afaneh is a feminist advocate and expert in women’s rights and gender equality with over 15 years of experience across the Middle East and North Africa. She currently serves as Regional Programs Manager at EuroMed Feminist Initiative, leading initiatives to strengthen feminist civil society, promote inclusive peacebuilding, and combat violence against women and girls. Her work spans women’s economic and political participation, the Women, Peace and Security agenda, and gender mainstreaming in humanitarian and development contexts. Mais brings extensive experience in project design, fundraising, M&E, and regional partnerships, and has contributed to several key research publications. She is also a skilled facilitator of high-level dialogues, conferences, and trainings. Currently pursuing a PhD in Feminist and Gender Studies at the University of Ottawa, her research focuses on Muslim women’s mobilities under Jordan’s Personal Status Law. She holds a Master’s in Women’s Studies from the University of Jordan and is fluent in Arabic and English.
Sofian Antonellini is a seasoned gender and inclusion practitioner, anti-oppression trainer, and facilitator with over 13 years of global experience advancing social and gender justice. As an Argentinian intersectional feminist and decolonial thinker, they are deeply committed to equity, empowerment, and cross-sector collaboration. Their work spans grassroots feminist organizing, transnational advocacy, and cross-movement network building. Sofian specializes in developing inclusive strategies that strengthen Organisational culture, drive meaningful community engagement, and support resilient feminist networks. Fluent in Spanish, English, and Italian, Sofian holds a Bachelor's degree in Political Science and a Master’s in Gender and Intersectionality.
Hoda Barakat is a facilitator, educator, and organisational change expert with extensive experience in rights-based programming for sustainable impact. Over 17 years, she has specialised in education programming, multi-stakeholder processes, and gender-sensitive and feminist facilitation. She has worked with international and local civil society organisations, designing and facilitating international convenings and Organisational and strategic processes. As an instructional designer, she has designed and implemented blended learning programmes, and self-paced online courses on diverse topics. Fluent in English, Arabic, and French, she holds a degree from Université Saint Joseph and completed the Leadership, Organising, and Action program at Harvard Kennedy School.
Ella Scheepers is a feminist facilitator and organisational researcher with a PhD (in progress) from the University of Cape Town’s Graduate School of Business. Ella is a transdisciplinary practitioner with over a decade of experience working across social justice, human rights, and systems change in the Global South. Her work bridges academic inquiry, facilitation, and organisational accompaniment, with a focus on building more caring and just institutions. Her areas of expertise include organisational wellbeing, feminist approaches to governance and facilitation, social purpose organising, and participatory research methodologies. She has collaborated with grassroots collectives, NGOs, foundations, and academic institutions, both locally and internationally, on projects related to inclusion, institutional change, and reflective practice. Ella’s writing explores themes of feminist organising, reflexivity, collective care, and systemic justice. Her publications appear in platforms such as Gender & Development, Open Global Rights, and the Journal of Regenerative Theory. She is currently completing her doctoral research on building purposeful, caring organisations from the inside out.
Muna Dajani is a feminist sociologist with a PhD (2012) from the University of Warwick. Muna Dajani holds a PhD in Geography and Environment from the London School of Economics (LSE). Her research examines water struggles in agricultural communities and the linkages with politics of belonging and recognition. She has contributed to numerous studies on the hydropolitics of the Jordan and Yarmouk River Basins in addition to her interest in topics related to water, energy and climate justice. She is currently a Senior Research Fellow at Lancaster Environment Centre as part of Transformations to Groundwater Sustainability (T2GS) project which comparatively explores promising grassroots initiatives of groundwater governance around the world. She is also a Research Officer at the Middle East Centre at LSE, where she is leading on a collaboration project with Birzeit University on Mapping Memories of Resistance in the occupied Syrian Golan Heights. She is a policy member at Al-Shabaka, The Palestinian Policy Network.
Elena Fiddian-Qasmiyeh is Professor of Migration and Refugee Studies and Co-Director of the Migration Research Unit at University College London (UCL), where she is also the Coordinator of the UCL-wide Refuge in a Moving World interdisciplinary research network. She is currently the Principal Investigator of a number of major research projects, including Local Community Experiences of and Responses to Displacement (funded by the AHRC-ESRC, www.refugeehosts.org) and Southern Responses to Displacement from Syria: Views from Lebanon, Jordan and Turkey (funded by the European Research Council, www.southernresponses.org).
Aydan Greatrick has four years of experience working in the field of international development and humanitarian research and advocacy. Aydan’s core strengths relate to the delivery of in-depth research and analysis combined with effective public engagement and communication leading to demonstrable impact on policy and practice. His expertise relate to forced migration, displacement, gender, sexuality, and local responses to refugees. Aydan is currently his PhD inUniversity College London, Centre for Multidisciplinary and Intercultural Inquiry. Thesis Title: Identities in Conflict: Humanitarian Responses to and Experiences of Queer Refugees in Lebanon and Germany.
Lewis Turner is a Lecturer in International Politics of Gender at Newcastle University, UK. He is a political ethnographer of humanitarianism in ‘the Middle East,’ and his work investigates questions of gender (especially men and masculinities), encampment, labour market integration, and race and racism in humanitarianism. His research has appeared in journals including International Feminist Journal of Politics, Middle East Critique, and Review of International Studies, and has received prizes from professional associations including the British International Studies Association and the Political Studies Association. He previously worked at the Arnold Bergstraesser Institute at the University of Freiburg, and holds a PhD in Politics and International Relations from SOAS University of London.
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