Ken Plummer is Emeritus Professor in the Sociology Department at the University of Essex where he taught and researched between 1975 and 2005. In 1996, he became the founder editor of the journal Sexualities. His earliest research, starting with Sexual Stigma (1975) and The Making of the Modern Homosexual (1981) was concerned with helping to develop a theoretical orientation for the then emerging lesbian, gay and queer studies.  In follow up work on sexual diversities, he championed the use of life story research in sociology and the importance of studying sexual stories, published in Documents of Life, 1983 (2^nd ed. 2001) and Telling Sexual Stories (1995).  His recent work takes a more explicitly political and critical turn with Intimate Citizenship (2003) and Cosmopolitan Sexualities (2015).  He retired early because of ill health. He has always identified with symbolic interactionism; but these days calls himself a critical humanist.  Forthcoming books are Narrative Power: Creating Human Stories for a Sustainable World (2018) and Critical Humanism: A Manifesto for Human Flourishing (2019).

Judit Takács is a Research Chair at the Institute of Sociology, Centre for Social Sciences, Hungarian Academy of Sciences (Budapest, Hungary). Her main research interests are family roles, work-life balance, social history of sexual minorities, transphobia, homophobia, discrimination, equality, HIV/AIDS prevention. Her most recent publications include “Trans Citizenship in Post-socialist Societies” (Critical Social Policy; with R. Kuhar and S. Monro), “Social Attitudes toward Adoption by Same-Sex Couples in Europe” (Archives of Sexual Behavior; with I. Szalma and T. Bartus), and “Disciplining gender and (homo)sexuality in state socialist Hungary in the 1970s” (European Review of History). Currently she works as a Seconded National Expert at the ECDC in Stockholm.

Joanna Mizielińska holds DSs (habilitation) in sociology, University of Warsaw and a PhD in Women’s Philosophy, Institute of Philosophy and Sociology of Polish Academy of Sciences. She currently works as an Associate Professor at the Institute of Psychology of the Polish Academy of Sciences. Her interests concentrate on queer theory and sociology of gender, sexuality and families. Her past research centred on the politics of translation of Anglo-American queer theoretical approaches/concepts into other geo-political contexts and the question of exclusion. Her current research focuses on queer kinship and queer families. Recently she was a Principal Investigator of the project “Families of Choice in Poland” (2013-2016; familiesofchoice.pl) which was the first multi-method project on non-heterosexual families in Poland. Currently she is a Co-Investigator in the research project “Queer(y)ing Kinship in the Baltic Region” [dir. by prof. U. Dahl, Södertörn University, Stockholm] and “Doing Right(s): Innovative tools for professionals working with LGBT families [dir. by prof. F.de Cordova, University of Verona] . She is the author of “Different or ordinary? Families of choice in Poland” (2017), Sex/Body/Sexuality (2007) and (De)Constructions of Femininity (2004) and co-author of In different voices. Families of Choice in Poland (2017) and Families of choice in Poland. Family life of nonheterosexual persons (2015). She is co-editor of De-Centring Western Sexualities: Central and Eastern European Perspective (Ashgate, 2011). Her most recent writing focuses on critical analysis of discourses on families of choice in Poland (Journal of Homosexuality, 2017) and doing research on queer kinship beyond Western queer paradigms (Sexualities, 2017).

Surya Monro is Senior Research Fellow and Director at Centre for Research in the Social Sciences, University of Hudderfield, UK. She has extensive research experience in the areas of gender, sexuality, citizenship and democracy. She provides a substantial contribution to reviewing academic outputs in her field, and she is on the editorial boards of the journal Sexualities and the Palgrave MacMillan book series Critical and Applied Approaches to Gender, Sexuality and Identity. She also has various roles supporting positive developments in policy and practice at national/international levels. She has published extenisvely in the fields of gender and sexuality. She is the author of  Gender Politics: Citizenship, Activism, and Sexual Diversity (Pluto Press, 2005) and Bisexuality. Identities, Politics, and Theories (Palgrave MacMillan, 2015) , and co-author (with Diane Richardson) of Sexuality, Equality and Diversity (Palgrave MacMillan, 2012).

 Ana Cristina Santos is a Sociologist and a Senior Researcher at the Centre for Social Studies, University of Coimbra, working on LGBTIQ, gender, sexual citizenship and the body. Between 2014 and 2019, she was awarded a Research Grant by the European Research Council to lead the cross-national study INTIMATE – Citizenship, Care and Choice: The micropolitics of intimacy in Southern Europe (www.ces.uc.pt/intimate). Between 2018 and 2021 she is the PI for Portugal of the International Research Consortium for CILIA-LGBTQ, funded by the European Agency NORFACE. Significant publications include Social Movements and Sexual Citizenship in Southern Europe (Palgrave Macmillan, 2013) and Sexualities Research: Critical Interjections, Diverse Methodologies, and Practical Applications (Routledge, 2017, with A. King and I. Crowhurst). She is also Director of the International PhD Program Human Rights in Contemporary Societies (since 2013).