Philip Hayward is an adjunct professor at the University of British Columbia, Canada, editor of the journal Shima and a strategic advisor for the River Cities Network. His research addresses oceanic, island, coastal and riverine environments with particular regard to issues of cultural heritage, tourism and representation. He has published articles in journals such as Anthropocenes, Island Studies Journal, Lagoonscapes, Small States and Territories and Transformations and has written and edited 14 books.

May Joseph is Professor of Social Science at Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, USA and author of Aquatopia: Climate Interventions (2022); ghosts of Lumumba (2020), Sealog: Indian Ocean to New York (2019); Fluid New York: Cosmopolitan Urbanism and the Green Imagination (2013); and Nomadic Identities: The Performance of Citizenship (1999). Joseph is co-editor (with Sudipta Sen) of Terra Aqua: The Amphibious Lifeworlds of Coastal and Maritime South Asia (2022); and co-Editor of Performing Hybridity (1999). She co-edits three book series from Routledge, Critical Climate Studies, Ocean and Island Studies, and Kaleidoscope: Ethnography, Art, Architecture and Archaeology.