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Kris Petersen
editor/webmaster

Kris recently returned from an extended stay in the Gaza Strip with the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights. During this time, he conducted research for his Masters thesis - a critique of social capital theory by examining the anti-democratic forces at work within Gazan civil society.

Prior to graduate research, Kris completed a BA in political science at San Diego State University. A truncated version of his undergraduate thesis, “Security or Demography? The West Bank Barrier as a Demographic Tool”, was recently published in Studium.

With harmonicminor.com, Kris attempts to combine academic with nonacademic interests—most prominently, international politics, political theory, human rights and development. Although usually busy with multiple projects, Kris’ writing has been spotted in local San Diego publications as well as numerous websites and online forums.

Check out his profiles on: MySpace, Facebook, Last.fm, Flickr, LinkedIn, or just download his CV.

Jonas Ecke
kraut

Having recently returned from a stint with CARE in Ghana, Jonas presently resides in his beloved Germany. Perpetually fascinated by potatoes and boasting the appetite of three men, Jonas often substitutes social graces for a more robust form of bohemian scruff.

Jonas is completing his Masters in Development Studies this summer and hopes to pursue a Ph.D. afterwards.

Ηλέκτρα Μανδραγού - Ilektra Mandragou
senior hellenistic attaché

According to tradition, the Greek biographer Hermippus once said that there were three things for which he was most thankful—that he had been born a human and not an animal, a man and not a woman, and a Greek and not a barbarian. In Ilektra’s case, one is tempted to think “two out of three ain’t bad”.

Hailing from the underdeveloped land of Greece, Ilektra first became familiar with the internet early last year—though she has since established an email account and learned how to conduct simple web searches.

Graphic designer by training and whiner by nature, Ilektra contributes rants relating to Greece and the primitive people who live there. She holds a BA in graphic design from TEI in Athens and will complete a Masters in industrial design at Aalborg University this June.

Ilektra maintains an online portfolio at electrarts.com and writes a design-oriented blog at Design For Thought.

Danielle McCracken
senior literary correspondent

Of unsure origins, it has been suggested by some that Danielle is the bastard lovechild of Tim Roth, Al Roker and Chaka Khan. To the surprise of many, this orgiastic experiment, undertaken more than 2 decades ago, has not prevented Danielle from relating to what she habitually refers to as the “hoi polloi”.

A self-proclaimed elitist, Danielle is also a non-practicing Mormonist. Unfortunately, this tends to be the identity to which she primarily subscribes… though apparently she also writes. Danielle currently lives in Missoula, Montana, where she shares a flat with a bottle of Jack Daniels and a half-empty saché of stir-fry mix.

Grzegorz Motriuk
political hack/book reviewer

Grzegorz (or “Greg” for those of us opposed to uttering so many uninterrupted consonants) is currently based in Fiji, immersing himself in the parallel universe that is the U.N. system..

His interests range from nationalist theories, through politics, to globalization. His Masters thesis will analyze the relationships between culture, business and racial conflict in Fiji.

Greg is also keenly interested in Autistic Spectrum Disorder and tries to raise awareness about this phenomenon on his website: www.autyzm24.pl

Melissa Plath
cult leader

Native to Billings, Montana, Melissa now finds herself on the shores of the lower Gulf of Bothnia in Vaasa, Finland. While her Northern exploits have earned her little in the way of good manners, regular sauna bathing and nude reindeer expeditions sustain her newfound proclivity for the “land of the midnight sun”.

Melissa is now working on her Masters thesis on Peace and Reconciliation in Rwanda, having recently returned from a brief sojourn there. Yet, before she is deported by the godless Finnish government, Melissa hopes to mooch what she can from the generosity of a welfare state ignorant of homegrown Montana greed.

For harmonicminor.com, Melissa contributes randomly, with topics varying from politics to the newest Finnish dance crazes. She also runs her own (terribly neglected) blog, An American in Finland, and can be contacted at plathmelissa@gmail.com.

Sasha Syeed
musicological representative

Sasha is a self-described “Bangla-Mexi”—an irreverent allusion to his biracial background—whichs tend to quite accurately describe his shenanigans. In a world where opinions are like kittens (i.e. people just keep giving them away), Sasha has been known to give away feral, piebald kittens… and demand cash on delivery.

Sasha divides his time evenly between buying music, listening to music, and playing music on his acoustic bass guitar, though he has also been known to drink copious amounts of Dr. Pepper. He hopes to one day to convert to Judaism, but that would mean abandoning his decades-long affair with pepperoni pizza—a relationship he refuses to quit so frivolously.

Sasha currently lives in San Diego, California where he shares a room with thousands upon thousands of compact discs.