Jennifer Gómez Menjívar is Professor and Director of the M.A. in Media Industries and Critical Cultural Studies at the University of North Texas. Her research examines historical and ethno-linguistic movements influencing text production, circulation, and reception across print media, screen cultures, and digital communities. With over 18 years of teaching experience, she previously held positions at international organizations including the UNECE and UNDP. Her scholarly interests span media linguistics, film adaptation, digital activism, hemispheric animation histories, Indigenous sovereignty media, and Spanish-language media. Her publications demonstrate interdisciplinary work bridging media studies, cultural history, and postcolonial theory. Her extensive publication record includes books such as Tropical Tongues: Language Ideologies, Endangerment, and Minority Languages in Belize (2018) and Black in Print: Plotting the Coordinates of Blackness in Central America (2023), as well as co-edited volumes on Indigenous technology and hemispheric Blackness. She received a Senior Research Fellowship at Freie University Berlin for her upcoming work on Indigenous sovereignty media. Gómez Menjívar teaches courses including Introduction to Graduate Studies in Media Arts, Women in Film, and Global Media. She also mentors students in critical media analysis and serves as faculty advisor for media research projects.
Chi-Ming Yang is a Professor of English at the University of Pennsylvania's School of Arts & Sciences, where she has established herself as a leading scholar in literary and visual culture studies with a focus on race, empire, and East-West cultural exchanges. Her interdisciplinary approach bridges British, American, Asian, and Latin American studies while examining historical periods from the early modern era through the 18th century to contemporary contexts. Educational Background: Ph.D. in English from Cornell University B.A. in Comparative Literature from Stanford University with emphases in Spanish, Chinese, and English Professor Yang's research interrogates the intersections of race, visual culture, and imperial histories through multiple disciplinary lenses. Her work explores how objects, images, and texts function within global networks of power and representation, with particular attention to transpacific and transatlantic connections. She has developed significant expertise in chinoiserie, material culture, and the visual dimensions of racial formation across historical periods. Her recent publications demonstrate a growing interest in ecological perspectives on race and empire, particularly evident in her 2021 article 'The Song of the Rice Bird,' which innovatively examines plantation slavery through avian migration patterns. Her scholarship consistently bridges historical analysis with contemporary concerns about representation, power, and cultural exchange. Professional Recognition: 2022 Best Advisor Award in English, Sponsored by the English Undergraduate Advisory Board Professor Yang maintains an active advising role, having chaired doctoral dissertations including Jacob Myers' 'Noxious Life: Figuring Vermin in the Natural Histories of the Anglophone Caribbean' (2025) and Cassidy Holahan's 'Dramatizing the Novel: Transmedial Exchange in the Long Eighteenth Century' (2023). She regularly participates in departmental workshops and events, including the 2024 conversation with Sharon Holland exploring Black feminist perspectives on animal life in relation to Octavia E. Butler's work. Her teaching portfolio reflects her interdisciplinary approach, with recent courses including 'Science Fictions of Octavia E. Butler,' 'Orientalisms,' '18th-Century British Poetry,' and 'Arts of Abolition and Liberation,' demonstrating her commitment to connecting historical scholarship with contemporary social justice concerns.
Jim Thatcher is an Assistant Professor at the College of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences (CEOAS) at Oregon State University. He serves as editor of Cartographic Perspectives , a leading journal in cartography. His research focuses on the intersection of technology, society, and environment, particularly examining how data and spatial technologies operate within capitalist systems. Key areas include Critical GIS, Critical Cartography, and Digital Political Ecology. Thatcher's current projects explore equitable coastal flood risk modeling using topological data analysis, mapping infrastructural legacies of slavery in the Pacific Northwest, and creating accessible disaster response maps for non-English speakers in Oregon. He also investigates spectral governance for rural internet access, cartography's societal role, climate education through board games, and geographic influences on electoral districting. His research emphasizes critical approaches to spatial data, questioning representational practices and power dynamics embedded in geospatial technologies. Recent work includes analyzing Bitcoin mining's environmental impacts on hydropower systems and examining the World Bank's renewable energy mapping through Critical Data Studies. Thatcher actively mentors graduate students and encourages interdisciplinary inquiries blending critical social theory with computational methods. Thatcher has authored numerous articles and co-authored Data Power (Pluto Press, 2022), an open-access exploration of data's role in societal control and resistance. His scholarship bridges critical geography with emerging technologies, advocating for ethical and equitable spatial practices in an increasingly data-driven world.
Allyson Nadia Field is an Associate Professor in the Department of Cinema and Media Studies and affiliated with The College at the University of Chicago. She is also an Affiliated Faculty member at the Center for the Study of Race, Politics, and Culture and the Center for the Study of Gender and Sexuality. Ph.D., Harvard University Her research explores African American cinema, silent film, and archival studies. She focuses on how cinema shapes race and gender representation, particularly in nontheatrical and nonextant films. Her work bridges film form, media theory, and cultural analysis. Field’s recent publications examine archival rediscovery, speculative methodologies in film history, and the legacy of early Black filmmakers. She co-edited projects on the L.A. Rebellion and nontheatrical film, emphasizing Black feminist curation and institutional critique. 2024-2025 NEH Public Scholars Grant 2020-2021 ACLS/Burkhardt Fellowship 2019 Academy Film Scholar 2021 National Film Preservation Board appointee She has organized major exhibitions, including the 2023 Sojourner Truth Festival of the Arts, and currently co-edits a collection on the visual afterlives of slavery. Her teaching includes courses on silent cinema, experimental film, and archival theory.
Vincent Brown serves as the Charles Warren Professor of American History and Professor of African and African American Studies at Harvard University, based in the Center for Government and International Studies (CGIS) South Building. His academic work centers on Atlantic history with a focus on the African diaspora and slavery in the Americas. His research expertise spans Atlantic History, African Diaspora Studies, and Slavery, with deep engagement in Digital History methodologies, Early American History, Imperial History, and Race studies. Brown examines power dynamics, resistance movements, and cultural identity formation within 17th-18th century Atlantic contexts, particularly in the Caribbean. His interdisciplinary approach integrates spatial analysis and digital tools to reinterpret historical narratives of slavery and empire. Analysis of his publications (2011-2024) reveals sustained focus on slave revolts as transnational phenomena, spatial history through digital mapping, and multimedia scholarship. His work demonstrates evolution from textual analysis in The Reaper's Garden (2008) to immersive cartographic projects like the Jamaican slave revolt mapping (2012-2016), culminating in documentary production ( Herskovits at the Heart of Blackness , 2009; The Bigger Picture , 2022). Recent outputs show increasing engagement with public history and interdisciplinary connections between political geography, racial terror, and cultural memory. The source materials do not specify details regarding student advising, grant funding, or laboratory teams.
Jennifer J. Baker is an Associate Professor in the Department of English at New York University's College of Arts and Science. Holding a Ph.D. in English from the University of Pennsylvania (2000), her academic focus spans 18th- and 19th-century American literary, cultural, and intellectual history. Key research areas include literature and science, environmental literature, transatlantic Romanticism, and Civil War literature. She is currently working on a reception history of Herman Melville’s Moby-Dick , examining its rise to canonical status through Cold War politics and academic culture. Education: Ph.D. in English, University of Pennsylvania (2000) Her upcoming book American Romanticism and the Evolutionary Idea (Stanford UP, 2026) investigates how evolutionary theories intersected with Romantic concepts in 19th-century American literature. Previous publications include Securing the Commonwealth: Debt, Speculation, and Writing in the Making of Early America (Johns Hopkins UP, 2006). Recent research includes articles on Herman Melville, Emerson, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Judith Sargent Murray, reflecting her interdisciplinary approach combining literary analysis with financial history, scientific thought, and cultural studies. Faculty Fellowship, NYU Center for the Humanities (2014-15) Heyman Prize, Yale University (2004) Morse Fellowship, Yale University (2005) Andrew W. Mellon Dissertation Fellowship (1997-98) She serves on the Board of the Melville Society Cultural Project and has held academic appointments at Yale University and the McNeil Center for Early American Studies.
Kathryn Babayan is a Professor at the University of Michigan , affiliated with the Middle East Studies department. Her research focuses on the cultural, social, and political histories of the Persianate world, particularly Iran, Iraq, Anatolia, and Central Asia. Her work integrates gender and sexuality studies , Safavid dynasty analysis , and material culture approaches to explore historical narratives. She is currently researching literacy practices in early modern Isfahan through her book The City as Anthology , examining how anthologies (majmu'a/muraqqa') reshaped urban experience and individual sovereignty. Collaborations include co-authoring Slaves of the Shah with Susan Babaie, Massumeh Farhad, and Ena Baghdiantz-McCabe, and co-editing Islamicate Sexualities with Afsaneh Najmabadi. Her publications bridge historiography , religion , and visual culture .
Agnes Lugo-Ortiz serves as Associate Professor of Latin American Literature in the Department of Romance Languages and Literatures at the University of Chicago's Division of the Humanities. Her scholarly profile centers on nineteenth-century Latin American literatures and Caribbean cultural histories within transatlantic frameworks of modernity, with particular emphasis on slavery, visual culture, and archival epistemology. Her educational foundation includes a PhD from Princeton University (1990), followed by teaching appointments at Northwestern University and Dartmouth College before her tenure at Chicago. Her research trajectory examines cultural politics through lenses of national identity formation, anti-colonial projects, and diasporic community reconfigurations, notably through decades of affiliation with the Recovering the U.S. Hispanic Literary Heritage Project. Lugo-Ortiz's current book project "The Plantation Gaze: Slavery and Visual Culture in Colonial Cuba (1727–1886)" interrogates the imbrication of visual culture with plantation slavery, analyzing diverse artifacts from religious performances to medical treatises. Her co-edited volume "Slave Portraiture in the Atlantic World" and co-founding of the Working Group on Slavery and Visual Culture (2016) demonstrate her leadership in visual studies of enslavement, recently expanded through the digital exhibit "Palimpsests: Visual Idioms of Enslavement in the Nineteenth-Century and Their Afterlives". Her scholarly impact is recognized through awards including the Latin American Studies Association Prize for Best Essay in Nineteenth-century Studies and the Premio Alejandro Tapia y Rivera. Prestigious fellowships from Ford Foundation, Mellon Foundation, Franke Institute, and Clark Art Institute have supported her research. As co-founder and co-editor of the anti-colonial digital journal "Categoría Cinco. Revista de Política y Cultura", she actively engages Puerto Rican decolonial politics. Her editorial service spans PMLA and University of New England Press publications, while advisory roles include the Recovering the US Hispanic Literary Heritage Project and Hemispheric Institute of Performance and Politics. She maintains robust institutional engagement through affiliations with Chicago's Center for Latin American Studies, Center for Gender and Sexuality Studies, and Center for Race, Politics, and Culture.
David Kazanjian is a Professor of English and Comparative Literature at the University of Pennsylvania's School of Arts & Sciences. He serves as Graduate Chair for the Comparative Literature and Literary Theory program (2024-25, 2026-2028), and has held prestigious fellowships including the Institute for Advanced Study (Princeton, 2026), Vartan Gregorian Center (NYPL, 2025), and Berlin Prize. His scholarship bridges transnational American studies, Armenian diaspora studies, political philosophy, and postcolonial theory. PhD in Rhetoric, University of California, Berkeley M.A. in Critical Theory, University of Sussex B.A. in Modern Thought and Literature, Stanford University Kazanjian's research examines dispossession through legal archives, transnational Armenian cultural politics, and 19th-century social movements. His work spans early American literature, Latin American colonialism, trauma theory, and Marxist analysis of freedom discourses. Recent publications address dispossession in colonial New England/Yucatán, Armenian diaspora representation, and improvisational freedom practices in the Atlantic world. His editorial roles include co-editing NYU Press's America and the Long 19th Century series and Social Text journal. 2022 Penn Provost's Award for Outstanding Mentorship of Ph.D. Students Berlin Prize, American Academy of Berlin As co-director of the Tepoztlán Institute for Transnational History of the Americas (2017-19) and affiliations with Penn's Gender & Sexuality Studies, Latin American Studies, and Middle East Center, Kazanjian fosters interdisciplinary scholarship. He teaches courses on capitalism theories, early American literature, and critical theory. His lab and collective work includes the Tepoztlán Institute and Social Text editorial collective, focusing on transnational historical methods and diasporic cultural analysis.
Keith Obadike is a Professor in the Department of Art at Cornell University's College of Architecture, Art, and Planning (AAP), where he also serves as Director of Undergraduate Studies. He is an acclaimed interdisciplinary artist and composer, known for his collaborative work with Mendi Obadike, which spans sound art, digital media, public installations, performance, and internet-based projects. His artistic and academic work critically engages with technology, race, history, and identity. Obadike earned a B.A. in Visual Art from North Carolina Central University and an M.F.A. in Sound Design from Yale University. Prior to joining Cornell, he taught at William Paterson University and held visiting positions at Princeton University, Columbia University, Northwestern University, and the Art Institute of Chicago. His research and creative practice focus on sound art, digital media, public art, performance, and collaborative practice , with strong interdisciplinary connections to Afrofuturism, data sonification, and social justice. He explores how sound and technology mediate racial identity, memory, and liberation, notably through the concept of acousmatic blackness , which he and Mendi developed to describe the racial perception of sound when its source is unseen. Obadike’s selected works include large-scale public sound installations such as Blues Speaker (for James Baldwin) , Free/Phase , Compass Song (Times Square Arts), and GuideStar (Space Needle, Seattle). His projects often use data sonification, archival research, and mythic storytelling, blending historical inquiry with futuristic vision. Notable series include the Opera-Masquerades , Americana Suites , and Numbers Station works, which transform databases of violence into sonic experiences. His honors include: Rockefeller New Media Arts Fellowship (2004) Louis Comfort Tiffany Biennial Award (2015) New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship in Fiction New Music USA Creator Development Fund (2022) Obadike has received commissions and support from institutions such as the Vera List Center, Harlem Stage, Times Square Arts, the American Composers Orchestra, and the Cornell Mui Ho Center for Cities. He has exhibited and performed at The New Museum, The Whitney Museum of American Art, MoMA, and The Studio Museum in Harlem. His writings and publications include contributions to Studies into Darkness (2022), and artist books such as Four Electric Ghosts and Big House / Disclosure (both 2014). He has also released albums like Crosstalk (2008) and created internet artworks such as Blackness for Sale (2001) and The Interaction of Coloreds (2002), which are foundational in new media and critical race art. While specific advisees are not listed, his role as Director of Undergraduate Studies and Professor indicates active mentorship. His work is deeply collaborative, often co-created with Mendi Obadike, and supported by interdisciplinary teams and institutions.
Dr. George Cole is an Associate Professor of Spanish at Texas Tech University's Classical & Modern Languages & Literatures (CMLL) Department. He specializes in Hispanic Caribbean literature and culture (Cuba and Puerto Rico), Afro-Caribbean religious practices, and Hispanic speculative genres like fantasy, horror, and science fiction. His work bridges literature, theater, and cultural anthropology, with a focus on Yoruba religious traditions and their representation in art. Education: B.A. in French Language and Literature, University of Puerto Rico M.A., Washington State University Ph.D., Arizona State University (2005) Research Interests: Dr. Cole explores Afro-Cuban cultural identity, Latin American drama and poetry, and transgressive genres such as detective fiction and graphic novels. His recent projects examine intersections between supernatural elements and criminal narratives. He also investigates the role of Santería in Cuban cinema and literature. Awards: Nominated for AriZoni Theatre Award (Best Supporting Actor, 2002 & 2004) Three-time 'Outstanding Faculty Member' recognition from Texas Tech's College of Arts & Sciences (2005–2007) Leadership & Service: Dr. Cole has served as Director of Spanish and Portuguese Graduate Studies (2018–2025), Interim Director (2022), and Co-Director of the Hispanic Studies Collection. He also holds editorial roles at Dura and Revista Temas Americanistas . Creative Works: His poetry collections Círculos concéntricos (2014) and Hojas sueltas (2015), and the cyberpunk noir short story collection Cadáveres en la oscura ciudad y otros relatos (2023) showcase his narrative versatility. He has authored plays like La indocumentada (2008) and directed six theater productions at Texas Tech.
Rachel Price is an Associate Professor of Spanish and Portuguese at Princeton University, affiliated with the Program in Media and Modernity, the Princeton Environmental Institute, and the Program in Latin American Studies. She holds a Ph.D. from Duke University and a B.A. from Yale University. Her research focuses on Latin American and circum-Atlantic literature and culture, with a particular emphasis on Cuba. Key areas include environmental humanities, media studies, slavery’s legacies, and visual art. She is the author of The Object of the Atlantic (2014) and Planet/Cuba (2015), exploring material aesthetics and planetary crises in Cuban art and literature. Price co-edited El populismo por venir? (2018) and has published widely on topics such as concrete poetry, neoconcrete art, and media during slavery’s height in Cuba. She is a 2024–2025 Harvard Radcliffe Institute Fellow and has held roles in Princeton’s Interdisciplinary Doctoral Program in the Humanities. Her work bridges environmental policy, postcolonial theory, and media history, analyzing how material objects and artistic practices reflect broader socio-political transformations. Recent projects examine climate change in contemporary Cuban art and the interplay between digital culture and postcolonial identities. Price previously taught at Brown and Stony Brook Universities and has engaged in research with Colombia’s Consejo Regional Indígena del Cauca.
Paul D. Halliday is the Julian Bishko Professor of History and Professor of Law at the University of Virginia, jointly appointed in the Department of History within the College of Arts and Sciences and the Law School . He is a leading scholar in legal history, with a focus on British, imperial, and global legal developments from 1500 to 1850. BA, Wesleyan University, 1983 MA, University of Chicago, 1988 PhD, University of Chicago, 1993 His research centers on the history of legal institutions, particularly habeas corpus, judicial authority, and the role of law in empire. Halliday challenges traditional narratives by emphasizing how judicial power evolved from royal prerogative rather than as a check on monarchy. His work bridges legal doctrine, archival practice, and material culture, with current projects exploring the sensory and spatial dimensions of law, including courthouse architecture and archival procedures. His publications reveal a consistent engagement with themes of liberty, authority, and legal continuity across time and space. Notably, his book Habeas Corpus: From England to Empire (2010) has had a profound impact, influencing the U.S. Supreme Court in Boumediene v. Bush (2008), and reshaping scholarly understanding of habeas corpus as a tool of imperial governance. His recent work extends into South Asian and Caribbean legal histories, emphasizing global legal interconnectedness. Inner Temple Book Prize (2011) for Habeas Corpus: From England to Empire Sutherland Prize, American Society for Legal History (2009) for co-authored Virginia Law Review article At UVA, Halliday teaches courses such as History of English Law , Law’s Empire , and Global Legal History . He advises graduate students in legal history and is a core member of GLH@UVA (Global Legal History at the University of Virginia), an interdisciplinary community that includes faculty and students from history and law. This group fosters collaborative research, professional development, and regular discussions on works in progress, contributing to a vibrant intellectual environment.
Ashli White serves as Professor and Chair of the History Department within the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Miami. Her academic leadership focuses on revolutionary Atlantic history with particular expertise in material culture studies. Her research centers on the material dimensions of revolutionary movements across the Atlantic World, examining how objects like ceramics, furniture, garments, maps, and political emblems transmitted revolutionary ideals. White's work reveals how enslaved and free populations, women and men, across social strata engaged with revolutionary politics through tangible objects. Her scholarship demonstrates how material culture served as a dynamic medium for expressing political convictions, contesting power structures, and negotiating revolutionary change during the American, French, and Haitian revolutions. White's publications reveal consistent thematic focus on the circulation of revolutionary objects and symbols throughout the Atlantic World. Her work demonstrates how material culture functioned as a critical vector for transmitting revolutionary ideals across geographic and social boundaries, with particular attention to the Haitian Revolution's transformative impact. The research shows a methodological commitment to interdisciplinary analysis connecting physical artifacts with political history. White actively contributes to academic discourse through book reviews in premier historical journals including The American Historical Review and The William and Mary Quarterly , engaging with scholarship on imperial history, Caribbean studies, and revolutionary movements. As department chair, she oversees historical research and pedagogy while maintaining an active scholarly profile. Her collaborative work on cartographic exhibitions demonstrates engagement with public history initiatives and interdisciplinary projects examining Caribbean representation.
Nabil Matar is a Professor at the University of Minnesota, holding the Presidential Professorship in the President’s Interdisciplinary Initiative on Arts and Humanities and the Samuel Russell Chair in the Humanities. He teaches in both the English and History departments and contributes to the Religious Studies Program. Educated at the American University of Beirut (B.A., M.A.) and Cambridge University (Ph.D., 1976) Former Department Head at Florida Institute of Technology (1997-2007) Recipient of postdoctoral grants from the British Council and Fulbright His research focuses on early modern Euro-Islamic interactions , particularly examining Arab-European travel literature, captivity narratives, and religious exchanges. He has authored a foundational trilogy on Islam in Britain and comparative studies on Mediterranean encounters. Key publication trends include Anglo-Ottoman relations , cross-cultural identity formation , and premodern globalization , with works spanning from 1998 to 2018. His scholarship bridges religious studies , literary analysis , and cultural history . Building Bridges award (University of Cambridge, 2012) Kuwait Foundation for the Advancement of Sciences Award (2017) Matar has secured major grants including a National Endowment for the Humanities Conference on 'Shared Cultural Spaces' and has contributed to curricular development in religious and interdisciplinary studies.
