Lisbeth Morlandstø is a Lecturer at Nord University, specializing in media studies and journalism. Her career spans from 1992 to present, with leadership roles including Head of Nord University's Center for Journalism (2003-2008) and the Council for Applied Media Research (RAM) (2005-2008, 2021-current). She has been instrumental in Norwegian media research, leading the Journalism research group (2006-2022). Doctor of Political Science in Media Studies, University of Bergen (2006) Supervisor for doctoral, master's, and bachelor's students in sociology and journalism Research Focus: Commentary and opinion journalism, media representation of marginalized groups, and the role of local media in democratic processes. Her projects include "Blindzones and Diversity" (2017) and longitudinal studies on regional media's evolving role in public spheres. Recent Publications: Co-authored works on social sustainability in journalism education (2023), hybrid media systems in Nordic politics (2021), and digital commentary practices in Arctic regions (2020). Themes include diversity, media ethics, and audience engagement. Led key media research initiatives in Norway's northern regions (2012-2022) Contributed to understanding gender representations in local media Explored digital transformation in commentary journalism
Rev. Prof. Dr. hab. Piotr Szczur is a Professor at the Department of Church History , John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin. He has held significant administrative roles including Director of the Institute (2016-2017, 2009-2010, 2008-2009) and Head of Department (2014-2019, 2008-2014). His research focuses on Patristics , Early Christian Theology , and Homiletics , particularly the works of John Chrysostom and other Church Fathers. Key Research Areas : Church History, Patristic Exegesis, Penitential Practices, Byzantine Theology, Biblical Interpretation, Late Antique Social Structures His recent publications explore the penitential traditions of Irish and British Churches , typology of Early Christian baptisteries , and John Chrysostom’s analysis of wealth . He has contributed to peer-reviewed journals like VOX PATRUM and edited volumes on Polish Ecclesiastical History and Byzantine Culture . Scientific Awards include multiple Rector’s Awards of KUL (individual and team) and the Silver Medal for Long Service . He has organized international conferences on topics like Ravenna’s cultural synthesis and Biblical Jubilees , and served on program councils for events in Byzantine Studies and Patristic Theology . Advising highlights his mentorship of doctoral students such as Beata Jadwiga Szpetkowska (penitential theology) and Ks. Bartłomiej Bartosik (spiritual gifts theology). He has reviewed numerous doctoral and habilitation theses, and hosted international scholars from Ukraine and Romania.
Roger Clarke is a Senior Lecturer in Fine Art at Bath Spa University's Bath School of Art, Film and Media, with over twenty years of professional experience as both a practicing artist and educator. His career spans significant exhibitions across the UK and internationally, including venues such as the Henry Moore Institute in Leeds and the Venice Biennale. His academic credentials include: BA(Hons) in Fine Art from the Slade School of Fine Art, University College London MA from London Metropolitan University Clarke's research centers on scientific visualisation and computerised fabrication processes , exploring intersections between art and science through sculptures based on molecular structures transformed into anthropomorphic forms inspired by Japanese anime. His fascination with scientific models for representing invisible phenomena culminated in works like A View of a Non-visible World (2005), which utilized Mount St Helens eruption data. His practice frequently incorporates kinetic elements, as demonstrated by the Record Player Orchestra series, merging sound, movement, and visual aesthetics through innovative use of industrial materials and analog technologies. Analysis of his 15 most recent exhibitions (2007-2021) reveals a consistent trajectory toward kinetic and sound-based sculptures, with increasing emphasis on public engagement and interdisciplinary collaboration. His work demonstrates technical evolution from geometric steel constructions to complex data-driven installations, maintaining a core focus on material transformation and viewer interaction while bridging traditional sculptural techniques with digital fabrication. His principal recognition includes: Henry Moore Sculpture Fellowship (1991) Clarke has held substantial external roles including External Examiner for Fine Art at De Montfort University (2007-2011) and advisory positions for degree validations at Thames Valley University, University of Chichester, and Central Saint Martins. His professional memberships encompass the Royal British Society of Sculptors and the National Association for Fine Art Education. His practice involves significant collaborations, as evidenced by co-curated exhibitions like DRIVE THRU and group shows engaging community contexts and public spaces.
Michael Vance is a Professor in the Department of History at Saint Mary's University (SMU), where he has taught since 1990. His academic background includes a B.A. in History and Archaeology from Simon Fraser University, M.A. degrees from York University (UK) and McMaster University, and a Ph.D. in Migration History from the University of Guelph. Specializes in Scottish migration patterns to Canada, Australia, and South Africa Co-developer of the Graduate Program in History at SMU Teaches in the Irish Studies program His research examines transatlantic Scottish colonization, focusing on cultural memory, social dynamics, and colonial legacies. Recent publications analyze comic strip narratives, soldier resettlement in Nova Scotia, and Indigenous-settler interactions. Vance has secured competitive grants like the SSHRC Partnership Development Grant (2015) for Irish-Catholic Halifax studies and collaborates on historical source editions. Co-edited Reappraisals of British Colonization in Atlantic Canada (2020) Contributor to International Review of Scottish Studies and Acadiensis Recipient of SSHRC funding for 19th-century Halifax research
Brian Steininger is an Associate Professor in the Department of East Asian Studies at Princeton University, where he has taught since 2013. His office is located in 213 Jones Hall, and he can be contacted at bsteinin@princeton.edu or (609) 258-1752. He teaches undergraduate courses including "Manga: Visual Culture of Modern Japan", "Japanese Literature to 1800", and "The Book in East Asia: Oracle Bones to Smartphones". His educational background includes: Ph.D. in East Asian Languages & Literatures, Yale University B.A. in English and Asian Studies, Macalester College (MN) Steininger's research centers on the reception of Chinese textual culture in premodern Japan through literary form, social practice, and media history. He examines how Sinitic literary traditions were reshaped in Japan during the 10th-14th centuries through practices of exchange, ritual performance, and evolving media technologies. His work spans vernacular recitation, tonal prosody, manuscript circulation, woodblock printing, and commentary traditions. He co-organizes the Colloquium on Literacies across East Asia, a collaborative forum held alternately at Princeton and Columbia Universities that promotes comparative studies of Literary Chinese across East Asian intellectual history. His current research investigates the intermingling of manuscript and print modes in thirteenth and fourteenth-century Japanese scholarship. His publications analyze medieval Japanese paratexts, Kamakura-period manuscript culture, and Heian-era reception of Tang poetry, collectively demonstrating how Chinese literary forms were transformed through material and procedural contexts in Japanese scholarly practice. Scientific Awards: None mentioned in source materials. As an educator, Steininger advises students through Princeton's Junior Seminar (EAS 300) and teaches core humanities sequences. His research has been supported by visiting appointments at Keio University, Waseda University, and the Institute for Advanced Study, reflecting institutional recognition of his scholarly contributions to premodern East Asian studies. He actively participates in the Colloquium on Literacies across East Asia, fostering transnational academic collaboration on the history of Literary Chinese across East Asia.
Matti Niinimäki is a Senior University Lecturer at Aalto University's Department of Art and Media within the School of Arts, Design and Architecture. Based in Espoo, Finland, he actively contributes to the Media Lab's legacy through artistic innovation and curation, as evidenced by his recent 2025 award for the Media Lab 30th Anniversary Exhibition. His research centers on interactive and media art, exploring sonic interfaces, memory representation, and digital archaeology through immersive installations. Key themes include urban soundscapes, alternative realities, and the intersection of technology with human experience, often manifested in collaborative exhibitions that challenge conventional interaction paradigms. From 2017-2021, his artistic output reveals a trajectory of experimental projects like Sonic Microscope and Media Lab Timeline, blending media archaeology with contemporary digital tools to create thought-provoking experiences that examine memory, urban environments, and perception. Niinimäki's excellence has been recognized with: Artistic Activity Award: Media Lab 30th Anniversary Exhibition (March 2025) Teacher of the Year (December 2022) Teacher Award 2020 (February 2021) Vuoden käsityöläinen 2015 (Craftsman of the Year, January 2015) As an educator, he has received multiple teaching accolades reflecting his dedication to student development. His work with the Media Lab underscores his pivotal role in fostering digital art innovation through projects like Alt+Ctrl+Aalto and Äänimuseo 10, which engage public audiences with experimental interfaces and sound installations.
Professor Sarahleigh Castelyn is an educator, researcher, performer, and choreographer specializing in dance, currently serving as a Professor and Postgraduate Research Degree Leader in the Department of Music, Writing & Performance within the School of Arts and Creative Industries at the University of East London. Born in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa in the 1970s, she has developed an international career bridging the United Kingdom and South Africa, with deep expertise in South African contemporary dance practices and their political dimensions. Her research interests focus on the intersection of dance with critical social issues including race, gender, sexuality, nation, and politics in apartheid and post-apartheid South Africa. She explores the politics of hybridity and the use of practice as research methodology, with particular attention to marginalized dance practices from the Global South. Recent work has examined the representation of women and madness in performance, as well as the toyi-toyi as a powerful political dance motif in South African protest culture. Castelyn's scholarly output demonstrates consistent engagement with contemporary South African dance, examining how dancing bodies become sites of political resistance and identity formation. Her publications reveal evolving interests from early work on HIV/AIDS representation in dance (2008-2010) to more recent explorations of xenophobia, disability, and decolonial approaches to Western dance forms. Her 2022 monograph Contemporary Dance in South Africa: The Toyi-Toying Body represents a significant contribution to the field. She actively serves on numerous editorial and organizational boards including the South African Dance Journal, HOTFOOT, Research in Dance Education, and the African Theatre Association. Her commitment to mentoring is evident through her supervision of PhD students and leadership of the JOMBA! KHULUMA writing residency project that connects students from UEL with those from the University of KwaZulu-Natal. Castelyn has secured substantial research funding from multiple sources including UEL's ACI Research Support Fund, UEL Undergraduate Research Intern Scheme, and previously the UK's Arts and Humanities Research Council for her doctoral work. Her ongoing projects include research on representations of women and madness, feminist theatre collaborations, and an edited collection on contemporary dance in Africa.
Patricia Childers is a NYC-based designer and professor of graphic design, typography, and design theory. She serves as an Adjunct Professor in the Continuing & Professional Studies department at Pratt Institute, The New York City College of Technology (Citytech), and The Fashion Institution of Technology (FIT). Her professional practice, P Childers Design, encompasses both digital and print design for media, education, arts, and science clients. Her educational background includes: MFA in Graphic Design from Vermont College of Fine Arts BFA in Graphic Design from Rhode Island School of Design Studies in critical theory at NYU's Graduate School of Arts and Science Patricia's research interests center around the symbiotic relationship between culture and design, and design's power to reshape cultural narratives. She explores design as paratextual elements and emphasizes critical thinking in design education. Her work bridges theoretical frameworks with practical applications, examining how visual communication shapes cultural understanding and social discourse. She is particularly interested in how design can serve as a tool for social change and how historical design practices inform contemporary approaches. Her recent scholarly work demonstrates a strong focus on design education methodology, visual essays as research artifacts, and the intersection of design with social justice issues. She has been actively contributing to the field through peer-reviewed conference presentations and publications that explore innovative approaches to design pedagogy and research. Her notable achievements include: AIGA DEC Design + Writing Fellowship (2022-23) AIGA Wiki Scholars (2022) Patricia serves in leadership roles including on the AIGA Design Educators Community (DEC) Steering Committee (2022-2025) and as Co-Chair of the AIGA DEC Design Conference (2023). She co-directs Tipo, Cibo, Vino, a letterpress workshop in Italy, which combines typography, food, and wine experiences through travel in northeastern Italy to view graphic archives and typography museums.
Dr. Yana Stainova is an Associate Professor in the Department of Anthropology at McMaster University, specializing in ethnographic research across Latin America and Latinx communities. Her work intersects Anthropology , Art , Music , and Migration studies, with a particular focus on Violence and Latinx Studies . Teaches courses including Art and Activism , Special Topics in Anthropology , and Introduction to Sociocultural Anthropology Research explores the political dimensions of music, affective labor, and state power dynamics Her recent publications in American Anthropologist and Current Anthropology examine cultural entrepreneurship, sonic resistance, and the prosody of social ties. Despite extensive scholarly activity, no specific awards or educational background details were found in the provided texts.
Professor Susan M. Fitzmaurice serves as Vice President and Head of the Faculty of Arts and Humanities at the University of Sheffield, where she holds the position of Professor and Chair of English Language within the School of English. Previously, she was Head of the School of English (2011-2015), Professor of English and Head of Department at Northern Arizona University, and University Lecturer in English at Cambridge University. Her research centers on the history of the English language through historical pragmatics, sociolinguistics, and computational linguistics. Key interests include semantic-pragmatic change, lexical patterns in large corpora, and conceptual modeling. She leads the Linguistic DNA project (AHRC-funded) that uses high-performance computing to analyze semantic change in Early Modern English (1500-1800), and collaborates on GCRF-funded community research in South Africa addressing rural capacity-building. Recent publications reveal a strong trajectory toward digital humanities methodologies, with 7 of the 15 most recent articles focusing on computational analysis of historical texts. Her work demonstrates interdisciplinary reach across linguistics, digital humanities, gender studies, and postcolonial research, particularly through projects examining Zimbabwean English and transnational discourse. As principal investigator for major grants including AHRC AH/M00614X/1 and GCRF initiatives, she directs collaborative research involving the Universities of Glasgow, Sussex, Pretoria, and South African NGO Pala Forerunners. Her supervision focuses on doctoral projects in historical sociolinguistics, corpus linguistics, and discourse analysis. She co-edits the Topics in English Linguistics series for Mouton de Gruyter and serves on the Philological Society Council. Her leadership extends to the UK-ZA Community Research partnership, which develops community-led methodologies for social violence research in sub-Saharan Africa.
Dr. Gregory Ferris is a Senior Lecturer in the Faculty of Design and Society at the University of Technology Sydney (UTS). His academic work bridges media art practice and research, with a focus on interactive and immersive media environments. He is affiliated with the Faculty Visualisation Institute (VI) Research Network and The Trustworthy Digital Society at UTS. Dr. Ferris completed his PhD at the College of Fine Arts, Sydney, Australia in 2013 with a thesis entitled "Every time I leave the room: image, time and metadata in off-screen space." His academic journey reflects a unique blend of artistic practice and scholarly research in contemporary media. Dr. Ferris's research interests span multiple domains of contemporary media practice. As a "media 'construct-ant'", he works across interactive media, installation art, virtual reality, and traditional moving image production. His creative practice has evolved from experimental films that screened on the ABC in the mid-eighties to pioneering work in panoramic interactive narratives and 360-degree virtual reality. His research focuses on microbudget feature filmmaking, immersive and interactive narrative structures, and emerging media technologies including virtual reality. His work explores the intersection of media production, post-production technologies, and experimental media making, with particular attention to aesthetic considerations in contemporary digital environments. Dr. Ferris's creative outputs demonstrate a consistent trajectory of innovation in media art. His work shows increasing sophistication in immersive technologies, with a focus on VR, 360-degree media, and interactive installations. His scholarly contributions connect media practice with educational applications, particularly in how immersive media can be integrated into teaching contexts. The themes across his work include explorations of narrative structures beyond traditional frames, spatial relationships in media, and the evolving relationship between creators, technologies, and audiences in digital environments. Dr. Ferris has received research funding from significant sources including the City of Sydney, UTS Chancellor's Research Fellowship, and Create NSW. His current projects include "Spirit of the Hoey" (2023-2024), "Envisaging and enacting just climate futures through immersive media" (2022-2027), and "Sympathetic Threads" (2017-2018). As an educator, Dr. Ferris teaches "Experimental Media" and is available for Masters Research and PhD student supervision. His teaching focuses on media arts exploration, production and post-production techniques, experimental media making, and aesthetics. He has organized academic conferences including microWAVE 2011 and microWAVE 2013, demonstrating leadership in his field.
Dr. Monica Flegel is an Associate Professor in the Department of English at Lakehead University . Specializing in Victorian literature , cultural studies , and animal studies , her research bridges historical analysis with contemporary critical frameworks including child studies and fan studies . She teaches courses on 19th-century British literature, literary theory, children's literature, and cultural studies. Education: BA in Honours English, University of Saskatchewan MA in English, Dalhousie University PhD in English, University of Alberta Her research explores intersections between Victorian animal autobiographies , child protection discourse , and fan/producer relationships . Key themes include interspecies ethics , commodification of childhood , and evolving fanfiction legitimacy . She has published in journals like Children’s Literature and Transformative Works and Culture . Recent publications focus on Victorian media culture , superhero politics , and cyberculture's influence on literary transitions. Her award-winning work ( 2005 Vanarsdel Prize Essay ) examines 19th-century child protection narratives. Flegel supervises graduate research across diverse topics including literary ghost stories , heteronormativity in Harry Potter , and gender dynamics in Sailor Moon . She has collaborated with scholars like Dr. Judith Leggatt on comics culture and Dr. Jenny Roth on copyright law in fanfiction contexts. Labs and Collaborations: Flegel co-edited Cruel Children in Popular Texts and Cultures with Christopher Parkes and worked with Dr. Leggatt on Superhero Cultural Wars , analyzing Marvel Comics' socio-political dimensions.
Patryk Hardziej is a Lecturer at the Gdańsk Academy of Fine Arts , Faculty of Graphics. His work spans illustration, graphic design, and research in the history of graphic symbols. Academic Role: Lecturer in Graphics Research Focus: Visual identity systems, historical symbolism, and design pedagogy His career integrates creative practice with academic rigor, producing notable publications and designs for international clients. Current projects include co-running the Identity Design and Visual Systems (SYSTEMY) studio with Dr. Adam Świerżewski. Selected Awards: KTR Gold Award Designer of the Year – Polish Graphic Design Awards Hardziej’s practice bridges education and industry, with clients like Disney, British Airways, and Greenpeace. He founded the Karol Śliwka Foundation and curates design festivals/exhibitions.
Jeff Allred is an Associate Professor of English at Hunter College, where he has taught since 2005, and an Associate Professor of Digital Humanities at the CUNY Graduate Center since 2018. His academic work bridges American literature, modernism, and digital humanities, with a focus on documentary practices and cultural pedagogy. Education: Ph.D., English, University of Pennsylvania (2005) B.A., American Studies, Williams College (1995), magna cum laude His research explores intersections between literary modernism and documentary traditions, particularly in the context of American studies and visual culture. He has published extensively on topics such as Depression-era literature, digital annotation platforms, and the role of refuse in shaping working-class narratives. His work often examines how teaching practices can transform traditional literary pedagogy through digital tools and collaborative projects. His most recent articles and book chapters analyze themes like racial representation in Faulkner’s works, the documentary mode in literature, and the use of annotation technologies in education. Current projects include a manuscript on modernism and pedagogy titled ABCs of Modernism .
Nathan W. Young is an Assistant Professor of Graphic Design at Temple University's Tyler School of Art and Architecture , where he focuses on critical pedagogy and social justice in design education. Holding an MFA from the Rhode Island School of Design (2019), Young's practice merges metatheatrical design strategies with ethical engagement. Education MFA, Graphic Design, Rhode Island School of Design (2019) His research explores how graphic design can challenge Western hegemonic narratives through pluriversality, emphasizing empathy and inclusivity in design education. He created the Fruit for Thought podcast (2017–present) as an experimental platform for exploring creative processes. Selected design projects include: Salt City Coffee identity (2016), The Glass Menagerie (2014), and CSU Theatre and Dance Season Work (2012–13). His work has been featured in the RISD Graphic Design Triennial (2018) and Walker Art Center Magazine (2018). Awards Regional Design Annual (2016) International Design Annual Merit Award (2016, 2014) Young's teaching methodology emphasizes conceptual risk-taking, critical self-reflection, and the use of design to subvert dominant power structures. His Pluriversal Design Workbook (2018) provides frameworks for decolonizing design curricula through inclusive practices.
