Speakers

The Cultural Connections team includes Indigenous leaders, Elders, artists and students from the College of New Caledonia; Indigenous leaders, artists and staff from the Aboriginal Gathering Place at Emily Carr University of Art + Design; a Family Physician and designers, researchers and students from the Health Design Lab at Emily Carr University. The members of our team, our relationships with one another and our diversity of experiences, are critical to our collaboration.

Marlene Erickson
Brenda Crabtree
Connie Watts
Zoe Laycock
Nicole Preissl
Jean Chisholm
Sari Raber
Nadia Beyzaei
Caylee Raber

Websites
https://aboriginal.ecuad.ca/
healthdesignlab.ca

Twitter
@agp_emilycarru
@emilycarrhdl

Sessions

Nida Abdullah is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Undergraduate Communications at Pratt Institute. Her scholarship focuses on deconstructing hierarchical and hegemonic modes of production. She has lectured internationally in Hong Kong, Dublin, Montreal, Madeira, Istanbul. She has an upcoming talk in Cologne, Germany on the pedagogy of collective care. She is most recently featured in Black Brown Latinx Design Educators: Conversations on Design and Race. She received her MGD from North Carolina State University.

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Shalini Agrawal is trained as an architect and brings over 25 years of experience in community-engaged practice. She is founder of Public Design for Equity, a practice that re-envisions and activates new systems towards equity-driven outcomes, and Director of Pathways to Equity, a leadership experience for ethical community-engaged design. She is an award-winning educator at California College of the Arts as Associate Professor in Critical Ethnic Studies, Individualized, Interdisciplinary Design Studios and the Decolonial School. Shalini’s research and practice focuses on revealing the historical legacies of colonization in architecture and design and dismantling its lasting impacts.

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Angie Aranda has an extensive background in partnership development, programming, and communications. She holds a Double Honours BA from York University in Film & Video and Communication Studies. Angie is the Manager of Toronto Arts Foundation’s Neighbourhood Arts Network, and in her role, she has co-designed equity-centred programs including ArtworksTO: Skills for a Creative Future, Emergence Symposium: Arts & Equity Leading Social Change, and she manages the RBC Newcomer Spotlight Program and the Community Arts Award.

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Illyana Bass is an artist inspired by human experiences, nature, research, and a strong drive to design spaces for people in need. Illyana is a student in her fifth year of six at Drexel University pursuing her Bachelor of Architecture Degree in the NCARB accredited 2+4 program with anticipated graduation in 2023. Also holding an International Baccalaureate diploma Illyana is a world learner. While employed full time at JacobsWyper Illyana works on projects in health care, pharmaceutical manufacturing, education, and historic preservation. In 2020 Illyana was the sole recipient of the Professional Women in Construction Philadelphia Student Recognition Award. After receiving the award Illyana was invited to sit on the Professional Women in Construction Philadelphia members board for a term where she also sits on the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion task force. Illyana dedicates her research to sustainability, resiliency, social equity in the built environment and history. She takes opportunities to formally present her research and theories to U.S. Green Building Council LEED, Dark Matter University, and Professional Women in Construction Philadelphia. Locally, Illyana volunteers with the Community Design Collaborative of Philadelphia. In her free time Illyana practices her art skills though paintings and drawings. She features her artwork in the Philadelphia Art Collective Gallery as well as takes commissions. As an aspiring NCARB accredited Architect, Illyana is on a path to creating social change through the passions that inspire her architectural design.

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Jetshri Bhadviya is an Indian woman, non-immigrant alien, artist, educator, and curator living in the United States. She is a multimedia artist who uses photography, videography, sound, and performance to explore how human bodies activate space, and how they are perceived in social, political, and spiritual environments. Bhadviya’s philosophical works explore the essence of self, culture and what it means to be human. She questions existing gender politics through the disfiguration of the human body, and amorphous sculptural gestures before the body can be conceived of as a specific construct. Challenging the markers of identity - from skin color to gender – Bhadviya invites the audience to rethink heteronormative and binary associations. It is her
belief that identities are created through ongoing social interaction with others, and the subsequent self-reflection about who we believe we are as individuals, and as a society. Bhadviya’s curatorial practice in the City of Detroit explores this theory through examining the work of artists who have been invisibilized (non) immigrant art workers (whom she calls as “The Dreamer Warriors”) as well as studio based and social practice artists working across identities of race, class, and gender.

Bhadviya is also an educator and teaches Photography classes as a Special Lecturer in Oakland University and Fine art as well as Foundation classes as an adjunct at College For Creative Studies (CCS). Her curatorial practice as one of the 4 founders of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Exhibitions Department at CCS has been about providing a space for students for healing, connecting and bringing change for the oppressed, marginalized and isolated communities through artistic response.

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Bradshaw's artwork takes a passionate view of a social conscience that incorporates drawing and painting through visual journalism. In her work, she reconstructs dreams, children's stories, cultural iconography, ethnography, and social issues. She brings her training as an illustrator and graphic designer into her work as a fine artist. She thinks of her paintings as single-frame narratives--windows in the subject. Her artwork is linked by repeated formal concerns as well as through its conceptual content. Each personal project consists of multiple works grouped around specific themes and iconography. She uses watercolor as a medium to create depth, translucency, and opacity.

Bradshaw has an MFA in Visual Arts and Illustration from the School of Visual Arts; graduate studies in Art History and Painting from Pratt Institute; and a BFA in Illustration, Fine Arts, and Art History from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. At Parsons, she has taught classes in Art History, Illustration, Digital Design, and Drawing. Bradshaw has also taught at several other institutions, including Long Island University, Montclair State University, and The Montclair Art Museum. She is a professional illustrator and graphic designer. Her clients include Actors Theater Workshop, The Advocate Magazine, Amsterdam News, Brian Bellinger Films, The College Board, Circe Ediciones, S.A., The Guide New Era Publication, Harcourt Brace, Heinle & Heinle, The Jewish Theatre of NY, McGraw Hill, Metropolitan Junior Baseball League, Inc., PSE&G, 20/20, The New York Times Magazine, Ward’s Communication and more. Her many solo and group exhibitions have been commissioned and organized by prominent galleries across the New York City region. She also has a custom line of clothing and accessories.

She was born in England, grew up in Michigan, and now resides in Brooklyn.

Hannah Brancato (she/her) is an artist and educator based in Baltimore, who is dedicated to mobilizing visual culture to uproot and resist white supremacy and rape culture. Her art practice is grounded in collective storytelling, and the creation of public rituals to bring people’s stories together. As the co-founder of FORCE: Upsetting Rape Culture, an artist collective dedicated to creating a culture of consent, she co-created the Monument Quilt, featuring 3,000 fabric squares made by rape and abuse survivors, displayed 50 times from 2013-2019. Hannah was a 2015 OSI-Baltimore Community Fellow to launch FORCE’s Baltimore based survivor collective, Gather Together and as part of FORCE, is the recipient of the 2016 Sondheim Artscape Prize. Her work has received widespread media coverage, including Afterimage, Ms Magazine, Voice of America, Bmore Art, the Washington Post, MSNBC, Surface Design Journal, and Fast Company. These days, Hannah is documenting the role of art in social justice work through her creative and teaching practice, and is faculty at Maryland Institute College of Art, Towson University and University of Maryland Baltimore County. As of Fall 2021, she is a Studio Fellow at VisArts Rockville, and Artist in Residence at Montgomery College.

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Nicole Collins (she/her) extensive body of artwork encompasses the effects and subsequent affect, of time, memory, accumulation, force and heat on visceral and ephemeral materials, especially through painting with encaustic, the application of molten, pigment-infused wax. This engagement with the mutable and receptive nature of wax has led to investigations beyond the canvas including performative drawing, digital reproduction, installation, intervention, video, and sound.

Beginning in 2019, Collins has been working intensively with her archive of paintings, some dating from the early 1990’s, de-creating, transforming, and resurrecting new works, reinvigorating themes of mortality, grief, commemoration, and resilience.

Collins completed a BFA Hons. from University of Guelph (1988), and a Masters of Visual Studies from University of Toronto (2009) and is an award-winning studio-based teacher. She is Associate Professor of Material and Visual Culture in Drawing & Painting and Graduate Studies at the Ontario College of Art & Design University in Toronto Canada.

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Hélène Day Fraser is a first-generation Canadian, of Welsh and English descent, born in North-Eastern Quebec. She has been formed by life in a small town on the Canadian Prairies, an island in the Philippines, downtown Toronto, Strasbourg, the outskirts of Paris, France, and most recently Vancouver and the North Shore. Hélène is an Associate Professor in the Ian Gillespie Faculty of Design and Dynamic Media at Emily Carr University of Art + Design. She holds a Master of Applied Arts in Design and a Bachelor of Applied Arts in Fashion. Her work in academia is informed by a past professional career in fashion, design, and manufacturing.

From 2013 to 2018 Hélène was the Principal Investigator of an SSHRC Insight-funded research initiative: cloTHING(s) as Conversation. In 2019 she received CFI funding to help support and develop a Textile Adaptation Research Program (TARP) based out of Emily Carr University. Hélène is also a founding member and Co-Director of the Material Matters research centre, and an active member of Emily Carr’s DESIS lab (DESIS is an international design research network for sustainability and social innovation). In her role as Emily Carr University’s Academic Co-ordinator for Sustainability (2012 – 2015) she established Creatives with Intent, a group that promoted agency and communication pertaining to sustainability.

Hélène’s textile and garment-based research explores design’s capacity to contribute to better ecosystem relations through embodied, relational, material practices. In recent years she has increasingly sought to develop generative protocols and affordances for facilitating individual and collective capacities to deal with climate change through the proposition, production, and use of designed objects. This work has involved a recalibration of her own understanding of design objects as products for mass consumption, to markers of experiences, and more recently to companions with the capacity to upend assumed perspectives and relations with the world around us

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Natalie De Rosa is a fifth year architecture student at Drexel University pursuing her Bachelor of Architecture Degree with anticipated graduation in 2023. Following her undergraduate studies, Natalie plans to pursue a dual master’s degree in Urban Design and Historic Preservation. Natalie is currently employed at JacobsWyper Architects' Philadelphia Office, where she works on projects pertaining to life sciences, pharmaceutical production, and manufacturing work. Natalie has written research papers pertaining to the health and well-being of elderly individuals, and the importance of biophilia in those communities. She is particularly interested in the diversity and accessibility of spaces beyond ADA requirements and understanding how spaces can be navigated without assistance. Natalie is also passionate about living building design and how the built environment can combat the ever growing climate crisis. She joined the Community Design Collaborative of Philadelphia in March 2020 to work with other Drexel University Architecture students to come up with design solutions in response to social distancing regulations. While in High School, Natalie was involved in the Rotary Youth Leadership Awards (RYLA) part of Rotary District 7500. While finishing her academic pursuits, Natalie plans to become a licensed architect through NCARB.

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Mariah has a Doctorate in the College Teaching of Art and Design from Columbia University, an MFA in photography from Pratt Institute, and a BA in Architecture and Urban Studies from Bryn Mawr College. She is Director of Program Planning and Development at Rhode Island School of Design, Continuing Education. She has also served as the Director of Assessment and Accreditation at RISD and Dean of Curriculum and Learning at Parsons School of Design. Her work is a mix of studio practice, research, and teaching, carefully woven and intermixed such that each component feeds and supports the others. Mariah has a studio practice based in photography that includes collage work combining printmaking, drawing, and photographs that have been part of recent exhibitions at the New Britain Museum of American Art and Site Gallery in Brooklyn, NY. Mariah’s writing centers on teaching, upcoming projects include a co-authored book titled Do We Have to Call it Critique? Reimagining the tradition: More inclusive, more fulfilling, and maybe a little more fun (Intellect Press-2022) and a chapter in Introduction to Design Education: Theory, Research, and Practical Applications for Educators by Steven Faerm (Rutledge 2022). She has run workshops and presented papers at the College Art Association, AICAD, and Digitally Engaged Learning. She teaches Collegiate Teaching Practicum at RISD and prior to this has taught courses on Pedagogy, Master’s Thesis, Photography, and Cross-disciplinary studio/seminar courses in art and design at Parsons, SUNY Purchase, SUNY Albany, Columbia University, and Central Michigan University.

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Steven is inspired by the role design can play in building and rebuilding communities and relationships for the purpose of elevating the human experience of life on Earth. With this in mind, he looks to the work of Lebbeus Woods, Ursula K. Le Guin, Samuel Mockbee, Desmond Tutu, Jan Gehl, and Jane Jacobs who have at their core values a humanitarian perspective that informs their vision for places and spaces that uplift and restore the individual’s spirit and a community’s soul.

Steven has over 10 years of experience with extensive knowledge in the preparation of construction documentation, coordinating consultant documentation, and construction administration. This knowledge has been gained through working with a wide range of clients from transit to higher education. Additionally, with his ever-present focus on the relationship between the built environment and human activity Steven is skilled at evaluating user needs and identifying solutions. At JacobsWyper he is a leader in the Higher Education and Cultural & Museums Sectors. Steven works with these clients to achieve highly functional, and often complex spaces, that encourage creativity and learning.

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Andrea Fatona is an independent curator and an associate professor at the OCAD University. She is concerned with issues of equity within the sphere of the arts and the pedagogical possibilities of art works produced by ‘other’ Canadians in articulating broader perspectives of Canadian identities.  Her broader interest is in the ways in which art, ‘culture’ and ‘education’ can be employed by to illuminate complex issues that pertain to social justice, citizenship, belonging, and nationhood. She is the recipient of awards from Canada Council for the Arts, Ontario Arts Council, the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. Fatona is a Canada Research Chair Tier 2 in Canadian Black Diasporic Cultural Production. (Photo Credit: Ajamu Ikwe-Tyehimba)

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Stephen Foster is an electronic media artist and researcher of mixed Haida and European heritage whose work deals with issues of Indigenous representation in popular culture through personal narrative. Foster’s multi-channel video and interactive video installations, photography and single channel video works have been presented in galleries and film and media festivals across Canada as well as in New Zealand, Sweden, Germany and the United States. He has presented lectures and has participated on panels for new media, video art and contemporary Indigenous art at national and international venues. Currently, Foster is the Dean, Faculty of Art at the Ontario College of Art and Design University (OCADU) in Toronto. Before moving to OCADU he served as Head of the Creative Studies Department was Associate Dean of Graduate Studies and Research, both at UBC Okanagan University.

Foster’s interactive installation entitled The Prince George Métis Elders’ Documentary Project has been exhibited at various galleries and festivals and in 2009 the project was nominated for the Best New Media Work at the ImagineNative Film and Media Arts Festival in Toronto. His interactive web-art project entitled Kiss and Tell was also nominated in 2010 at ImagineNative and has been collected by NT2 at the Université du Québec à Montréal. His current projects include a multi-phase digital photo and interactive video installation project entitled Re-mediating E.S. Curtis Project, which has been exhibited at variety of galleries in BC including the Kelowna Art Gallery, the Vernon Public Art Gallery in 2013 as well as the Surrey Art Gallery and Kootney Art Gallery in 2015 and 2017 respectively. Recently, Foster has participated in the group exhibition at the Tacoma Art Museum, entitled Native Portraiture: Power and Perception (2019-2021), where he exhibited two large scale lightboxes from the Remediating E.S. Curtis Project: Toy Portrait series. In 2017 He participated in the exhibition Transformer: Native Art in Light and Sound at the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian in New York. The exhibition included the interactive audio and video installation, Raven Brings the Light, which was purchased by the Smithsonian in 2019. Stephen Foster continues to create new work in photography, video and sound while he fulfills his role as a Dean in Canada’s oldest and largest post-secondary art school.

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I direct the Graphic Design BFA program—120 majors strong—at the State University of New York, New Paltz and am an associate professor in the Art Department, teaching courses in design theory and criticism, and research methods. I earned a BSc. in Human Development and Social Policy from Northwestern University in Chicago, Illinois and an MFA in 2D design from Cranbrook Academy of Art in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. A decade of educational book writing and general editing preceded my MFA.

My current scholarship has diverged from the more conventional print design work of my early career. Continuing to work with content and interface I am experimenting with wearable technologies to visually display information on handmade textiles. At a recent SUNY Design Invitational (SUNY Brockport, January-March 2020; SUNY Cortland, April-May 2020) I exhibited two works exploring handcrafted textiles, digital data, and proactive social messaging.

My essay on Betti Broadwater Haft, a Tennessee-born, New York City-bred Modernist-era graphic designer is included in Princeton University Press’s Baseline Shift: Untold Stories of Women in Graphic Design History edited by Briar Levitt, scheduled to be released in October 2021. A current research project maps the development of functional wearables and includes interviews with designers making these garments and accessories.

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Ayumi Goto is a performance artist, currently based in T’karonto, traditional territories of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy, Huron Wendat, Anishinaabe, and Missisaugas of the Credit. Ayumi often draws upon their Japanese heritage and language to creatively challenge nation-building, cultural belonging, and activisms. Frequently collaborating, they explore land-human interrelationality, impermanence, gender fluidities, and spatial-temporal play. Ayumi has performed in London, Berlin, Naha, Kyoto, Nuuk and across this land currently called Canada. They are developing a practice as a diasporic scholar. Mentors foundational to Ayumi's thinking and practices include: Shirley Bear, Roy Miki, Cheryl L’Hirondelle, Sandra Semchuk, Andrea Fatona, Janell Morin, Kyoko and Tiger Goto.



Photo credit: Sae Goto, Lekwungen Territory, July 2021 (Ayumi's mother, Kyoko Goto is in the background as Ayumi jumps into the air)

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Julia Grinkrug is an architectural designer and urbanist, focusing on social and cultural awareness in architectural education through community-engaged practice and interdisciplinary connections. She is teaching architectural design and interdisciplinary studios and theory seminars in California College of the Arts and University of California Berkeley and leading independent practice and research that focus on allyship formation and place keeping.

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Elizabeth Hale (she, her) is a designer-researcher and professor of design theory at the ÉSAD in Valenciennes. After obtaining her Ma in design at the ESBA in Angers, she joined the ESADSE CyDRe research team with whom she notably co-commissioned the exhibitions La Gueule d’emploi and the Negotiations Table, presented during the 10th and 11th editions of the International Design Biennial of Saint-Étienne. Her research, which focuses on the hypothesis of a documentary design that questions design’s ambitions, has led her to examine the spatial and social organisation of informal refugee camps, the rights of undocumented workers in France, the harmful impact of design in a rural village in southern China and the organisation of the 2019 Anti G7 in the Pays Basque… Her work has most notably been presented at the Cité du design in Saint-Étienne, the Centre Georges Pompidou, the World Design Summit in Montreal, the TU in Delft … As a Member of the research team of the French Pavilion of the Milan Triennale in 2019 and member of the editorial team of the design research journal Azimuts from 2016 to 2020, she has also written articles and texts for the journals Design and Culture, Après la Revolution, and the books Extended French Theory & the Design Field… On Nature and Ecology. A Reader and Design. From nature to the environment. New definitions…

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Isabelle Handley has been accompanying future artists in their technical research for many years at l'ESAAA – Annecy Alpes School of Art. Her personal and professional mission is to (try) to bring to our community autonomous and conscious young people with a joyous approach to making things. Having studied at ENSAD and the Compagnions Du Devoir, she has solid technical know-how but also a deep understanding of the specific, experimental and ever changing needs in an art school workshop.

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Deborah Harris is a Senior majoring in Digital Media, Game and Entertainment Design at Otis College of Art and Design. She worked collaboratively in her Creative Action/ Integrated Learning "Made for Kids Malawi" class to develop a project with students from the Jacaranda School for Orphans. The project focused on learning about the lasting effects of postcolonial economic structures on the lives of Jacaranda students. After graduation, Deborah is continuing her research at the graduate level in International Relations. Her focus will be on examining the intersection of animation and propaganda designed to normalize pro-authoritarian policies or push back against those same policies.

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Victoria Ho is OCAD University’s Sustainability Coordinator within the Office of Diversity, Equity & Sustainability Initiatives (ODESI) and is currently seconded to the Faculty & Curriculum Development Centre. Victoria’s role is to work collaboratively across disciplines and departments to embed sustainability through a social justice lens into curriculum, building operations, and administration. She believes we can collectively unpack that word with too many syllables, ‘sustainability’, for a future full of life. Victoria supports the organizational change mandate of OCAD U’s Sustainability Committee and guides the design of institutional policies and procurement, curriculum strategy, experiential learning placements, and campus environment initiatives. Victoria has a Master in Environmental Studies (Planning) from York University and lives in Toronto where you’ll spot her riding a Miyata 1000LT bicycle throughout the week.

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Vienna Holdip (she/her) is a Mi'kmaq, Bajan and Italian multimedia artist and fifth-year architecture student at the University of Toronto. She aspires to bring about change in the capitalistic and eurocentric creative world using key concepts extracted from her studies, as well as her ancestral and cultural roots. A constant in her work is helping individuals reclaim land, space, and a connection with the natural and built environment.

In 2018, she co-founded “re:” a magazine that tells the stories and shares the creative works of young BIPOC artists. Alongside being an executive member, Vienna contributes to the magazine as an interviewer, writer, and designer. In 2020, Vienna co-founded the Indigenous Support Project, an organization that aims to provide Indigenous communities with essential needs. The organization predominantly worked with the houseless community within Allan Gardens, and Moss Park, in Toronto. She has also worked as an Indigenous peer-advisor at the career centre at the University of Toronto. As an aspiring architect, she hopes to create sustainable housing for Indigenous communities on reserves.

Sessions

Sequoyah Hunter-Cuyjet is a culture cultivator with a unique ability to breathe narrative into any design, giving voice to community, people and places. With her diverse art and culturally-rich background as well as her multidisciplinary design experience, she is a multifaceted design professional who can help partners address any project challenge.


Sequoyah has a Bachelor of Art in Liberal Arts from Sarah Lawrence College—where she studied art, literature and anthropology—as well as a Master of Fine Arts in Interior Design from Moore College of Art + Design. She is the first Native American to graduate from Moore’s MFA program and one of the only Native American’s in the country to hold a MFA in Interior Design. Boutique Magazine recognized her as a 2020 Boutique 18—a rising star in hospitality design.

As a designer, she has range—a range that comes from an appreciation of various cultures and histories. She can design a classical interior with the same ease as an austere modern one because she values the experience of designing from a reference rooted in something bigger. For Sequoyah, every style and aesthetic have meaning and purpose—not one greater than the other.

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Gyun Hur is an interdisciplinary artist and an educator whose experience as an immigrant daughter deeply fuels her practice. Gyun recently completed Stove Works Residency, Bronx Museum AIM Fellowship, and Danspace Project Writer-in-Residency. She is the inaugural recipient of The Hudgens Prize. Her works have been featured in Hyperallergic, The Cut, Art In America, Art Paper, Sculpture, Art Asia Pacific, Public Art Magazine Korea, and more. Gyun has contributed as an artist-writer in fLoromancy, The Brooklyn Rail, and The Forgetory.

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Amanda Huynh 黃珮詩 is a product, interaction, and food designer whose research focuses on community-building, race equity and sustainable design. She has worked and lectured across a variety of design sectors in Vancouver, Bali, Shanghai, New York, Toronto, Ottawa, Milan, and Barcelona. Amanda is based in Lenapehoking (Brooklyn, NY). Amanda earned a BDes Industrial Design from Emily Carr University of Art + Design and a MSc in Food Design from Scuola Politecnica di Design in Milan, Italy. She is a Leader on the IDSA Diversity Equity and Inclusion Council, helping lead the effort to increase diversity and representation in the field of industrial design.

Sessions

Darrée (Pronounced duh-Ray) is a visual storyteller and educator working to increase the representation of marginalized voices in educational, professional, and social spaces. She has a BA in Fine Art, MFA in Filmmaking, TEFL certification, and 15+ years of experience teaching and developing curriculum internationally. As such, Darrée regularly facilitates classes, workshops, conversations, and projects exploring the connections between language, culture, and identity. Recently, she has co-authored a textbook on digital storytelling for the South Korean government, designed the website for a NGO operating in 40 countries, produced multiple short films which have screened at film festivals across the United States, and is currently an executive producer on several digital series in development.

Sessions

Claudia J. Hernández Romero is an Adjunct Assistant Professor in the Liberal Arts & Sciences Department at Otis College of Art & Design. She holds a Ph.D. from the Culture and Performance Program in the World Arts & Cultures Department at UCLA. Her dissertation is entitled, Proyecto Jardín Community Garden: Traditional Medicine and Health Among Latinx in Boyle Heights. Hernández’s research interests include Latinx and African-based healing and spiritual practices, botánicas in Los Angeles, community gardens and environmental and food justice. In addition to her academic pursuits, Hernández Romero is a dancer and performance artist whose work emphasizes storytelling through improvisational movement and visual installations that explore belonging, indigeneity, immigration, and Latinidad. Publications include Botánicas: Sites of Healing and Community Support, and Miraculous Migrants to the City of Angels: Perceptions of El Santo Niño de Atocha and San Simón as Sources of Help and Healing. Projects in the works includes an article titled, Promoting Community-based Participatory Research: Lessons Learned from Proyecto Jardín and a podcast called Art & Gardening for Change in the City of Angels.

Sessions

Karin Jager is a Canadian design educator, creative leader and advocate for the design profession. Karin joined the University of the Fraser Valley (UFV) in 2012 to develop and launch the region’s premier graphic and digital design programs. Her academic career began at Capilano University, where she created the highly successful IDEA program and co-authored the current Bachelor of Design in Visual Communication. Karin holds a Master’s Degree in Education, majoring in post-secondary leadership from Simon Fraser University and an undergrad from Emily Carr College of Art and Design. With research interests in graphic design as an emerging academic discipline, she immerses herself in professional and design education communities. Karin served the Graphic Designers of Canada (GDC) as VP Education National from 2012–2014 and regularly participates as an expert reviewer of design programs in Ontario, British Columbia (DQAB), and Alberta (CAQC). Motivated by what design can do, she values the student experience. She brings community-focused learning into the classroom, informed by a robust professional network built through her extensive design practice in corporate communications and social design.

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Seán Kinsella (ê-akimiht nêhi(y/th)aw/otipemisiwak/Nakawé/Irish) is Centennial’s first Director, the Eighth Fire, a position that was envisioned and developed through the collaboration and leadership of Indigenous community members, Traditionalists and members of both the Aboriginal Education Steering Committee and Aboriginal Education Council.

Seán is migizi dodem (Bald Eagle Clan) and also identifies as two-spirit/queer/aayahkwêw and is descended from signatories of Treaties 4, 6 and 8. They were born in Toronto, on Treaty 13 lands and grew up in Williams Treaty territory. Seán has a Masters of Education from the University of Toronto (OISE) and previously served as a contract faculty member in Centennial’s First Peoples stackable credential in addition to working full-time in Student Affairs for 14 years.

Seán previously served as a Co-Executive Director for the Peel Aboriginal Network Indigenous Friendship Centre and in 2019 won an IDERD Award at the University of Toronto recognizing their work towards anti-racism in particular based in the use of land-based ceremonial learning opportunities for students, staff and faculty to disrupt usual patterns of learning about Indigenous history. Seán is also a traveled speaker and keynote and has presented internationally at conferences and served as a Board member and Chair for several professional organizations and Communities of Practise.

Sessions

Born in Marseille in 1976, Patrick lives and works in Paris. Visual artist, videographer and scenographer, Patrick Laffont-DeLojo develops his work “on set” as close as possible to the performers. Very sensitive to performance, contemporary dance and theater, he finds in photography, then, even more so, in video art, a grasp of the moment that resonates with the immediacy and vulnerability of the body on stage. He has been collaborating since 2004 with Cyril Teste within the MxM collective and since 2017 with Frederique Aït-Touati and Bruno Latour.

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Sophia received her BFA in Interior Design from Moore College of Art and Design. During her undergrad, she participated in student leadership groups, honors programs, and leadership conferences to connect with her community and gain an understanding of people’s experiences and how she can incorporate those into her designs.
Currently, she works at JacobsWyper Architects as an Interior Design Intern. Additionally, she serves as a Junior Advisory Board Member to mentor seniors through their senior theses at Moore College and provides guidance throughout the design process.

Sessions

Sukyun Lee earned a BA in Sociology from the University of Chicago and an MA in Applied Linguistics from Teachers College, Columbia University. She joined MICA in 2015 as faculty and Graduate ELL (English Language Learner) Specialist to teach liberal arts courses and provide culturally and linguistically responsive pedagogy. She has 20 years of experience in teaching, curriculum development, professional training and program administration in higher education institutions. Before coming to MICA, Sukyun held ELL-related teaching and administrative positions at institutions such as NYU- School of Professional Studies, Columbia University, LaGuardia Community College, Pace University, Howard Community College, American University and the Johns Hopkins Carey Business School.

Her research interests include intercultural communication, corpus-based linguistics and integrative learning for applied interdisciplinary contexts. Most recently, she has presented on these themes at the Consortium on Graduate Communication, Society of Intercultural Education Training and Research, Association of Independent Colleges of Art and Design, and at the Dept. of Linguistic and Literary Studies, University of Padua (Italy).

Sukyun holds certifications from NYU - “Intercultural Training of Trainers Institute in Intercultural Competence” and from the University of Donau (Austria) - “Seminar Applying the New Paradigm to Constructivist Intercultural Training.”

Her immigrant journey as well as her lived experiences in 5 continents informs her belief in the power and potential of education. She empowers students for autonomous learning at the intersection of language and intercultural communication. Sukyun is dedicated to equipping students with an expanding repertoire of communication skills as graduate identities evolve in an increasingly diverse society and globalized world.

Sessions

William Leeming is an associate professor of sociology at OCAD University, Toronto. He lectures in a range of subject areas including the social sciences, science & technology studies, and methods. His research of the last twenty years has mostly focused on technology adoption in science and technology and, most recently, the implementation of new genetic technologies in clinical settings. This research has been published in an assortment of refereed journals such as Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences, Social History of Medicine; Social Science Information; and Science Communication. Financial support for this research has been provided by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada and the Hannah Institute for the History of Medicine.

Sessions

Lindsey is a Haudenosaune/ Anishinaabe multi-media artist, facilitator, and Indigenous community advocate originally from Six Nations of the Grand River with ancestral roots to the Mississauga’s of Credit First Nation. Artistically she specializes in painting, beading, leatherwork. She has also spent much of her career as an arts and culture facilitator as well as advising in the areas of Indigenous governance, program development and community development. Her traditional name is ‘Mushkiiki Nibi Kwe’, which translates to ‘Medicine Water Woman’ and she is of the turtle clan.
Lindsey is a graduate of OCAD University and has sat on several community advisory boards and committees in the Toronto area over the last 10 years. She most recently completed 4 years of board of director volunteer service for the Native Canadian Centre of Toronto and has over 11 years of facilitation experience.
In the past she supported Birch Hill Equity Partner’s Indigenous employment initiative entitled ‘Our Children’s Medicine’, has been a sessional Indigenous Visual Arts instructor for Six Nations Polytechnic, and an Indigenous advisor for both Art Starts and C.I.V.I.X.
In 2017, Lindsey was shortlisted and awarded a public arts project for the Region of Waterloo’s LRT System resulting in a permanent public instillation for the Block Line stop that speaks to the historical stewardship of the land base of Waterloo and the importance of agriculture from a First Nations perspective. Lindsey’s most recent public art instillation, ‘Debwe’, was part of the Red Embers project from June to October of 2019.
She is currently the Community Safety Liaison with Ontario Native Women’s Association, focused on increasing community capacity for combating human trafficking and gang involvement in Indigenous communities provincially.

Sessions

Maggie is an Assistant Professor at Otis College of Art & Design. She teaches improv, creative writing, and climate crisis storytelling. She writes young adult, satire, and rom com. She lives in LA with her husband, son, and dog.

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Mev Luna is a research-based artist whose practice spans performance, installation, video, new media, and text. Their work considers issues of incarceration, institutional access, and how images are circulated and controlled. Recent exhibitions include Empathy Fatigue at Andrew Rafacz Gallery, and a solo presentation at EXPO Chicago 2019. Their time-based works have premiered at SFMOMA, Artists' Television Access, San Francisco, and Defibrillator Gallery, Chicago. Luna was a 2018 Art Matters Foundation Fellowship recipient, a 2017 SOMA Summer participant in Mexico City and are currently a 2020-2021 Queer | Art Film Fellow. They received an MFA in Performance from School of the Art Institute of Chicago and a BFA in Textiles and Media Arts from California College of the Arts.

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John Marshall (he/him/his) is a designer, curator, and researcher with over 20 years’ experience using participatory design methods to create innovative and tangible experiences, events, artifacts, spaces, methods, and strategies. Through his studio rootoftwo (founded with partner Cézanne Charles in 1998) his work engages diverse stakeholders and publics to subvert and reimagine systems, infrastructures, and networks. rootoftwo’s work facilitates people to imagine and shape collective actions for more just, resilient, inclusive, and adaptive futures.

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Dr. Mathur has held the previous leadership and research-oriented roles of Head of Creative Studies at the Okanagan Campus of the University of British Columbia, Tier 2 Canada Research Chair in Cultural and Artistic Inquiry, and Director of the Center for Innovation in Culture and the Arts in Canada at Thompson Rivers University. He has also served as Head of Critical and Cultural Studies at the Emily Carr University of Art + Design. He has produced five books and numerous projects, both creative and critical, that focus on and feature the intersections of artistic engagement.

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Shanna Merola is a visual artist, photojournalist, and legal worker. In addition to her studio practice, she has been a human rights observer during political uprisings across the country – from the struggle for water rights in Detroit and Flint, Michigan, to the frontlines of Ferguson, MO and Standing Rock, ND. Her collages and constructed landscapes are informed by these events. Merola lives in Detroit, MI where she facilitates Know-Your-Rights workshops and coordinates legal support for grassroots organizations through the National Lawyers Guild.


Merola has been awarded studio residencies and fellowships through MacDowell, the Studios at MASS MoCA, Banff Centre for Arts + Creativity, Kala Institute of Art, the Society for Photographic Education, the Puffin Foundation, and the Virginia Museum of Fine Art. Her collaborative projects include Detroit Resists: A digital occupation of the U.S. Pavilion at the Venice Biennale (2016), and Oil + Water: Photography in the Age of Disaster Economies (2017). She has shown her work in solo exhibitions both nationally and abroad, most recently at the Czong Institute for Contemporary Art in South Korea. Merola holds an MFA in Photography from Cranbrook Academy of Art, and a BFA from Virginia Commonwealth University.

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I am a Project Manager for the ArtWorksTO Project with the City of Toronto's Youth Development Unit. ArtWorksTO provides opportunities for Indigenous, Black and People of Colour and/or 2SLGBTQ+ youth to gain professional experience, skills, and networks in the media arts industry. Prior to taking on this role, I was part of the staff team responsible for developing and implementing the Toronto Youth Equity Strategy (TYES), a City strategy and action plan aimed at increasing resiliency and access to supportive systems for Toronto's most vulnerable youth. The Toronto Youth Equity Strategy (TYES) innovated a new approach in how City strategies are developed, ensuring that the voice of impacted youth and residents are included in all aspects of strategy development and implementation. I am passionate about involving youth in program development, and believe that the arts are a powerful way of sharing youth perspectives on complex issues.

For the first six years of my work with the City, I worked in the Community Development Unit on the Toronto Strong Neighbourhoods Strategy, in the Jane-Finch community. My work has included the development of the Youth Enterprise Network initiatives Boss Magazine, the Ascend retail store and the Branded Youth Marketing Conference. I was also one of the founders of the 106 & York performing arts festival and the West Side Arts Hub.

I have volunteered with several non-profit organizations including Schools Without Borders, Manifesto and For Youth Initiative.

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Tucker Neel is an artist, writer, curator, and educator based in Los Angeles. He has exhibited work at The MAK Center for Art and Architecture, Commissary Arts, Samuel Freeman, Control Room, and various unsanctioned public and private locations. He has curated exhibitions for CB1 Gallery, The Bolsky Gallery, Highways Performance Space, and GATE Projects. Neel is also the Founder and Director of 323Projects, an experimental art space that exists as a voicemail system and website available to everyone, everywhere, all the time. His artistic and curatorial work has been reviewed in numerous publications, including The L.A. Times, The L.A. Weekly, Artforum, KCET’s Artbound, Art21 Magazine, and Art Week. He is a Contributing Editor for Artillery Magazine, and his writing has appeared in X-Tra Contemporary Art Journal, ARTLIES Magazine, Artpulse Magazine, The L.A. Alternative Press, Peripheral Vision, and other publications. He is an Associate Professor in the Liberal Arts & Sciences and Communication Arts departments at Otis College of Art & Design. You can view Neel’s archived work at tuckerneel.com.

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Dr. Lesley-Ann Noel is an Assistant Professor in the Dept. of Design Studies at North Carolina State University. She has a BA in Industrial Design from the Universidade Federal do Paraná, in Curitiba, Brazil. She has a Master’s in Business Administration from the University of the West Indies in Trinidad and Tobago. She earned her Ph.D. in Design from North Carolina State University in 2018.

Lesley-Ann practices design through emancipatory, critical, and anti-hegemonic lenses, focusing on equity, social justice, and the experiences of people who are often excluded from design research. Her research also highlights the work of designers outside of Europe and North America as an act of decolonizing design. She also attempts to promote greater critical awareness among designers and design students by introducing critical theory concepts and vocabulary into the design studio e.g. through The Designer’s Critical Alphabet.

Lesley-Ann’s research interests are emancipatory research centered around the perspectives of those who would traditionally be excluded from research, community-led research, design-based learning, and design thinking. She practices primarily in the area of social innovation, education, futures workshops and public health. She is co-Chair of the Pluriversal Design Special Interest Group of the Design Research Society. Before joining North Carolina State University, she was the Associate Director of Design Thinking for Social Impact at Tulane University, and she was a lecturer at Stanford University and the University of the West Indies.

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Randa Omar (she/her) is an Egyptian-Canadian graduate of the Architecture and Urban Studies programs at the University of Toronto (‘21). During her graduating year, she co-worked on a Multidisciplinary Urban Capstone Project that focused on centering the wellbeing of Indigenous artists within the arts industry. Her architecture thesis proposed a spatial organization of the Zaatari refugee camp in Jordan that implemented COVID-19 safety protocols while creating leisure and retail spaces to facilitate refugee agency.

Alongside her studies, Randa was a tenacious student activist. During her graduating year, she was the President of the Architecture and Visual Studies Student Union (AVSSU). Together with students and alumni, she co-authored a public letter urging the Daniels faculty to dismantle systemic anti-Black racism. She later co-founded and co-led the Student Equity Alliance [SEA]. She also co-founded Making Difference, a student club that created a space for women and nonbinary artists and designers to find community, mentorship, and work opportunities. In 2021, Randa received the University of Toronto Student Leadership Award for her community organizing and advocacy work.

Randa has also worked as a research assistant, first at the House of Commons then at the University of Toronto. As a Jackman Scholar-In-Residence, she worked on a project titled “Form and Meaning, Classicism and Slavery” under the supervision of Dr. Peter Sealy. Most recently, she received the NSERC Undergraduate Research Award and co-authored a conference paper titled “Parametric Acoustics: Design techniques that integrate modelling and simulation” under the supervision of Dr. Brady Peters.

Sessions

Dr. Maria Belén Ordóñez’ research includes the investigation and tracking of affect in Canadian legislative challenges dealing with sex, sexuality, censorship, and morality. Ordóñez uses feminist/queer and multi-sited approaches to write about the emergence and undoing of public events related to sexuality and intimacy. Current multi-sited research includes St. John’s and Newfoundland’s provincial court trial (2013-2019) of Kenneth Harrison, whose case was the first in Canada dealing with child pornography charges involving a sex doll. M. Belén Ordóñez’ recent research explores anti-oedipal readings of parent-child relationships in legal, cultural, and cinematic forms. She teaches feminist theories, multi-sited and experimental ethnography, critical theory, and body politics.

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Born in Tobago, M. NOURBESE PHILIP is an unembedded poet, essayist, novelist, playwright and independent scholar who lives in the space-time of the City of Toronto where she practised law for seven years before becoming a poet and writer. Among her published works are the seminal She Tries Her Tongue; Her Silence Softly Breaks; the speculative prose poem Looking for Livingston: An Odyssey of Silence; the young adult novel, Harriet’s Daughter; the play, Coups and Calypsos, and four collections of essays including her most recent collection, BlanK. Her book-length poem, Zong!, is a conceptually innovative, genre-breaking epic, which explodes the legal archive as it relates to slavery. Zong! was named the 2021 winner of World Literature Today’s (WLT) 21 Books for the 21st Century. Among her awards are numerous Canada Council and Ontario Arts Council grants, including the prestigious Chalmers Award (Ontario Arts Council), the Canada Council’s Victor Martyn Lynch-Staunton Award (Outstanding mid-career artist), as well as the Pushcart Prize (USA), the Casa de las Americas Prize (Cuba), the Lawrence Foundation Prize (USA), the Arts Foundation of Toronto Writing and Publishing Award (Toronto), and Dora Award finalist (drama). Her fellowships include Guggenheim, McDowell, and Rockefeller (Bellagio). She is an awardee of both the YWCA Woman of Distinction (Arts) and the Elizabeth Fry Rebels for a Cause awards. She has been Writer-in-Residence at several universities and a guest at writers' retreats. M. NourbeSe Philip is the 2020 recipient of PEN/Nabokov Award for Achievement in International Literature. She is also the 2021 recipient of the Canada Council for the Arts’ lifetime achievement award, the Molson Prize, for her “invaluable contributions to literature.”

Sessions

Valeska Maria Populoh works as an artist, educator and cultural organizer in her adopted hometown of Baltimore, Maryland. Born in Germany, Valeska moved to the United States as a child with her mother and brother. Her political consciousness and interest in history and justice was forged in her early adolescence by learning about Germany's genocidal past from her friends and their families. Valeska earned a degree in International Affairs, with a focus in Peace and Conflict Resolution from American University. Her commitment to environmental justice was deepened by work as a Research Assistant with the Center for International Environmental Law, educational outreach with American Farmland Trust, farmers markets and a few years apprenticing on organic farms. She returned to school to earn a BFA and MAT at MICA, and has been engaged in various community-engaged projects in Baltimore since 2005. Valeska has been shaped by working in community, and is honored to have learned from Bread and Puppet Theater, Great Small Works, Black Cherry Puppet Theater, Nanaprojects, United Diverse Artists, United Workers, Free Your Voice, the Baltimore Peoples Climate Movement and the Baltimore Natural Dye Initiative. Embracing a wide array of tactics, from puppetry to participatory performance, Valeska's work is motivated by an interest in healing and repair, in our relationships to each other and to the natural world.

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Unique Mical Robinson is a writer/performer, professor, & proud Baltimore native. She received her MFA in English from Mills College, and a BA in Creative Writing/Black Studies from Hampshire College. As an artist, she has performed poetry since her teens, both individually and in collectives throughout the US. As an educator, she has served in Teaching Artist and administrative roles for various Non-Profit organizations in Baltimore, and received the Emerging Teaching Artist award from Arts Every Day in 2017. She is the Co-Founder of blkottonkandy (pron. "black cotton candy"), an arts & wellness initiative, which received the Grit Fund Grant in 2019. She has released two books of poetry: flicked/forgotten/FREED (2014), Four Wings & A Prayer: A Charm City Churn (2019), as well as the following musical projects: blkottonkandy's vesica piscis EP (2019), and Tha 27th Letter, Vol. I & II in 2019 & 2020 respectively (as kLefta*maniak). Unique is Humanistic Studies Faculty at MICA and Towson University, and a Poetry & Performance Teaching Artist with Baltimore City Schools.

Sessions

Francesco Sgrazzutti received his Master’s in Architecture from IUAV Venice while expanding his studies at TU Berlin and UC Berkeley. He is passionate about positive change to the World, both big and small. His contribution comes as an independent designer and as an adjunct professor in the Interior Design Department at Moore College of Art and Design, where he enjoys a humanistic approach ranging from Color Theory to Urbanism and beyond.

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JoAnn Staten is the Interim Assistant Chair of the Liberal Arts and Sciences Department at Otis College of Art and Design. She completed her graduate studies at UCLA, where she earned a Ph.D. in Culture and Performance from the World Arts and Cultures Department. She spent over two years living in Suriname, South America, learning about the role art and personal narrative play in developing targeted public health HIV/AIDS interventions. JoAnn worked collaboratively with local activists and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to develop and produce several awareness projects. Her research includes using the Arts to address health disparities and design awareness interventions. JoAnn is particularly interested in developing classes that allow students to practice using their creative skills to understand local issues and work with community groups to design viable solutions.

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Johnathon Strube is an Assistant Professor of Graphic Design at East Tennessee State University. He is a multi-disciplinary graphic designer and educator developing personal design agency through the investigation of social and cultural systems. He employs humanities-centered research methods to reflect or record the human condition—inspiring change through tangible messages presented as: advocacy, activism, documentation, education, experiential frameworks, storytelling, visual narrative, or visual rhetoric.

Prior to being a dedicated design educator, he was as an editorial designer for the Chicago Sun-Times News Group. He worked as an in-house designer for a K–12 not-for-profit organization. He was a founding partner of two social design studios, working with a variety of missions and clients. Before ETSU, he was as an Assistant Professor of Graphic Design at the University of Nebraska at Omaha; and an Instructor of Visual Communication at Northern Illinois University. He holds an M.F.A. in Visual Communication and a B.A. in History from Northern Illinois University.

Sessions

Jennie Suddick is a Maltese-Canadian artist, educator and community organizer based in Toronto, Canada. She has exhibited throughout North America, Europe and Asia. Her role as an educator has branched out into both her studio and collaborative practices, as the co-founder of Crazy Dames, which integrates engagement, education and artmaking. Jennie earned her Masters of Fine Arts from York University and holds both a Bachelor of Fine Arts and Advanced Visual Studies Certificate from OCAD University (OCAD U).

She is currently Manager, International Projects & Partnerships at OCAD U and pursuing her PhD in Education at University of Ottawa. She recently held positions as an Assistant Professor at OCAD U and a Lecturer at Ryerson University in the School of Creative Industries. She was the recipient of the OCAD U 2017 Non-Tenured Teaching Award and served as the Associate Chair of Contemporary Painting and Print Media from 2014-2017.

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Evan Tapper is the Director of the School of Continuing Studies at OCAD University and a Lecturer at the University of Toronto. He received a Masters of Fine Arts degree from Carnegie Mellon University and a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the University of Manitoba. His animation, video, installation, and performance work has been exhibited throughout Canada, the United States, Europe, South America, the Middle East, Australia, and Asia.

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Ramon Tejada is a (New Yorkino / Afro-Caribbean / American) designer and educator based in Providence, RI. He works in a hybrid design/teaching practice focusing on collaboration, inclusion, unearthing and the responsible expansion of design a practice he has named “puncturing.” Ramon is an Assistant Professor in the Graphic Design Department at RISD

Sessions

Alexis’s academic background includes a BGS in Applied Sciences from Simon Fraser University, a certificate in Liberal Arts (SFU) a certificate in Sustainable Community Development (SFU), and an MDES in Strategic Foresight and Innovation from the Ontario College of Art and Design University. She is a whole-hearted generalist and creative problem solver with ten years of experience working for a Crown Corp in conservation, energy management, and economic development.

In her recent masters, she used photography and autoethnography to investigate why future-oriented mental time travel is so difficult, and how neurological, psychological, and sociocultural factors might be leveraged to enable more people to think more deeply about their far futures.

She is currently working on projects in rural economic innovation, design thinking, and is a lead mentor for Georgian College’s Change the Now Challenge.

Sessions

Claudine Thomas is a Philadelphia native who has spent both her personal and professional career advocating for education, the arts, and social justice issues for young people. She studied Psychology at Pennsylvania State University. Upon graduation she served for one year as an Americorps volunteer where she taught service-learning curriculum to Philadelphia K-12 students. In order to continue to develop her passion, she received her Masters degree in Education from the University of Pennsylvania, and went on to work with the American Red Cross as an Assistant Director of Youth Services. Currently, Claudine is the Associate Dean for Academic Services and Director of Institutional Research at Moore College of Art & Design. In 2015-16 she served as Interim Academic Dean and helped to establish strategic initiatives that included leadership and engagement. She currently serves on Moore’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee, and is the co-chair for the AICAD DEI Taskforce.
Most recently, Claudine received her MFA in Creative Writing from Arcadia University. Her short story and manuscript work specifically focuses on themes around identity, voice and overcoming obstacles in unconventional—sometimes magical—ways. Her characters are typically children who don't always have a spotlight in life or literature, but are eager to share their stories.
In her free time, Claudine enjoys running, volunteering as a Board member for local arts and advocacy organizations, and spending time with her children.

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Sarah Tranum is an Associate Professor of Social Innovation Design at OCAD University and Founder/Design Strategist at TrickleUp Design. She has collaborated with a range of international stakeholders to assess the needs of organizations and businesses and to develop systems-based solutions to complex challenges. Sarah has developed products from the ground up and is experienced at prototyping, testing, and launching into the marketplace.


Sarah is an award-winning designer, experienced community economic development practitioner, and well-respected professor for her effective social innovation curriculum. She received a Master of Design in Designed Objects degree from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, a Certificate in Interdisciplinary Design Strategy from the Institute without Boundaries, and her undergraduate degree in Policy Analysis and Management from Cornell University.

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Elizabeth (Dori) Tunstall is a design anthropologist, public intellectual, and design advocate who works at the intersections of critical theory, culture, and design. As Dean of Design at Ontario College of Art and Design University, she is the first black and black female dean of a faculty of design. She is a recognized leader in the decolonization of art and design education.

With a global career, Dori served as Associate Professor of Design Anthropology and Associate Dean at Swinburne University in Australia. She wrote the biweekly column Un-Design for The Conversation Australia. In the U.S., she taught at the University of Illinois at Chicago. She organized the U.S. National Design Policy Initiative and served as a director of Design for Democracy. Industry positions included UX strategists for Sapient Corporation and Arc Worldwide. Dori holds a Ph.D. in Anthropology from Stanford University and a BA in Anthropology from Bryn Mawr College

Sessions

Saskia taught graphic Design at OCAD University in Toronto, Ontario, Canada as an Assistant Professor since 2014 and is now Assistant Professor of Visual Communication in the School of Design at San Francisco State University. Her research focus is on critical design-studio pedagogy, Creative Practice as Protest, and Ethical Design. Her pedagogy focuses on supporting the next generation of designers to be socially and environmentally aware. Before moving to California, she was the Vice President of Education and board member of RGD (Registered Graphic Designers). Her role in RGD was to create programs that support both students and academic professionals in design. As such she created a Canada-wide Designathon and set up yearly academic awards of excellence. Professor van Kampen is also a contemporary feminist artist, using traditional creative practices such as needlework to deconstruct contemporary design methods and messages.

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Natalie Majaba Waldburger’s current art practice is open-disciplinary and seeks to understand the complexities of respectful collaboration and participatory work in the context of anti-colonial research. In recent years, institutional critique has become the focus for collaborative art practices as a co-founding member of The Drawing Board. As an Associate Professor at OCAD U, Natalie has served as Chair for a number of programs in the faculty of Art including the first Ada Slaight Chair of Contemporary Painting and Print Media and, most recently, Interim Chair of Sculpture/Installation and Life Studies. The Life Studies area was the focus of Natalie’s appointment at OCAD U. Life Studies is a specialization positioned in the Faculty of Art that brings together the arts, sciences, and humanities to cultivate interdisciplinary studio art practices. These pedagogical approaches speak to Natalie’s own art research practice positioned at the intersection of sustainability, social justice, and ecologically respectful art practices. At the AICAD conference, Natalie will discuss the Life Studies pedagogical model as part of the panel Impact and Allegory and also present a selection of artwork from students and faculty at the Life is about Life panel.

Sessions

T'uy't'tanat-Cease Wyss
Skwxwu7mesh/Sto:Lo/Hawaiian/Swiss

T'uy't'tanat- Cease Wyss is an interdisciplinary artist who works with digital media, writing, performance as her multi-disciplinary arts practice. She is a community engaged and public artist and ethnobotanist.

Her works range over 30 years and have always focussed on sustainability, permaculture techniques, Coast Salish Cultural elements and have included themes of ethnobotany, indigenous language revival, Salish weaving and digital media technology.

Cease has focused on connecting her Polynesian roots to her Salish roots through weaving and digital media projects and on raising visibility towards land based works.

Her collaboration with Anne Riley with “A Constellation of Remediation” and “For the Radical Love of Butterflies” have been tremendous examples of how indigenous communities need to unite through a cultural lens in order to raise awareness about sustainability and protecting species at risk, as well as recognition of our part in the colonial destruction and yet the potential remediation and restoration of ecosystems.

Through recent residences that Cease has been involved in through Frames Sovereignty Collective and the IM4 Lab at ECUAD, she has been expanding her practice through accessing laser cutters, 3D Printers and large scale felting machines which have inspired her to work more with textiles and other tactile materials.

Sessions

b.h. Yael is a Toronto based filmmaker and installation artist (https://www.bhyael.ca/). Yael’s work has exhibited nationally and internationally and has shown in various settings, from festivals to galleries to community and activist groups, as well as at various educational venues and has been purchased by many universities. Yael's films and installations have dealt with the intersections of identity and family; it has focused on activist initiatives in Palestine/Israel, as well as apocalypse, geopolitical and environmental urgencies. She is Professor of Integrated Media at OCAD University, teaches in the Art & Social Change minor, and is past Chair of Senate. In 2021 Yael was a Visiting Scholar at Massey College, UofT. At this AICAD conference Yael will be on two panels, Impact and Allegory, addressing many levels of institutional initiatives for sustainability, and Life is about Life, focusing on artists’ works.

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