A scholar and artist, Dr. Ioana B. Jucan works across the fields of theatre and performance studies, media studies, and philosophy. Informed by decolonial and feminist thought and practice, her current research follows several intersecting threads. These include the construction of the synthetic real and mechanisms of knowledge, affect, and value production in the age of “post-truth” and big data; the dangers, limitations, and possibilities of generative AI for creative practice; and more just and sustainable alternatives to toxic capitalist models and mindsets as well as creative-critical practices that can help us imagine and enact such alternatives. She is the author of the Callaway award-winning book Malicious Deceivers: Thinking Machine and Performative Objects (Stanford University Press, 2023) and co-author of Algorithmic Authenticity (Meson Press, 2023). Jucan’s artistic work spans multimedia and devised performance, theatre directing, creative writing, and installation art and has been performed internationally. https://ioanajucan.com/
Paul Mihailidis is a professor of civic media and journalism and Special Advisor to the Provost at Emerson College in Boston, MA. He is faculty chair and director of the Salzburg Academy on Media and Global Change. Dr. Mihailidis’s academic interests in civic media and community engagement are closely connected to his leadership work in higher education. As a scholar with an established research record, 8 books and over 70 papers, book chapters, reports, etc, Dr. Mihailidis has collaborated across disciplines to explore how civic media interventions can support inclusive, just and equitable futures. He’s consulted around the world on news and media literacies as tools for civic empowerment and meaningful engagement in communities. https://emerson.edu/faculty-staff-directory/paul-mihailidis
Lina Maria Giraldo is a Colombian-born, Boston-based designer, interactive media artist, and storyteller with a Co-design, Civic Media, Art, and Technology background. She is currently an Assistant Professor of Data Visualization in the Journalism Department at Emerson College. Her work focuses on interactive storytelling for social change through data visualization, grassroots storytelling, public installations, and computer-generated work. Through the power of collective storytelling, including data literacy from a maker perspective, her work explores questions related to identity, data democratization, and environmental justice within minorities of color, mainly Latine. Her achievements include being a Journalist in Residence at Emerson College, Artist in Residency for the City of Boston (Boston AIR 2.0), recipient of the Now + There accelerator program for creating Public Art at the City of Boston, the receiver of the Creative City Grant, the Hispanic Scholarship Foundation Grant, the Paul and Edith Babson Foundation grant, the Berkshire Taconic Community Foundation Grant, and Faculty Advancement Fund Grant. https://emerson.edu/faculty-staff-directory/lina-giraldo
Russell Newman’s work explores the intersections of the political economy of communication, neoliberalism, the epistemological foundations of media policymaking, commercial and governmental surveillance, and activism surrounding communications policy. He is the author of The Paradoxes of Network Neutralities (MIT Press, 2019) which tracks the history of recent movements and debates surrounding broadband nondiscrimination policy in the US, from efforts seeking open access in the 1990s to the Restoring Internet Freedom order and its aftermath. It also addresses the role of these debates in nurturing what has popularly become known as ‘surveillance capitalism’ and their connections—direct and ambivalent alike—with the neoliberal project, carrying deep implications for future reform efforts. He teaches classes on the political economy of global communication, the sales effort, democratic theory, and new forms of surveillance. https://emerson.edu/faculty-staff-directory/russell-newman
D. Pillis is a new media artist and queer media archeologist, who works with computer graphics, robotics, and immersive experiences. Recently, they have taught at Princeton University, Virginia Tech, and hold a graduate degree from Carnegie Mellon University, where they studied under the father of computer graphics, Dr. Ivan Sutherland. Pillis spent several years in New York under the mentorship of the contemporary artist Thomas Lanigan-Schmidt, one of the last remaining survivors of the Stonewall rebellion in 1969. While in New York, Pillis worked in the contemporary art world, with gallerists Elizabeth Dee, David Zwirner, and Murray Guy. An active artist and animator, Pillis has exhibited work at the Warhol Museum (Pittsburgh, PA), the Mint Museum (Charlotte, NC), the Leslie Lohman Museum of Queer Art (NYC), Newark Penn Station (Newark, NJ) and has performed at the Museum of Contemporary Art (Cleveland, OH), Open Engagement International Conference (Pittsburgh PA) and the Theatre for the New City in the East Village (NYC), as well as other galleries and internet venues. https://www.dpillis.com/
Roopa Vasudevan is a new media artist, computer programmer, and researcher investigating default sociotechnical practices and protocols, and how they intersect with larger cultural and economic power structures. Her work has been exhibited and featured by press outlets internationally, and has been supported by media art and creative tech organizations such as Eyebeam (Brooklyn), NEW INC at the New Museum (New York), Rhizome (New York), and the Processing Foundation, in addition to a wide range of artist-led and DIY spaces. Roopa received her PhD in Communication from the University of Pennsylvania in 2023, and an MPS from the Interactive Telecommunications Program (ITP) at NYU in 2013. She is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Art at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. https://roopavasudevan.com/
Yuguang (YG) Zhang is a New York-based new media/AI artist. His current practice, which incorporates interactive media, installation, and live performance, explores the connections we make with the ubiquitous AI systems embedded around us, the surprises and struggles we have when we fully/partially surrender our authorship to intelligent algorithms, and the cultural & ethical shifts that come along when we’re overwhelmed by such “creative” AIs. He’s a recipient of the S+T+ARTS S2S award and the Re:Humanism Art Prize. His works have been supported by the National Endowment for the Arts, Google AMI, Media Art Xploration (MAX), and showcased internationally at MAXXI – National Museum of XXI Century Arts (Italy), Némo Biennial of Digital Arts (France), New Inc., CultureHub (USA), Beijing Times Art Museum (China), CVPR, NeurIPS, and more. He is also an adjunct professor at New York University’s Interactive Telecommunications Program (ITP) where he teaches Generative AI. https://www.ygzhang.com/