Christopher Kojzar

Christopher Kojzar is a Master of Fine Arts candidate at University of Maryland, Baltimore County. He is the 2017 recipient of the University’s prestigious RTKL Fellowship for Visual Artists and also one of seven JGS Fellows of the 2017 Imagining America Conference. His studies in Intermedia and Digital Art inform an interdisciplinary practice that encompasses both ethnographic research and artistic passions. He received his Bachelor of Arts in International Affairs at the George Washington University and has exhibited in both nationally and internationally.

Denise Griffin Johnson

Denise Griffin Johnson is a lifelong Baltimore resident and cultural organizer who draws on her home community cultural values of respect, understanding, cooperation, intentional family dialogue, celebration, and education. Denise has a Master’s Degree of Science in Family Counseling from Coppin State University, has worked in non-profit and governmental organizations, and served on numerous boards and advisory groups focused on community and family. In 2007, as Project Director with Bon Secours of Maryland Foundation working with an OSI Artist Fellow, she discovered the powerful tool of Arts and Culture for creative expression and meaningful participation in community revitalization. A member of Alternative Roots, co-founder of CultureWorks, and Field Agent for the US Department of Arts and Culture, Denise helped lead the 2015 Imagining America conference.

Sherella Cupid

Sherella Cupid is a doctoral student in the Language, Literacy and Culture program at UMBC. Her research centers the experiences of Black women students in higher education, with interest in sense of belonging, Black feminism, and sister circles. She also holds a M.Ed. with a specialization in At-Risk and Diverse Learners and a B.A. in International Area Studies. Currently, she serves as a Graduate Research Assistant for the Language, Literacy and Culture program, and Gender and Women’s Studies department at UMBC, in addition to being an Instructional Designer for online learning for Graduate Programs in Education at Goucher College.

Lee Boot

Lee Boot is an experimental media artist and researcher exploring ways knowledge and information can be more inclusive and more influential. He is a Research Associate Professor and the Director at the Imaging Research Center at UMBC. Lee’s research has produced innovative films, video, and interactive works to engage people with knowledge in the humanities, sciences, and arts to serve educational, health and other social goals. His work has been broadcast, screened, published online, and exhibited nationally and internationally at venues including the Johannesburg Biennial in South Africa, and the National Academy of Science. His findings have been published in journals and presented at conferences on art, education, new media and digital communications.

Beverly Bickel

Beverly Bickel is a Clinical Associate Professor in the Language, Literacy, and Culture Doctoral Program and Affiliate Associate Professor of Gender and Women Studies at UMBC. Her scholarship focuses on the production, exchange, and dissemination of transformational knowledge that supports institutional transformation and changing cultural practices for social justice and participatory democracy. This scholarship relies on building sustained relationships across differences, negotiating among diverse knowledges, narratives, and intellectual practices. Inquiries ask how multiple truth claims and the discursive practices of people in diverse social knowledge networks operate in f2f and online public places and spaces including higher education, K-12 schools, and cultural organizing projects. She participates in interdisciplinary projects including the Teachers’ Democracy Project, the UMBC BreakingGround civic agency initiative, Imagining America, and the Art of Transformation.

Frank Anderson

Frank Anderson is a doctoral student in Language, Literacy, and Culture at UMBC and an assistant director for the Choice Program. Frank manages mentoring and advocacy teams in Baltimore City Public Schools, providing intensive case management, college and career readiness opportunities, as well as informal counseling and support. Before the Choice Program, Frank spent many years managing a group home for Baltimore City youth and teaching in alternative education for students in residential facilities. Frank’s current passion includes facilitating arts and social justice programming for the Choice Program’s Youth in Action movement, a youth-led initiative that connects students to artists and platforms where they can establish and amplify a collective voice against injustice.