Visiting Speakers

Deborah Willis, PhD is University Professor and Chair of the Department of Photography & Imaging at the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University and has an affiliated appointment with the College of Arts and Sciences, Department of Social & Cultural, Africana Studies, where she teaches courses on photography and imaging, iconicity, and cultural histories visualizing the black body, women, and gender.

Kathleen Wilson is Professor of History and Cultural Studies at the State University of New York at Stony Brook. She publishes on the themes of British culture and empire, including The Sense of the People: Politics, Culture and Imperialism in England, 1715-1785 (1995), which won prizes from the Royal Historical Society and the North American Conference on British Studies; The Island Race: Englishness Empire and Gender in the Eighteenth Century (2003); and (as editor) A New Imperial History: Culture, Identity and Modernity in Britain and the Empire 1660-1840 (2004).

Mimi Winick is a PhD candidate in English at Rutgers University, New Jersey, USA. Her dissertation, “Studied Enchantment: Scholarly Form and the Literary Imagination in Britain, 1846-1941,” explores scholarship as an agent of enchantment in British literary culture.

Stephan Wolfert left a career in the military for a life in the theatre after seeing Shakespeare’s Richard III. Stephan Received his Master of Fine Arts degree from Trinity Repertory Conservatory in Providence, Rhode Island. On Broadway, Stephan created and directed the military segments for Twyla Tharp & Billy Joel’s Tony-Award winning production Movin’ Out. He also co-created the largest touring Shakespeare Company in New England, directed and taught acting Shakespeare at Cornell University and at Antelope Valley College.

Todd Young was born and raised in Queens for the first 23 years of his life.  He spent the next 25 years in prisons like Sing Sing Correctional Facility. He is now the Alumni Coordinator for Hudson Link and assists those Hudson Link students still incarcerated and those who have been released.

Devin Zuber is an Assistant Professor of American Studies, Literature, and Swedenborgian Studies. Dr. Zuber centers his inquiries in literary aesthetics, hermeneutics, and cultural history, which includes the environment as special zone of engagement.