Anthropologist Nia Parson, Ph.D., is an assistant professor in Southern Methodist University’s Department of Anthropology. Parson is an expert in gender violence, including intimate partner violence, in Chile and among Spanish-speaking women immigrants in the United States. Her expertise includes mental health effects of intimate partner violence, and how women navigate cultural and institutional power and its effect on their health.

 Luanne Franklin is Director of Performing Arts for the Lexington Opera House. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the Lexington Opera House is one of the premiere performing arts centers in the region. Originally constructed in 1886 after a fire had destroyed the original theatre located on the corner of Main and Broadway, the “new” Opera House, designed by Oscar Cobb, opened its doors on July 19, 1887 and quickly gained a reputation as one of the most well-designed and well-equipped theaters in the nation.  The distinctly 19th century ambience is one of the most charming features of the restored theatre. With less than 1,000 seats, the venue currently serves an average of 85,000 patrons annually, and remains a premier cultural destination in downtown Lexington.

 Ann Kingsolver is the director of the Appalachian Center and  Appalachian Studies Program at UK and is also a professor in the Deparment of Anthropology.  Kingsolver does comparative research in the U.S, Mexico, and Sri Lanka that addresses the effects of globalization and transnational policy on people's livelihoods and identities and how people make sense of these changes.

Chamara Jewel Kwakye is a daughter, writer, storylistener, storyteller, autoethnographer, and performer. She holds a doctorate in Education Policy, Organization and Leadership from the University of Illinois Urbana Champaign. Her research interests include womanism, higher education policy, Black women and girls, life history methods, and performance studies. Dr. Kwakye is an assistant professor at the University of Kentucky in the Gender and Women's Studies and African American and Africana Studies departments. Along with Dr. Ruth Nicole Brown, Dr. Kwakye is a co-editor of Wish To Live: The Hip-Hop Feminist Pedagogy Reader (Peter Lang, 2012). 

 

Scott Whiddon is a professor at Transylvania University, as well as a local musician.  At Transy he wears many hats - he teaches a number of first-year and special topics courses, including such student favorites as Reading the Election and Rhetoric of American Prisons, and he is also director of the university's Writing Center.  Outside the classroom—and inside, too—Whiddon has a strong interest in music. He has been an advisor to the university's student-run radio station, Radio TLX, and continues to support its endeavors.

Brian and Sara Turner have been making posters for nearly a decade. In 2003, they started Cricket Press from a tiny studio in their home in Lexington, KY. Since then, they have created gig posters for hundreds of bands ranging from indie-rock to free-jazz, bluegrass to punk; as well as promotional work for events both local and national.