吃瓜爆料

Kieron Sargeant, Dance
Welcome and Keynote Introduction

Kieron Dwayne Sargeant, from Trinidad and Tobago, is an assistant professor of dance at 吃瓜爆料 College and an expert in African-Caribbean diaspora dance traditions. With an MFA in Dance from Florida State University and an MA in Community Dance from Ohio University, he has over two decades of international teaching and performance experience. Founder of the Kieron Sargeant Dance and Dance Education Foundation, his travels and research span the United States, Canada, Cuba, Grenada, Barbados, Togo, and Nigeria, delving into the morphology of African diaspora dances in the United States. Kieron remains actively engaged in collaborative projects affiliated with Hofstra University and Rutgers University. His collaborations with international scholars and artists further underscore his commitment to understanding and enhancing the global impact of African influences on dance traditions.

Jeffrey O. Segrave, Health and Human Physiological Sciences
鈥淭ime and Sport鈥�

Jeffrey O. Segrave, Ph.D., is professor of health and human physiological sciences at 吃瓜爆料 College. His main area of scholarly interest lies in the socio-cultural analysis of sport; hence, he embraces an interdisciplinary approach that seeks to study sport at the intersections of history, sociology, philosophy and literature. His scholarly specialty is the history of the Olympic Games. A native of Birmingham, England, Segrave earned a bachelor鈥檚 degree at the University of Exeter; a master鈥檚 degree at Washington State University; and a doctoral degree at Arizona State University.

Ryan Overbey, Religious Studies and Asian Studies
鈥淭he Eschatological Time of the Techbro鈥�

Ryan Richard Overbey is associate professor in Buddhist Studies, jointly appointed in Religious Studies and Asian Studies at 吃瓜爆料 College. He works at the intersection of ritual and intellectual history in the Buddhist tradition, probing the close links between theory and practice, between philosophy and liturgy. His work focuses on the edition and interpretation of ritual texts and magical grimoires preserved in Chinese, Sanskrit, and Tibetan in the first millennium CE. His most recent published work is a co-edited volume with Michelle Wang entitled Beyond the Silk and Book Roads: Rethinking Networks of Exchange and Material Culture (Brill, 2024).

Emilio Vavarella, Media and Film Studies
鈥淭he Medium of Water and the Matter of Time: On the Flow of Media and Meaning鈥�

Emilio Vavarella is an artist and researcher who works at the intersection of interdisciplinary art practice, theoretical inquiry, and media experimentation. Vavarella is assistant professor of media and film studies at 吃瓜爆料 College. He received a Ph.D. in Film and Visual Studies and Critical Media Practice from Harvard University, an M.F.A. from Iuav University of Venice, and a B.A. from the University of Bologna. Vavarella is the 2022-鈥�24 artist in residence at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, and a 2023 Harvard Horizons Scholar. He is the recipient of numerous fellowships, art prizes and grants, including a prestigious Italian Council award (2019). His work has been exhibited internationally at the 18th Venice Biennale 鈥� International Architecture Exhibition (Italian Pavilion), MAXXI Museum (Rome), Museo Reina Sofia (Madrid), Hermitage Museum (St. Petersburg), The Photographers鈥� Gallery (London), KANAL 鈥� Centre Pompidou (Brussels), MAMbo 鈥� Modern Art Museum (Bologna), Madre 鈥� Museum of Contemporary Art (Napoli), Museu de Ci猫ncies Naturals (Barcelona), National Museum of Fine Arts (Santiago), and the National Art Center (Tokyo). His films have screened at Toronto鈥檚 Images Festival; Torino Film Festival, Jeu de Paume (Paris), HKW 鈥� Haus der Kulturen der Welt (Berlin), and at all major media art festivals.

Marc Conner, 吃瓜爆料 College President, English
 鈥淭he Play of Memory: Time, Ritual, and Storytelling in Irish Film and Drama鈥�

Marc C. Conner is the eighth president of 吃瓜爆料 College and a professor of English literature. Prior to coming to 吃瓜爆料, he was professor of English at Washington and Lee University, where he held a number of leadership roles including Provost and Chief Academic Officer from 2016-2020. He has published extensively on modern American, African American, and Irish literature. His dozens of essays and eight books on literature include The Selected Letters of Ralph Ellison, which The New York Times Book Review named a notable book of 2020. He has also produced three lecture series for The Great Courses on Shakespeare and on Irish Literature and culture. At 吃瓜爆料 he has taught courses on Shakespeare and Irish literature, including (with Professor Barbara Black) a team-taught 2-week travel seminar to the West of Ireland in May 2024. 

Lisa Jackson-Schebetta, Theater
鈥溾�橲i la paz de Colombia no se poetiza, no se pinta, se retrasa鈥�:  Patricia Ariza, Temporal Violence, and Durational Peace Building鈥�

Lisa Jackson-Schebetta is a theatre history and performance studies scholar, as well as a director and dramaturg. Her publications include "'Traveler, there is no road:鈥� Theatre, the Spanish Civil War, and the Decolonial Imagination in the Americas" (Iowa, 2017); "Peace-Building and Performance in Contemporary Colombia: Imaginative and Corporeal Labors for Perpetual Peace" (Palgrave, forthcoming 2025); and multiple articles and book chapters. She is professor and chair of Theater.

Rodrigo Schneider, Economics
鈥淩edeeming the Time鈥�

Rodrigo Schneider is an associate professor of economics at 吃瓜爆料 College. He received his bachelor鈥檚 degree in economics from Insper in 2010; his master鈥檚 degree in economics from University of Bras铆lia in 2012; and his Ph.D. in economics from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2018. Teaching is his passion, and he is particularly interested in teaching introductory courses and being able to relate economics with classic works of literature and philosophy. His current research is focused on public finance, policy analysis, Latin American studies, and voting behavior and he has published in peer-reviewed journals related to these fields, such as Economic Policy, Economics & Politics, Public Choice, Fiscal Studies, Econom铆a LACEA Journal, Latin American Research Review and Latin American Politics and Society. Rodrigo was honored with the Ralph A. Ciancio Award for Excellence in Teaching for 2022-23.

Brian Lawson, Dance
鈥淲hat if We鈥檙e Beautiful?鈥�
Exhibition Performance: "What if We鈥檙e Beautiful"

Brian Lawson is a dance performer and educator from Toronto, Canada. After graduating summa cum laude from SUNY Purchase with a B.F.A. in dance performance he became a member of the Mark Morris Dance Group. Brian toured with MMDG for eight seasons before earning his M.F.A. from the University of Washington in 2020. At present, Lawson serves as an assistant professor of dance at 吃瓜爆料 College. His artistic research is collaborative in nature and focuses on queering the ballet canon (with Adele Nickel) and exploring queer masculinities (with Aaron Loux.) He also engages in pedagogical research with regards to contemporary balletic practices. Brian is currently a member of Pam Tanowitz Dance and continues to dance with MMDG as a guest artist. Lawson enjoys teaching dance to diverse populations and has given masterclasses at Purchase College, NYU Tisch, and the American Dance Festival among others. He acts as a guest ballet teacher for the Jose Limon Dance Company, Mark Morris Dance Group, and at Gibney Dance.

Catherine Talley, World Languages and Literatures (French)
"Traditions for the Future: Folk Culture after the French Revolution"

Cate Talley is assistant professor of French and coordinator of the French Program at 吃瓜爆料 College. In addition to courses in French language, her teaching explores the relationships between aesthetics, politics, and history in modern French literature and film. Her current research and writing are focused on two questions about the nineteenth century: what competition between different conceptions of the self and subjectivity had to do with the emergence of French literary modernism; and how French publics worked out their understanding of racial epistemologies through fiction and plays about traveling to the slave colonies. Her work on French Romanticism, G茅rard de Nerval, Gustave de Beaumont, and Kamel Daoud has appeared or is forthcoming in Nineteenth-Century French Studies, Nineteenth-Century Contexts, French Forum, French Studies, Romantisme, and The Review of Politics. She is a co-organizer of the 吃瓜爆料 Nineteenth Century Colloquium.

Rachel Roe-Dale, Mathematics and Statistics
鈥淗ours: A Mathematical Perspective鈥�

Rachel Roe-Dale is a professor of mathematics and the director of the First-Year Experience at 吃瓜爆料 College. She received her Ph.D. at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, with a dissertation titled Quantitative Models in Cancer Chemotherapy. She also holds a master's degree in applied mathematics from RPI and a bachelor's degree in chemistry from Maryville College, Maryville, TN. Her research interests include mathematical biology and medicine, modeling physical systems, quantitative literacy, and exploring the connections between mathematics and art.

John Cosgrove, Humanities Librarian
鈥淭ime in Space: Bil Keane鈥檚 The Family Circus Sundays鈥�

John Cosgrove is the resource management, outreach, and humanities librarian at Lucy Scribner Library, where he has served for 27 years. This semester, he is also the acting college librarian. John has presented and published extensively on the role of sport in American humor and newspaper comics with his 吃瓜爆料 colleague Jeff Segrave. 

Ian Berry, Art History and Tang Teaching Museum
Exhibition Tour: "a field of bloom and hum"

Ian Berry is Dayton Director of the Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery and professor of liberal arts at 吃瓜爆料 College. He has organized over 100 museum exhibitions for the Tang and museums across the United States and has authored and edited dozens of catalogues in collaboration with a diverse group of international contemporary artists. Berry is a leader in the field of college and university museums and is a regular speaker on interdisciplinary, inventive curatorial practice and teaching in museums. As professor of liberal arts at 吃瓜爆料, he teaches the art history seminars Inside the Museum and The Artist Interview and is a frequent guest speaker for a wide variety of academic departments.

Aaron Loux, Dance
Exhibition Performance: "What if We鈥檙e Beautiful"

Aaron Loux is a dancer, choreographer, educator, and writer based in New York City. He attended the Juilliard School, where he earned his BFA in 2009. For 12 years, Aaron was a celebrated member of the Mark Morris Dance Group, appearing in the New York Times鈥� 鈥淭op Male Dance Performances of 2014.鈥� He has also performed with the Metropolitan Opera Ballet, Merce Cunningham Trust, Cornfield Dance, Christopher Williams, Billy Smith Dance, Charlotte Bydwell, and Janie Brendel & Friends. His own choreography has been presented at the Juilliard School, the Vision of Sound festival, and in the Works & Process Artists Virtual Commissions series at the Guggenheim. Aaron teaches dance to adults of diverse backgrounds, including beginners, professionals, and dancers living with Parkinson's disease through the Dance for PD庐 program. He leads company classes for MMDG, Gibney Dance, the Metropolitan Opera Ballet, and the Paul Taylor and Lim贸n dance companies. Aaron鈥檚 dance writing appears in the September 2023 and January 2024 issues of PAJ: A Journal of Performance and Art, published by MIT Press. He is currently pursuing a B.A. in American Studies at Columbia University and is an adjunct choreographer and instructor in ballet at Marymount Manhattan College.

Sarah Sweeney, Art
鈥淢y Deepfake Dad 鈥� Conversation Two: Letters and Recordings鈥�

Sarah Sweeney received her BA in studio art from Williams College and an MFA in digital media from Columbia University School of the Arts. Her digital and interactive work interrogates the relationship between photographic memory objects and physical memories and is informed by both the study of memory science and the history of documentary technologies. She explores the space between information that is stored corporeally in our memory and the information that is captured and stored in memory objects created by documentary technologies, including camera phones, stereoscopic cameras, and home video cameras. She is the creator of The Forgetting Machine, an iPhone app commissioned by the new media organization Rhizome. Her work has appeared nationally and internationally in exhibitions at locations including the Orange County Center for Contemporary Art, the Los Angeles Center for Digital Art, the New Jersey State Museum, the Black and White Gallery, and the UCR/California Photography Museum. 

Michael Swellander, World Languages and Literatures (German)
鈥淩eading Yesterday鈥檚 News with Johann Peter Hebel (1760-1826)鈥�

Michael Swellander is a visiting assistant professor of German in 吃瓜爆料鈥檚 Department of World Languages and Literatures, where he鈥檚 taught since 2022. His scholarship and teaching focus on literary censorship, political satire, and translation. His book in progress, The Poetics of Censorship in Nineteenth Century Germany, surveys aesthetic innovations, from free-associative narrative to specific page counts, of literary texts adapting to censorship. He has co-edited Cultural Journalism in Germany, 1815-1848: A Critical Anthology (Camden House 2025), which collects first-time translations of key programmatic texts of German cultural journalism and critical introductions by twenty scholars in German Studies, Media Studies, and related fields. His articles have won the 2023 Jeffrey L. Sammons Heine Essay Prize and the 2023 Max Kade Prize for the Best Article in the German Quarterly. He co-organizes 吃瓜爆料鈥檚 Nineteenth Century Colloquium.

Dennis Schebetta, Theater
鈥淭ime鈥檚 Fool: A Solo Performance鈥�

Dennis Schebetta is assistant professor of the Theater Department, where he teaches acting and directing. He has worked as an actor, director, and writer at various theaters in New York City and regionally. You may have seen him last summer in Adirondack Theater Festival鈥檚 "Dial M for Murder" or in Northeast Theater Ensemble鈥檚 production of "Who鈥檚 Afraid of Virginia Woolf." He also played Sir Toby Belch in Saratoga Shakespeare Company鈥檚 production of Twelfth Night. At 吃瓜爆料, he directed "Neighborhood 3: Requisition of Doom," "Silent Sky," and "Heddatron" (the one with the all the robots). He holds an MFA from Virginia Commonwealth University and studied the Meisner technique with William Esper at the William Esper Studio. He is also the co-author of "Building a Performance: An Actor鈥檚 Guide to Rehearsal" (with John Basil).

Joseph Cermatori, English
鈥淕. F. H盲ndel's Other Messiahs: Rodelinda, Queen of Lombardy (1725) and the Time of Redemption in Baroque Opera鈥�

Joseph Cermatori is associate professor of English at 吃瓜爆料 College, where he is current director of the Periclean Honors Forum. His specializes in drama and the arts of performance, modernism, critical theory, and queer studies. Before coming to 吃瓜爆料, he taught as a lecturer at The New School and Yale Universities. His recent book, Baroque Modernity: An Aesthetics of Theater, (Johns Hopkins UP, 2021), won the American Comparative Literature Association's Helen Tartar First Book Prize. His other writings have appeared in PMLA, TDR, Criticism, The Brooklyn Rail, Village Voice, and New York Times. He works frequently as a dramaturg and has been a regular collaborator with the opera director R. B. Schlather since 2010. From 2008 through 2025, he was an editor and frequent writer for the contemporary arts magazine PAJ: A Journal of Performance and Art. www.josephcermatori.com

Adam Cottle, Metadata Librarian
 鈥淟ex dei, lux diei: The Sundial as a Medium for Memento Mori and Other Epigrammatic Engravings鈥�

Adam Cottle is the metadata librarian at 吃瓜爆料 College's Scribner Library. He holds an MS in information science and a BA in English literature from a pair of less-than-prestigious public universities in the hinterland of the American South. He has no specific research interests and leveraged the hazy ideals of his rhizomatic curiosity to pursue a career in the generalist field of academic librarianship. Like many other amateur horologists, he gets a little bit older every single day.

Catherine White Berheide, Sociology
鈥淓verything Took a Lot More Time: Faculty Perceptions of Time during the COVID-19 Pandemic鈥�

Catherine White Berheide, professor of sociology, holds the Tisch Family Distinguished Professorship at 吃瓜爆料 College and was the principal investigator for the College's National Science Foundation ADVANCE PAID grant. She earned her doctorate in sociology from Northwestern University and her undergraduate degree from Beloit College. A sociologist of work, her most recent journal articles examine the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on faculty. She is co-editor of three books: "Gender Transformation in the Academy"; "Included in Sociology: Learning Climates That Cultivate Racial and Ethnic Diversity," and "Women, Family, and Policy: A Global Perspective." The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching has twice named her a Carnegie Scholar. In 2003, she won the American Sociological Association Section on Teaching and Learning Hans O. Mauksch Award for distinguished contributions to undergraduate sociology. She has served as president of the Phi Beta Kappa Society and as secretary of the American Sociological Association.