Prentis Hemphill is movement facilitator, Somatics teacher and practitioner, and writer living and working at the convergence of healing, individual and collective transformation, and political organizing. Prentis spent many years working with powerful movements and organizations, most recently as the Healing Justice Director at Black Lives Matter Global Network. Prentis is the founder of the Black Embodiment Initiative and host of the Finding Our Way Podcast.
Andrew S. Taylor received his PhD in Religious Studies at the University of Virginia in 2021. He has spent the better part of a decade conducting research across the Tibetan Plateau, first as an undergraduate at Guilford College, and then as a master’s student at Harvard University. His research hopes to reinvigorate the discipline of comparative religion by juxtaposing Tibetan Buddhist practices and doctrines with those of radically dissimilar groups.
Amanuel Tsighe Gebremicahel is a Ph.D. Candidate in the Department of Politics at the University of Virginia. His doctoral project, “United Nations of Africa: Theories of Liberation in the Horn,” explores how activist groups across the Horn of Africa understood their “nationalist” projects as facilitating Pan-African integration and the construction of nonethnic states.
I was born in Israel but spent most of my life in Spain, where I completed both my B.A. in English Studies and a M.A. in Advanced English Studies and Secondary Education, from the University of Valencia. I was awarded a Fulbright grant to pursue an M.A. in Intercultural Communication at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. I am currently an English PhD student and Rachel Winer Manin Fellow at UVA exploring issues of memory and trauma in Jewish American and African American literature.
I’m a second-year from Richmond, Virginia. I am planning to double major in Foreign Affairs and Sociology with a Media Studies minor. I became involved with the Religion, Race & Democracy Lab when I took a seminar on its topics last fall. I’m interested in how race intersects with both religion and democracy. In my free time I enjoy fitness, reading, and (in a pre-Covid world) hanging out with my friends.
I am a second year PhD student in the Department of Spanish, Italian & Portuguese at UVA. My research is focused on Early Modern Spanish texts (Don Quijote and poetry) and the ways lived experience is mediated through the artist’s craft. I have been involved in radio and cultural audio projects for a long time (both as producer and as a devoted listener) and it is something that I love. I am from Colombia and I just completed my first year in the U.S.
I am a first-year student intending to major in Statistics and Government. I am especially interested in the history of Asian American activism and how different philosophical regimes are implemented in the real world. Outside of the classroom, I like to tell jokes and sing with the Virginia Women’s Chorus.
Ethan Brown is a Pamunkey artist working in multiple mediums. He resides on the Reservation in Virginia. Ethan’s work is led by intuition and takes inspiration from Pamunkey history and culture, Virginia’s flora and fauna, spirituality, and dreams. Tsenacommacah is Ethan’s first foray into exploring film as a medium.
Katherine Martin is a fourth-year Studio Arts major with a concentration in New Media. Her research interests include societal and cultural views of people of color as well as how individuals process emotional events through animation, painting, and other forms of art creation.
The Eatonville Culture and Heritage Foundation Inc. is committed to nourishing cultural and creative opportunities in the community. They are set to accomplish this by way of visual art, performing arts, culture, environment, health, human services and community development in the Historic Town of Eatonville.
“At our levels best, it is our duty to sing the praises of the significance of our historic town far and wide. We intend to celebrate the town’s total heritage acknowledging its greatness by way of the visual arts, performing arts, culture, environment, health, human services and community development. We have a lot to celebrate and everyone should know about us. We will be that household name synonymous with what is right about a small Black town.” -J. Benderson (Founder)
https://www.eatonvillechf.com/
Matthew Slaats is a PhD candidate in the University of Virginia School of Architecture’s PhD program in the Constructed Environment. As a part of his research he is building a participatory action research initiative with community partners to study how grassroots social transformation is imagined and realized by Black communities in the Southern US. Based on this work, the group is thinking about how these ideas around assemblies and solidarity economies might be implemented in Virginia. Previous to this Matthew dedicated his career to supporting grassroots community-based decision making by implementing creative placemaking projects and participatory budgeting initiatives. This included developing unique collaborations that magnified the immense knowledge that resides in every neighborhood. This has led to projects focusing on environmental sustainability, affordable housing, community development, and food justice that have been supported through a range of foundations and federal grants.
Michelle Bostic is a second year PhD student in Religious Ethics at the University of Virginia. She has a Master of Divinity from Princeton Theological Seminary and a Bachelor of Arts in Biblical and Theological Studies and Communications from Lee University. Michelle is interested in the intersections of Race, Poverty, Housing, and Virtue Ethics through engaging non-ideal theory, epistemology, and black feminism/womanism.
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