Work with thought leaders and academic experts in visual arts performing arts

s a Professor of History at the University of Colorado and a digital humanities innovator, I specialize in medieval and early modern history, focusing on the dynamic interplay of Jewish, Christian, and Muslim cultures. My academic journey, rooted in a PhD from the University of Texas at Austin, is dedicated to exploring the rich complexities of Spain, Iberia, and the [Global Middle Ages](https://grants.uccs.edu/igma/). Yet, it is grounded in industry and government, based on my prior almost decade long career in research forecasting at the Institute for the Future and governmental management consultant and strategic planning. My current work is distinguished by my innovative use of virtual reality, MOOCs, big data, and AI in historical manuscript studies, aiming to transform our approach to teaching, research, and knowledge creation. My career and life is characterized by a global scope, delving into the histories of regions like Spain, Portugal, Italy, the UK, Germany, France, Norway, the Netherlands, Sweden, Iceland, Mexico, and South America. This includes prior residence in Spain, Bolivia, and South America, in addition to my native United States (TX, PA, CA, CO). This broad perspective enriches my research and teaching, allowing me to weave diverse historical narratives. A pivotal aspect of my work is my involvement with over 70,000 citizen scholars via MOOCs, university students, high school students, and the general public. This includes leading the “Immersive Global Middle Ages” project, which uses advanced digital tools to bring historical narratives to life. In December 2023, I launched a [Coursera.org Specialization titled “Personal Journeys: Identity, Motivation, and Resilience.”](https://www.coursera.org/specializations/identity-motivation-resilience) This three-course series explores the Renaissance’s cultural and intellectual legacy and modern global perspectives, focusing on self-discovery, motivation, and overcoming societal challenges. The courses offer an intellectual tapestry designed to foster resilience and growth in both personal and professional spheres. Central to my vision for future research and education is training AI as a “[collaborative AI humanist and scholar](https://urraca-ai.org/),” an endeavor that transcends academic research to pioneer new forms of human-AI collaboration. This initiative is about deepening our collective understanding of history’s longue durée through the lens of innovative technology.

Dr. Ryan Howell is an Associate Professor at San Francisco State University. His research interests include the psychology of goals and how people pursue and achieve them. Dr. Howell received his PhD in Social/Personality Psychology from the University of California, Riverside in 2005.

David Costanza is currently an Associate Professor of Organizational Sciences and of Psychology at The George Washington University and has served as Department Chair and Program Director. He earned his bachelor’s degree from the University of Virginia and his masters and doctoral degrees from George Mason University. He is also a Senior Consortium Fellow for the U.S. Army Research Institute. Starting in June 2024, he will join the faculty of the McIntire School of Commerce at the University of Virginia as a Professor of Commerce in the Management Area. His work is in the areas of organizational processes, generational differences, leadership, and culture as well as statistics and research methods. His research has been published in numerous, he has written for Slate, and has been interviewed by the Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Financial Times, TIME, and VOX. He received the Distinguished Alumni Award in I/O Psychology from George Mason University, the Robert W. Kenny Prize for Innovation in Teaching of Introductory Courses from the Columbian College at GWU, and the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology's Distinguished Teaching Contributions Award.

Cory Young is a professor and chair of the communications department at Ithaca College. She received his PhD in intercultural communication from Bowling Green State University in 2001 and his MS in cultural studies from the University of Birmingham in 1996.

[Vanessa Patrick, PhD.](https://www.vanessapatrick.net/ "https://www.vanessapatrick.net/") is the Associate Dean for Research, Executive Director of Doctoral Programs (PhD and DBA), a Bauer Professor of Marketing and lead faculty of the Executive Women in Leadership Program at the Bauer School of Business at the University of Houston.   She has been recognized with a number of awards for both scholarship and teaching, including the LeRoy and Lucille Melcher Faculty Excellence award from the Bauer College of Business for Research Excellence (2011), Service Excellence (2016) and Teaching Excellence (2018). In 2012, she was named one of the top 50 most productive marketing scholars worldwide by the DocSig of the American Marketing Association. She was appointed as a Fulbright Specialist (2019-24) by the U.S. Department of State Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. She served in this role by visiting the Institut Teknologi Bandung in Indonesia in November 2022.   She is a regular speaker at both academic and practitioner conferences, including the Association of Consumer Research Conference, the Society of Consumer Psychology conference, the Greater Houston Women’s Chamber of Commerce annual conference, the NAWMBA Annual Gender Diversity Conference and the UH Women of Color Coalition.   She is a prominent scholar in her field and serves on editorial and policy boards of leading academic journals. She is currently an Associate Editor for the Journal of Marketing Research and the Journal of Marketing. She is the author of a new book The Power of Saying No: The New Science of How to Say No that Puts you in charge of your Life. Visit her at [vanessapatrick.net.](https://www.vanessapatrick.net/ "https://www.vanessapatrick.net/")

Public International Law, International Criminal Law, International Environmental Law, Comparative Law

Lea-Rachel Kosnik is a Professor of Economics at the University of Missouri-St. Louis. She received her BA and MA from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and her PhD from the University of California, Los Angeles. Her research focuses on renewable energy and climate change, and she is considered a leading expert on the topic of hydroelectric energy generation in the U.S., and hydropower regulation by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. In recent years her research has expanded to include analyses of the academic economics profession itself, including with a focus on gender issues and DEI initiatives. Methodologically, her skill set includes textual analysis and natural language processing, along with traditional econometric techniques. In 2016 she received an honorable mention for article of the year from *Contemporary Economic Policy*, and in 2022 she gave the keynote address to the Illinois Economics Association. Dr. Kosnik is perhaps best known (in a service capacity) as the Association of Environmental and Resource Economist’s (AERE’s) Midwest representative, annually organizing the full track of AERE-sponsored environmental sessions at the Midwest Economic Association meetings. Dr. Kosnik has also served as President, Past-President, and Board Member of the Transportation and Public Utilities Group (TPUG), and as a Department Chair.

James C. Kaufman is a Professor of Educational Psychology at the Neag School of Education at the University of Connecticut. He has written or edited more than 50 books. These include: the recently published *The Creativity Advantage* (Cambridge); the forthcoming *Lessons in Creativity from Musical Theatre Characters* (with Dana P. Rowe; Routledge); two editions of *Cambridge Handbook of Creativity* (with Robert J. Sternberg) and five other Cambridge Handbooks; two editions of *Creativity 101* (Springer); and a book on terrible baseball pitchers with his father and a book on pseudoscience with his wife. James has developed many theories, most notably the Four C’s (with Ron Beghetto). He has developed several self-report measures of creativity and is currently focusing on positive outcomes of creativity. James has won many awards, including Mensa’s research award, the Torrance Award from the National Association for Gifted Children, the World Council for Gifted and Talented Children’s International Creativity Award, and APA’s Berlyne, Arnheim, and Farnsworth awards. He co-founded two major journals, *Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts* and *Psychology of Popular Media Culture* and is the current Senior Associate Editor for *Creativity Research Journal*. He has tested Dr. Sanjay Gupta’s creativity on CNN; written the book and lyrics to the musical *Discovering Magenta* (which played NYC and has a cast album); and appeared onscreen, complete with white lab coat, in the comic book documentary *Independents*.

Dr. Jenna Drenten is an associate professor of marketing in the Quinlan School of Business where she studies *digital consumer culture*: the sociocultural role of social media platforms in everyday consumer life. Her research explains how digital culture—from social media algorithms to the influencer attention economy—structures social and cultural consumption ideologies and how consumers’ lived experiences are mediated, translated, and commodified through digital culture. This includes multiple facets of digital consumer culture—from individual consumer behavior to systemic macro-level structures—across a range of social media platforms. Jenna is an expert in the field of marketing on qualitative social media research methods. Jenna’s work has been published in leading academic journals such as *Journal of Consumer Research*, *Journal of Advertising*, and *New Media & Society*, and her expertise has been featured extensively in media outlets including *The Wall Street Journal, Financial Times,* and *The Washington Post*. For more information, go to [www.jennadrenten.com](http://www.jennadrenten.com/). Jenna serves as an associate editor for the *Journal of Advertising Research*, as the communications chair for GENMAC: Gender, Markets, and Consumers, and as an associate board member for the Chicago Public Library Foundation. In the Quinlan School of Business, she teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in marketing, integrated marketing communications, social media marketing, and brand storytelling. Before pursuing her Ph.D., Jenna worked in corporate communications at BMW Manufacturing Co. in Greer, SC and worked in special events and marketing at Minyanville Media, Inc., an Emmy-Award winning online financial publishing company in New York City.

Professor Ramirez is a native of Chile and a naturalized U.S. citizen since 1990. He received his Ph.D. in economics from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1984 and has been at Trinity College since 1985. He has held visiting positions at the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana (Summer 1991 and 1992), Haverford College (Spring 1992), Vanderbilt University (Spring 1999), and Yale University (Spring 2006). His teaching interests are primarily in the areas of Latin American economic development and international finance and open economy macroeconomics. At the College he usually offers Latin American economic development and Structural Reform in Latin America during the fall term, while international finance and open economy macroeconomics is taught during the spring term. He also teaches a course in Time-Series Analysis every other spring term, with particular emphasis on unit root and cointegration analysis, error correction modeling, and forecasting. Insofar as his research is concerned, it is primarily dedicated to analyzing the challenges and opportunities that Latin American nations face as they attempt to stabilize and reform their economies in an increasingly globalized world. In particular, his work has reviewed and analyzed the impact of IMF-sponsored adjustment and stabilization measures in Argentina, Chile, and Mexico, as well as the mixed success of structural reform programs such as privatization of state-owned firms, deregulation of economic activity, and liberalization of trade and finance. His research has also focused on the economic and institutional determinants of foreign direct investment in Argentina, Chile, and Mexico, as well as the impact of these flows on private capital formation and labor productivity growth in Latin America. Another important focus of his work in recent years has been the growing role of remittance flows in financing private investment spending and boosting economic growth in countries such as Ecuador, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Jamaica, and Mexico. Finally, he has published work in the history of economic thought relating to Marx's important analysis of wages and cyclical crises, his theory of absolute and differential ground rent, his analysis of the falling rate of profit, Marx's controversial writings on the so-called Asiatic mode of production, and his conception of capital as a social process.

* Highly motivated researcher with over 14 years of experience in environmental microbiology research within cross-functional teams. * Discovered the novel SulX gene/enzyme related to sulfonamide antibiotic degradation and resistance. * Published 11 peer-reviewed articles (6 first or co-first author) and presented at domestic and international conferences. Recognized with 2 awards for outstanding poster presentations.

Architecture, Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality, Hybrid Reality, Sustainability, Resilience