MIT Civic Design Initiative

James Paradis is the Robert M. Metcalfe Professor of Writing and Comparative Media Studies. He works on problems of the mutually-influential rise of professionalism and vernacular culture, the public reception of science, and the way in which fields of expertise are represented in popular media.

MIT Civic Design Initiative

Eric Gordon is a visiting professor in Comparative Media Studies/Writing. He is also a professor of civic media and the director of the Engagement Lab at Emerson College in Boston. His research focuses on the transformation of public life and governance in digital culture, specifically looking at the context of equitable and generative “smart cities.”

MIT Civic Design Initiative

Yihyun Lim is an architect, urban designer, and researcher/lecturer at MIT. Prior to the Civic Design Initiative, she served as the director of MIT Design Lab, where she led a group of multidisciplinary researchers and students and conducted value-driven interaction and experience design research projects by contextualizing emerging technologies in the projected future.

MIT Civic Design Initiative

Tomás Guarna is a graduate student at MIT’s Comparative Media Studies program and a research assistant at the MIT Civic Design Initiative. He is interested in civic media, governance, and trust. Tomás received his B.A. in Social Sciences from Universidad Torcuato Di Tella in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Following that, he worked for the Presidency of Argentina’s Digital Communications Team collaborating on the Presidency’s digital strategy.

MIT Civic Design Initiative

Gabriela Degetau is a graduate candidate in the Master of Science in Architecture Studies and Urbanism program in the School of Architecture and Planning at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She also graduated with a Bachelor of Architecture degree from the University of Houston. Gabriela has worked in multiple countries including Ecuador, United States, Mexico, and Spain. 

MIT Civic Design Initiative

Mona Vijaykumar is a graduate candidate in the Master of Science in Architecture Studies and Urbanism program in the School of Architecture and Planning at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She is also an architect based in India and envisions a society that collectively values diversity, ethnicity, and culture.

MIT Open Documentary Lab / Co-Creation Studio

William Uricchio revisits the histories of old media when they were new; explores interactive and participatory documentary; writes about the past and future of television; thinks about algorithms and archives; and researches narrative in immersive and interactive settings. He is Professor of Comparative Media Studies, founder and Principal Investigator of the MIT Open Documentary Lab, and Principal Investigator of the Co-Creation Studio.

MIT Open Documentary Lab / Co-Creation Studio

As director of the MIT Open Documentary Lab, Sarah Wolozin develops and oversees lab projects, operations, and collaborations with leading media organizations including Sundance Film Institute, Tribeca Film Institute, IDFA DocLab, and National Film Board of Canada. She is the founder and editorial director of Docubase, an online curated database of the people, projects and technologies transforming documentary in the digital age.

MIT Open Documentary Lab / Emerson College

John Craig Freeman is an artist with over three decades of experience using emerging technologies to produce large-scale public work at sites where the forces of globalization are impacting the lives of individuals in local communities. With his work, he expands the notion of ‘public’ by exploring how digital technology and mobile networks are transforming our sense of place. He is a Professor at Emerson College in Boston and a Research Affiliate at MIT’s Open Documentary Lab.

MIT Center for Constructive Communication / MIT DUSP

Professor of the Practice of Community Development, Ed.D. Harvard Ceasar L. McDowell holds an Ed.D. (88) and M.Ed. (84) from Harvard. Ceasar's current work is on the development of community knowledge systems and civic engagement. He is also expanding his critical moments reflection methodology to identify, share, and maintain grassroots knowledge.

MIT Center for Constructive Communication / MIT Media Lab

Deb Roy is Professor of Media Arts and Sciences at MIT where he directs the MIT Center for Constructive Communication, and a Visiting Professor at Harvard Law School. He leads research in applied machine learning and human-machine interaction with applications in designing systems for learning and constructive dialogue, and for mapping and analyzing large scale media ecosystems.

MIT MLK Scholar

Patricia Saulis is Executive Director of the Maliseet Nation Conservation Council and a member of the Maliseet tribe of Indigenous people, whose lands lie along the Saint John River watershed on both sides of the US and Canadian border in Northeast Maine and Southern New Brunswick.

MIT Civic Design Initiative / Emerson College

Ulya Aviral is a writer, filmmaker and a scholar. Aviral’s art focuses on race, sexuality, and culture. Her films have been recognized and showcased by the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, the Boston Globe, Short Film Corner at Cannes Film Festival, and Anthology Film Archives NYC funded by the Academy.

USC Civic Paths Group

Henry Jenkins is Provost’s Professor of Communication, Journalism, Cinematic Arts and Education at the University of Southern California. He joined USC from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he was Peter de Florez Professor in the Humanities. Jenkins directed MIT’s Comparative Media Studies graduate degree program from 1993-2009, setting an innovative research agenda during a time of fundamental change in communication, journalism and entertainment.

USC Civic Paths Group

Sangita Shresthova is the Director of Research of the Civic Paths Group based at the University of Southern California. Her work focuses on intersections among online learning, popular culture, performance, new media, politics, and globalization. She is also one of the authors of Popular Culture and the Civic Imagination: Case Studies of Creative Change (NYU Press, 2020) and of Practicing Futures: A Civic Imagination Action Handbook (Peter Lang, 2020).

University of Maine

Darren Ranco is a faculty member with the University of Maine’s Department of Anthropology, as well as the Chair of Native American Programs and Coordinator of Native American Research. His research focuses on the ways in which indigenous communities in the United States resist environmental destruction by using indigenous diplomacies and knowledges to protect cultural resources, and how state knowledge systems continue to expose indigenous peoples to an inordinate amount of environmental risk.

Transition Design Institute, Carnegie Mellon University

Terry Irwin is a Professor and Head of the School of Design at Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh (2009-present). She has been teaching design at the university level since 1986 and has held faculty positions at Otis Parsons College of Art and Design, Los Angeles (1986-1989), California College of Arts and Crafts, San Francisco (1989-2003) and Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design, University of Dundee, Scotland (2007-2009).

Transition Design Institute, Carnegie Mellon University

Gideon is an Associate Director of the Transition Design Institute and Special Faculty in the School of Design, where he teaches and conducts research in transition design and ecoliteracy. He focuses on the convergence between philosophical and scientific holism, the emerging ecological world view and the decentralist, ecophilosophical tradition that embraces such figures as Lewis Mumford, Jane Jacobs, Murray Bookchin and Vandana Shiva.

Institute for Integrated Development Studies, Nepal

Dr. Arnico Panday is an atmospheric scientist with long experience working on the interface between the science and policy of climate change, air pollution and sustainable development. He is currently a Senior Research Fellow at the Institute for Integrated Development Studies (IIDS), a senior advisor on climate at the Government of Nepal’s National Planning Commission, as well as Chief Executive Officer of Ullens Education Foundation.

Institute for Integrated Development Studies, Nepal

Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Centre

Pablo Suarez is Associate director for research and innovation at the Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Centre, as well as Artist in Residence at the National University of Singapore (NUS-IPUR), visiting fellow at Boston University, honorary senior lecturer at University College London, and faculty member at University of Lugano (Switzerland). He has consulted for the UN Development Programme, the World Food Programme, the World Bank, Oxfam America, and about twenty other international humanitarian and development organizations, working in more than 60 countries.

United Nations Development Programme

Aarathi Krishnan specialises in humanitarian futures and strategic foresight. She has worked in humanitarian and development aid globally for over 15 years and now focuses her work on reimagining futures for the humanitarian system and social change. She works at the intersection of humanitarian futures, strategic foresight, and systems transformation.  She supports a range of international humanitarian organisations on how to embed foresight and strategy to drive institutional and systems transformation, including the UN in Cambodia and North Macedonia, UNDP, UNV, UNHCR, MSF and ICRC .  

World Bank

Margaret Arnold is a Senior Social Development Specialist with the World Bank, specializing in the social dimensions of climate change, disaster risk management, and community-based and gender-sensitive approaches to risk management. She leads work on pro-poor adaptation and resilience building for the Social Resilience cluster. Margaret has been with the World Bank since 1995, and has worked on urban development and post-conflict reconstruction in addition to DRM.

Harvard Berkman-Klein Center

Yves Daccord is a renowned humanitarian leader, international strategist, influencer and changemaker. His current focus is on the theme of the impact of COVID19 on our social contract and the role of cities at the age of digital surveillance and pandemics, which is the subject of a special initiative at Harvard’s Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society Yves was Director-General of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), a global humanitarian organization employing 20,000 staff.