Guest Speakers

Linda Hutcheon holds the rank of University Professor Emeritus in the Department of English and the Centre for Comparative Literature at the University of Toronto. She is author of 9 books on critical theory and contemporary postmodern culture in Canada and around the world. She has edited 5 other books on cultural topics, and is associate editor of the University of Toronto Quarterly. In 2005 she won the Canada Council’s Killam Prize for the Humanities for scholarly achievement and in 2010, the Molson Prize of the Canada Council. In 2011, she was made an Officer of the Order of Canada..

Michael Hutcheon is Professor of Medicine at the University of Toronto. His scientific research publications encompass a number of areas: pulmonary physiology and lung transplantation. He has also published in the fields of medical education and the semiotics of pharmaceutical advertising.

Their work together on the cultural construction of sexuality, gender and disease in opera has been published in a book entitled Opera: Desire, Disease, Death (1996). Their second book, a study of both the real and the represented operatic body entitled Bodily Charm: Living Opera, was published in 2000.  Opera: The Art of Dying, published by Harvard University Press in 2004, is a study not only of the ubiquitous theme of death in opera, but more importantly, also of how viewing operas can actually help us deal by proxy with our own and our loved ones’ mortality—something our culture has not made it particularly easy to do. Their latest book, Four Last Songs: Aging and Creativity in Verdi, Strauss, Messiaen, and Britten (University of Chicago Press, 2015), is a study of the late lives and last works of those long-lived composers for whom writing an opera was, in each case, a unique response to the challenges—and opportunities—of growing older.

Rea Beaumont is the recipient of the SOCAN Foundation / MusCan Award of Excellence for the Advancement of Research in Canadian Music.  An internationally recognized concert pianist and composer, Beaumont is known for her powerful performances and beautifully curated albums that highlight important global issues, including climate change.  She has premiered many works in collaboration with leading composers, including R. Murray Schafer, and her own works continue to be broadcast around the world.  Beaumont is a leading authority on Canadian music, which she shares through a wide range of publications. She has received awards and grants from The Canada Council for the Arts, Ontario Arts Council, British Columbia Arts Council, SOCAN, Toronto Arts Council.   www.reabeaumont.com

Shelley Hornstein is Senior Scholar and Professor Emerita of Architectural History & Urban Culture at York University.  

She explores a wide-ranging set of themes located at the intersection of memory and place in architectural and urban sites: tourism, cosmopolitanism, nationhood, Jewish architectural and cultural heritage, and theories and histories of heritage sites generally.  Her latest book, Architectural Tourism: Site-Seeing, Itineraries and Cultural Heritage is published by Lund Humphries,  is an investigation of how architecture is the key to tourism through tangible and intangible places. Her other books include Losing Site: Architecture, Memory and Place (Ashgate, 2011), Capital Culture: A Reader on Modernist Legacies, State Institutions, and the Value(s) of Art (McGill-University Press, 2000 co-edited with Jody Berland), Image and Remembrance: Representation and The Holocaust (Indiana University Press, 2002, co-edited with Florence Jacobowitz), and Impossible Images: Contemporary Art after the Holocaust (NYU Press, 2003 co-edited with Laura Levitt and Laurence Silberstein).  Hornstein is the recipient of the Walter L. Gordon Fellowship, Canadian and International awards, and serves on on advisory boards for several academic journals.

Paolo Granata is an educator, innovator, and a cross-disciplinary media scholar. Over 20-year academic career in research, teaching, and public engagement, he has held positions at the University of Bologna, the Academy of Fine Arts in Bologna and Turin, and recently at the University of Toronto.

From 2015 to 2017, he was Program Curator at the McLuhan Centre for Culture and Technology, University of Toronto. As a cultural strategist and an advocate of sustainable development, in 2017 his research and consultancy activity led to the designation of Toronto as a UNESCO Creative City of Media Arts.
In 2019 he founded the Media Ethics Lab (www.mediaethics.ca), a research hub that studies the ways that digital media practices and emerging technologies are marked by ethical issues and decisive political, societal, and cultural questions.
Serving since 2018 as a board member of the Executive Committee at the Canadian Commission for UNESCO, his advocacy efforts are focused on digital equity and digital sustainability, to explore the potential that information and communication technologies hold for enacting positive social change.

Teo Ciavarella è musicista, compositore e docente di pianoforte jazz presso il Conservatorio di Musica G.B. Martini di Bologna. Ha tenuto concerti in ambito internazionale con diverse formazioni, specializzandosi in musica pop e jazz . Ha collaborato e registrato con Lucio Dalla, Paolo Conte, Vinicio Capossela, Gino Paoli, Kelly Joyce, Gianni Morandi, Gerry Mulligan, Eddie Gomez, George Garzone, Paolo Fresu, Fabrizio Bosso, Javier Girotto, Greg Yasinitsky, James Senese, Luca Carboni, Freak Antoni, Andrea Mingardi , Henghel Gualdi, Piergiorgio Farina, Ruggero Raimondi, Doctor Dixie Jazz Band. In ambito teatrale ha partecipato come musicista a svariati tour e ha scritto musiche di scena per Piera Degli Esposti, Monica Guerritore, Virginia Raffaele, Antonio Albanese, Enrico Bertolino, Paolo Rossi.
Ha diretto l’Alma Jazz Orchestra ( big band ufficiale dell’Università di Bologna ) e insieme a Paolo Granata ha ideato e organizzato in qualità di direttore artistico il Festival Alma Jazz. Ha tenuto seminari presso Berklee College of Music di Boston , il Conservatorio di Puertorico, l’Università di Xalapa in Messico, il Conservatorio di Friburgo, l’Università di Amburgo e la Washington State University.

After 25 years committed to a vision influenced by his culturally diverse world, Dominic sees himself sitting at the table with the 21st century and the global village. His resume takes in several CDs, as well as several written scores for TV, films and theatre performances, numerous artistic collaborations and a great number of live shows in Canada and abroad.
After actively promoting Comfortably Mine, his Juno and Canadian Folk Music awarded ‘World Music Album of the Year’, he realized there was an incredible chemistry forming amongst his touring band: Tony Zorzi on guitars; Paco Luviano basses; Chendy Leon percussion; Jerry Caringi B3 organ & accordion; Johnny Johnson saxes & woodwinds. Shortly after, in 2013, DMG - Dominic Mancuso Group was born.
In 2016 DMG toured through Europe, in promotion of Sub Urban Gypsy, which was included in the European project: PERFORMIGRATIONS.EU. He continues to build his international profile with his upcoming 2020 record release. This collaboration, with the Italian pianist arranger, Vittorio Mezza. sees Mancuso pushing his sound towards a soulful blend of singer-songwriter meets classical and jazz. Keeping all his world elements in tact, the Mancuso/Mezza: EVOLUTION project reveals his most ambitious work yet. They arranged Mancuso’s compositions with the expansion of a chamber ensemble; invigorating the far reaching capabilities of the music while pushing the Dominic Mancuso Group and the chamber ensemble towards a rich and passionate contemporary body of work.

Hannah Burgé Luviano (Métis Nation Ontario) is an artist and academic. Her contemporary jazz album, “Green River Sessions” (2014), which featured NYC harmonica and vibraphone player Hendrik Meurkens, charted on US college radio and has continued to receive worldwide airplay. Her 2015 debut album, Green River Sessions received worldwide airplay and featured original compositions and latin jazz favourites. Raised in church, Hannah started leading bands at age fourteen. Her musical pursuit took her to Toronto, where she fell head over heels for classic and contemporary jazz and world music artists. She toured internationally with artists Njacko Backo and the Nathaniel Dett Chorale, becoming a featured soloist at a concert at the National Library of Congress in a concert that honoured Dr. Ysaye M. Barnwell, of Sweet Honey in the Rock fame. Hannah is also a gifted scholar, currently at work on a Ph.D. project at Queen’s University. She lectures on jazz and ethnomusicology topics, and advocates for musicians at home and abroad.

Professore associato di filologia romanza all’Università di Bologna. Specializzato in filologia romanza e celtica, ha all’attivo diverse rivoluzionarie pubblicazioni sulle radici preistoriche e sciamaniche della cultura europea e sull’origine del linguaggio (secondo la sua teoria emerso già con Australopiteco). Svolge le sue ricerche nell’ambito delle letterature medievali romanze - soprattutto con riferimento alle tradizioni orali e all’etnofilologia, disciplina da lui fondata che analizza i testi in una prospettiva libertaria attenta alle connessioni con il mondo delle espressioni tradizionali. Come musicista (arpa celtica) ha pubblicato cd legati alla musica world e cantautoriale. Per la sua attività di poeta epico-performativo è candidato al premio Nobel per la Letteratura dal 2015.

Tra i fondatori dell’Associazione Culturale ARCHI nel 2012, ne è attualmente il Presidente responsabile dal 2016. Come funzionario del Ministero degli Affari Esteri nell’area della promozione culturale, ha lavorato, prima come addetto e poi come direttore, negli Istituti Italiani di Cultura di Toronto, New York, Washington e Montreal. In Italia, ha lavorato presso la Direzione culturale MAE e ha insegnato a Firenze e Lecce in corsi sperimentali universitari per l’applicazione dell’informatica alle scienze umanistiche. Ha coordinato diversi progetti di promozione e diffusione della lingua italiana all’estero e, come organizzatore di eventi, ha promosso progetti culturali europei attuati nei paesi ospiti con la collaborazione dei consiglieri culturali delle rappresentanze diplomatiche dei paesi membri della Unione Europea. Nel periodo 1976-78, sotto l’egida del Ministero degli Affari Esteri è stato insegnante e coordinatore dei corsi intensivi di italiano per gli studenti somali anglofoni o arabofoni presso l’Università Nazionale Somala di Mogadiscio; ha poi prestato servizio in corsi di formazione in Venezuela e, nel periodo 1987-1990, ha lavorato nel settore della cooperazione allo sviluppo promuovendo l’insegnamento dell’italiano nelle scuole superiori in Tunisia. Traduttore, ha pubblicato saggi sui temi principali della sua esperienza professionale.

Daniel Silver is Professor of Sociology at the University of Toronto.  His research areas are social theory, cities, culture, and cultural policy.  He is co-editor of The Politics of Urban Cultural Policy and author of Scenescapes: how qualities of place shape social life.  Professor Silver was the recipient of the 2013 Theory Prize, the 2017 Consumers and Consumption Section Distinguished Scholarly Publication Award (with Kristie O'Neill), and received an honorable mention for the 2015 Junior Theorist Award (with Kristie O'Neill), all from the American Sociological Association.  His current research examines the role of arts and culture in city politics, economics, and residential patterns; the enduring political orders of cities; the use of diagrams and figures in social theory; the evolution of urban forms; the meaning and reception of Georg Simmel's ideas; and the definition and evolution of classics and canons in sociological theory.  Silver is also a core participant in The Scenes Project, details about which may be found here, and the Urban Genome Project. Additionally, he was editor and co-author of reports on the cultural sectors in Toronto and Chicago: From the Ground Up: Growing Toronto’s Creative Sector, Redefining Public Art in Toronto, and Chicago: Music City.

Sara Diamond is currently President Emerita of OCAD University Canada’s “university of the imagination.” She was President and Vice-Chancellor for 15 years, stepping down on June 30, 2020. She holds a PhD in Computer Science and degrees in new media theory and practice, social history and communications. She was appointed to the Order of Canada in June 2019 and is an appointee of the Order of Ontario and the Royal Canadian Society of Artists. While retaining OCAD University's traditional strengths in art and design, Dr. Diamond led OCAD University to retain and expand its traditional strengths in art and design while transforming it to become a leader in graduate education, research and digital media. She led collaborative efforts to strengthen equity and diversity at OCAD U, and to support Indigenous cultures, research, and decolonization. She also played a leading role in OCAD University's establishment of the unique Aboriginal Visual Culture Program. These initiatives have built strong partnerships for OCAD University with science, business and communities, in Ontario and abroad. Currently, she serves on the Ontario Ministry of Culture’s Advisory Council on Arts & Culture, ORION (Ontario’s high-speed network), SHARCNET, IO (Interactive Ontario), Canadian Women in Communications; i-Canada; is Chair of the Scotiabank Nuit Blanche Toronto Advisory Committee.

Roberto Grandi is the Director of the Master in “Digital Marketing and Communication”  ( Bologna Business School),  President of Istituzione Bologna Musei (2017-2021), Vice-Rector for International Relations at the University of Bologna (2000-2009), and Deputy Mayor for Culture – Municipality of Bologna (1996-1999). THe taught mass communications and cultural processes at the University of Bologna from 1972 to 2016.  

In his research and numerous publications he has analyzed the potential of the use of mass media in public, political, marketing communication, and in the fields of fashion and city branding.   

He has spent long periods of research and teaching abroad. In particular: Annenberg School of Communications (University of Pennsylvania), Stanford University, Brown University, Tonji University (Shanghai). 

Fabiola Naldi è storica d’arte, critica e curatrice. Si laurea al D.A.M.S. con una tesi in Fenomenologia degli Stili. Si specializza in Storia dell’Arte Contemporanea e in seguito consegue il Dottorato di Ricerca in Storia dell’Arte Contemporanea. Nel 2014 ottiene l’ASN a Professore Associato. Nel 2018 è prima nella graduatoria nazionale AFAM MIUR per Fenomenologia dell’Arte Contemporanea. Dal 2017 è membro del consiglio di amministrazione dell’Istituzione Bologna Musei. Nel 2001 è ideatrice di ArtTV, un programma dedicato alla Video Arte sul canale musicale satellitare MATCH MUSIC. Nel 2015 è curatrice del programma Pomilio Blumm Prize per SKYARTE.  E' stata responsabile dell’archivio video del MAMbo - Museo d’Arte Moderna di Bologna. Nel 2009, 2011 e 2013 cura la Biennale del Muro Dipinto di Dozza. Dal 2012 al 2016 è curatrice di Frontier. La linea dello stile, progetto speciale dedicato al Writing e la Street Art internazionale. E' corrispondente della rivista Flash Art. E' autrice di numerosi saggi, pubblicazioni, testi critici.