Scientific Committee
Click on the profile pictures for further details
Jorge lives in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, is the Coordinator of the undergraduate program of Pedagogy at the Universidad Pedagógica Nacional del Estado de Chihuahua (UPNECH). Has a bachelor’s degree in Mathematics Education and a Masters in Community Education, also has the training in Social Therapy by the East Side Institute of New York. He has more than 20 years of experience working with NGO’s. He is a founding member of the Fred Newman Center for Social Therapy in Ciudad Juárez where the practice of Social Therapy is taking place with different groups, such as students, teachers, young people, parents and NGO members in order to build community in different ways of also developing personal growth. In 2017 Performing Communities the Esperanza Coalition was born on the US-Mexico Border. With the collaboration with the Institute of Improvisation and Social Action (ImprovISA) based in El Paso Texas, Jorge participated in this process as a founding member.
Jorge Burciaga-Montoya
Professor of Pedagogy and Community Development, Universidad Pedagógica Nacional del Estado de Chihuahua (UPNECH) Campus Juárez, Mexico
Mariamalia Cob Delgado lives in Osa, Costa Rica. She is a Microbiologist, MSc in Epidemiology, directs the clinical laboratory of the “Hospital Tomás Casas Casajús”, of the “Caja Costarricense del Seguro Social”. She also conducts research in epidemiology with the University of Costa Rica. In her quest to achieve a more humane treatment with her patients she was trained as a therapeutic clown. And in the year 2015 founded the group “Burumbun Community Clown Project”, a collective of artists and volunteers who use the clowning as a tool of social integration. Currently, Burumbun is working on the construction of a mental health prevention program through clowning for children and adolescents in areas of social risk.
Mariamalia Cob Delgado
Microbiologist, MSc in Epidemiology, director of the clinical laboratory of the “Hospital Tomás Casas Casajús”, of the “Caja Costarricense del Seguro Social”. Founder of the group “Burumbun Community Clown Project”, Costa Rica
Rosina Eleni Filippidou, started as a professional dancer and dance teacher. Then acquired her BSc (Hons) in Psychology, an MSc in Psychological Research Methods from The Open University and a PGdip in Drama and Movement therapy from the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, University of London. She is also a certified EMDR therapist. As a psychotherapist, she has worked in private therapeutic centers, psychiatric hospitals, centers for rehabilitation of people with learning difficulties and shelters for children and adolescents at risk. The last two years she worked as a psychologist at the psychiatric ward of the General Hospital of Thessaloniki Ippokrateio. She has participated with oral presentations and workshops, in numerous European and National conferences and has published articles referring to the importances of arts in therapy. She now holds two private offices as psychotherapist, in Athens and Thessaloniki (Greece). She is the manager and scientific coordinator of the Institute for Therapy and Education Through Arts EPINEIO, that holds a three year dramatherapy educational course in Thessaloniki.
Rosina Eleni Filippidou
Psychologist, Dramatherapist, Founder of Epineio, Institute for Therapy and Training through Arts, Greece
Ellen Foyn Bruun is Associate Professor of Drama and Theatre at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, NTNU. She has a professional background as stage director, playwright/dramaturge and drama educator from various contexts. Ellen likes to teach and conduct research through a combination of practice and theory. At NTNU she teaches theatre production, applied theatre and dramatherapy. Her research centers on drama- and theatre-based action methods, their applications and impact. She is a trained dramatherapist and an Associate Teacher of Fitzmaurice Voicework who has published articles and book chapters in English, German and Norwegian. For several years she has participated actively in Nordic and international networks where arts and health are focus, within dramatherapy and voicework. Some recurring questions she asks are: How do we stage ourselves? What kind of powers are at stake? How do we facilitate and organize arts processes that create new meaning, good health and have societal relevance?
Ellen Foyn Bruun
Associate Professor of Drama and Theatre Studies, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Norway
Chair of the Theatre Studies Dept. at Western Galilee academic college in the multicultural town of Akko, Israel also lecturer and acting and improvisation instructor at Tel Aviv University Theatre arts dept. I am particularly concerned with “Inter/ multi – cultural dialogue in the dramatic space” and the way in which this practice impacts people and can change attitudes and the ability to contain and empathize with other people’s lives, beliefs and histories. I have been fortunate to have acquired international experience and expertise in the application of theatre practices and performance for empowering human rights issues, dialogue in conflicted communities, relations in the work place, prisoner, sex workers and substance user rehabilitation.
Peter Harris
Professor of Theatre at Tel Aviv University and Chair of the Theatre Studies Dept. at Western Galilee academic college
Tel Aviv, Israel
Jones Irwin is Associate Professor in Philosophy and Education at the Institute of Education, Dublin, Republic of Ireland. From 2014 until September 2019, he was seconded as Project Officer with NCCA on the multi-denominational curriculum in Community National Schools, the first state curriculum in values in Ireland. He has previously lectured at University of Warwick, UK, and Mary Immaculate College, University of Limerick and has been Visiting Lecturer at several universities including the University of Warwick (2010/2013), Ljubljana, Slovenia (2010), Linköping, Sweden (2010/2013) and University of Catania, Sicily (2018/19).
His research and teaching interests are currently in the areas of Philosophy of Education, Multi-Denominational Ethos, Values Education, Aesthetics and Early Years Education. He has published three main books to date, including the first text to explore Paulo Freire’s educational philosophy in toto.
Jones Irwin
Associate Professor, Philosophy and Education
Institute of Education
Dublin City University, Ireland
Makiko Kishi (Mako) An associate professor, Meiji University in Tokyo. My Major is Educational Technology (Designing a Learning Environment）
Please see the detail: shorturl.at/dzN89 .
Created/developed various kinds of educational activities/materials with UNs, NGOs, Universities, communities in Syria（2002-2011）, Palestine（2005-to the present）, Turkey（2016-2019）, Myanmar
(2008-2011）India (2009-to the present) and Japan.
Makiko Kishi
Associate Professor, Educational Technology (Designing a Learning Environment)
Meiji University, Tokyo, Japan
Warren Linds is Associate Professor, Department of Applied Human Sciences, Concordia University, Montreal, Canada and Graduate Program Director of the Masters in Human Systems Intervention in the same department. He has had extensive experience in applied theatre, particularly with Theatre of the Oppressed and Playback Theatre, and community development. He worked for ten years with Indigenous youth in southern Saskatchewan, Canada on Acting Out! But in a Good Way, an applied arts program on wellness and wellbeing as part of the Indigenous Peoples Health Research Centre in partnership with File Hills Qu’Appelle Tribal Council Health Services Youth Action Program (YAP). His interests are in Arts-based research and inquiry, ethical practice and social justice. This background has been critical to his teaching approach where he brings practical experiences and theoretical approaches together. Dr. Linds has published in the areas of group facilitation, anti-oppression and anti-racism pedagogy, the fostering of youth leadership, and arts-based approaches to working with war-affected youth in Montreal and around the world. He is co-editor (with Elinor Vettraino) of Playing in a Hall of Mirrors. Applied Theatre as Reflective Practice (Sense, 2015) and (with Linda Goulet and Ali Sammel), Emancipatory practices: Adult/youth engagement for social and environmental justice (Sense, 2010).
Warren Linds
Associate Professor Human Sciences, Graduate Program Director of the Masters in Human Systems Intervention
Concordia University, Montreal, Canada
Carrie Lobman (New York, USA) MEd is associate professor and chair of the Department of Learning and Teaching at the Rutgers University Graduate School of Education, the director of the revolutionary conversations series at the East Side Institute and a member of the All Stars Project Board of Directors. Carrie was born into a family of revolutionaries and community activists and has over the decades combined that passion with her equally strong commitment to the power of play and performance for human development. She is a self-proclaimed play revolutionary and performance activist. As an educational researcher she has examined the relationship between play, performance, learning and development for people of all ages and the importance of outside of school programs for providing young people with developmental experiences. She is a trained social therapist and a core faculty member in the Institute’s international training programs.
Carrie Lobman
Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of Learning and Teaching at the Rutgers University Graduate School of Education, New York, USA
Kostas Magos has a degree on Teacher Education from the University of Athens and a Ph.D on Intercultural Education from the same University. He has worked as a primary school teacher and as a researcher in many intercultural projects for minority and Roma children. Since 2007 he is a lecturer and since 2013 an Assistant Professor in the Department of Early Childhood Education at the University of Thessaly on the field of intercultural education. His scientific interests include the theory and practice of intercultural education, the education of immigrant, minority and Roma children, the use of action research and narrative inquiry in teacher education and school practices. He has participated in many European projects concerning best practices for the education of minority and immigrant children, European educational actions against racism and xenophobia and European teacher training seminars in intercultural education. He is the writer of many articles concerning issues of intercultural education theory and practice. During his free time he likes to write books for children. Until today 20 children books written by Kostas are already published.
Kostas Magos
Associate Professor of Preschool Education, University of Thessaly, Greece
Andres Marquez-Lara is the Founder and Passion Catalyst at Promethean Community LLC, a social enterprise that helps organizations create synergies for success. They work with teams that want to improve their efficiency in tackling social and environmental impact projects in Latin America and the Caribbean. With a dynamic, inclusive methodology that blends approaches from design thinking, improv theater, and systems thinking, their interactive workshops help groups connect, collaborate, create and complete their projects.
Andres holds teaching positions at both Georgetown University and George Washington University where he teaches on leadership, innovation and facilitation. He has collaborated with multiple national and international organizations that include the Inter-American Development Bank, Pan-American Health Organization, Open Government Partnership, and others.
In 2014, he was named one of the emerging social innovators of the year in North America by Ashoka and American Express. He earned a BA in psychology from Duke University, and a graduate degree in clinical community psychology from the Universidad Catolica Andres Bello in Caracas, Venezuela.
Andres Marquez Lara
Lecturer of Transformative Leadership, Georgetown University, Psychologist, Founder and Passion Catalyst at Promethean Community LLC, Washington, USA
Morgane Masterman is a French-British intercultural activist living in Portugal. She has a bachelor’s in translation for French, English, and German, and a master’s degree in Portuguese literature. However, when she started working as translator, she quickly realized that translation was just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to mutual understanding between cultures, and in 2011 she started involving herself in grassroots feminism and local human rights struggles. Since 2013 she has been working in the field of European mobility and intercultural education. From 2013 to 2017 she was employed by association Clube Intercultural Europeu in Lisbon, and since 2018 she is a freelance intercultural and linguistic animator certified by the French-German Youth Office. In 2018 she was one of the founders of Associação Faísca Voadora, a small organisation in Almada aiming to challenge the traditional ways of embracing interculturality and European mobility by connecting intercultural education, arts, and activism. Her preferred tools are comics, theatre of the oppressed, amateur radio, and language animation.
Morgane Masterman
Associação Faísca Voadora
Almada, Portugal
Tamara Nikolić (Belgrade, Serbia) is Assistant Professor at the Department for Pedagogy and Andragogy at the Faculty of Philosophy, University of Belgrade and a reasearcher at the Institute for Pedagogy and Andragogy. She holds a Ph.D. in Adult Education from the University of Belgrade and M.A. in Human Relations from the University of Nottingham. Being East Side Institute’s Associate keeps deepening her interest in the intersections of play and performance, adult learning and community building, which she continues to pursue theoretically and practically. Her recent research involves topics such are leisure education, creative learning environments, drama and theatre in education, and the role of improvisation in educational settings. As an educational professional, she teaches adult education related to leisure, communication and media, play, creativity and drama. As a freelancer, she delivers trainings for trainers, mentors and other professionals in the field of education, engages in supervision and counselling for educators and designs and facilitates workshops. As a lifelong learner, she is currently working her way towards M.A. in Applied Theatre at Academy of Arts in Novi Sad. She co-authored the publication “Let’s Play – A Manual for Drama Process”.
Tamara Nikolić
Associate Professor of Adult Education
University of Belgrade, Belgrade, Serbia
Dr. Dora Psaltopoulou-Kamini is an Assistant Professor at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (A.U.Th-GR). She is a certified music therapist CMT (AMTA), holds a Ph.D (A.U.Th-GR) and an MA (NYU, NY-USA). She has completed her psychoanalytic training in Freudian, Lacanian approach. She is a visitor Lecturer at the master level programs at the University of Macedonia (Music Therapy), at the University of Nicosia, at the University of Thessaly, at TEI of Larissa. She is a research assistant at the Adolescent Unit of the 3rd Psychiatric Clinic (University Hospital AHEPA). She has published in Greek two academic e-books (Music Therapy: The Third Way and Communication in Music Therapy-Paideia. The Co.M.P.A.S.S Approach) at Kallipos (repository.Kallipos.gr). Her music therapy life journey has been published in 2017 at ‘Lives of Music Therapists’ (Vol. I, Barcelona Publishers).
Dora Psaltopoulou
Assistant Professor of Music Studies, Music Therapist, Aristotle University, Fine Arts Department, Visitor Lecturer: University of Macedonia, University of Nicosia, University of Thessaly, TEI Larissa, Research Assistant University Hospital of AHEPA, Greece
Dr Tsompanaki Eleni obtains Bachelor in Dance and Professional Practice (Coventry University), Master of Philosophy in Dance and Theatre Arts (University of Birmingham), PhD in Dance in Education (University of Birmingham). She has taught contemporary dance, creative dance, improvisation and somatics at Coventry University, Greek National School of Dance and in various private dance schools in Greece. She was a basic coordinator of community dance for primary school teachers in the ‘Melina Programme: Education and Culture’, in the Operational Programme “Education and Lifelong Learning” Education of Roma children” and a lecturer in educational programmes for diversity groups and minorities. Moreover, she gives lectures about semiotics of dance and community dance on postgraduate courses at the University of Western Macedonia and the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. She is artistic director of the Model Dance School of the Municipality of Kalamaria. From September 2018, she is a professor at the pedagogical department of the University of Thessaly.
Eleni Tsompanaki
Professor of Dance, Community Dance Artist, Department of Early Childhood Education, University of Thessaly, Greece
Mark began his study of Theatre of the Oppressed (TO) and Applied Theatre with Augusto Boal in 1992 and has conducted workshops and theatre-making actions for educators, activists, administrators, students, business leaders, NGOs, and community organizations in the continental U.S., Alaska, Canada, Australia, and Austria. He is co-founder, with Jenny Wanasek, of The Center for Applied Theatre in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA and was co-founder of the Theatre and Social Change focus group of ATHE. Mark served on the Board of the Pedagogy and Theatre of the Oppressed Organization for nine years and hosted its ninth annual conference. He earned his MFA in Directing and his Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota and was a professor in the University of Wisconsin system, where he developed the Theatre and Society Program, for thirty years. He has directed nearly sixty productions in academic, community, and professional theatre and during the past eighteen years has served as a teaching artist in Milwaukee Public Schools. He is currently editor of the PTO Journal.
Mark Weinberg
Editor of the PTO Journal, co-founder of The Center for Applied Theatre and Theatre and Social Change focus group of ATHE
Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA
Magda Zenon is a human rights activist whose perspective has been influenced by having lived in apartheid South Africa, Greece, and now Cyprus. She is an active member of civil society with a focus on the implementation of UNSCRes 1325 and the integration of a gender perspective in peace processes, both locally and globally. She has worked with women’s and youth groups and has helped found and been active in a number of local CSO’s including Hands Across the Divide, the Gender Advisory Team and the Cyprus Women’s Lobby that is a member of the European Women’s Lobby. She has also helped co-ordinate a number of multicultural youth peace camps in Cyprus and Turkey with themes that focussed on youth and conflict resolution. Finally, Magda has a passion for story-telling and has for over 5 years hosted conversations about peacebuilding with inspiring women from around the globe on her internet-based women’s forum called kaleid’HER’scope.
Magda Zenon
Journalist, Peace and Human Rights Activist, Founding Member of Hands Across the Divide, Cyprus