International Arts Conference Schedule

SESSION ONE                                                    Baker Theater

Chair:    Papa Kojo Essuman Yamoah (Conference Committee)

Mitko Toshev
1.Visual Art as Research: Artistic Practice Between Creation, Cognition, and Meaning. 

Chad D. Curtis
2. When Code Meets Clay: Emergence and Material Intelligence in Digital Fabrication.

Tika Simone
3. Rest as Resistance: Creative Sovereignty as a Tool for Diasporic Healing & Cultural Futures.

Fotima Taylor
4. Aesthetics of Emptiness in Caspar David Friedrich’s The Monk by the Sea,

Napoleon Mensah
5. Gamification of Space: A Digital Reconfiguration of the E.T.S. Drama Studio Through Game Mechanics

SESSION TWO                                                  Baker Theater

Chair:     Tika Simone   

Colleen Barnes
1. Resilience through Collaboration: Reimagining Dance Education Beyond the Politics of Scarcity.

Benjamin Quarshie, PhD and Henry Ofosu Ameyaw (PhD)
2. Contextualising Ghanaian Traditional Festivals as Embodied Gestural Semiotics and Mobile Ephemeral Museums within Contemporary Art and Glocal Tourism.

Zhazirakhan Akhymbekova
3. Enhancing Student Imagination through Visualization of Auditory Sounds.

Prof. Vladimir L. Marchenkov
4. Polyphonic Thinking as a Philosophical Model for Cross-Cultural Musical Creativity.

SESSION THREE                                                Baker Theater 

Chair: Colleen Barnes

Johanna Andrea Amaya Conejo
1. CARNAVAL DE NEGROS Y BLANCOS EN PASTO, COLOMBIA: Interdisciplinary Technologies of Memory.

Ruchi Pathak
2. Seeing Through the Arts: A Multimodal Transmediation Practice with Poetics.

Roshni Ramanan and Prof. Deepak Paramashivan
3. The Changing Semiotics of Dance Pedagogy through Bharatanāṭyam.

Papa Kojo Essuman Yamoah
4. Citizen Voices in Fante Ghanaian Highlife: Kofi Kinaata and the Linguistic Artistry of Citizenship.

SESSION FOUR                                                 Baker Theater

Chair: Graci Kelley

Radmila Esina
1. Constructing the Working Body.

Samuel Elikem Nyamuame (PhD)
2. Just Improvise: The Impact of Entertainment-Driven Practices on Ghanaian Drum Music Instruction and Performance.

Kwame Takyi Danquah
3. Children, Creativity, and Employment Pathways: A Case Study of The Effutu Talent Show in Winneba, Ghana. 

Joseph Luckett
4. Nature’s Stage: Using Digital Innovation to Amplify Global Arts in Rural Communities.

Kwasi Gyebi-Tweneboah
5. Live sound reinforcement in Ghana: Youth chorale choirs in perspective.

Colleen Barnes & Dr. Rachel Olson 
6. An interdisciplinary pedagogical model that integrates anatomical education across the performing and medical arts

SESSION FIVE                                                    Baker Theater

Chair: Johanna Andrea Amaya Conejo

Joy Davis
1.Crossing Waters: Artist Exchange as Model for Equitable Cultural Dialogue."

Graci Kelley
2. Billie Holiday: Lady Sings the Blues.

Fotima Taylor
3. Violence, Power, and the Desert Sublime in Delacroix and Fromentin.

Edy R. Panjaitan
4. Interdisciplinary Performance: Ritual Knowledge and the Magical Sound of Gondang Sabangunan.

SESSION SIX                                                     Baker Theater

Chair: Edy R. Panjaitan

Noble Jesse Glikpoe
1. The procession of the Basabasa god: An idol worship or a performance? A case of the Aboakyir festival among the people of Efuttu.

Dylan Haynes 
2.  Remembering the Past, Witnessing the Present, Envisioning the Future: Appalachian Women’s Labor in Documentary Film.

Richardson Commey Fio
3.The Contributions of Popular Musicians to Nation Building and Democracy in Ghana’s 4th Republic.

Najmeh “Sara” Pirahmadian
4.Mis/Understanding Reframing Language Barriers and Miscommunication Through Interactive Art+Design.

SESSION SEVEN                                               Baker Theater

Chair: Papa Kojo Essuman Yamoah

Divine Kwasi Gbagbo, PhD
1.Modernizing Tradition: Innovation and Performance Culture in Ewe Borborbor Dance-Drum.

Ernest Elikplim Kwabla Adonoo
2.Transmission of Drumming among the Anlo‑Ewe: The Case of the Agbodo/Amuzu Family of Hatsukorfe, Denu. Volta Region, Ghana.

Ufuoma Onobrakpeya
3. The History Of Art Workshops In Nigeria: The Role Of Art Education Through The Harmattan Workshop In Delta –State, Nigeria."

Nana Amowee Dawson,
4. Sankɔfa Symphony: A Visual–Musical Journey through Ghanaian Childhood, Folklore, and Becoming

KEYNOTE SPEAKER                                        Baker Theater

Chair and Introduction:  Roxanne Schroeder-Arce, Dean, The Chaddock + Morrow College of Fine Arts

Keynote:  Hon. Abla Dzifa Gomashie

Minister of Tourism, Culture and Creative Arts, and MP for Ketu South, Ghana   

Topic: FUSE: The Intersection of Art, Culture, and Innovation

SESSION EIGHT                            Schoonover Center 450

Chair:   Alterio Anthony

Courtney Koestler, Ph.D. & Catie Perez-Strohmeyer
1. In Community There is Power: Creating Justice-Oriented Art for Social Change

SESSION NINE                                        Putnam Hall 134 

Chair:   Travis Gatling

Nii - Yete Yartey and Alidu Al-hassan
1. Discover the Rhythms of Northern Ghana: A Workshop with the Dagbamba

SESSION TEN                                               Putnam Hall 134 

Chair: Hunter-Valentine

Qais Assali 
1. Branding Conflict: Critical Ikebana and Live Art as Pedagogical Resistance

SESSION ELEVEN                                       Putnam Hall 134    

Chair: Hunter-Valentine & Travis Gatling     

Ishmael Konney 
2. Afrodance is the dance, Afrobeats is the music

SESSION TWELVE                                     Putnam Hall 231      

Chair: Tresa Randall

Angela Meleca                                     
3. Return on Art™: Measuring Human Transformation through Creativity and Cultural Engagement.

SESSION THIRTEEN                                    Putnam Hall 335   

Chair: Christi Camper Moore                    

Dr. Kofi Anthonio and Patience Nana Akua Anthonio
4. Vocalising Rhythms, Textualising Tradition: Innovative Approaches to Teaching African Traditional Dance”