Zena Bibler is an artist-scholar working at the intersection of dance studies, choreography, and social practice. As an educator, Zena specializes in integrating “critical moving” as an essential part of critical thinking. She has been recognized by the UCLA Distinguished Teaching Award and Collegium of University Teaching Fellows, and was named a Champion for Student Success at the University of Iowa. In her technique classes, she is currently developing an approach to floorwork and partnering techniques informed by contact improvisation, capoeira, release technique, partnered social dances, and consent and care practices. Zena’s current scholarship examines how dancers cultivate specialized modes of attention as part of their technical training, choreography, and social activism.

Andrew Casto has exhibited work internationally in Spain, Croatia, Italy, Austria, Slovenia, Belgium, New Zealand, China, Switzerland, France, England, and Japan. He was a recipient of the Emerging Artist award by the National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts, a long-term resident at The Archie Bray Foundation, as well as a finalist for the Young Masters Maylis Grand Ceramics Prize in London. Casto has exhibited in over ninety group and solo exhibitions, and is currently professor and director of the School of Art, Art History, and Design at the University of Iowa. 

Emerson Cram brings expertise in frameworks of critical environmental justice that center recursive relationships between race, disability, sexuality and the environment. Their first book, Violent Inheritance: Sexuality, Land, and Energy in Making the North American West (University of California Press, 2022) examines the history of sexuality in the US as a story about energy to contextualize the regenerative and land-based practice of queer ecology today. Written for scholars in queer studies and the environmental/energy humanities, this book highlights how various regional communities engage cultural and environmental legacies of harm to reimagine violent ecologies through practices of care, healing, and regeneration. Violent Inheritance is the awardee of the Rhetoric Society of America’s 2023 Book Award, and the National Communication Association’s 2023 GLBTQ Communication Studies Division Book Award. 

Jacqueline Dowling models energy systems to guide the global transition to clean energy. Her research program analyzes natural resource constraints, guides technology innovation, and targets decarbonization solutions. Jackie integrates weather data into macro-energy system models to inform reliable infrastructure planning and technology development. Recent focus areas include long-duration energy storage and clean heat. Her dissertation combined techno-economic analysis with materials chemistry to assess the value of diverse energy storage and conversion technologies in wind- and solar-based electricity systems. Jackie earned a PhD in chemistry with a minor in environmental science and engineering from Caltech and was a Stanford Energy Postdoctoral Fellow. Her research on long-duration energy storage has been cited by major utilities and in decarbonization plans at the international, national, and state levels.

Jane Nachtman received her PhD from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1997, followed by a postdoc at UCLA under Professor David Saltzberg. In 2002, she joined Fermilab as an associate scientist, ultimately becoming a Scientist I before joining the University of Iowa in 2007. Professor Nachtman's research is in elementary particle physics, specifically neutrino experiments DUNE, NOvA, and Eos, as well as continuing analysis of CMS data.

Tyler Priest earned a PhD in History from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1996. He came to the University of Iowa in 2012, after eight years as Director of Global Studies at the C.T. Bauer College of Business, University of Houston. His primary research interests are in the history of oil, energy, energy policy, technology, business, and globalization, as well as public history.