Speakers

Awam Amkpa is Dean of Arts and Humanities at NYU Abu Dhabi. Amkpa is an accomplished and world-renowned theater scholar and practitioner-director, playwright and actor, filmmaker, and curator of visual and performing arts. He is a professor of Drama and Cultural Theory at the departments of Drama, Tisch School of the Arts, and Social and Cultural Analysis, Faculty of Arts and Sciences at New York University.

Before coming to NYU, Amkpa was a Senior Lecturer of Drama and Television at King Alfred’s University College in Winchester, England and Assistant Professor of Theater Arts at Mount Holyoke College.

He is the author of Theatre and Postcolonial Desires (Routledge, 2003), and Archetypes, Stereotypes and Polytypes: Theatres of the Black Atlantic. Additionally, he was the director of film documentaries including Winds against Our Souls, It’s All About Downtown, National Images and Transnational Desires, and feature film Wazobia!, as well as the author of art catalogs, several articles in books and journals on modernisms in theater, postcolonial theater, Black Atlantic studies, and film studies.

As an interdisciplinary artist and scholar, Amkpa continues to exhibit globally and present his multifaceted scholarship in venues across the world.

Amkpa has BA in Dramatic Arts from Obafemi Awolowo University, Nigeria. He received an MA in Drama from Ahmadu Bello University in Nigeria. Amkpa completed his PhD in Drama at the University of Bristol in the UK.

Dr. Lisa Coleman serves as NYU's inaugural SVP for Inclusion and Strategic Innovation, where she works to advance, promote, build capacity, and align strategic global diversity, equity, inclusion, access, belonging, and innovation initiatives across the NYU global network, including NYU Abu Dhabi, NYU Shanghai, and other sites . Dr Coleman is also a faculty member with the NYU Stern School of Business.  Prior to NYU, Dr Coleman served as the first Special Assistant to the President and Chief Diversity Officer at Harvard University, where she and her team developed some of the first initiatives focused on the intersections of art, technology, disability, and access. 

Dr Coleman has worked and consulted C-Suite leaders globally across sectors. Her work is centered on cultivating cross-sector inclusive leadership and board engagement; innovation in arts and technology; emerging generations, sectors, and the future of work; and other initiatives to leverage diverse cultures globally. She is the recipient of numerous awards, recognitions, and honors, and she also sits on various national and international boards. 

An interdisciplinary scholar, Dr Coleman earned a doctorate in Social and Cultural Analysis and American Studies from NYU, and three master’s degrees. She also holds certificates focusing on legal theory, intercultural and organizational development, and computer science. Dr Coleman is an avid photographer, film buff, gardener, and cook, and is (very) slowly learning how to fly planes.

Julie Mostov joined NYU in August 2017 as the first woman dean of Liberal Studies, bringing years of experience in global engagement, deep grounding in the liberal arts, and a commitment to interdisciplinary research and teaching. In addition to her many scholarly achievements, Dr Mostov spearheaded a wide range of global initiatives and international research and academic partnerships for Drexel University as Senior Vice Provost of Global Initiatives and Professor of Politics and, earlier, as Director of International Area Studies and Women’s Studies. She has also been a long-time member of the University of Bologna’s Network on Europe and the Balkans and a regular visiting professor in its graduate programs.

A political theorist by training, Dean Mostov is a well-known scholar on Southeastern Europe. Her research explores notions of soft borders and transnational citizenship, and focuses on the politics of national identity, sovereignty, citizenship, and gender. Publications related to these themes include her book Soft Borders: Rethinking Sovereignty and Democracy; the co-edited volume, From Gender to Nation; and book chapters such as “Soft Borders and Transnational Citizens” and “‘Our Women’/’Their Women’: Symbolic Boundaries, Territorial Markers, and Violence in the Balkans,” and thought pieces such as “Populism is always Gendered and Dangerous for Women and Democracy.” She has presented her interdisciplinary research with a focus on Southeastern Europe at universities and conferences in many parts of the globe. She served as a consultant for both the US and the EU during the breakdown of Yugoslavia and designed and implemented State Department grants in support of democratic transitions and women’s leadership in Eastern Europe and the Balkans. Her earlier scholarship in democratic theory includes such works as Power, Process, and Popular Sovereignty, “Endangered Citizenship,” and “Democracy and the Politics of National Identity.” In addition to her academic engagement, Dean Mostov has been a long-time activist and advocate for women’s rights, serving - among other roles - as Chair of the Board of Women Against Abuse, Pennsylvania’s largest agency addressing domestic and intimate partner violence. She is the recipient of major awards for her advocacy to end gender-based violence from Women Against Abuse and Women’s Way.