Alumni

Ida Aronson Multidisciplinary Artist, 2022-23, Louisiana Ida Aronson (they/them) is an activist, theatre maker, herbalism student, cultural apprentice, and active member of the United Houma Nation. Their activism is informed by their multiple identities and first found form in the theatre, where they have worked to…
Zeelie Brown Multidisciplinary Artist, 2023, New York and Alabama Zeelie Brown’s first art museum was the pine woods in Alabama. They make Black&queer wilderness refuges called “soulscapes” to (re)imagine what nature might be. Zeelie is currently working with the MIT Department of Architecture, NOMAS, and Group Project to create sustainable human waste…
Simi Kang Interdisciplinary Artist, 2022-23, Canada Simi Kang is a mixed Sikh American community advocate, educator, artist, and scholar. Their work centers Asian American collaborative resistance as a site for imagining environmentally and economically just futures in Southeast Louisiana. In collaboration with a Vietnamese and Cambodian…
Rachel Lin Weaver Interdisciplinary Artist, 2023, Virginia Rachel Lin Weaver is an artist whose work spans video, installation, sculpture, and performance. Weaver’s creative interests relate directly to an upbringing in rural Alaska and West Virginia, and their projects explore intersectional identity, queer/trans embodiment, memory, and interdependence. They…
Nailah Jefferson & Laurie Sumiye Filmaker & Conceptual Artist, 2022-23, Louisiana & Hawaii With nature as their guide, a New Orleans-born filmmaker and Hawaii-born artist from two different tourist-driven, coastal economies grappling with climate-caused sea rise explore the historical effects invasive species have on fragile native ecosystems and relate it to the growing…
Quintron & Miss Pussycat Performing Artists, 2023, Louisiana Quintron and Miss Pussycat will create a live puppet show about extreme weather events, which will utilize a “Wildlife Organ” built and installed by Quintron at A Studio in the Woods. The Wildlife Organ is envisioned as a musical instrument…
Niki Franco Multidisciplinary Artist, 2023, Florida Niki Franco is a Caribbean abolitionist community organizer, writer, and facilitator of spaces for collective study. Seeking to disrupt the institutionalized bureaucratic frameworks of academia and transactional ways in which relationships exist under capitalism, her work experiments with truth-telling, radical…
Cory Diane Scholar, 2023, Louisiana Cory Diane is a composer, researcher, and MA Candidate in Music Composition at Tulane University. At A Studio in the Woods, they will continue work on a project that uses sound as a means for exploring the complex ecologies and…
Stephanie Felder Scholar, 2023, Lousiana Dr. Stephanie Felder is a Commander (CDR) in the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps. She serves as the Chief Licensed Clinical Social Worker within the Office of the Secretary (OS), Office of the Assistant Secretary (OASH), Office of Surgeon…
Indira Harris Scholar, 2023, Louisiana Dr. Indira Harris is an adjunct professor at Tulane University, Licensed Clinical Social Worker, and Board-Certified Diplomate, with over 20 years of clinical, management, and leadership experience in various behavioral health settings in the State of Florida and the US…
Michelle Foa Scholar, 2023, Louisiana Michelle Foa is Associate Professor of European art of the eighteenth through the early twentieth centuries in the Newcomb Art Department at Tulane, with a particular focus on nineteenth-century French art, visual and material culture, and criticism. She is currently…
Guadalupe García Scholar, 2023, Louisiana Guadalupe García specializes in the history of cities and colonialism in Latin America and the Caribbean. Her research examines the intersections of colonialism, empire, and urban space and focuses on free, black, and enslaved peoples in Havana. Her work has…
Jerome Dent Scholar, 2023, Louisiana Jerome Dent is an assistant professor at Tulane University, jointly appointed in the departments of Communication and Africana Studies. His research interests include film, genre, sexuality, race, psychoanalysis, and gender. While working in the Woods, he will draft his book…
Stephanie Porras Scholar, 2023, Louisiana Stephanie Porras is an art historian of the early modern period, ca. 1400-1700. In the Woods, she will be editing and working on the Introduction to the 2023 volume of the Netherlandish Yearbook for the History of Art (NKJ), on…
Leslie Haas Scholar, 2023, Louisiana Leslie Haas’ experience in literacy education includes teaching at the K-12, undergraduate, and graduate levels. Additional experiences include instructional coaching, professional development, curriculum design, and department administration. Opportunities in highly diverse settings have acted as both a catalyst and foundation…
Jason S. Todd Scholar, 2023, Louisiana Dr. Jason S. Todd is an Associate Professor of English at Xavier University of Louisiana. He received his Ph.D. from the Center for Writers at the University of Southern Mississippi in 2006. His fiction has appeared in a variety of…
Lisa Calvente Scholar, 2023, North Carolina Dr. Calvente’s primary areas of research are Black Studies, Performance Studies, and Cultural Studies. Her interests lie in the critical interrogation of anti-black and brown racism and the experiences, representations, and theories of the Black Diaspora and coloniality. Her current…
John Lacarbiere III Multidisciplinary Artist, 2023, Louisiana John Lacarbiere III is an artist of many forms, including writing, spoken word, and photography. He has several books of poems and photography published as well as spoken word albums. He has most recently been spending time documenting Louisiana wildlife…
Walter Sandifer III New Orleans Masking Indian, 2023, Louisiana Walter Sandifer III is one of Louisiana’s most significant gems of culture here in New Orleans formerly known as Balbancha (the land of many tongues). Being born into the New Orleans masking tradition, Walter has been encouraged to create an opulent…
Akilah Toney Multidisciplinary Artist, 2023, Louisiana Akilah Toney is a 20-year-old published writer, poet, dancer, photographer, and youth advocate from New Orleans, Louisiana. In 2020 she graduated from the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts with a focus in creative writing. She currently attends Loyola University…
Sunni Patterson Poet/Multidisciplinary Artist, 2023, Louisiana Armed with an engaging story and voice, New Orleans native and visionary Sunni Patterson deliberately uses art, poetry, and praise (Ancestral veneration) to encourage dialogue, connectivity, spiritual awareness, and healing. She is an internationally acclaimed Poet, Performer, Workshop Facilitator, Certified…
Breah Broussard Visual Artist, 2023, Louisiana “My work is typically abstract and for the most part whatever comes to mind or whatever I feel. School has taught me how to get out of my comfort zone a little. I always drew things but more recently have…
Tia Green Visual Artist, 2023, Louisiana “I am a traditional artist more talented with sketching, shading, and watercolor. I am a huge nerd so I like a lot of things from books, movies, anime, video games, etc.” – Tia Green Tia is a student artist participant…
Olivia Johnson Performing Artist, 2023, Louisiana “I am a graduating senior at Dillard University. For the duration of my college career, I have majored in theatre performance. This includes acting as well as playwriting. In the Woods, I am interested in possibly writing and performing a…
Gabriel Prewitt Performing Artist, 2023, Louisiana Gabriel Prewitt is a Junior majoring in Theatre Arts with a concentration in Performance at Dillard University. They are originally from Columbus, Ohio. Gabriel began performing at a young age and has always loved the performing arts. Their goal has…
Robert Maupin, MD Scholar, 2023, Louisiana Dr. Robert Maupin has been a member of the Maternal-Fetal Medicine Division for over 20 years and holds appointments as Professor of Clinical Obstetrics & Gynecology, Endowed Warren C. Plauche’ Professor of Maternal-Fetal Medicine at the LSU Health Sciences Center…
Wowo Souakoli Performing Artist, 2023, Guinea Wowo Souakoli is a master of the Guinean guitar. His music is firmly based on the balafon, (Malinke xylophone) traditions that have been around since the thirteenth-century founding of the Mali empire. Souakoli’s use of a plectrum (pick) together with…
Brandon Ballengée Artist, biologist and educator, 2021-23, Louisiana A Studio in the Woods and Louisiana’s Plaquemines Parish Government will bring internationally recognized artist, biologist and educator Brandon Ballengée for a community-based residency with at risk Plaquemines Parish coastal communities. Through participatory art and science, Searching for Ghosts of…
Claire Alexandre Visual Artist, 2022, North Carolina Claire Alexandre is an intersectional artist and storyteller who weaves autobiographical reflections with ancestral knowledge while exploring larger themes of environmental, gender and racial justice. She seeks to deepen our collective understanding of Black community prosperity and its close ties…
Andrina Turenne Performing Artist, 2022, Canada Andrina Turenne used her residency to explore Indigenous and local perspectives on water, language and land through music. In addition to doing research, exploring geographic and cultural throughlines, and speaking with people on the land, she produced recordings and performances…
Virginia Hanusik Visual Artist, 2022, Louisiana While in residence, Virginia Hanusik worked on The Place We Keep, a series exploring the inequality of disaster relief and preservation in communities along the Gulf Coast experiencing the impacts of climate change through a compilation of photographs, oral histories,…
Desiree S. Evans Writer, 2021-22, Louisiana As the third Gulf South Writer in the Woods, Desiree S. Evans worked to complete a dystopian literary fantasy novel set hundreds of years into the future along what remains of the Gulf Coast. The novel tells the story of…
Udita Mukherjee Scholar, 2022, Louisiana Udita Mukherjee is a PhD candidate and Vokes Fellow in the Earth and Environmental Sciences department at Tulane University. She is a geologist interested in understanding how sea level has changed in the past, and the effect these changes have…
Thomas Sherry Scholar, 2022, Louisiana Thomas Sherry has taught at Tulane since Spring 1989, after extensive studies at Dartmouth College (undergraduate, MS degree, and post-doc) and UCLA (Ph.D. dissertation). He is married with two grown children, and enjoys gardening, watching birds, hiking and camping, cooking,…
Rachel Stein Scholar, 2022, Louisiana Rachel Stein is Research & Instruction Librarian at The Latin American Library at Tulane University. She holds a Ph.D. in Latin American and Iberian Cultures from Columbia University. Her research explores the intersections of early modern publishing and the transoceanic…
Ned Randolph Scholar, 2022, Louisiana A former journalist and speechwriter for the mayor of New Orleans, Ned Randolph investigates intersections of power, social justice, and the environment, particularly in the Gulf South. He received his PhD in Communication from the University of California San Diego…
Serena Chaudhry Scholar, 2022, Louisiana Dr. Serena Chaudhry is a social worker and Associate Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Tulane and the Clinical Director of the Early Psychosis Intervention Clinic. Her professional interests focus on chronic mental illness and forced…
Leslie Scott Scholar and Performing Artist, 2022, Louisiana Leslie Scott is a researcher of movement in the studio, classroom, screen, and sidewalk. She is an Assistant Professor of Dance and New Media at Tulane University and the founder and Artistic Director of BODYART (www.bodyartdance.com) a multi-media contemporary dance…
Robin Runia Scholar, 2022, Louisiana Robin Runia is Associate Professor of English at Xavier University of Louisiana. She has published extensively on women’s writing of the eighteenth century. She used her time in the woods to examine representations of reading and friendship in women writers…
Daniella Mascarenhas Scholar, 2022, Louisiana Dr. Daniella Mascarenhas is an assistant professor of political science at Xavier University of Louisiana. Her research focuses on the political theory of punishment and civic education especially exploring these questions through the “Liberalism and Its Critics” movement within the…
Jose Cotto Visual Artist, 2022, Louisiana Jose Cotto was born and raised in Great Brook Valley, a housing project in Worcester, Massachusetts and has called New Orleans home since 2012. The son of a single mother raising four kids, he often found himself being pulled between…
Gypsi Lewis Multidisciplinary Artist, 2022, Louisiana C. Gypsi Lewis (she/they) is a Black and Brown queer femme born in New Orleans, Louisiana (Bulbancha) of the Lewis, Thomas, Miller, (de)Leon, Ruiz, and Baham families. Their praxis include installation art, small batch herbal skincare goods, full spectrum birth…
Mwende “FreeQuency” Katwiwa Anti-Disciplinary Artist, 2022, Louisiana Mwende “FreeQuency” Katwiwa is a Kenyan, Immigrant, Shoga|Queer storyteller, speaker & feeler. The 2018 Women of the World Poetry Slam Champion, a 2017 TEDWomen speaker and ranked 3rd at the 2015 Individual World Poetry Slam, FreeQuency is a highly sought…
Alex Sorapuru Visual Artist, 2022, Louisiana Alex Sorapuru’s early passion for creating was fostered while taking in the diverse architecture and color growing up in New Orleans. He began to explore painting during his years at LSU Architecture. Centered around abstract portraits, his work aims to…
Donald Lewis Jr. Performing Artist, 2022, Louisiana Donald Lewis Jr. is a graduate of NOCCA and studied theater at the College of Santa Fe, NM and University of New Orleans. He currently teaches Gifted and Talented Theater in New Orleans Public Schools. He has worked with Edward…
Hongwei Thorn Chen Scholar, 2022, Louisiana Hongwei Thorn Chen is a scholar of Chinese and East Asian film and media cultures. Chen’s research is interested in how institutions attempt to govern with technological media, and how media, in turn, trigger crises of governmental reason. During his…
Quiana Lynell Performing Artist, 2022, Louisiana Growing up in small town West Texas, Quiana Lynell grew her appreciation for all types of music and quickly realized music was a way to connect to the world. With a smile that will entrance you and a voice that…
Kristi L. Anderson, Ph.D. Scholar, 2022, Louisiana Kristi L. Anderson, Ph.D., currently serves as an Assistant Professor of Research for the Department of Medicine, School of Medicine, LSU Health Sciences Center, Lafayette LA Campus. In her role, she provides oversight of the accreditation of graduate medical education…
Karen Grant-Anderson Performing Artist, 2022, Louisiana Karen Grant-Anderson has been singing “Since the womb!” She has also been writing her own lyrics for many years. A New Orleans native, the youngest of six children, Karen was raised by her aunt after her mother died when she…
Zaria Ivory Performing Artist, 2022, Louisiana Zaria Ivory is a Vocal performance major at Dillard University originally from Oakland, California. Music has played a vital role in her life from the moment it started. Like her mother likes to tell it, she was singing before she…
William Shelton Literary Artist, 2022, Louisiana William Shelton joins A Studio in the Woods in the final year of his undergraduate studies at Dillard University. William is an English major, hailing from Nashville, TN, and has a passion for creative writing—specifically playwriting, short stories, and poetry.…
Nailah Starks Literary Artist, 2022, Louisiana Nailah Starks is a junior English major from Amite, Louisiana. She chose Dillard University for its appreciation and culture of the humanities. Nailah decided to pursue English because she has always had a passion for teaching, reading, and writing. When…
Abbee Warmboe Theater Artist, 2022, Minnesota Abbee Warmboe is a props designer based in Minneapolis. She has been freelancing throughout the Twin Cities for the past 10 years, working on over 200 productions with 36 different companies. Most recently her work could be seen at Theater…
Hye Sea Visual Artist, 2022, Maryland Hye Sea is an artist, alchemist, and a steward of the earth. Hye Sea’s residency project will focus on documenting the stories of those who are devoted to being stewards of the land and earth. She will create a solar-engraved…
Megan Faust Scholar, 2022, Louisiana Megan Faust is a PhD candidate in the City, Culture, and Community Program’s Urban Studies track at Tulane University, studying the intersection of race and space. Her dissertation work seeks to articulate how racial trauma becomes emplaced as well as…
Devin Wright Scholar, 2022, Louisiana Devin Wright is in the interdisciplinary City, Culture, and Community PhD program at Tulane University. Her research revolves around critically understanding the material and symbolic relationships between climate, (urban/peri-urban) environment, social structure (particularly gender), and everyday lived experience. She employs…
Marko Salvaggio Scholar, 2022, Louisiana Marko Salvaggio is an environmental sociologist and Visiting Assistant Professor of Sociology in the Department of Sociology at Tulane University. He also teaches social sciences courses for Tulane’s School of Professional Advancement. Prior to Tulane, he was Assistant Professor of…
Torbjorn Tornqvist Scholar, 2022, Louisiana Torbjorn Tornqvist is an environmental scientist whose research is heavily focused on coastal Louisiana. Among others, he studies sea-level change, land subsidence, and coastal evolution with the goal of better predicting the future of this region as well as similar…
Felipe Cruz Scholar, 2022, Louisiana Felipe Cruz is a historian of technology whose research focuses on the relationship between technology and culture, as well as an avid developer in methods and tools for the digital humanities. He recently completed a book manuscript titled “Flight of…
CC Molaison Scholar, 2022, Louisiana CC was born and raised in New Orleans. Her paternal grandfather’s family has lived in Algiers for eight generations, and her grandmother’s family is from Panama. Her mother’s family lives at the other end of the Mississippi River, in Minnesota.…
Zandashé Brown Filmmaker, 2022, Louisiana Based in New Orleans, Zandashé Brown is a writer/director born-and-bred in and inspired by southern Louisiana. Her work raises a Black femme lens to the tradition of southern gothic horror by exploring the axis of catharsis, spirituality, and Black southern…
Nia DeCoux Writer, Educator, and Activist, 2022, Louisiana Nia DeCoux (she/her) is a writer, educator, and activist who believes that storytelling and teaching should be the same practice. Her work has been honored by the National Foundation for Advancement in the Arts and the National Black Arts Festival.…
Kenniese S. Franklin Multidisciplinary Artist, 2022, Louisiana Kenniese S. Franklin is a Denver-born, New Orleans-based writer, designer, sculptor and quantum traveler with roots spread through the Great Plains, Southern Appalachia and the Atlantic South. At age 19, she left home to attend Florida A&M University, arriving as…
Karen-Kaia Livers Performing Artist, 2022, Louisiana Karen-Kaia Livers is a native New Orleanian. For the past 45 years, she’s appeared on stage and in films. Most recently, she was nominated for Best Actress at the Tribeca Film Festival for starring in the film Burning Cane. Karen’s…
Endaira Rellek Multidisciplinary Artist, 2022, Louisiana Endaira Rellek, aka Ariadne M. Keller, is an emerging, ancestrally gifted artist whose heritage is deeply rooted in Southern Louisiana. She learned to see the beauty in nature while spending time with her paternal grandmother, Jessie Mae Boudoin Keller, in…
Gian Smith Multidisciplinary Artist, 2022, Louisiana Gian Smith is a New Orleans-based, multidisciplinary artist and community organizer. In Spring 2011 Gian was featured on NPR’s Weekend Edition following a successful run of several commercials featuring his original poetry on HBO’s “Treme.” Smith has continued his spoken word through…
Karen E Goulet Visual Artist, 2021, Minnesota Karen E Goulet, White Earth Ojibwe Nation/Métis – Artist, writer, community organizer, educator, daughter, mother, sister Karen E Goulet is an enrolled member of the White Earth Ojibwe Nation. She is also from Métis, Saami, and Finnish people. She was…
Kristina Kay Robinson Literary Artist, 2021, Louisiana Kristina Kay Robinson is a writer, curator, and visual artist born and raised in New Orleans, Louisiana. Her ongoing installation and performance art project, Republica: Temple of Color and Sound has been presented in exhibition at “Welcome to the Afrofuture”…
Sidiki Conde Performing Artist, 2021 and 2023, New York Sidiki Conde used his residency to immerse himself in the culture, nature and music of the region and compose a series of songs about climate change. Sidiki collaborated with Dr. Michael White for a performance and panel on music of…
Lisa E. Harris Interdisciplinary Artist, 2021-22, Texas Lisa E. Harris’ residency supported the regional development of an international research project, ONSHORE TRILLING: What to Do When the Earth Sings the Bruise, by affording opportunities for mutual creative exchange between Harris and the Women of Cancer Alley and…
LaChaun Moore Visual Artist, 2021, South Carolina LaChaun Moore created an agriculturally-based installation titled Heirloom utilizing heirloom plants as a catalyst to talk about the historical context of the natural environment and how that differs from ancestral and familial ties. LaChaun Moore is an interdisciplinary artist who…
Lydia Y. Nichols Literary Artist, 2020-21, Louisiana Lydia Y. Nichols worked on a speculative dark comedy stage play titled Don’t Look Away, set at the turn of the 22nd century in a post-reparations Gulf South, following a climate event that results in the disappearance of New Orleans.…
J.M. Nimocks Anti-Disciplinary Artist, 2021, Illinois J.M. Nimocks (SWAMP XADDiii) is the descendant of survivors of the transatlantic slave trade and Choctaw Native Americans who settled in Meridian and Sunflower, Mississippi before migrating to the midwest. They are an anti-disciplinary artist and scholar who is most…
Wendy Gaudin Literary Artist, 2021, Louisiana Wendy Gaudin is an essayist, a beadworker, a poet, an American historian, and the proud descendant of Louisiana Creoles who migrated to California. Her nonfiction writing delves into the themes of race and belonging, skin color and ancestry, colonialism and…
Ra Malika Imhotep Literary Artist, 2021, Louisiana Ra Malika Imhotep is a Black feminist writer and performance artist from Atlanta, Georgia deeply invested in Black storytellin’ practices and the ways our bodies make sense of language. As co-convener of an embodied spiritual-political education project called The Church…
Alexander Burin Scholar, 2021, Louisiana A professor in the School of Science and Engineering, Alexander Burin’s research is in three areas of theoretical physical chemistry. The first area involves collaborative investigation of charge and exciton transport in DNA affected by the environment (solvent), charge-induced molecular…
Christopher Dunn Scholar, 2021, Louisiana Christopher Dunn received his Ph.D. in Luso-Brazilian Studies from Brown University in 1996, the same year he joined the Department of Spanish and Portuguese at Tulane University. He holds a joint appointment with the African and African Diaspora Studies Program…
Loren Gragert Scholar, 2021, Louisiana An Assistant Professor in the School of Medicine, Dr. Loren Gragert received his PhD in Biomedical Informatics and Computational Biology from the University of Minnesota in 2014. He was a bioinformatics scientist at National Marrow Donor Program / Be The…
Ann Yoachim Scholar, 2021, Louisiana Ann Yoachim is a Professor of Practice at the Tulane School of Architecture and the Director of the Albert and Tina Small Center for Collaborative Design. Her research and practice focusses on the intersections of built, natural, and socially constructed…
Mia L. Bagneris Scholar, 2021, Louisiana Associate Professor Mia L. Bagneris teaches African diaspora art history and studies of race in Western Art. She is also Director of the Africana Studies Program. Concentrating primarily on eighteenth- and nineteenth-century British and American art and visual culture, much…
Michelle Kohler Scholar, 2021, Louisiana Michelle Kohler is an Associate Professor of English with research and teaching interests in 19th-century American literature, poetry and poetics, and environmental studies. She is author of Miles of Stare: Transcendentalism and the Problem of Literary Vision in Nineteenth-Century America…
Ross Louis Scholar, 2021, Louisiana Ross Louis is a performance scholar/artist who works as a Professor of Performance Studies and co-director of the Performance Studies Lab at Xavier University of Louisiana. In 2019, he was a faculty in residence at the Université de Lyon 3…
Anya Groner Literary Artist, 2021, Louisiana Anya Groner used her residency to continue work on a novel. Set in Louisiana between 1911-1927, the narrative follows Simone Walsh, an Irish-American teenager living in New Orleans who is diagnosed with leprosy and sent upriver to Carville, Louisiana, to…
Jarrell Hamilton Performing Artist, 2021, Louisiana Jarrell Hamilton is a Mother, Choreographer, Actress, Singer, Dancer, Educator and Film Director. A graduate of Tulane University Theatre and Dance Department Master of Fine Arts Interdisciplinary Dance Program (Choreography and African-American Studies) and Southern Methodist University in Dallas, TX,…
Kina B. Joshua Radical Healer, 2021, Louisiana “Throughout my life, I have been attuned to the vibrant signals our bodies express, and the ways those expressions can guide us to create a fulfilling partnership with ourselves. From a very early age, I learned about the body by…
MILAGROS Visual Artists, 2021, Louisiana During their residency, MILAGROS focused on the development of their “Crud Buddies” project. Crud Buddies are cute, adoptable pets made from ocean-bound foam fished out of the Mississippi River and given new life through artistic intervention. Their residency helped facilitate…
Yudith Azareth Nieto Multidiscipliary Artist and Organizer, 2021-22, Lousiana Yudith Azareth Nieto is a two spirited (queer) Mexican-American environmental justice organizer, language justice worker, and multidisciplinary artist based in the Gulf South. She is a cofounder of BanchaLenguas Language Justice Collective in Bvlbancha (New Orleans,LA) and part of the…
Sacoby Wilson Scholar, 2021, Maryland Dr. Sacoby Wilson is an environmental health scientist with over 15 years of experience in the areas of exposure science, environmental justice, environmental health disparities, community-engaged research including crowd science and community-based participatory research (CBPR), water quality analysis, air pollution…
Hildevert Promesse Lafeuille Filmmaker, 2021, Louisiana Hildevert Promesse Lafeuille was born in Africa and raised in San Antonio, Texas. He is a young passionate filmmaker with a vision. In his junior year of high school he started taking film seriously and decided to follow it as…
Aaliyah Arnold Visual Artist, 2021, Louisiana “My name is Aaliyah Arnold, I am a 20 year old photographer and printmaker from Jeanerette, Louisiana. My inspiration for my art has always been the raw and unfiltered world, and life experiences. My love for art started like many…
Jermaine Robinson Visual Artist, 2021, Louisiana “My name is Jermaine Robinson, I go by the name of the ART HSTLR, I am a 22 year old acrylic painter from New Orleans, LA. Growing up in New Orleans, a city full of creatives, culture, art in all…
Juwan Saint Charles Filmmaker, 2021, Louisiana Juwan Saint Charles is a filmmaker and student artist participant in Inspiring Health Justice: A Collaborative Art-Science Scholar-in-Residence Program.
Emily Elizabeth Thompson Scholar, 2021, Louisiana Emily recently completed a BA from Tulane University in English. Her work includes a personal essay called “Pretty Weird,” which was published in Ink in 2017, and a short story collection called Ugly Good, which won A Studio in the…
Jabari Brown, Kevin Connell, Jeanne Firth and Theo Hilton Scholars, 2021, Louisiana Jabari Brown, Kevin Connell, Jeanne Firth, and Theo Hilton are scholars, farmers, food activists, and educators who have been co-creating work under the broad theme of the History of the Land. Inspired by the “History of the Land” workshop at…
Daniel B. Sharp Scholar, 2021, Louisiana Daniel B. Sharp is a music and sound scholar trained in ethnomusicology who focuses on popular and experimental music in the Americas. He is Associate Professor and Chair of Music at Tulane University, jointly appointed in Latin American Studies. His…
Eric Herhuth Scholar, 2021, Louisiana Eric Herhuth is Assistant Professor of Communication and Director of Film Studies at Tulane University. His research areas include animation and film studies, aesthetics and politics, and media and film theory. He has published in the Quarterly Review of Film…
Bill Summers Performing Artist, 2021, Louisiana To say that Bill Summers is a percussionist is like saying a Steinway is a piano: The noun conveys none of the history and quality of the owner of the title. Summers is a musician of the highest order, playing…
Sabine McCalla Performing Artist, 2021, Louisiana Throughout the first year of the pandemic, Sabine McCalla, like many of us, found herself deeply isolated from friends and family. She wrote songs that spoke of that loneliness, grounding herself in her environment and space in time. Using the…
Sha’Condria “iCon” Sices-Sibley Multidisciplinary Artist, 2021, Louisiana Sha’Condria (“iCon”) Sices-Sibley is an Alexandria, Louisiana native and longtime New Orleans-based poet and artist of many mediums whose work spans across visual art, theater, music, and film. A multiple-time national poetry slam champion, iCon travels the country performing, including…
Nikkisha K. Napoleon Literary Artist and Scholar, 2021, Louisiana Nikkisha K. Napoleon is a poet, essayist, and scholar. Affectionately known as Momma Nikki, she is a 2008 graduate of Southern University at New Orleans, where she earned a dual Bachelor of Science in English and History. She is a…
TINYisPOWERFUL: Victoria Moore, Gwylene Gallimard, and Rayn Rainey Social Practice, 2021, South Carolina TINYisPOWERFUL is a creative place online, a community hub and an interracial, intergenerational collective effort linking artists, cultural workers, youth and tiny business partners to support and promote TINY BUSINESS as a vital part of neighborhood and commerce. In the fall of…
Pippin Frisbie-Calder Visual Artist, 2015 and 2020, Louisiana During her 2016 Filnt and Steel Residency with Tim McLean, Pippin Frisbie-Calder rendered microscopic phytoplankton in large-scale prints and real-time projections to demonstrate their importance and build awareness of wetland microorganisms in our ecology. Spending hours canoeing and collecting phytoplankton…
Jeffery Darensbourg Literary Artist, 2020, Louisiana Jeffery Darensbourg is interested in the knowledge of flora, fauna, and people his Atakapa-Ishak ancestors carried with them and wishes to connect this sort of Louisiana-specific knowledge to the knowledge urban Natives such as himself have in negotiating Indigeneity, within…
Nick Slie Performing Artist, 2020, Louisiana While in residence, Nick embarked on “Invisible Rivers,” a series of performances and public walks that seek to re-engage citizens with the wisdom of adaptation and uncertainty inherent in the once wild paths of the Mississippi River. “Invisible Rivers” unites…
Dovile Vilda Scholar, 2020, Louisiana Dovile Vilda’s academic and research background is in social policy analysis and child/youth research, and her current work examines the role of state-level policies and other social determinants on maternal and child health. She received a Ph.D. in Child &…
José Sánchez Vera Scholar, 2020, Louisiana José Sánchez Vera is a Ph.D. Candidate at Tulane University’s Spanish and Portuguese Department. His research focuses on contemporary Mexican and Central American Literature taking the interdisciplinary point of view of ecocriticism. His dissertation explores how Mexico City’s ecological crisis…
AnnieLaurie Erickson Visual Artist and Scholar, 2020, Lousiana AnnieLaurie Erickson is an Associate Professor and the head of photography in the Newcomb Art Department of Tulane. Her work explores how science can combine with artistic creation to probe social and environmental issues in the Gulf South through the…
Jenny Mercein Scholar, 2020, Louisiana Jenny Mercein is an actor, teacher, writer, and director. A member of Actors Equity Association and SAG-AFTRA, Jenny’s acting credits span theater, film, and television. Along with KJ Sanchez, Jenny is the co-creator of the acclaimed docudrama X’s and O’s…
Tiona Nekkia McClodden Visual Artist, 2020, Pennsylvania Tiona Nekkia McClodden [she/her] is a visual artist, filmmaker, and curator whose work often employs a citational practice exploring and critiquing issues at the intersections of race, gender, sexuality, and social commentary. Her interdisciplinary approach traverses documentary film, experimental video,…
Benjamin Aleshire Literary Artist, 2020, Louisiana Benjamin Aleshire is a poet who for many years has made a living by composing poems for strangers on a manual typewriter – on Royal Street in the French Quarter, as well as in Paris, Havana, Madrid, New York, London,…
Saheli Khastagir Literary Artist, 2020, Louisiana Saheli Khastagir is a painter, writer & development professional from India, living in New Orleans. One third of her days are spent providing professional service in monitoring and evaluation, technical writing and research for programs spanning gender, education, health, labor,…
Su Prevost Literary Artist, 2020, Louisiana Su Prevost is a climate activist, teacher, writer, and South Louisiana water baby whose creative writing process incorporates nature’s turmoil, subtleties, and all the beauty of home into narratives that highlight her formative challenges for survival. She utilizes regional and…
Leon August Waters Literary Artist, 2020, Louisiana Leon August Waters is a New Orleans native, historian, publisher and social activist. Waters attended Xavier University for Business Administration and graduated from St. Augustine High School. He serves as the Board Chairperson of the Louisiana Museum of African American History…
Robin Bartram Scholar, 2020, Louisiana Robin Bartram is an Assistant Professor of Sociology at Tulane University. Bartram’s research focuses on cities, regulations, housing, and inequality. While in residence she worked on a book manuscript, Cities of Stacked Decks: Code Enforcement, Inequality, and Frontline Justice which…
Arianna King Scholar, 2020, Louisiana Arianna King is an RPCV, recent Fulbright alumna, and current doctoral candidate in Tulane’s interdisciplinary City, Culture, and Community Doctoral Program. She has recently returned from a year of ethnographic fieldwork in Cape Coast, Ghana and used her time at…
Haley Peele Scholar, 2020, Louisiana Haley Peele, M.A., M.S. is a doctoral student in school psychology at Tulane University. Her research interests include social justice oriented, strengths based interventions to disrupt the disproportionate discipline and incarceration of Black individuals and improve familial relationships. She recently…
Laura Rosanne Adderley Scholar, 2020, Louisiana An Associate Professor of history in the School of Liberal Arts, Laura Rosanne Adderley is primarily a historian of Black experience in the Americas during the years of slavery, but is also broadly interested in African-American history, Caribbean history and…
Andrew McDowell Scholar, 2020, Louisiana An Assistant Professor in the School of Liberal Arts, Andrew McDowell is a medical anthropologist specializing in the social worlds of tuberculosis (TB) and TB care in India. His project combines an interest in entanglements of social, bacterial, and technical…
Larkin Page Scholar, 2020, Louisiana Dr. Larkin Page, Associate Professor/Researcher, Division of Education-Xavier University of Louisiana, holds a Ph.D. in Reading/Literacy. He is a former elementary school teacher in diverse urban settings. These experiences contribute to his research interests that in the context of Literacy/Reading…
Riley Moran Scholar, 2020, Louisiana Riley Moran is a Floridian, a student at Tulane University, and the recipient of the 2020-21 English Department Graduating Senior Retreat at A Studio in the Woods. Her senior thesis is on the subversive political strategies of women writing the…
David L. Harris Performing Artist, 2020, Louisiana David L. Harris is lyricist, vocalist, trombonist, composer and arranger. Harris embodies the edge of modern jazz and the sultriness of blues taking his audiences on an emotionally engaging journey of love and liberation, wrapped in a sound that embraces…
Christine “Cfreedom” Brown Visual Artist, 2020, Louisiana Christine Brown (aka Cfreedom) is a New Orleans artist, activist, and entrepreneur. Her instagram bio reads “a Nola-based, international, universal, queen-yeyo, photographer-filmmaker kickin in the door for young black women in film and photography to come through 2”. She is…
Greer Mendy Literary and Performing Artist, 2020, Louisiana Greer Mendy founded and directs Tekrema Center for Art and Culture, a cultural arts organization dedicated to the maintenance, development and perseverance of African and African Diaspora art and culture. She is an independent scholar of African, Caribbean, and Louisiana…
Ash Arder Transdisciplinary Artist, 2019, Michigan Ash Arder is a transdisciplinary artist who creates idea and object-based systems for interpreting and re-imagining interspecies relations (i.e. relations between humans and plants). This highly flexible, research-based approach examines these relationships primarily through pop culture and historic lenses. Arder’s…
Geraldine Laurendeau Multidisciplinary Artist, 2019, Canada Geraldine Laurendeau is a multidisciplinary artist from Montreal (Canada). She has a background in Fine Arts, Landscape Architecture and Environmental Studies. She’s also a trained ethnologist and collaborates with First Nations, museums and research institutions as an independent curator, designer…
Hannah Pepper-Cunningham Performing Artist, 2019, Louisiana Hannah Pepper-Cunningham has been creating performance work in New Orleans since 2009. A member of Mondo Bizarro from 2009-2018, Hannah served as co-artistic director of training programs and collaboratively developed and performed in “Cry You One” and “The Way at Midnight.”…
Marcia Glass Scholar, 2019, Louisiana Glass used her time in residence to create a year-long curriculum in palliative care, finish editing her book with Oxford University Press, Palliative Care in Crisis Areas, publish a blog story, work on pieces for her blog on the opioid…
Jeffrey Tasker Scholar, 2019, Louisiana A professor of neuroscience, Jeffrey Tasker used his time in residence to write a major review article focusing on rapid signaling mechanisms of a novel membrane glucocorticoid receptor and its role in affective disorders of the brain. The Tasker lab uses…
Ladee Hubbard Writer, 2019-20, Louisiana Ladee Hubbard was the second Gulf South Writer in the Woods, in residence for a total of six weeks spread out over 2019 and 2020. During the residency, Hubbard revised her novel, The Rib King. Spanning a ten-year period between…
kai barrow Visual and Performing Artist, Louisiana, 2019-20 While in residence, kai barrow continued work on “A CHORUS OF OUTLAWS,” a multimedia assemblage of ‘singing’ sculptures. The work features the recorded voices, ecologies, and sounds of historic and contemporary refugees, fugitives, abolitionists, and nomads—people who demonstrate radical imagination…
Margaret Pearce Cartographer, 2019, Maine Margaret Pearce (Citizen Band Potawatomi), continued research for “Mississippi Dialogues,” a three-year project to map public opinion about flooding into an Indigenized map of the Mississippi River. She used her residency to be in proximity to Indigenous communities of the…
ChE and kei slaughter Performing Artists, 2019-20, Louisiana ChE and kei slaughter worked on “The People Can Fly,” a land-responsive performance ritual rooted in Queer Afro-Indigenous cultural strategies to address issues of climate gentrification, environmental racism, and land displacement for communities most impacted by climate adaptations. ChE is…
Regina Agu Visual Artist, 2019, Texas In residence through a collaboration with New Orleans Museum of Art, Regina Agu created Passage, an installation for NOMA’s Great Hall, displayed in conjunction with their exhibition Inventing Acadia: Painting and Place in Louisiana. Agu worked closely with Studio botanist David…
Katharine Jack Scholar, 2019, Louisiana Katharine Jack is a primate behavioral ecologist whose research examines male reproductive strategies and hormonal correlates of male dominance rank and life history status. Jack has studied a number of different primate species throughout her career, though the bulk of…
Erin Glackin Scholar, 2019, Louisiana Erin Glackin is a fifth-year graduate student in the School Psychology doctoral program. Her research and clinical interests center on the experience and impact of violence and other forms of trauma, particularly when experienced in early life. Ms. Glackin has…
Sarah Garner Scholar, 2019, Louisiana Sarah E. Garner holds multiple appointments at Tulane as Director of Pathologists’ Assistant Program; Assistant Professor Department of Cell and Molecular Biology – Tulane University School of Science and Engineering; Adjunct Assistant Professor, Department of Structural and Cellular Biology –…
Kate Baldwin Scholar, 2019, Louisiana Kate Baldwin is a scholar and teacher who specializes in comparative literary and cultural histories. Her first book, Beyond the Color Line and the Iron Curtain: Reading Encounters between Black and Red, remaps black American modernism by addressing the involvement…
Aurora Levins Morales Writer and Historian, 2005 (Pre-Katrina), 2018, California Aurora Levins Morales is an internationally known Puerto Rican Jewish feminist poet and essayist whose work explores issues of identity, social justice, and the interwoven social and natural histories of our landscapes and our bodies. Raised in a house full…
Monique Michelle Verdin Visual Artist, 2007, 2017, 2018 and 2019, Louisiana Monique Michelle Verdin uses imagery to expose the reality of a Louisiana lost and the Louisiana left behind. More folk artist than photographer, more storyteller than visual artist, Verdin has captured, collected and exposed an intimate perspective into the survival…
John Kleinschmidt Visual Artist, 2018, Louisiana John Kleinschmidt used drawing and installations to explore prehistoric and present-day environmental change and project what plants and animals might thrive in the distant future environment of New Orleans. John, in collaboration with evolutionary biologists, geologists, and experts in ecological…
Tia-Simone Gardner Multidisciplinary Artist, 2018, Minnesota Tia-Simone Gardner began a new project, There’s Something in the Water, Yemaya and Oshun, amassing footage and archival research to create a seven-channel video installation that documents seven sites along the Mississippi River, chosen because of their relationship to the…
Dasha Chapman, Jean-Sebastien Duvilaire, Ann Mazzocca & Phil Rodriguez Performing Artists, 2018, Massachusetts, Virginia and Haiti The Tè Glise Collective– comprised of Dasha Chapman, Jean-Sebastien Duvilaire, Ann Mazzocca and Phil Rodriguez– is a group of dance artists, scholar-practitioners and musicians who explore collaborative site-specific projects in relation to place-making, history, and the role of spirit in…
Jonathan Mayers Visual and Literary Artist, 2018, Louisiana Jonathan “rat de bois farouche” Mayers is a Louisiana Creole artist and writer from Baton Rouge, LA. His paintings depict metaphorical beasts amid meticulously rendered landscapes. The mysterious creatures – somewhat wicked, somewhat charming – were born of the artist’s…
Manon Bellet Visual and Olfactory Artist, 2018, Louisiana Manon Bellet [b. 1979] is a French artist who lives and works in New Orleans since 2016. Bellet holds a BA/MFA from the University of the Arts, ECAV Switzerland. She has been awarded, Monroe Fellowship from The New Orleans Center…
Julio Blancas Visual Artist, 2018, Canary Islands Julio Blancas was born in 1967 in Las Palmas, Gran Canaria. He studied art at Las Escuelas de Artes Plásticas in Las Palmas, Gran Canaria and sculpture in Santa Cruz, Tenerife. He works mainly with pencil or graphite on paper,…
Jessica Liddell Scholar, 2018, Louisiana Jessica Liddell participated in a scholarly retreat in fall of 2018 where she continued work on the literature review for her dissertation. Originally from Logan, Utah, Jessica Liddell completed her undergraduate degree in Psychology at Reed College, in Portland, Oregon.…
Sarah Woodward Scholar, 2018, Louisiana Sarah Woodward worked on her disseratation in the Woods during a scholarly retreat in fall of 2018. Sarah Woodward is a proud New Orleans native. Her research interests include the intersections between art, technology, and education in improving outcomes for…
Danica Brown Scholar, 2018, Louisiana Danica Brown worked on revising her area exam, preparing her dissertation and conducting data analysis for a research paper during a scholarly retreat in the Woods in the fall of 2018. Danica is a Ph.D. candidate in the City, Culture,…
Adam Crosson Scholar, Visual Artist, 2018, Louisiana During a scholarly retreat in the fall of 2018 Adam Crosson worked toward completing a video work. Adam Crosson received his MFA in Sculpture + Extended Media from The University of Texas at Austin where he was a Jack G.…
Katie Mathews Filmmaker, 2018, Louisiana With New Orleans Video Access Center, Katie Mathews has helped produce Post Coastal, a series of short documentary films addressing coastal communities and water issues. She used her time in residence to develop programming around screenings for coastal communities grappling…
Rachel Wallis Visual Artist, 2017, Illinois Blakeslee Gilpin assisted Rachel Wallis with research and mapping to inform a community-quilting project exploring the links between textiles and the historic and current global slave economy. Rachel worked with high school students from New Orleans Center for Creative Arts…
Esther Solondz Visual Artist, 2017, Rhode Island Esther Solondz designed and installed The Bee Palace, a beautiful sculpture that also functions as a nesting site for wild solitary bee pollinators at Audubon Zoo. Faculty partner and Director of the New Orleans Mosquito Board Claudia Riegel provided information…
Sarah Dahnke Performing Artist, 2017, New York Sarah Dahnke’s Dances for Solidarity is an ongoing, community-based performance choreographed by incarcerated people in solitary confinement, borrowing from the personal narratives of 50 people in prison in Texas and Louisiana. The New Orleans iteration of the project was performed…
Julia Kumari Drapkin & Lindsey Wagner New Media Artists, 2017, Louisiana and Massachusetts Julia Kumari Drapkin and Lindsey Wagner are founding members of ISeeChange, a global online platform and app where citizens can observe and discuss what they notice changing in the environment and the ways those changes impact their lives. Julia and…
Aubrey Edwards & Gretchen Faust Visual Artists, 2017, Louisiana Aubrey Edwards and Gretchen Faust applied as a collaborative team to work on a project comprised of a short observational film exploring an array of healing practices and a contextualizing, accompanying publication featuring an ensemble of over fifty regional, female-identified…
Edward Ball Writer, 2017-18, Connecticut As the inaugural Gulf South Writer in the Woods resident, Edward Ball was hosted in the woods in partnership with the New Orleans Center for the Gulf South. During his residency, Ball worked on a new manuscript, gave lectures, and…
Fallen Fruit Social Practice, 2017-18, California Internationally acclaimed artist collaborative Fallen Fruit (David Burns and Austin Young) was hosted through partnerships with Pelican Bomb and Newcomb Art Museum to create Fallen Fruit of New Orleans. Throughout 2017 and into early 2018, Fallen Fruit made a series…
Anastasia Kurdia Scholar, 2017, Louisiana A professor in the Computer Science program of the School of Science and Engineering, Dr. Kurdia came to A Studio in the Woods to create new and engaging materials for Tulane’s CS program and adapt those materials for Engage-cs.edu, an…
Amalia Leguizamón Scholar, 2017, Louisiana While in residence, Amalia Leguizamón worked towards completing a manuscript entitled Seeds of Power: Genetically Modified Crops and Socio-Environmental Change in Argentina. Leguizamón is a sociologist interested in the political economy of the environment in Latin America. She is curious…
Nathan J. Lyons Scholar, 2017, Louisiana Nathan Lyons is a geomorphologist, a scientist that studies the processes and landforms at Earth’s surface. Nathan used his residency to bring together geologists and evolutionary biologists to begin a new research project. This group set out to test ideas…
Ignacio Sarmiento Scholar, 2017, Louisiana A PhD Candidate in Spanish, Ignacio Sarmiento’s research focuses on postwar Central American literature, paying particular attention to the problems of mourning and national community in Salvadoran and Guatemalan fiction. Sarmiento used his residency to work toward completing his dissertation.
Chris Rodning Scholar, 2017 and 2019, Louisiana All anthropologists, Christopher Rodning, Marcello Canuto, Tatsuya Murakami, and Jason Nesbitt engaged in collaborative retreats at A Studio in the Woods to explore and exchange ideas about the archaeology of monuments within cultural landscapes in the ancient Americas in both…
Anjali Niyogi Scholar, 2017, Louisiana Dr. Anjali Niyogi, a physician, and Dr. Ashley Wennerstrom, a public health researcher and practitioner, have been collaborating successfully since 2014 to improve access to health care services for formerly incarcerated persons. Their residency was used to produce a manuscript…
Robin Vander Scholar, 2017, Louisiana Dr. Robin Vander is a professor of English, African-American and Diaspora Studies, and Performance Studies at Xavier University. During her residency at A Studio in the Woods, Dr. Vander worked on a manuscript length book of images and essays juxtaposing…
Cirecie A. West-Olatunji Scholar, 2017, Louisiana Focusing on the field of counselor education, Dr. West-Olatunji has initiated several clinical research projects that focus on culture-centered community collaborations designed to address issues rooted in systemic oppression, such as transgenerational trauma and traumatic stress. Dr. West-Olatunji’s residency afforded…
Matthew Escarra Scholar, 2017, Louisiana An assistant professor in engineering physics, Matthew Escarra used his residency to create a proposal for the NSF CAREER Award, the biggest young investigator award for junior scientists and engineers. Matthew Escarra received his Ph.D. in electrical engineering at Princeton…
Marcello Canuto Scholar, 2017, Louisiana All anthropologists, Rodning, Canuto, Murakami, and Nesbitt engaged in a weeklong collaborative retreat at A Studio in the Woods to explore and exchange ideas about the archaeology of monuments within cultural landscapes in the ancient Americas. Marcello A. Canuto is…
Tatsuya Murakami Scholar, 2017, Louisiana All anthropologists, Rodning, Canuto, Murakami, and Nesbitt engaged in a weeklong collaborative retreat at A Studio in the Woods to explore and exchange ideas about the archaeology of monuments within cultural landscapes in the ancient Americas. Dr. Murakami received his…
Jason Nesbitt Scholar, 2017, Louisiana All anthropologists, Rodning, Canuto, Murakami, and Nesbitt engaged in a weeklong collaborative retreat at A Studio in the Woods to explore and exchange ideas about the archaeology of monuments within cultural landscapes in the ancient Americas. Jason Nesbitt’s fields of…
Ashley Wennerstrom Scholar, 2017, Louisiana Dr. Anjali Niyogi, a physician, and Dr. Ashley Wennerstrom, a public health researcher and practitioner, have been collaborating successfully since 2014 to improve access to health care services for formerly incarcerated persons. Their residency was used to produce a manuscript…
Christy George Writer, 2016, Oregon During her residency, environmental journalist Christy George continued work on her creative non-fiction book Vanishing Hometowns, and with faculty partner Laura Murphy hosted conversations across generations and geography – bringing together people along the bayous endangered by rising seas with…
Jan Mun Media Artist, 2016, New York Jan Mun collaborated with Howard Mielke and his Lead Lab to revision and activate best practices for lead testing and soil remediation through a site-specific installation. Neighborhood leaders helped identify a community garden in the Treme with a high lead…
E. Oscar Maynard Visual Artist, 2016, California With input from faculty collaborator and religious studies expert Randy Sparks, E. Oscar Maynard created an ongoing community-based art project that uses the idea of Tent Revivals to explore the ways we stray from our own power, and the ways…
Jebney Lewis Visual and Performing Artist, 2016, Louisiana Jebney Lewis worked with faculty collaborator Rick Snow, New Orleans youth, and Tulane students to build a map of the city made from sonified steel plates and repurposed brass instruments. The pair also partnered with local writer Christopher Staudinger to…
Donna Cooper Hurt Visual Artist, 2016, South Carolina Donna Cooper Hurt created site-specific installations that address place and the human relationship to the environment. In a day-long workshop with youth from the Jefferson Parish Department of Juvenile Services, Donna and Donata Henry shared their work and processes and…
Jacqueline Ehle Inglefield Visual Artist, 2016, Louisiana Jacqueline Ehle Inglefield in collaboration with Mark Gstohl, built a shrine to the bottomland hardwood forest to reignite a reverence for nature. Referencing religious scriptures and past spiritual practices, the shrine encourages contemplation of the global impact of habitual consumption…
Byron Asher Composer, 2016, Louisiana Byron Asher is a multi-instrumentalist, composer and improviser based in New Orleans. Raised in Maryland, he has performed across Europe and the US. Festivals include the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival and French Quarter Festival, the Montreux Jazz Festival,…
Jeff Whetstone Visual Artist, 2016-17, New Jersey Jeff Whetstone was born in Chattanooga, Tennessee and has been photographing and writing about the relationship between humans and their environment since he received a Zoology degree from Duke University in 1990. Jeff came to the woods for a collaborative…
MarkAlain Dery Scholar, 2016, Louisiana MarkAlain Dery is a physician and the founder of the Tulane T Cell Clinic who places compassion in the highest category of his professional duties. Dr. Dery used his residency to compile a collection of stories from his life and…
Jocelyn Horner Scholar, 2016, Louisiana Jocelyn Horner studies the relationship between creative self-expression and positive development among young people. While in residence she completed data analysis for her dissertation, Digital storytelling as positive development: African American adolescent women exploring the politics and possibilities of personal…
Sarah Gray Scholar, 2016, Louisiana Sarah Gray is a clinical psychologist with a focus on early childhood. Dr. Gray’s research examines the developmental consequences of early life adversity, with a specific focus on intergenerational processes. She takes a multilevel approach, integrating narrative, behavioral, and physiological…
Lisa Settles Scholar, 2016, Louisiana The main focus of Dr. Lisa Settles’ clinical work is on the treatment of children under the age of six with a variety of emotional, relational, and developmental problems. Dr. Lisa Settles is the program director, lead psychologist, and grant…
Maria Möller Visual Artist, 2015, Pennsylvania Maria Möller collaborated with geographer Richard Campanella, and members of New Orleans Chinese American community to symbolically excavate the city’s forgotten and demolished Chinatown. Oral histories, photography and map-making combined to create temporary installations on sites in the Central Business…
Jessica Levine Installation Artist, 2015, West Virginia Faculty Partner: Jordan Karubian, Professor, and Renata Ribeiro, Professor of the Practice, Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, Tulane University Jessica Levine, in collaboration with Renata Ribeiro and Jordan Karubian, created an interactive, mixed media visual art installation to bring…
Anna Fitzgerald Performing Artist, 2015, Maryland In collaboration with epidemiologist Felicia Rabito and her lab at the Tulane School of Public Health, Anna Fitzgerald created a puppet-based performance for and with children with asthma. Together, they created characters with objects like inhalers to tell a story…
Shay Nichols Composer, 2015, California Composer Shay Nichols and faculty partner Tom Sherry created nature-based compositions with local musicians and led public listening excursions to discover the beauty and power found in the “chorus” of the Southern Louisiana natural environment. Inspired by the residency, Shay…
Matt Wright Visual Artist, 2015, New York Sign painter Matt Wright photographed the city’s historically significant signage and with faculty partner Vicki Mayer they collected stories about existing signs from neighbors and sign painters to be included in Vicki’s Media NOLA project, an online portal for cultural…
Andy Horowitz Scholar, 2015, Louisiana Andy Horowitz specializes in modern American political, cultural, and environmental history. He is writing a book which is under contract with Harvard University Press. He used his time at A Studio in the Woods to revise the manuscript and think…
Samantha Lantz Scholar, 2015, Louisiana A behavioral ecologist, Samantha Lantz has been studying birds for over 10 years. While at A Studio in the Woods, she submitted the first chapter of her thesis for publication. The article came out in April 2016 in The Auk:…
Kevin Morris Scholar, 2015, Louisiana Kevin Morris received his PhD in philosophy from Brown University in 2011. His research is primarily in metaphysics, the philosophy of mind, and the history of analytic philosophy. At A Studio in the Woods in fall 2015, Kevin worked on…
Workineh Kite Scholar, 2015, Louisiana Dr. Kite and Dr. Blair used their scholarly retreat to analyze immunological data from studies on the simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV) which has implications for treatment of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV).
Grant McCall Scholar, 2015, Louisiana Dr. McCall and Dr. Townsend convened a two-day symposium at A Studio in the Woods bringing together scholars from the fields of philosophy and anthropology to discuss the some of the shared concerns of both fields; especially those having to…
Mary Townsend Scholar, 2015, Louisiana Dr. McCall and Dr. Townsend convened a two-day symposium at A Studio in the Woods bringing together scholars from the fields of philosophy and anthropology to discuss the some of the shared concerns of both fields; especially those having to…
Robert Blair Scholar, 2015, Louisiana Dr. Kite and Dr. Blair used their scholarly retreat to analyze immunological data from studies on the simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV) which has implications for treatment of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). Dr. Blair is an Assistant professor and veterinary…
Sebastian Muellauer Creative Design, 2014, Germany Muellauer used his residency to make advances on his Open Research Buoy (ORB), an open-sourced, community-driven project that aims to develop technology which will help monitor and research endangered water ecosystems. He met with scientists and environmental specialists to assess…
Monica Haller Media Artist, 2014, Minnesota Haller created a “field station” in a gutted home in Plaquemines Parish, enlisting the help of local geologists and sedimentologists, in order to learn more about the transitory eroding spaces that face Southern Louisiana’s coast. She gathered together experiments, photos,…
Megan Singleton Visual Artist, 2014, Missouri Singleton created an installation of sculpture and pulp paintings investigating native and invasive flora that clutch Louisiana between the fingers of their roots. The works transformed natural materials into art using hand paper making techniques and clay and referencing maps…
Shivaprasad Adireddy Scholar, 2014, Louisiana As a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Physics and Engineering Physics, Dr. Adireddy used his residency to finish writing a manuscript entitled Flexible Energy Storage Devices Based on Polymer-Dielectric Nanocomposites.
Catherine Burnette Scholar, 2014, Louisiana An assistant professor in the School of Social Work, Dr. Burnette’s research focuses on health disparities related to Indigenous Peoples. Data analysis conducted during her retreat enabled the identification of factors perpetuating violence and mental health disparities among American Indian…
Thomas Mulligan Scholar, 2014, Louisiana A philosopher, Thomas Mulligan used his residency at A Studio in the Woods to continue work on his dissertation which sought to answer the question, “What is the role that merit should play when we choose our political leaders and…
Apollo Nkwake Scholar, 2014, Louisiana Dr. Apollo Nkwake and Prof. Nathan Morrow both teach research methods and program evaluation at Tulane University’s Disaster Resilience Leadership Academy. While in residence, they prepared workshop tools and case studies for the American Evaluation Association as well as a…
Courtney N. Baker Scholar, 2014, Louisiana Courtney N. Baker is a clinical psychologist interested in systems-level interventions that promote the mental health and well-being of children and families. Dr. Baker utilized her time in residence to analyze data and draft an article reporting on the reliability…
Teresa Cole Scholar, Visual Artist, 2014, Louisiana A professor of printmaking, Teresa Cole spent her time at A Studio in the Woods continuing work on her series Seamless Belonging, an exploration of identity and place, visualized through handmade paper works. Professor Teresa Cole holds the Ellsworth Woodward…
Nicole Burton Scholar, 2014, Louisiana Nicole Burton spent time in residence while a doctoral candidate in the School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine. She worked on her dissertation prospectus at A Studio in the Woods, which attempted to fill in a gap in the…
Nathan Morrow Scholar, 2014, Louisiana Prof. Nathan Morrow and Dr. Apollo Nkwake both taught research methods and program evaluation at Tulane University’s Disaster Resilience Leadership Academy. While in residence, they prepared workshop tools and case studies for the American Evaluation Association as well as a…
Dawn DeDeaux Visual Artist, 2014-15, Louisiana A Studio In The Woods collaborated with artist Dawn DeDeaux to present Selections from the MotherShip Series as a P3+ Host Site at two locations from October 25, 2014 – January 25, 2015 DeDeaux is a professional New Orleans-based artist…
Daniel McCormick and Mary O’Brien Installation Artists, 2013, California McCormick and O’Brien worked with local grassroots environmentalists to invent a reusable cage to protect cypress seedlings from invasive rodents, placing dozens of these cages along the coast as a remedial art installation. Rigorous in their research, the artist team…
Isabelle Hayeur Visual Artist, 2013, Canada Hayeur used special equipment to shoot over/underwater photography in polluted waterways, creating evocative images from the unusual perspective of the waterline that were then exhibited on four billboards on major thoroughfares across New Orleans. Born in Montreal, Isabelle Hayeur is…
Laurel True Visual Artist, 2013, Louisiana True created a series of sculptural mosaic forms that float on the surface of water, interacting with the environment through light, movement and reflection. The sculptures were made from elements collected from both the urban and the rural landscape, including…
Emily Corazon Nelson Visual Artist, 2013, Louisiana Nelson used her residency to collect and commission images of water landscapes in Southern Louisiana rendered in oil-based media. She then subjected the images to Corexit, the disperant used in the Gulf during the Deepwater Horizon oil spill cleanup. Emily…
Rebecca Snedeker Writer and Filmmaker, 2011-12, Louisiana Snedeker’s residency was crucial in the formation of Unfathomable City: A New Orleans Atlas, a book of 22 imaginative maps and essays she co-authored with Rebecca Solnit. She spent her time recruiting writers for the book, writing an essay on…
Katie Holten Visual Artist, 2012, Ireland Holten researched the historical, current, and projected ecosystem of New Orleans and the Mississippi river delta, through site visits and engagement with local communities and expressed these scientific and ecological investigations through sculptures and works on paper. This work formed…
Nina Nichols Performing Artist, 2012, Louisiana Nichols produced costumes, puppets, and props for an operetta titled The Vanities of the Poor, set on the banks of the Mississippi River. The show debuted during A Studio in the Woods’ FORESTival. She received a grant to take the…
Sarah Quintana Composer, 2012, Louisiana Quintana used water as an instrument in composing and recording a dozen new songs. She transformed her studio into a mixed media sound installation with a number of professional and home made instruments for a collaborative performance. She invited the…
Andy Behrle Sculptor, 2012, Hawaii Behrle explored issues of erosion and accretion with a living installation sited on the grounds of Longue Vue House and Gardens. The piece took the form of a mausoleum covered with mud and the seeds of native plants which slowly…
Bernard Williams Sculptor, 2011, Illinois Williams built a sculpture, Ghost Trails, based on a map he found from the 1940’s tracing the meanderings of the Mississippi River. In an ambitious move, he decided that the piece needed to be launched in the waters that inspired…
Suzanne Bennett Visual Artist, 2011, New York Bennett completed four large-scale paintings contrasting the dichotomy of the city’s baroque sensibilities with its location on the edge of an untamed swamp. Suzanne Bennett received her B.F.A. from U.C. Santa Cruz and her M.F.A. from Brooklyn College. She has…
Benjamin Morris Writer, 2011, Louisiana and Mississippi Morris took every opportunity to go out in the woods absorbing great botanical detail and spent his studio time creating allegories based on the changing forest ecology for a new book of poetry titled Ecotone, which was published by Antenna/Press…
Roy Staab Installation Artist, 2011, Wisconsin Staab used driftwood, willow branches, bamboo, bloodweed, and other natural materials found onsite or nearby – even footprints – to construct ephemeral artworks in our pond and on the banks of the Mississippi River. Roy’s residency culminated with a piece…
Alex Harris Photographer, 2011, North Carolina Alex Harris (b. 1949) was raised in the South and lives in Durham, NC with his wife, Margaret Sartor, and their two children. Harris has photographed extensively in the American South, New Mexico, Alaska, and Cuba. His work is represented…
Karen Rich Beall Sculptor, 2010, Pennsylvania Beall examined lichens and ferns from the woods under a microscope and rendered them larger than life using hand-knitting, paper mache, and other mixed media. She also led a nature journaling workshop for youth from The Porch 7th Ward Cultural…
Sharifa Rhodes-Pitts Writer, 2010, Texas Rhodes-Pitts used local historical archives to write a cycle of prose poems based on a 1811 slave revolt that she shared in a reading at the New Orleans African American Museum. She experimented with making paper from traditional “cash crops”…
William Cordova Visual Artist, 2010, Peru Cordova used 16MM film to document and preserve traces of displaced histories of New Orleans. His project aimed to create monuments of secular sacred spaces within Louisiana history and folklore. William Cordova was born and raised in Lima, Peru. He…
Eric Dallimore Installation Artist, 2010, Colorado Dallimore created a living public sculpture titled The Louisiana Pipeline. The installation took the form of a pipeline composed entirely of organic matter and seeds, visually representing man’s destructive force of oil exploration on the Gulf Coast. A New Orleans…
Anne Devine Performance Artist, 2009, California Devine made a solo performative distance walk of 38 miles from New Orleans to Hopedale as a “kinetic valentine” to the residents and landscape of the area, a route that highlighted the Mississippi River Gulf Outlet and brings attention to…
Rafael Santos Visual Artist, 2009, Argentina Santos’ primary concerns are the social-ecological communities that have developed over time around freshwater rivers and coastal zones, and the close collaboration with local people, other artists, scientists and environmental groups working in the same realm nationally and internationally. While…
David Sullivan Media Artist, 2009, Louisiana Sullivan rendered and debuted Fugitive Emissions, an abstract animation inspired by the effects of air and water pollution prevalent in our chemical corridor. The works were projected on screens installed in the lantern-lit woods, using the ambient sounds of the…
Tory Tepp Installation Artist, 2009, California Fourteen volunteers joined Tepp in “artscaping” a 10-foot flatbed trailer into the form of a boat. The Spirit Ferry Project built community and investment in sustainable urban agriculture; the boat’s cargo included soil, seeds, and the tools needed to plant…
Gianna Chachere Filmmaker, 2008, Louisiana Gianna Chachere served as the Managing Director of the Hamptons International Film Festival located in East Hampton, New York from 2006 to 2014. She has extensive experience in conceptualizing and curating film, video and live performance programs for various film…
Jon Gross Composer, Musician, 2008, Louisiana Jon Gross began playing the tuba when he was 9 years old. A scholarship to Loyola University’s College of Music landed him in New Orleans where he currently makes a living playing with several different bands and as a freelance…
Brigham Hall Composer, Musician, 2008, Louisiana Brigham Hall is an active pianist, composer, and music educator. After completing his bachelor’s degree in music education at LSU, Hall became an instructor at the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts and also served as a piano accompanist for…
Raymond “Moose” Jackson Poet, Musician, 2008, Louisiana Raymond “Moose” Jackson is a performance poet whose work is not content to live in poetry readings and literary events. He regularly performs with a rock band, in theatrical settings, with jazz groups, at festivals and in the street. He…
Andrea Myers Visual Artist, 2008, Illinois Working with wood, fabric, printmaking, and pen and ink, Myers created a number of sculptural pieces which reflect the dynamic layered landscape. Andrea Myers explores the space between two and three dimensionality by combining forms of painting, sculpture and textile…
Mollie Day Poet and Environmental Journalist, 2008, Louisiana Mollie Day is a New Orleans-based poet. She holds a masters degree in Creative Writing from the University of New Orleans and is a fellow of the Institute for Environmental Communications, Loyola University, New Orleans. Through her work, Mollie illustrates…
Jane Hill Sculptor, 2007, Louisiana Jane Hill was born in Washington, DC, and grew up in Baltimore, Maryland. She received a Bachelor of Science in painting from Towson University and an MFA from Pratt Institute of Art. In 1991 she moved to New Orleans to…
Christy Speakman Multimedia Visual Artist, 2007, Louisiana Christy Speakman received a BFA in Fine Art from the University of New Orleans in 2002 and an MFA in Photography from Ohio University’s School of Art in 2005. She has participated in artist residencies at Sandarbh US, The Santa…
Elizabeth Underwood Multimedia Visual Artist, 2007, Louisiana Elizabeth Underwood is a visual artist, activist, writer and long-term resident of New Orleans. In pursuit of “the art of relationships” she focuses on site-specific installation and performance as well as formal work in photography, collage, and drawing. Her poetry,…
Dr. Michael White Composer, 2003-2004 and 2007, Louisiana Dr. Michael White, a renowned clarinetist, composer and jazz historian, has been a pioneer in perpetuating the origins of traditional New Orleans jazz. Among the most respected musicians in the Crescent City, White is one of only a few clarinetists…
Damien Aquiles Painter, Rescheduled from 2005 to 2007 due to Hurricane Katrina, Cuba Damian Aquiles is a graduate of the graphic design institute and the Art Academy of San Alejandro in Havana. His work has been exhibited in Cuba, Switzerland, Spain, Sweden, Argentina, Italy, South Africa, Nicaragua, and the United States and is…
Kathy Randels & Sean Larocca Artspot Productions, Performing Artists, 2006, Louisiana Kathy Randels, a native New Orleanian, is a theatre artist/educator and the founding artistic director of ArtSpot Productions. She studied, lived and worked in Chicago from 1987-1994, receiving a Bachelor of Science in Performance Studies in 1991 from Northwestern University.…
Jason Chaffin Installation Artist, Musician, 2006, Louisiana Jason Chaffin grew up across 36 states and 4 countries. He received his BFA in photography from Kansas City Art Institute and a MFA from the University of New Orleans. His work is based upon his diversity of personal experience…
Jenny Kahn Painter, 2006, Louisiana Jenny Kahn was born and raised in New Orleans. She studied painting at the Gerritt Reitveld Academie in Amsterdam and The Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in Philadelphia. She has exhibited in New York, Philadelphia, New Orleans and elsewhere. Kahn…
Monique Moss Choreographer, Dancer, 2006, Louisiana A native of New Orleans, Monique Moss is a Choreographer, Independent Curator, History Tour Guide, and Artistic Director of Third Eye Theatre Interdisciplinary and Improvisational Performance Company. She received a BA in French, MA in Latin American Studies, MFA in Interdisciplinary Dance Performance from Tulane…
Valentine Pierce Poet, Photographer, Graphic Designer, 2006, Louisiana Valentine Pierce is a poet, writer, photographer and graphic designer who is very active in the New Orleans art scene. She has been writing for more than 30 years and her creative and journalistic work has been published throughout the…
Yvette Sirker Playwright, Director, Actor, 2006, Louisiana Yvette Sirker’s one-act play, Hay Outta Hell, written while in residency at A Studio in the Woods, premiered Off-Off Broadway and was very well received by New York City audiences. As a result of the success of Hay Outta Hell,…
Peter Coles Writer and Photographer, 2006, England Peter Coles is a writer and photographer based in London. For 20 years he lived and worked in Paris, contributing articles and photographs to a number of international magazines. He is currently Visiting Fellow in the Centre for Urban and…
Sheryl St. Germain Writer, 2005 (Pre-Katrina), Iowa Sheryl St. Germain directs the MFA Program in Creative Writing at Chatham University. She has published several poetry books and a memoir, Swamp Songs, about growing up in New Orleans. Winner of many awards, including two NEA grants and the…
Reggie Young Writer, 2005 (Pre-Katrina), Louisiana Reggie Scott Young is a scholar, fiction/nonfiction writer, and poet who lives in Lafayette, La. He is an Associate Professor of English at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette and a member of the Macondo Writers’ Workshop. Samples of his…
Stephen Dankner Composer, 2004, Louisiana Stephen Dankner received his Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Composition from the Juilliard School in 1971. A list of works since 1990 includes nine symphonies, thirteen string quartets, background environmental music for the New Orleans Aquarium of the Americas,…
Krista Franklin Poet, 2004, Illinois Krista Franklin is a poet and visual artist from Dayton, Ohio, who lives and works in Chicago. Her poetry and mixed media collages have been published in lifestyle and literary journals such as Coon Bidness, Copper Nickel, Clam and Callaloo,…
Deedra Ludwig Painter, 2004, Washington Born in Chicago, Deedra has been honored by Arts Alliance in Atlanta, GA; SouthEast Arts Award in Tunbridge Wells, UK; Sitka Center for the Arts Fellowship Residency in Otis, Oregon; and the National Parks Service. She has also been a…
Alexis Wreden Sculptor, Landscape Architect, 2004, Louisiana Alexis Wreden is an artist and is trained as landscape architect. She is involved in making public art, gardens and parks in Louisiana. She lives and collaborates with her architect husband, Robert Fakelmann, two dogs, three cats and many wild…
Pat Warner Sculptor, 2004, California Pat Warner was born and raised in an agricultural area of southeastern Pennsylvania, and traveled extensively throughout the world observing the natural environment and indigenous cultures. Those experiences influence her indoor and outdoor sculptural environments and drawings that are involved…
Jane Marshall Painter and printmaker, 2003, Alabama Jane Marshall is an artist of great versatility and depth. She is a painter, printmaker, sculptor, fabric and book artist who delves deeply into her subject matter including nature and the great themes and figures of history, mythology and literature.…
Wendy Taylor Carlisle Poet, 2003, Texas Wendy Taylor Carlisle lives between Texarkana, Texas, and Eureka Springs, Ark. She is the author of Discount Fireworks (2008) and Reading Berryman to the Dog (2000). Among the anthologies that include her work are The Poets Grimm (2003), Is This…
Daniel Winkert Architect, Louisiana, 2003 Daniel Winkert (Wink) is an architect and planner who came to New Orleans at the age of 18 (having spent his previous life in Maryland and Tennessee). Graduating from Tulane University School of Architecture, Wink then began a career of…
Yuki Fukushima Potter, 2002, Japan Yuki Fukushima was born in Matsue, Japan, a small city on the Sea of Japan. Yuki’s father, Kazuo Fukushima, was a traditional potter whose noborigama, or climbing kiln, was on a mountainside near Matsue. When her father fell seriously ill,…
Francine Prevost Poet, 2002, France Francine is a French poet and visual artist living in Canada. Francine spent three weeks exploring the levee, batture, and riverside collecting rocks and driftwood. She created a show of her poetry on large paper laid on a city sidewalk…
M. Jude Artisan, 2001, India In February and March of 2000, Lucianne Carmichael visited Penukonda, India, at the invitation of the Young India Project, a non-profit organization founded by Sonja and Narinda Bedi and doing work to improve the lives of rural farmworkers and crafts-people…