Dr. Jennifer Bergmark is an Assistant Professor in Art Education in the School of Art + Design. Her research is concerned with culturally relevant pedagogy, arts integration, arts advocacy, community arts programming, public engagement, school as a socially engaged arts lab, and art exhibition as a creative practice. Arts integration is foundational to the belief that we can learn about the world through the arts. Bergmark’s arts integration research projects include developing an Arts and Sustainability curriculum for preservice art teachers and the development of a campus and community crochet coral reef project, the Urbana-Champaign Satellite Reef, with visiting artist, Margaret Wertheim. Additionally, Bergmark’s research includes developing cultural understandings through Native American Art and Art education with the Blackfeet Indian Reservation in Montana and the Myaamia Tribe of Oklahoma through Miami University, with her research partner Stephanie Danker. Bergmark’s research on the intersection of community, art, and culture developed into a historical research project focused on the community arts practices of Japanese American artist, Ruth Asawa.  Recent research projects focus on contemporary Japanese art and community revitalization projects on Naoshima Island in Japan.

Ethan Segal is Associate Professor of East Asian History at Michigan State University.  Topics of his research include economic and social history, women’s history, and depictions of Japanese historical figures in film and television, among others.  He earned his Ph.D. at Stanford Univeristy and recently spent a year in residence as a Fulbright Scholar at the University of Tokyo.  An award-winning teacher, Dr. Segal has helped lead NCTA seminars since 2014.