Paul BloomPaul Bloom

Bloom is the Brooks and Suzanne Ragen  Professor of Psychology at Yale University. His research explores how children and adults understand the physical and social world, with special focus on morality, religion, fiction, and art. He has won numerous awards for his research and teaching. He is past-president of the Society for Philosophy and Psychology, and co-editor of Behavioral and Brain Sciences, one of the major journals in the field.

Dr. Bloom has written for scientific journals such as Nature and Science, and for popular outlets such as The New York Times, The Guardian, The New Yorker, and The Atlantic Monthly. He is the author or editor of seven books, including Against Empathy: The Case for Rational Compassion.

___________________________________________

Aminatta FornaAminatta Forna

Forna is the award-winning author of the three novels The Hired ManThe Memory of Love and Ancestor Stones, and the critically acclaimed memoir The Devil that Danced on the Water. Her fiction has won the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize Best Book Award and the PEN Hurston/Wright Legacy Award, and has been short-listed for the Neustadt Prize, the Orange Prize for Fiction, the IMPAC Award, the Warwick Prize and nominated for the European Prize for Fiction. Her memoir was serialized on BBC Radio and in The Sunday Times newspaper. Forna is currently a Lannan Visiting Chair at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C.
__________________________________________

Wing Young HuieWing Young Huie

Huie is a photographic artist and educator. For over 30 years, celebrated photographer Wing Young Huie has captured the complex cultural realities of American society. His photographs have been shown in international museums – over half a million people have viewed his traveling exhibit in China – but his best known works, Lake Street USA and the University Avenue Project, were public art projects that transformed Minneapolis and Saint Paul thoroughfares into six-mile photo galleries, reflecting the everyday lives of thousands of their citizens.

___________________________________________

Patience ZalangaPatience Zalanga

Patience Zalanga is a photographer documenting the Movement for Black Lives. She began taking photographs of marches, protests, and direct actions after Michael Brown, Jr. was killed in Ferguson, Missouri. Patience has documented freedom fighters in the Twin Cities, Ferguson and St. Louis, Missouri, Baltimore, and Selma, Alabama. Her work has been featured on AJ+, The Twin Cities Daily Planet, The Guardian, Nightline, Upworthy, MPR and NPR. Patience says that her work is intended to highlight the humanity of black activists and provide an alternative narrative to that of the mainstream media.

Born in Bauchi, Nigeria, Patience emigrated to St. Paul, Minnesota in 1994. She now resides in Minneapolis,  Minnesota and is 24 years old.

___________________________________________