Prof. Hershini Bhana Young is a Professor at UT Austin where she teaches Black Performance Studies in the Departments of African and African Diaspora Studies and Women and Gender Studies. She is also the co-director for the Center for Women and Gender Studies. The author of three books, Haunting Capital, Illegible Will, and Falling, Floating, Flickering, she is currently completing new work titled Obligated Migrants and Obstinate Materiality: Death and Radical Care in the Black Migratory World. Young is a recipient of the Stanford Humanities Center Fellowship and will be a Harvard-Radcliffe Fellow this next academic year.
Prof. Yvette Hutchison is Professor of African Performance Studies in Theatre & Performance Studies, which is part of the School of Creative Arts, Performance and Visual Cultures at the University of Warwick, UK. Her research focuses on Anglophone African theatre, history and narratives of memory, and how intercultural performance practices can challenge ongoing postcolonial issues. She is associate editor of the South African Theatre Journal, on the editorial committees of Performing Ethos and African Performance Review, and co-founder of the African Women’s Playwright Network (AWPN.org). Her latest research has been as Principal investigator on a UKRI-funded project that culminated in Encountering disability and citizenship through contemporary dance in Africa (Routledge, 2026) with Dr Lliane Loots (UKZN, SA) with whom she co-hosts the international African Dance Disability Network (https://africandancedisabilitynetwork.org/).
Ondiege Matthew is a dancer, choreographer, and DANCE INTO SPACE founder, a group of contemporary dancers, socially engaged performance artists, and the only mixed ability contemporary dance company in East Africa. Through exploring personal stories and employing participatory methods, the company under Ondiege creates touring productions, teaches dance, empowers people with different abilities, raises awareness on human rights issues, and strengthens self-advocacy. DANCE INTO SPACE works with other civil society members, creatives and government agencies, carries out civic education, constitutional education and human rights awareness among citizens in Kenya through the creative arts. As a leading contemporary dance choreographer as well as an activist, Ondiege has been using the mixed ability dance projects as a creative approach to inclusiveness since 2005. The projects address stigma while tackling punitive cultural practices that promote discrimination and basic human rights violations among people with disability. He continues to produce new and original works with his team.