Critical Futures

Josue David Cisneros, an Associate Professor in the Department of Communication at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, researches and teaches about social movement and activist communication, especially as they pertain to struggles for racial justice and immigrant rights, and the contestatory role of speculative and futurist work as a part of struggles for policy change and broader social transformation. He published “The Border Crossed Us”: Rhetorics of Borders, Citizenship, and Latina/o Identity (University of Alabama Press, 2014) and numerous other articles and book chapters. His next book project focuses on activist art in the immigrant justice movement.

Highlighted Work: https://communication.illinois.edu/directory/profile/jdcisnrs

Patrick Earl Hammie is a visual artist, and Associate Professor, Chair of Studio Art, and Director’s Fellow in the School of Art & Design at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Hammie specializes in portraiture, storytelling, and the body in visual culture. His oil paintings, prints, installations, and curatorial projects examine personal and shared Black experiences, systems of knowledge production, and the politics of representation. He engages these topics through representation, abstraction, pastiche, and narrative, using techniques informed by critical theory and postcolonialism. As a Blerd, he draws from history, mythologies, music, and speculative fiction toward expanding notions of self, family, and community.

Highlighted Work:

• Website: http://patrickearlhammie.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/patrickearlhammie/

Artist Jorge Lucero currently serves as Associate Dean for Research in the College of Fine and Applied Arts and as Associate Professor of Art Education in the School of Art & Design, both at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. Formerly a Chicago Public School teacher, Lucero’s lifelong testing of school’s materiality happens as visible and invisible artworks, writing, and teaching. Lucero is an alum of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and Penn State University.

Highlighted Work:

• Website: https://www.jorgelucero.com/
• Co-Edited Collection: What Happens at the Intersection of Conceptual Art & Teaching?

Responding to the challenges of sustaining interdisciplinary research and teaching in the arts and humanities, the Interseminars initiative provides funding and administrative infrastructure for collaborative teaching, sustained interdisciplinary inquiry, and public- and community-facing research in the humanities and arts.

Website: https://hri.illinois.edu/fellowships-research-support/interseminars