Driving It Home Speakers
Maria Bermudez — Maria Bermudez is a fourth-year doctorate student in philosophy, specializing in environmental and political philosophy. She is originally from Georgia, having earned her bachelor’s degree from Georgia College & State University in history and philosophy. She is interested in the nexus between environmental politics and women of color and focuses on how climate change shapes migration patterns and introduces questions about the status of refugees and the rights of humans and nature. She also investigate notions of displacement, loss of self, and the perversion of humanity’s relationship to the nonhuman world. Her dissertation contributes to the emerging field of environmental and socio-political philosophy, focusing on specific questions of ethics and policy, particularly as they pertain to Latinx women and environmental refugees in the U.S. Maria introduced Woman at War.
Krista Brune — Krista Brune specializes in modern and contemporary Luso-Brazilian literature through the lens of translation, visual and popular cultures, and intellectual history. Her book Creative Transformations: Travels and Translations of Brazil in the Americas (SUNY Press, 2020) analyzes key moments in the travels and translations of Brazilian artists and intellectuals from the 1870s to the present. Currently, she is working on a book that situates Lisbon, Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo, and New York as sites of encounter and exchange among speakers of Portuguese. Another area of her research centers on Latin American popular music, film, and cultural policies. As a Fulbright grantee to Brazil in 2007, she studied the politics of popular Brazilian music in relation to the nueva canción and nueva trova. For the 2021-22 year, she is the Dorothy W. Gilpatrick University Endowed Fellow in the Humanities. Krista participated in the post-film discussion of Waste Land.
BaoBao Chen — BaoBao Chen is the producer and co-creator of Small Island Big Song, an artistic project drawing on the Pacific and Indian Island diaspora. Having negotiated, booked, planned and tour-managed several successful international concert tours across Europe, the USA, Asia and Oceania, involving up to 13 artists from 8 countries, whilst releasing a music album, creating an interactive website and bringing a feature film to screen, BaoBao now finds herself as one of Taiwan’s most prominent producers of cross-cultural arts projects. She holds a B.A. in Business Management from YuanZe University in Taiwan and is a vivid storyteller, fluent in English and Mandarin. She has been invited to present at TEDx, APAP – NYC, WOMEX, FestPac – Guam, Peace Boat – Japan, World Stage Design, Taipei Arts Festival – Taiwan, Green School – Bali, Stanford Univ, Boston Univ, and numerous film and music festivals. BaoBao introduced Small Island Big Song.
Tim Cole — Tim Cole is the director and co-creator of Small Island Big Song. Tim is an Australian creative who has been working on cross-cultural arts projects with music at the heart since producing Not Drowning Waving’s album and DVD ‘Tabaran’ in Papua New Guinea. He earned a BEd. in Media Arts from Melbourne University and an A.D. in Music Production from the University of Victoria in Australia and has received a Churchill fellowship and invitation to speak on climate change and the arts at the United Nations, APAP – NYC, WOMEX. His career has been equal parts film and music, for artists and events including Archie Roach, The Australian Indigenous Music Awards, Proof & Bran Nue Dae (film soundtracks), Not Drowning Waving, My Friend the Chocolate Cake, The Sing Sing Concerts, Shellie Morris and the Borroloola Songwomen and Circus Oz with 8 years of international touring with seasons on Broadway in New York City and the West End in London. His reputation in Indigenous arts led to him to Alice Springs as Senior Music Producer for CAAMA – Central Australian Aboriginal Media Association. It was the experiences here recording traditional songlines whilst hearing the 5th IPCC report, which led to the founding of Small Island Big Song. Tim introduced the screening of Small Island Big Song.
Rainbow Dickerson — Rainbow Dickerson is an actress best known for her work in the award winning feature, Beans (2020), for which she was recognized as Toronto International Film Festival Rising Star 2020, ABC Disney Discovers recipient, and Vancouver Film Critic’s Best Supporting Actress 2021. In addition to her performances on screen, she has worked on Broadway in August: Osage County and with various theaters across the country. Rainbow participated in the post-film conversation of Beans.
Kirk French — Kirk French is an anthropological archaeologist at Penn State whose early research focused on ancient water management technologies and land use practices in Mesoamerica. Over the past several years he has focused on the small-scale, local production, and cultural meanings of alcoholic beverages through time and space. His comparative approach to alcohol production has led him to many parts of the world to investigate, research, and film the social and economic impact of the world’s earliest and most widespread intoxicant. In 2020, Kirk released Land and Water Revisited, which took William T. Sanders’s classic ethnographic film from 1961 and returned it to the community where it was filmed, to see how the ecologies of the area near Mexico City have changed over the past 60 years. Kirk participated in the post-film conversation of Land and Water Revisited.
Duke and Monica Gastiger — Duke and Monica Gastiger are LLC managing members and creators of RE Farm Café. During Duke’s “corporate life” with Sheraton and Hyatt Hotels he embraced the priceless training with master chefs from around the world, learning the essence and nuances of each of their cuisines. With a strong entrepreneurial drive, Duke returned to Penn State in 1985 to acquire The Rathskeller, opened Spats Café and Speakeasy in 1987, and continued as Chef/Owner with Monica until 2018. Monica’s first career as a landscape architect drove her appreciation for responsible development, recognizing land and environment are limited resources to be respected. Always a home gardener, Monica embraced locally grown foods and an appreciation for healthy options. Monica is also a speech-language pathologist working in the education sector. The Gastigers purchased Windswept Farm in 2017 and after 2 years of construction opened RE Farm Café in the summer of 2019. Duke and Monica participated in the post-film conversation of Kiss the Ground.
Dr. Hollie Kulago – Hollie Kulago is an associate professor of education at Penn State. She came to Penn State from teaching at Elmira College and her research focuses, among other things, on Indigenous teacher education; critical Indigenous curriculum and pedagogy (centering indigenous knowledges and philosophies); current teacher education certification examination requirements for Indigenous teacher candidates; and Indigenous family, school, and community relationships. She is working to establish a land-based pedagogy at Penn State. Hollie is Diné (Navajo), originally from the Navajo Nation in Arizona. She joined us for a post-film discussion of Beans.
Travis Lesser – Travis is the Founder & Executive Director of Appalachian Food Works. He is a 2001 graduate of Methodist University (NC) with a B.S. in Business Administration with a concentration in Professional Golf Management, and a 2014 graduate of Penn State University’s Smeal College of Business with an MBA in Marketing & Entrepreneurship. In addition to his work as an Adjunct Professor in Penn State’s cross-college Entrepreneurship Minor, he is also the co-Founder and CEO of Cityscape Farm Supply, a local startup that manufactures and sells elevated raised garden beds. A native Central Pennsylvanian, Travis lives in State College where he enjoys the vast array of outdoor activities that the region has to offer. He joined us for a post-film discussion panel after Kiss the Ground.
Zach Lorber – Chef Lorber is the culinary arts instructor at State College Area High School, past president of the Southern Allegheny Chefs Association, and lover of delicious shenanigans. Originally from Wisconsin, he lives in Port Matilda with his wife, three sons, and dog. Lorber is passionate about local foods and loves supporting local farmers; when not caring for his family, teaching, or working on graduate classes at Penn State, he volunteers with Taproot Kitchen, Chefs on Stage, and enjoys educating others about food and cooking. Zach joined us for a post-film panel discussion after Kiss the Ground.
Emily Pakhtigian — Emily Pakhtigian is an assistant professor of public policy at Penn State. Her research examines the causes and consequences of human interactions with the natural environment. Her research interests include environmental health, water and sanitation, air pollution, human capital accumulation, and water resource management. Pakhtigian’s work focuses primarily on contexts in low- and middle-income countries including Bangladesh, India, Nepal, and Indonesia. Emily holds a Ph.D. in public policy, with a concentration in economics, from the Sanford School of Public Policy at Duke University. She has an M.A. in economics from Duke University and B.A.s in economics and political science from Moravian College. Emily participated in the post-film discussion of Land and Water Revisited.
Laurel Pearson — Laurel Pearson is an assistant teaching professor of anthropology at Penn State, from which she also received her doctorate in genetics. Her research interests focus on biological anthropology, human genetic and phenotypic variation, population genetics, health disparities, and complex disease. Laurel moderated the post-film discussion of Land and Water Revisited.
Tracy Peterson — Tracy Peterson is the director of student transitions and pre-college programs in Penn State College of Engineering’s Center for Engineering Outreach and Inclusion (CEOI). He works on establishing regional and national outreach and engagement through pre-college programs, developing programs to enhance college readiness and increasing the participation and support of underrepresented, low-income and first-generation college students. He previously served as the director of the American Indian Program House at Cornell University and as Director of Diversity and Outreach Programs at the University of Iowa. A member of the Diné (Navajo) Nation, Tracy is a Cobell Scholar, a national program named for Elouise Cobell, the pioneering activist who is the subject of the film 100 Years: One Woman’s Quest for Justice. Tracy joined us for the post-film discussion of Beans.
Manuel Rosaldo — Manuel Rosaldo is an Assistant Professor of Labor and Employment Relations at Penn State University. His research focuses on the potentials and constraints for labor rights organizing among precarious informal workers, who have historically been excluded from both labor rights legislation and labor unions. His PhD at the University of California at Berkeley analyzed waste pickers’ struggles to win state recognition and remuneration for their labor in Brazil and Colombia. He also holds a Master’s in Global Affairs from New York University, where he wrote a thesis on the commercialization of microfinance in southern Mexico. His undergraduate thesis at Wesleyan University analyzed binational family relations between immigrant janitors in Connecticut and the family that they left behind in Mexico, Peru, and Chile. He is beginning a project looking at the connections of the labor movement with the climate movement. Previously, he has worked as an organizer and researcher for the UNITE HERE! and SEIU labor unions. Manuel participated in the post-film discussion of Waste Land.
