The ArtSciLab has named Dr. Kathryn Evans, Associate Professor of Instruction in the School of Arts & Humanities of UT Dallas, as Co-Director of Education Initiatives, while also promoting Dr. Yvan Tina and Alex Garcia Topete, two of its longest serving ATEC researchers, to the positions of Deputy Co-Directors of the lab. The leadership promotions come as part of a major re-design of the systems and processes of the ArtSciLab as it adapts to the challenges of managing research, strategy, organizational culture, and operations among a growing group of student lab members and external collaborators.
Dr. Evans, as Co-Director of Education Initiatives of the lab, will oversee the ArtSciLab’s projects that merge diverse disciplines in learning and teaching settings, particularly those involving the growing trend of turning education from “STEM” to “STEAM” education through the arts. Dr. Evans brings to the position not only her years of experience as an educator, but also her many talents as an academic researcher, singer, conductor, director, and producer. The ArtSciLab’s current education initiatives include CDASH (Curriculum Development in the Arts, Sciences and Humanities), ToTTS (Tale of Two Thinking Systems), and Arts-Based Learning for Business (ABLB)–all which were originated by Dr. Evans as a lab researcher.
Dr. Tina will now serve as Deputy Co-Director of Performative Research of the lab. Dr. Tina’s expertise is in performance studies and he will oversee the research projects related to new forms of representation and curation of the arts, with an emphasis on scenic practices involving artificial intelligence and biotechnologies. His role will be to stimulate and strengthen the artistic output of the ArtSciLab. As a performative researcher, he is a founding member and manager of the multilingual and international podcast platform Creative Disturbance, which requires the coordination of a team composed of UX/UI designers, sound designers, and web developers. Dr. Tina is also a member of the Laboratoire d’Études en Sciences des Arts (LESA) of Aix-Marseille University and the artistic director of the Virtual Africa initiative of Leonardo/Olats. He lectures in a number of different venues and conferences and will participate this year to the Next Einstein Forum.
Mr. Garcia Topete will function as Deputy Co-Director of Transdisciplinary Strategy and Collaboration. His main duties will include overseeing the Experimental Publishing and Curation (ExPuCu) efforts of the lab, implementing systems and workflows with the aim of fostering creativity, innovation, and collaboration, and designing transdisciplinary strategies for teamwork and successful knowledge management. His almost two decades of experience in the creative industries as an international filmmaker and film festival organizer, as well as more than a decade in the entrepreneurial and non-profit world, make Mr. Garcia Topete particularly equipped with a multifaceted understanding and transnational perspective of knowledge exchange and social impact to deal with the current and future challenges of the ArtSciLab.
“As the African proverb says: if you want to go fast, go alone; if you want to go far, go together; and we’re definitely trying to go far in our lab,” said Founding Executive Co-Director Dr. Roger Malina about the reasoning for the lab reorganization. With these new leadership positions and overall redesign, the ArtSciLab seeks to improve not only its operations and management, but also provide a better learning environment and culture in which its members and collaborators share knowledge more effectively, mentor each other in their areas of expertise with more ease, and develop further both professionally and personally through their lab participation. Ultimately, the ArtSciLab continues to pioneer in transdisciplinary issues—this time looking to boost the careers and development of everyone involved.