Lydia Heberling is a doctoral candidate in the English department and is writing a dissertation about aesthetic and formal innovations in Pacific coast Indigenous arts and literatures. She participated in the 2017 Summer Institute on Global Indigeneities; led the Indigenous pedagogies group on the 2018 EWP’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Collaboration grant, which emphasized collaborative development of writing curriculum grounded in Indigenous pedagogies; and organized the Simpson Center graduate research cluster for Indigenous Studies for 2018-2019. She has taught writing courses on American Indian and Pacific Indigenous literature and media.
Sebastián López Vergara is a doctoral candidate in Comparative Literature, Cinema and Media. His research is informed by Indigenous Studies, Latin American Studies, and Cultural Studies. He participated in the 2017 Summer Institute on Global Indigeneities, received the 2017 WISIR Research Grant, and was part of the 2018 EWP’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Collaboration Grant. He published with Tony Lucero an essay review on Mapuche scholarship on Latin American Research Review. He also participates in the Simpson Center graduate research cluster for Indigenous Studies. He has taught film, media and English composition classes, Spanish language, and regularly volunteers with University Beyond Bars.