MINDBLOWERS @ PRÓXIMAMENT

Speakers

Yazan Badran is an assistant professor in international media and communication studies at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel, and a researcher at the Echo research group. His research focuses on the intersection between media, journalism and politics particularly in the MENA region and within its exilic and diasporic communities. He was previously a Junior Postdoctoral Fellow of the Research Foundation – Flanders (FWO) (2022-2025) as well as a PhD fellow of the FWO (2016-2020). He has a MSc in Communication Studies from the VUB (2015), and holds a Bachelor of Engineering degree in Computer Science from the Nagoya Institute of Technology in Japan (2013). He has been a visiting scholar at different institutions including Kadir Has University (Istanbul, Turkey), and Centre d’Etudes Maghrébines à Tunis (CEMAT–Tunis, Tunisia).

Adriana Moreno-Cely is an activist-researcher dedicated to exploring collaborative and decolonial approaches to foster sustainable, equitable, and inclusive futures. She seeks to connect different knowledge systems to address the rapidly changing and unpredictable world and to navigate the polycrisis collectively. Adriana highlights the importance of recognizing Indigenous and local knowledge as essential for creating new pathways toward epistemic, social, racial, and environmental justice. She asserts that decolonizing academia is vital, particularly for transdisciplinary collaborations that aim to treat all knowledge systems equally. Her advocacy promotes decentralization, de-privileging, and diversification of knowledge creation, along with the dismantling of artificial disciplinary and knowledge-system boundaries.

Laura Vandewynckel studied Language and Literature at Ghent University and dramatic and audiovisual arts at RITCS School of Arts Brussels. Her stop-motion film Paradise (2014), a lighthearted yet critical reflection on ‘ethical’ tourism, was selected for La Cinef Cannes and TIFF. Thanks to the Sifnos Award La Cinef, she created the short film Pharmakos (2017) on the Greek island of Sifnos. The film documents a collective reenactment of the Greek Pharmakos ritual with the island’s inhabitants. Her animated short film Le Crépuscule (2023) explores the effect of nightmare news on the collective mind and is currently touring international film festivals.

Laura has also written and directed several theatrical plays, including A modest contribution (2018), about good intentions with bad consequences, and the participatory performance Stick Together (2021), inspired by stick games, dances, and fights from around the world. Her most recent production is Lost in LEO (2023), a puppet performance about impact and climate change from the perspective of space debris.

She teaches Concept & Scenario and Transversal Atelier at RITCS, and is currently completing a PhD on the potential of automata as activist and therapeutic tools. 

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