Lecturers
| In addition to the interdisciplinary Teaching Academy drawn from across the College's departments, New Millennium Studies has four full-time Lecturers who serve as the instructional foundation for the program. | |
| Kris Brailey Kris Brailey is a photographer whose work has been shown at the Chicago Cultural Center, City Gallery at the Historic Water Tower, Museum of Science & Industry, Gallery 312, and Fulton Street Gallery in Troy, New York. Kris is currently working on a documentary project entitled The Fred and Betty Show, which entails photographing her family during summer visits to their cottage in Michigan. Kris is the recipient of grants from Illinois Art Council, Art Council of San Francisco, and Columbia College Chicago. Kris received her BA from Grand Valley State University and her MFA from Columbia College Chicago. She has taught photography for College of DuPage, Roosevelt University, and Columbia Chicago Chicago. She has also done photographic workshops for the Terra Museum, The Art Institute of Chicago, and the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago. Kris joined the New Millennium Studies faculty in 2005 and has been an NMS Lecturer since 2007. |  Visit Kris's website here. |
| Lisa DiFranza Lisa DiFranza is a theater director who has worked in educational, community-based, and professional settings. At Portland Stage Company, where she is an Affiliate Artist, she has directed numerous productions, served as Literary and Education Director, produced the Little Festival of the Unexpected—an annual celebration of new work—and edited a volume of plays that originated at the festival. As Artistic Director of The Children's Theater of Maine for seven years, her leadership included the creation and direction of a successful multi-year Young Playwrights Contest, producing the work of students from throughout the State of Maine. She has an ongoing partnership with The University of Iowa's International Writing Program, where she has led several collaborative workshops and directed readings of new writing from around the world. In New York, she has worked at The Juilliard School—where she served on the faculty of the Drama Division for five years—Ensemble Studio Theater, numerous off-off Broadway theaters, and the National Playwrights Conference at the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center. She is currently working in collaboration with the Playwriting Department at Columbia College Chicago, directing readings of new works in progress. Lisa holds a master's degree in Theology and the Arts from Andover Newton Theological School, and has a passionate interest in the ways in which theater and religion intersect. She has taught courses for seminarians at Andover Newton and Bangor Theological Seminary, and led workshops on the spiritual dimensions of voice and performance for numerous theological conferences, institutes, and retreats. Lisa taught in the English Department the University of New England for three years, served as the Founding Director of the Arts Academy—an innovative public high school initiative—and she has worked as a freelance consultant guiding non-profit arts organizations in transition. Lisa joined the New Millennium Studies faculty in 2007. |  |
| James Falzone James Falzone is a composer, clarinetist and improviser. He received his M.M. from New England Conservatory's innovative Contemporary Improvisation Department. His current projects include his own ensembles Allos Musica and Klang as well as performances with the acclaimed French music ensemble Le Bon Vent and Dutch saxophonist Jorrit Dijkstra's Flatlands Collective. James's 2007 recording, The Sign and the Thing Signified, was highly regarded by critics around the world and included in New York Public Radio's top releases of 2007. Michael Nastos of All Music Guide has said of his music: "transcends category, moving into a unique realm . . . witty, piquant and eminently listenable, Falzone extrapolates on past traditions and makes them utterly modern." As a composer, James's works have been performed by many US orchestras and chamber music ensembles. His Beri'ah, for four voices, medieval vielle, and percussion, was commissioned by the Tapestry Vocal Ensemble, premiered at the University of Denver in December of 2007, and toured throughout Latvia and Russia in the summer of 2008. James is also the Resident Composer and Director of Music for Grace Chicago Church where he creates new liturgical works and directs the six-member ensemble in residence. His work has earned him grants and awards from The American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers, The Hilary Swing Fund for Creativity, The Chicago Cultural Center, The New England Foundation for the Arts, The Evanston Community Foundation, The Consulate General of the Netherlands, and the Rotary Foundation. As an educator, James has given lectures and workshops at institutions across the US, Canada, and Europe. He is sought after for his research on the practice and implications of musical improvisation and in 2005 was a visiting scholar at the U.S. Naval War College where he assisted the Navy's Strategic Studies Group in pondering how musical improvisation might shed light on the ever changing war on global terrorism. James joined the New Millennium Studies faculty in 2008. |  Visit James's website here. |
| Fereshteh Toosi Fereshteh Toosi is an interdisciplinary artist whose work has been shown at Groupe Intervention Vidéo in Montréal, Transformer Gallery in Washington DC, Art in General in New York, Urban Institute for Contemporary Art in Grand Rapids, Space 1026 in Philadelphia and the Boston Center for the Arts. She uses cultural icons to explore current events and popular mythologies through work in video, sound, performance, and public intervention. Fereshteh is the recipient of grants from the New York State Council on the Arts, the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, and residencies at the Experimental Sound Studio, the Experimental Television Center, Virginia Center for the Creative Arts and the Berwick Research Institute. Fereshteh received a BA from Oberlin College and taught for two years in Japan before completing her MFA from Carnegie Mellon University's School of Art. She has taught media art in Maryland and Pennsylvania, and recently completed a faculty fellowship in Arts and Civic Engagement at Syracuse University. Fereshteh joined the NMS faculty in 2008 |  See samples of Fereshteh's work here. |