The Lab Team

Derek Goldman is Professor of Theater and Performance Studies at Georgetown University and co-Founding Director of the Laboratory for Global Performance and Politics. In 2016 he was honored to receive the prestigious President’s Award for Distinguished Scholar-Teachers. From 2007 to 2016, he served as Artistic Director of the Davis Performing Arts Center at Georgetown.

He is an award-winning stage director, … FULL BIO

Cynthia P. Schneider, Distinguished Professor in the Practice of Diplomacy at Georgetown University, teaches, publishes, and organizes initiatives in the field of cultural diplomacy, with a focus on relations with the Muslim world. Ambassador Schneider co-directs the Los Angeles-based MOST Resource (Muslims on Screen and Television). Additionally, she co-directs the Timbuktu Renaissance, … FULL BIO

Mélisande Short-Colomb is a rising third-year student at Georgetown College, and, a founding member of the GU272 Advocacy Team. She also serves on the Georgetown Memory Project’s Board of Advisors, as well as Council Elder of the GU@72 Descendants Association. Mélisande is a descendant of two families sold in 1838 by the Society of Jesus to keep Georgetown College afloat. … FULL BIO

Ijeoma Njaka is an experiential learning designer, educator, and writer. Throughout her career, Ijeoma has specialized in inclusive pedagogy and anti-bias education for student, faculty, and staff audiences. In her work, she draws from arts and museum education, engaged humanities, and speculative fiction to facilitate learning, agency, and social change. Prior to joining The Lab, … FULL BIO

Asif Majid is a scholar-artist-educator who researches, teaches, performs, and makes work at the intersection of performance and politics. Particularly, he does this in terms of devising, improvisation, and participatory theatre with marginalized communities. Asif is pursuing a practice-based PhD in Anthropology, Media, and Performance at The University of Manchester, earned an MA with Distinction in Conflict Resolution from Georgetown University, … FULL BIO

Emma Jaster is an internationally trained director, choreographer, and facilitator based in the U.S.  She has led projects with U-Theatre in Taiwan, the Natanakairali Institute in India, Robert Wilson’s Watermill Center, LaMama’s Directors’ Symposium, and the Grotowski-based Teatr Zar in Poland.  She has been granted artist residencies at ODC in San Francisco, HERE Arts and BAX in NYC,

Mary Sturgis is a first-year Masters of Science in Foreign Service student at Georgetown University, where she focuses on cultural diplomacy, media and the press, and U.S. foreign policy in Spanish, French, and Portuguese-speaking countries. Her role as Communications Associate for The Lab allows her to apply her background in project management and communications to her passion for theater, … FULL BIO

Julia (JT) Tvardovskaya is in her second year of a dual-degree program (MBA/Master of Science in Foreign Service) at Georgetown University. Working at the Lab as the Operations Associate has allowed JT to follow all three of her passions, theatre, international relations, and business. Her background in business includes working in accounting roles, business development, … FULL BIO

Alyssa is in her third year of her undergraduate studies at Georgetown University, studying Global Health with a minor in Theology in the School of Nursing and Health Studies. Her passion for politics and performance stems back to her time in high school at the Orange County School of the Arts where she studied acting and directing, … FULL BIO

Lilinaz Hakimi is a senior at Bethesda Chevy Chase High School, enrolled in the full International Baccalaureate Diploma program. As a theater conservatory student and international relations enthusiast, Lilinaz is a high school intern at the Laboratory for Global Performance and Politics. Growing up in Iran, Lilinaz quickly found acting and art as a medium for self-expression. … FULL BIO

Within the Culture and Politics program in the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University, Aly Panjwani studies the role of the arts in political resistance, specifically examining Islamophobic narrative setting in U.S. national security policy and how theatre and the arts can combat these homogenous state narratives. Furthermore, his research focuses on statelessness, occupation, … FULL BIO