Derek Carr

Is Professor Emertius of the Dept. of French, Hispanic and Italian Studies at UBC, Vancouver. He is a renowned scholar in Spanish Medieval Literature and translation from Medieval Spanish to Modern English.

Amaury de Burgos

Amaury De Burgos obtained his Bachelor of Science, majoring in Pure Mathematics, from the University of British Columbia Okanagan in 2023. During his undergraduate degree, he worked as a Spanish translator for the Go Global program. He is currently pursuing a Master of Science in Mathematics at the University of British Columbia Okanagan.

Mónica Carolina Good

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Hussein Keshani

Dr. Keshani initially studied architecture and design at the University of Manitoba, as well as urban planning. Troubled by the endemic Eurocentricism in his required art history coursework, he decided to pursue studies in art history with a focus on the Islamic World and South Asia at the University of Victoria (UVic), where he completed his MA thesis on the Delhi’s Dargah of Nizamuddin and his PhD dissertation on Lucknow’s Bara Imambara complex. He went on to complete postdoctoral fellowships at UVic, Stanford (IHUM), and MIT (AKPIA). He has been an invited to speak in the UK, Australia, and Algeria and has presented his scholarship at major international scholarly gatherings, which include the Association for Art History, Modern Language Association, College Art Association, and American Historical Association.

As a scholar and a teacher, Keshani’s work crosses multiple disciplines including history, religious and gender studies, digital art history/humanities, world literature, interpretation and art and architectural history. His diverse research practices include, archival and museum research, fieldwork at architectural sites and botanic gardens, coding, and analytical renderings of architectural drawings and digital models.

Aleyna Kirilmis

Aleyna is a fourth-year student of Economics at the University of British Columbia. Though she’s personally very interested in both medieval and the history of religion, her work focuses on managing the project from the Headquarters at UBC-O! As she approaches the end of her undergraduate degree, her research is focused on health and labour economics, but she’s also an enthusiast of films, classic literature, and gardening. If you have any questions about the project, make sure to reach out to her, as she’ll be more than happy to get you in contact with people who can answer your questions!  

Francisco Peña Fernández

Professor at the Department of Languages and World Literatures at the University of British Columbia and Coordinator of the World Literatures Program. He earned his BA in Ancient and Medieval History at the Universidad de Sevilla (Spain) his PhD in Hebrew Philology and Religious Studies at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid (Spain) and his PhD in Medieval Spanish Literature at the University of California, Davis.

His research is wide-ranging and interdisciplinary in nature. It spans Medieval Studies, Literary and Biblical Studies, and Religious Studies. His research engage in a synthesizing analysis of literature, history, and religion so as to develop new understandings of Medieval Iberian cultures. It currently focuses on the connections between Christian and Jewish exegetical traditions, examining Jewish writers that worked on Biblical texts, to piece together the connections between historical religious knowledge and the communities of learned people that created central texts of the period. He has contributed to a rich debate on the role of Judaism in Christian thought in Medieval Spain, which has largely divided American and Spanish medievalists.

Kelly Romero

PhD in Psychopathology of children, adolescents and adults. Universitat Autónoma de Barcelona (Spain). Currently: MA in Education. University of British Columbia. Okanagan Campus.

Jalal Sarrami

Jalal Sarrami holds a BSc in Horticultural Science from Isfahan University of Technology and an MSc in Landscape Design from the University of Tehran. He is currently pursuing an MA in Digital Arts & Humanities at UBC Okanagan to further enhance his expertise. His extensive experience in landscape design is enhanced by his personal enthusiasm for jewelry design, demonstrating his wide array of interests in creativity. Jalal’s expertise in technical matters and artistic sensibilities showcase his dedication to the aesthetics of the environment and his passion for creative self-expression.”

Ana Carla Vallejo Pérez

Ana Carla Vallejo Pérez is a Cuban-Ecuadorian queer disabled multidisciplinary artist, videographer, editor, writer, and musician. She is studying for a Bachelor of Arts degree at the University of British Columbia, majoring in Creative Writing and minoring in Visual Arts, with a focus on film studies. They have produced various short films that have been featured at film festivals such as the Okanagan Screen Awards (OSA) and the Student Okanagan Film Festival (SOFF). She showcased her editing skills in the short documentary, "As Long As I'm Allowed" (2024), which won Best Documentary at SOFF in 2024, as well as Best Storytelling at OSA in 2025. She has had various poetry and short fiction publications in magazines such as Papershell, Inkwell, and an original chapbook called unreasonable thoughts from an unfeasible head (2025). She has interests in cultural studies, art history, world literature, and social justice, which she likes to integrate into her art. 

Salomón Verhelst

Salomón Verhelst Montenegro is a philosopher at Javeriana University, holds a master's degree in philosophy from the National University of Colombia, and is a candidate for a master's degree in digital humanities at the University of British Columbia (UBC). He is a university professor, writer, and poet, with published books of poetry and essays, and has participated in digital humanities and audiovisual projects.

Annie Wan

Dr Annie WAN is an international digital media scholar, primarily research interests in adopting extended realities technologies for well-being and for social good. In 2012 she earned a Doctor of Philosophy at the University of Washington, United States (one of the Public Ivies, ranked 16th best in the World (ARWU 2020)), in Digital Arts and Experimental Media. She grew up in Singapore and UK, has been living in Sweden and the US.

Wan was a Course Leader of BA Virtual Reality in the University of the Arts London, an Assistant Professor in Hong Kong Baptist University and Hong Kong Education University. She was the Principle Investigator of a European Commission’s European Regional Development Fund funded project, ACE IT, which supports London-based start-ups and SMEs to conceptualise, research and develop innovative products and services in the area of virtual/ augmented/ mixed reality/ mobile solutions in 2020-2022.

Her creative works have been exhibited in festivals in Europe, Asia and North America, including Hong Kong Human Rights Art Prize 2018,  Art Neureau: A neuroscience- inspired art show in Seattle in 2017, The Hong Kong Shenzhen Bi-City Biennale of Urbanism\Architecture (UABB), Hong Kong in 2015, Hong Kong Contemporary Art Awards 2012 (Hong Kong, China) and International Festival of Creativity, Ogaki Biennale 2010 (Ogaki, Japan), Innovation & Digital Culture (Canary Islands, Spain), ZeroOne/ ISEA 2006 (San Jose, United States), French Pavilion in 10th Venice Architecture Biennale (Venice, Italy), Art +Communication Festival 2004 (Riga, Latvia), Multimedia Art Asia Pacific Conference 2004 (Singapore), etc.

Other past collaborators include West Kowloon Cultural District Authority, Hong Kong Museum of Art and Hong Kong’s Leisure and Cultural Services Department, The Chinese University of Hong Kong’s Department of Psychology on the Hong Kong’s first IT platform for mental health and well-being.