Xinyue Wang is a PhD student in media studies at the University of Texas at Austin. She holds an MFA in film from the Beijing Film Academy and a BA in English from the University of Science and Technology Beijing.

Her research interests encompass two aspects. She focuses on the intersection of critical media industry studies, trauma studies, and feminist film studies, with a special emphasis on both the on-screen and off-screen contexts of female-authored genre film and television, particularly in horror, crime, and science fiction genres. Aside from that, her research interest lies in the connection between haptics technology, immersive narrative media, and female pleasure through feminist STS, affect theory, and feminist media studies. Her work is forthcoming in Screen Bodies (Vol. 9.1).

Shianne Salazar is a first-generation Trinidadian-American writer, director, podcaster, and wardrobe coordinator from South Florida now based in Austin, Texas. Across mediums, her content explores the relationship between African diasporas and contemporary culture through a variety of genres and tonal approaches.

Area of Focus: Coming of Age, Gender Representation, Black Life

Ryan Darbonne is a filmmaker, editor, and stage director whose work passionately explores Black identity. He is a three-time recipient of the Austin Film Society grant and has won several B. Iden Payne awards for his stage work. Other notable achievements include co-founding Austin’s first Black improv troupe, participating in the 2019 AFS Artist Intensive, and editing on the Netflix animated series Castlevania: Nocturne.

After being out of school since 2009, he's excited to return to academia in pursuit of an MFA in film production.

Micheal is originally from the Piney Woods region of Texas and holds a B.S. in Radio-Television-Film from the University of Texas at Austin. In his studies, Micheal focuses on the representation and roles of women in the music industry by studying music videos and other music media. In addition, he has interests in music streaming culture, global media industries, and emerging media markets. Micheal enjoys spending time with friends and crate digging in his free time.  

Professional Links & Recent Works 

• LinkedIn: Yenny Kang

Fitzgerald Junior is a filmmaker and multidisciplinary artist working across narrative, documentary, music, painting and collage. With a gentle gaze his works are an invocation, a call to imagine softness and expansive expressions that disrupt reductive notions of Black masculinity. Fitzgerald’s films are cloaking devices, reparative gestures for the rigid socialization that renders Black men and boys as hyper-sexual, violent and undeserving of safety and second chances.

Fitzgerald Junior is a programmer with Hyphen Film Center, whose mission is to engage, enrich, and educate diverse audiences through innovative cinematic arts exhibition while reducing social barriers to participation. His empathic space-making abilities have produced once in a lifetime experiences at the intersection of cinema exhibition and community-building. Hyphen Film Center proudly serves the city of Louisville, Kentucky, and is currently in its third season of programming.

Fitzgerald Junior is a disabled veteran with combat service in Iraq and Afghanistan. He is a proud member of Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity, Inc.

Areas of Emphasis: Black men and boys, speculative fantasy, experimental non-fiction, video art, painting, collage, photography.

Zoe Dahmen: filmmaker, Austinite, woman with a day job. In this space Zoe will create a broad yet narrow definition of who she is, and who she might become.  She will explain how her work is uniquely similar to a thing you already love, and will do so in a way that isn’t clichè. She will sound utterly fascinating while she communicates every aspect of her life including her origins, inspiration, and the essence of her very soul. She will do this so well that she will make you forget, briefly, that you really don’t care very much. She will talk a little about her accomplishments, and it will sound neither braggy nor inadequate. This bio will tell the story of Zoe, but only the positive one. It will be pithy.