Featured Speakers’s Bios:
Jaafar Aksikas is President and CEO of the Institute of Global Arab Media, Democracy and Culture. He is also professor of cultural studies and humanities at Columbia College Chicago, where he chaired both the Cultural Studies Program (2009-2013) and the Humanities Division (2006-2008). He was also most recently President of the Cultural Studies Association (2014-2016). His books and edited volumes include Cultural Studies in Practice; Cultural Studies and the Juridical Turn (2016); Cultural Studies of/and the Law (2014); Arab Modernities: Islamism, Nationalism, and Liberalism in the Post-Colonial Arab World(2009) and The Sirah of Antar: An Interpretation of Arab and Islamic History (2002). He is also Editor of the Cultural Studies and Marxism book series. He currently lives in Chicago.
Renee Tadros is the Creative Director and founder of RST Creatives, a multicultural advertising firm in Chicago and Los Angeles. As a professional with 19+ years of diverse international experience design in both agency and in-house environments. Prior to RST Creatives, Renee spent time as a creative lead at notable firms such as Leo Burnett and Foote Cone Belding putting in a combined tenure of 5 years in the large digital agency environment. Renee worked on multiple global businesses including Coca-Cola, Procter & Gamble, Unilever, leading multiple user-centered initiatives for clients such as Dr. Pepper /7 Up, AOL, Johnson & Johnson and P&G. She is an educator and an interdisciplinary artist, as well as a strong advocate for social justice and gender equality in the state and abroad. Her body of work examines the religious rituals of women, their spiritual role models, how they engage feminism and how their religion establishes agency and authority in their lives. Investigating the daily lives of women, their roles as mothers, daughters, wives, career women and how they manage with shame. The idea of “power” creates a narrative in female and male relationships and how our faith plays a role, while exploring gender and religious divide. Renee teaches courses on art, design and cultural studies and holds a Masters of Arts in Interdisciplinary Art and Cultural Studies from Columbia College Chicago and a BFA (cum laude ) in Visual Communication from Northern Illinois University. She currently resides in the Greater LA area!
