People

The exact make-up of persons involved with the TWISTS project varies from project to project due to our workshop-based performance development process.

Core People

  • Saul Halfon

    Saul Halfon is Co-Director of the TWISTS project and Associate Professor of Science and Technology Studies at Virginia Tech (Blacksburg, VA). Since 2005, he has also served as Co-Director of the award-winning Choices and Challenges public forum series on science and technology at Virginia Tech and in that capacity has directed forums on Climate Change and Nuclear Power. His research interests focus on controversial science and technology issues, with particular focus on the relations between authoritative and silenced voices in such disputes. He has authored a book on international population policy and recent papers on international GM food controversies, controversies over depleted uranium, and discursive practices in Iraq War reconstruction.

  • Ann Kilkelly

    Ann Kilkelly is TWISTS Creative Director and Professor of Theatre Arts at Virginia Tech (Blacksburg, VA). Kilkelly is recognized nationally as an expert in performance studies and interactive performance techniques. She has received Smithsonian Senior Fellowships and a National Endowment for the Humanities Collaborative Research Grant, and has co-authored and directed several plays based on science and technology issues. She is a co-creator of the Community Arts Network (communityarts.net); and with Robert H. Leonard, co-authored Performing Communities: A Study of Eight U.S.  Grassroots Theatre Ensembles and Their Communities. She was the recipient of the College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences Outreach Award in 2007.

  • Jane Lehr

    Jane Lehr is Co-Director of the TWISTS project and Assistant Professor of Ethnic Studies and Women’s & Gender Studies at  California Polytechnic State University (San Luis Obispo, CA). In 2005-06, Lehr served as a Post-Doctoral Research Officer in the Center for Informal Learning and Schools (NSF ESI-0119787) in the Department of Education and Professional Studies at King’s College London. She was involved with the Choices and Challenges public forum series on science and technology at Virginia Tech from  2000-07, most recently as Coordinator of Special Projects. Her current research explores how formal and informal education serves as a site of training for future participation by scientific and technical experts and public(s) in scientific and technical decision-making practices, with particular attention to issues of social justice and diversity. In 2009, the Center for the Advancement of Informal Science Education (2009) released an Inquiry Group Report entitled, Many Experts, Many Audiences: Public Engagement with Science and Informal Science Education, which Lehr co-authored.

  • Cora Olson

    Cora Olson is the 2008-10 TWISTS Graduate Research Associate at Virginia Tech, where she is a doctoral student in Science and Technology Studies. Olson’s dissertation interests include various critiques and uses of performance in identity and policy constructions.