John Lennon is Associate Professor at the University of South Florida. His book project, Conflict Graffiti, follows the global roots and routes of graffiti in areas experiencing war, poverty, and natural disasters. He is in the initial stages of this project that will take him to numerous geographical regions to investigate, photograph, and theoretically analyze graffiti in a particular area and context (its roots) before teasing out the ways that the form itself speaks and is interpreted by a global audience (its routes). While Lennon’s talk will touch on his overarching thoughts on graffiti, he will specifically speak about his findings of revolutionary graffiti in recent trips to Beirut, Lebanon and Cairo, Egypt.

Dr Temi Odumosu is an art historian, writer and creative educator, with a passion for bringing to light hidden histories, and using art as a tool for building bridges of cultural understanding. Her PhD thesis at the University of Cambridge explored the representation of African characters in British satirical  and comic prints during the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.

Her research and curatorial work investigates how images frame and participate in identity politics and more broadly explores the relationship between history, cultural heritage and collective memory. Recently she has been working collaboratively with geneticists and other scientists on the effects of the transatlantic slave trade on African health, disease patterns and wider population ancestry. Temi is committed to facilitating public engagement with history and culture, and seeks to participate in collective efforts towards social change by working with artists, scholars and technology innovators to bring transformative learning solutions to life.