Join us for the last Food For Thought event of the season. Featuring Ilya Vidrin (Theatre and Dance) and Pierre Tchetgen (Music). Each Faculty member will share a short presentation about their research and lunch will be served!

Dr. Pierre-Valery Njenji Tchetgen is a Black music scholar and cultural worker at the intersection of Africana studies, literacy studies, digital humanities and drummologie. His scholarship and teaching in CAMD include expertise in Music of the African Diaspora, Hip Hop Poetry, African music theory, Experience Design, Education+XR and serious games. He is the inventor of the Drumball tangible user interface for early literacy acquisition that is inspired by the African talking drums. He is currently working on two main projects: the Urban Griot Playground ecology for early childhood pedagogy, and a book project entitled “Urban Griots: Towards a Theory of Digital Orality” exploring the implications and applications for the Diaspora of drum language innovation in the 21st century. Dr. Njenji Tchetgen (who also goes by Akwerius, or kwe for short) is the Founder and Ambassador of the Music is Healing Collective, where he uses music as a vehicle for social change to break down barriers of bias and motivate youth toward social justice in order to improve the livability and vibrancy of communities worldwide, and bring people from diverse paths together to promote Unity through Music.

Dr. Ilya Vidrin is a choreographer, dramaturg, and director of The Partnering Lab. Born into a refugee family, Ilya’s work engages with and investigates ethics of physical interaction, including the embodiment of care, trust, cultural competence, consent, and social responsibility. As an Assistant Professor of Creative Practice Research and Core Faculty at the Institute for Experimental Robotics, Ilya draws on concepts and methods in social epistemology, performance philosophy, ethics of care, dance studies, and cognitive psychology. Ilya has been featured as one of Dance Magazine’s “25 to Watch” (2022), and has been an artist-in-residence at Jacob’s Pillow (’18, ’19, ’23), National Choreographic Center, MIT Media Lab, Harvard ArtLab, L.A. Contemporary Dance Company, North Atlantic Ballet, Ballet Des Monies, Schwerin Ballet, the National Parks Service, The Walnut Hill School, Interlochen Arts Academy, Boston Center for the Arts, Le Laboratoire, Museum of Fine Arts (Boston), and the NewMuseum (NYC).

Ilya is an alum of Northeastern, where he pursued undergraduate studies in Cognitive Psychology, Neuroscience, and Rhetorical Theory. He ​holds a Master’s Degree in Human Development and Psychology ​from​ Harvard University, and a doctorate in Performing Arts ​from the Centre for Dance Research at​ Coventry University (United Kingdom). His fieldwork involved creative research residencies with The Royal Swedish Ballet, Berlin Staatsballett, The Cambrians, Boston Ballet, Chicago Hubbard Street, and the Erick Hawkins Dance Company. Ilya has performed works by dance artists including William Forsythe, ​Sidra Bell, Aszure Barton, Ohad Naharin, Brian Brooks, Jill Johnson, Ali Kenner Brodsky, and Jessi Stegall.