Dr. Richard Shusterman is the Dorothy F. Schmidt Eminent Scholar in the Humanities at Florida Atlantic University and Director of its Center for Body, Mind, and Culture. Educated at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Oxford University, he is internationally recognized for his pioneering work in somaesthetics and pragmatist philosophy. Shusterman has held academic appointments across Europe, Asia, and the United States, and has directed projects for UNESCO. His contributions to philosophy and cultural theory have been honored with awards such as the Chevalier des Palmes Académiques from the French government. He has also been recognized among the Stanford–Elsevier World’s Top 2% Scientists for 2023–2025, based on a global study conducted by researchers at Stanford University and published by Elsevier.
People
Richard Shusterman
PRESIDENT
Aura Yanping Gao
VICE PRESIDENT
Aura Yanping Gao was a tenured Associate Professor in the Literature Institute at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in Beijing and is currently a fellow at Florida Atlantic University’s Center for Body, Mind, and Culture. An expert on Johann Winckelmann and the principal translator of his work in Chinese, she specializes in 18th century aesthetics.
Her current work also focuses on the transactions between Asian and Western philosophies and cultures. As Vice President, she supports the Center’s educational initiatives and international collaborations.
Seth P. Stein
SECRETARY-TREASURER
Seth P. Stein is a seasoned attorney with extensive experience in nonprofit and real estate law. He served as the Chair of the Not-For-Profit Practice Group at Moritt Hock & Hamroff LLP, concentrating on representing programs and agencies providing services to individuals with disabilities.
Stein’s practice involved comprehensive program development, including incorporation, site acquisition, negotiation of state agency assistance, and compliance with zoning and environmental regulations.
He is also the founder of the Law Firm of Seth Stein P.C., a boutique NYC real estate transactional law firm serving clients nationally since 2010.
Advisory Board
Martin Jay
Dr. Martin Jay received his doctorate from Harvard in 1971 and taught 45 years at the University of California at Berkeley, where he held the Sidney Hellman Ehrman chair in History. He specializes in Modern European Intellectual History, Visual Culture, and Critical Theory. His work has been translated into more than twenty languages and has been recognized by fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Rockefeller Foundation, and The American Council of Learned Societies, and by election to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Philosophical Society.
Else Marie Bukdahl
Dr. Else Marie Bukdahl is a scholar of comparative literature and art history and served as Rector of the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts from 1985-2005. Elected to both the Danish and Norwegian Societies of Letters and Sciences, she was awarded the rank of Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French government. Here major books include Diderot, critique d’art; Johannes Wiedewelt: from Winckelmann’s vision of antiquity to sculptural concepts of the 1980s; The Islamic golden age in Spain: Architecture and Science in Cordoba and Granada; and The Recurrent Actuality of the Baroque.
Louis J. Muglia
Dr. Louis Muglia, MD PhD, is President and CEO of the Burroughs Wellcome Fund, a research foundation accelerating discovery in the biomedical sciences. Previously, he served as Vice Chair for Research and Professor of Pediatrics at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center. Priorities at Burroughs Wellcome Fund include climate change and human health, fostering interdisciplinary science, promoting diversity, and partnering science and the arts. Lou has been elected to the Association of American Physicians, Fellow in the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the National Academy of Medicine, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Charles Johnson
Dr. Charles Johnson, University of Washington (Seattle) professor emeritus and the author of 27 books, is a prize-winning novelist, philosopher, essayist, literary scholar, short-story writer, cartoonist and illustrator, an author of children’s literature, a screen-and-teleplay writer, and a MacArthur fellow. His most recent publications are The Way of the Writer: Reflections on the Art and Craft of Storytelling; Night Hawks, his fourth short story collection; All Your Racial Problems Will Soon End: The Cartoons of Charles Johnson; GRAND: A Grandparent’s Wisdom for a Happy Life; and the graphic novel The Eightfold Path.
ORLAN
ORLAN uses sculpture, photography, performance, video, 3D, video games, augmented reality, artificial intelligence, robotics, holograms, the metaverse, as well as scientific and medical techniques such as surgery and biotechnology. She opposes natural, social and political determinism, all forms of domination, male supremacy, religion, cultural segregation, racism. Always mixed with humor and sometimes parody, her work questions social phenomena and challenges pre-established codes.
Tracie Costantino
Dr. Tracie Costantino is an educator and academic leader served as Provost at the California Institute of the Arts and earlier as Associate Provost at the Rhode Island School of Design, after a decade in the classroom as tenured faculty at the University of Georgia. Her research in aesthetic education focuses on the nature of cognition in the arts, creativity, and the transformative potential of aesthetic experience. She currently serves as Editor of the Journal of Aesthetic Education.
Dmitri N. Shalin
Dr. Dmitri N. Shalin is professor of sociology and director of the Center for Democratic Culture at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Dr. Shalin is coordinator of Justice & Democracy Forum series, editor of the Social Health of Nevada Report, director of the Erving Goffman Archives and International Biography Initiative, and organizer of international forums on Russian politics and culture. His research interests and publications are in the areas of biohermeneutics, neurosociology, emotional intelligence, pragmatism, democratic culture, and Russian society.
Pradeep A Dhillon
Dr. Pradeep A Dhillon is Professor Emerita in the Department of Educational Policy, Leadership and Organization, at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaigne. Her scholarly interests are interdisciplinary, with a focus on the philosophy of language, culture, and aesthetics from a global perspective. She received her PhD from Stanford University with a dissertation that studied the settling of English and architectural styles in India. From 2001-2021 she served as the editor of The Journal of Aesthetic Education.
Arthur Cohen
Arthur Cohen, agrégé in philosophy and a member of the Doctoral School of Philosophy for the Universities of Lyon and Grenoble, has a research focus in philosophy and art. Chairman of the Board of the distinguished Parisian publishing house Editions Hermann (founded in 1876), he is currently establishing the company’s branch in New York City, Hermann Press Corporation, which will be launching a series of small-format art books in 2026.
