Theme: 21st Century Revival of the Liberal Arts

In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience. At a TEDx event, TEDTalks video and live speakers combine to spark deep discussion and connection in a small group. These local, self-organized events are branded TEDx, where x = independently organized TED event. The TED Conference provides general guidance for the TEDx program, but individual TEDx events are self-organized (subject to certain rules and regulations).

TEDx UIW
4301 Broadway St.
San Antonio, Texas, 78209
United States

Benjamin Miele

Associate Professor

Dr. Miele teaches and studies early modern British literature and culture, the environmental Humanities, surveillance studies, sustainability studies, environmental justice, and social justice. He is Associate Professor of English, Coordinator of UIW's interdisciplinary concentration in Sustainability Studies, the Chair of the Sustainability Advisory Board, and was recently awarded a fellowship by the USDA to join the 2023 cohort of the E. Kika de la Garza Fellows, which will strengthen partnerships between Hispanic-serving Institutions (HSI's) such as UIW and the USDA. In his free time he enjoys working in UIW's community and pollinator gardens, spaces open to the San Antonio community for viewing, volunteering, and harvesting.

Doshie Piper

Associate Professor

Dr. Doshie Piper is an Associate Professor of Criminal Justice at the University of the Incarnate Word. She earned her Doctorate of Philosophy in Juvenile Justice from Prairie View A&M University. She also holds a Master’s and Bachelors in Criminal Justice from the University of Cincinnati. A specialist in community, Dr. Piper is particularly interested in the intersection of reintegration and faith community’s capacity to deal with reentry needs. Dr. Piper is interested in engaging students outside of the classroom. Her courses typically included a service learning component to expose students to the realities of justice work.

Javier Clavere

Dean, College of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences

Javier Clavere is an award-winning polymath scholar and performer. His research interests include systems theory, entrepreneurship, Stoicism, Pragmatism, Christianity, sacred music, popular music, Foucauldian studies, semiotics, semioethics, semiotics and globalization, multi-modality and the semiotics of educational processes. His research in educational leadership includes peace and conflict resolution-transformation through the arts, as well as leadership in systemic change, diversity and inclusion, higher education administration, assessment in higher education and strategic program design. His training and expertise in technology have expanded into music production, audio engineering, recording, live streaming, e-media, video production, and instructional technologies and pedagogies.

John Kainer

Assistant Professor, Chair Sociology Department

John Kainer, Ph.D. is the Department Chair and Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University of the Incarnate Word (UIW). He completed his Ph.D. in Sociology at Texas A&M University in the Fall of 2017 with a focus on culture and theory. In his research, Dr. Kainer examines food, culture and the modern food system to better our understanding of the connections and tensions between each one. In addition, he takes the same topics and uses them as vehicles for exploring deep questions about meaning, purpose, happiness, ethics, justice, love and belonging. Prior to joining the faculty at UIW, he taught at Texas A&M, the University of Texas at San Antonio, and Our Lady of the Lake University. He joined the UIW faculty in the Fall of 2020 and took over as Department Chair in Fall of 2021.

Liz Fisher

Assistant Professor

Liz Fisher is an interdisciplinary theatermaker and educator based in Central Texas. Her directing work explores applications of mixed realities, immersive theatre strategies, and game mechanics in new play development and reimaginings of classic texts for companies and academic institutions like Fusebox Festival, Pittsburgh Public, The Tank [NYC], Zach Theatre, Penfold Theatre, Street Corner Arts, Shrewd Productions, Austin Shakespeare, National Women’s Theatre Festival, Whirligig Productions, University of Texas at Austin, James Madison University, Mary Baldwin University, St. Edward’s University, Southwestern University, University of Arkansas, and others. She has been invited to residencies across the country to develop new plays that focus on transmedia storytelling, including The Orchard Project and the National Winter Playwrights Retreat. Her digital theater work has been streamed on the Emmys OTT platform and a winner of the Broadway On Demand’s Stage/Screen Festival.

Lopita Nath

Professor, Chair History and Asian Studies

Dr. Lopita Nath is the Chair of the History Department and the Coordinator of the Asian Studies Program at the University of the Incarnate Word, San Antonio, Texas. She previously taught at The College of William and Mary, Williamsburg, Virginia, University of Virginia’s College at Wise, and Cotton College, Guwahati, India She has taught for over 31 years, in the fields of Asian and World History, Migration Studies, Refugee Issues and Human Rights. Dr. Nath is a Fulbright Scholar and the recipient of the Social Science Research Council Award. At UIW she was awarded the Edward A. Zlotkowski Faculty Award for Service Learning(2020), Minnie Piper Award UIW Nominee (2020-21, 2014-15), Presidential Teaching Award (2019) and the Moody Professor Award (2015). Her research expertise is on Migration in Asia, human displacement, refugees, citizenship, and human rights. Her current research focuses on the Bhutanese Refugee Resettlement in the USA.

Muhammad Manzur Alam

Assistant Professor

Dr. Muhammad Manzur Alam is an Assistant Professor of English at the University of the Incarnate Word in San Antonio, Texas. He earned a Ph.D. in Literary and Cultural Studies from West Virginia University. His doctoral dissertation focuses on the representation of material rifts in South Asian Anglophone fiction and examines how colonial and capitalist interventions disintegrate postcolonial environments. His research interests lie in the areas of ecocriticism, South Asian Anglophone literature, and world literature. He has made conference presentations and publications on South Asian literature, political discourses, ecocriticism, and the Indo-Caribbean writer V.S. Naipaul.

Sean Viña

Assistant Professor

Dr. Sean Viña began his sociology career at Huston-Tillotson University, a Historically Black college in Austin, Texas. After spending two years at HTU, he transferred to the University of Texas at San Antonio, where he earned his Bachelor's and Master of Science degrees. Sean went on to complete his Ph.D. in Sociology at Indiana University, specializing in health and stigma. His research primarily focuses on the impact of social inequality and stigmas on access to and utilization of health resources, as well as health outcomes. One of Sean's notable works is his book titled "Health and Inequality in Standup Comedy" published by Lexington Press. In this book, he delves into the role of stigma and structural inequality as barriers to open conversations about trauma, mental health, and social taboos. Sean has also published research on the effects of structural inequality, such as racism, sexism, and classism, on psychedelic use and the associated health outcomes.

Tanja Stampfl

Professor, Chair English Department

Dr. Tanja Stampfl is Professor of English and has taught courses in English, Women’s and Gender Studies, Cultural Studies, and Student Success at UIW since 2009. Her scholarship reflects those same areas of interest, such as her monograph A Century of Encounters: Writing the Other in Arab North Africa (Routledge 2019) which examines American, British, and Arab encounters in fiction over the course of the 20th century. She has published several journal articles on the complexities of national belonging in postcolonial literature and co-authored articles on gender and acts of mothering in American, Arab, and Swiss literature. Currently she is co-editing a special edition on displacement in the Journal of Sciences Institute with Dr. Ismail Avcu and completing a book proposal entitled Searching for the Motherland. Complementing her literary scholarship, Stampfl has co-written articles on teaching, professional development, writing across the curriculum, and student success.