New Haven Independent

The press release for the event described it as follows:

This winter, seven scholars—from the disciplines of history, aesthetics,
history of art, dance ethnology, theater, videography, and ethnomusicology—embarked
on a collaborative research project in Africa to study the D’mba mask of the
Baga people of Guinea. Recently returned from the field, the interdisciplinary
panel discussed the results of their research on the multisensory D’mba
performance.


Panelists:

David C. Conrad, retired Professor of African History at the State University
of New York, Oswego, is an ethnohistorian specializing in oral tradition, social
structure, indigenous systems of belief, and the influence of Islam among the
Mande in Guinea and Mali. He is president and founder of the Mande Studies
Association.

Marie Yvonne Curtis is an independent Guinean scholar. She holds a Ph.D. in
ethnoaesthetics from the University of Paris, Sorbonne (1997), and was a Fellow
at the Smithsonian Institution, Washington D.C., in the fall of 2007. Curtis
grew up along the Baga coast and did fieldwork among the Baga and Nalu from 1989
to 1997.

Nicholas Hockin is a Ph.D. candidate in music (ethnomusicology) at Wesleyan
University, where he has taught West African Music and Culture. He teaches
workshops in djembe, dunun, kutiro, mbira, and conga drumming.

Frederick John Lamp, the project director, is the Frances and Benjamin Benenson
Foundation Curator of African Art at the Yale University Art Gallery. Lamp
specializes in the performance art of Sierra Leone and Guinea. His Ph.D. is in
the history of African art (Yale University, 1982) and he studied dance at the
Laban‑Bartenieff Institute of Movement Studies, New York.

Miriam S. Phillips, a dance ethnologist, dance teacher, performer, and Laban
movement analyst, has taught in the Dance Department at Mills College and
Wesleyan University, and has conducted fieldwork in India, the Middle East,
among the Roma in Spain, and among Native Americans.

Benjamin Strange is a sound designer and graduate student in the Yale School of
Drama. He is currently the Artistic Associate of Sound Design at the Yale
Cabaret Theatre and has worked as a Sound Engineer for the Yale Repertory
Theatre.

Rebecca Wexler holds an M.Phil. from Cambridge University and has produced
several film and video documentaries, including “Dune Country” (2004), “Bird
Watching” (2006), and “Uncle Vanya” (2007). She has also served as Archival
Researcher for Viewfinder Productions, New York.