Astrid Hadad, (she/her) Artist, musician, and performer 

Astrid Hadad, born in Chetumal, Quintana Roo, is a graduate of the Centro Universitario de Teatro. She is a fugitive from the Faculty of Political and Social Sciences of the University of Mexico. Hadad uses cabaret and performance to represent the social, cultural and political crisis in Mexico and, in turn, to entertain. Since she rejected institutional sponsorship and affiliation very early in her career, she has written, produced, managed and promoted her work, creating audiences in Mexico, the US, Europe, Australia, Canada and Latin America. She is internationally known for her works Heavy Nopal, La Multimamada, La Pecadora, Seducida y Abandonada, and Heart Bleeding. As a vocalist, her music CDs circulate internationally.

Umair Jaffar, Executive Director, Small World Music

Umair Jaffar is the Executive Director of Small World Music, one of Toronto’s pioneering and most significant presenters of culturally-diverse music. Since arriving in Toronto in 2014, he has worked in curatorial and management roles at major cultural institutions including the Aga Khan Museum and Harbourfront Centre. Prior to immigrating, he was the CEO & Artistic Director for IPAC (Institute for Preservation of Art and Culture), a Pakistan-based non-profit social enterprise that focused on developing sustainable solutions for preserving and promoting indigenous, folk, and traditional performing arts. Umair is a member of the City of Toronto Music Advisory Committee and is also part of grant review jury committees for Toronto Art Council and FACTOR. He serves as a board member for several non-profit art organizations including CAPACOA (Canadian Arts Presenting Association), North York Arts, Musiconnect Asia and Bhutan’s Hidden Kingdom Music Festival. He has an MBA from University of Adelaide, Australia and a MSc Cultural Anthropology from University of Oxford, UK.

Mark Katz, (he/him) John P. Barker Distinguished Professor of Music and Director of Graduate Studies, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Mark Katz holds degrees from the College of William and Mary (B.A. in philosophy) and the University of Michigan (M.A., Ph.D. in musicology). Before joining the faculty at UNC, he taught at the Peabody Conservatory of Johns Hopkins University (1999–2006). His scholarship focuses on music and technology, hip hop, cultural diplomacy, and the violin. He is former editor of the Journal of the Society for American Music and served for many years on the National Recording Preservation Board. Katz has served on the Boards of Directors of the American Musicological Society and the Society for American Music. He is a former chair of the Department of Music and former Director of UNC’s Institute for the Arts and Humanities. In 2013, Katz became the founding Director of Next Level, a U.S. Department of State–funded program that sends U.S. hip hop artists abroad to foster cultural exchange, conflict transformation, and entrepreneurship. Until 2019, when Katz stepped down as Director, the program conducted workshops in 30 countries on six continents, and generated more than $5 million in grants. His work in promoting the arts and music education in underserved communities has been recognized through awards from the Freedoms Foundation, the Hip-Hop Education Center, and Indy Weekly. Professor Katz speaks frequently on music, cultural diplomacy, conflict transformation, and entrepreneurship to academic and non-academic audiences.

Julia Palacios Franco, (she/her) Liaison and Special Projects Coordinator of the Communication Department, Universidad Iberoamericana

Julia Palacios holds a doctorate in History from the Universidad Iberoamericana. She is a specialist in the subject of music. Within her research lines are: Media History, Entertainment, Communication and Society, History of rock in Mexico, and Popular rock culture. She has lectured and presented papers in different forums and universities in Mexico, the United States, Canada, Europe, and Latin America, on popular culture, rock, comics, oral history, and Mexico / United States migrations. She is also a contributor to Ibero 90.9 Radio. She has participated in various radio and television programs such as: NRM, Grupo Imagen, Grupo Radio Centro, W Radio, Channel 11, Channel 22, Proyecto 40, and ADN40. 

Eric Fillion, Buchanan postdoctoral fellow and term adjunct, Department of History, Queen’s University

Eric Fillion is a Buchanan postdoctoral fellow and term adjunct in the Department of History at Queen’s University. His research explores the social and symbolic importance of music, within countercultures and in Canadian international relations. His ongoing work on cultural diplomacy and Canadian-Brazilian relations builds on the experience he has acquired as a musician. It also informs his current postdoctoral research on the postwar Canadian cultural public sphere: his two main projects examine the political art of the internationalist left and the music festival phenomenon. An affiliate of the North American Cultural Diplomacy Initiative (NACDI), he is the founder of the Tenzier archival record label and the author of JAZZ LIBRE et la révolution québécoise: musique-action, 1967-1975. He is currently finalizing his next book, titled Distant Stage: Quebec, Brazil, and the Making of Canada’s Cultural Diplomacy (1937-1952), for McGill-Queen’s University Press.