2026 SPE Annual ConferenceSpeakers

Shanna Merola

Thursday, March 19, 2026 @ 2:00pm, Atlanta 2

Reframing the Lens: Identity, Dialogue, and Digital Pedagogy in the Photography

Thursday, March 19, 2026 @ 3:00pm, Georgia 7

Love Canal; Evidence of Injury

Shanna Merola is an artist, photojournalist and legal worker. In addition to her studio practice, she has been a human rights observer during political uprisings across the country - from the struggle for water rights... read more

Harrison Moenich

Thursday, March 19, 2026 @ 2:00pm, Athens

Reflecting the Times: Image-Making and Education in the Shadow of Genocide

Harrison Moenich is an artist living and working in Richmond, Virginia. They received their BFA's from Virginia Commonwealth University in both Film Making and Photography in 2011 and their MFA in Photography from Cranbrook Academy... read more

Mariah Moneda

Thursday, March 19, 2026 @ 2:00pm, Atlanta 1

Catalysts for Community: Kapwa and the Banana Tree

Mariah Moneda (b.1997) is an interdisciplinary artist and educator. She draws on her lived experience as a first-generation born, Filipino-American woman, and utilizes her practice as a tool to explore the liminal space between herself,... read more

Paolo Morales

Friday, March 20, 2026 @ 3:30pm, Athens

Exploring Racialization of Photographs through Encounters as an Asian-American

Paolo Morales received an MFA from Rhode Island School of Design and is an Assistant Professor of Practice at Moravian University. He was a participant at Skowhegan School of Painting & Sculpture, and an artist-in-residence... read more

Keely Morgan

Friday, March 20, 2026 @ 9:30am, Atlanta 1

We Wanted a Matriarchy

Keeley Morgan is an interdisciplinary artist from Houston, Texas, pursuing an MFA in Photography at the University of Arkansas. Her work explores intimacy, age, and home and has been exhibited at various venues across the... read more

Melissa Nunez

Friday, March 20, 2026 @ 9:00am, Valdosta

Reframing Collegiate Photography Education: Curriculum Innovation to Attract and Retain Students in Photography Programs

Melissa Nuñez is a Lecturer at the University of Texas at Austin, teaching darkroom photography. Her work examines landscapes altered by human activity, hazardous waste, and climate change. Through her art practice and pedagogy, Nuñez... read more

Heather O'Brien-Takahashi

Friday, March 20, 2026 @ 4:00pm, Atlanta 1

Water is Never Still: Ruminations on water politics & poetics in Lebanon

Heather M. O'Brien - Takahashi is an artist, filmmaker, writer, and Assistant Professor of Cinema & Interdisciplinary Media at Southern Illinois University Carbondale. She received an MFA from CalArts and a Director's Fellowship from the... read more

Deborah Orloff

Friday, March 20, 2026 @ 9:00am, Atlanta 3

Cut Time: Collage and the Afterlives of Photographs

Deborah Orloff is a Professor and Head of Photography at the University of Toledo. Her current projects explore lost histories and the ephemerality of memory. The recipient of dozens of awards, Orloff's work has been... read more

Vesna Pavlovic

Thursday, March 19, 2026 @ 3:00pm, Georgia 12

Woven Wind

Vesna Pavlovic, from Belgrade, Serbia, holds the assistant professor of art position at Vanderbilt University. She has exhibited widely, with numerous solo and exhibitions. Her exhibition Vesna Pavlovic: Projected Histories will be presented at the... read more

Michèle Pearson Clarke Pearson Clarke

Friday, March 20, 2026 @ 10:00am, Georgia 7

A Welcome Weight on My Body: Affect, Black Visuality and Analogue Photography

Michèle Pearson Clarke is a Trinidad-born visual artist working primarily in video and photography. Clarke served as the second Photo Laureate for the City of Toronto (2019-2022), and she holds an MFA in Documentary Media... read more

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Jamie Pittinos

Friday, March 20, 2026 @ 9:00am, Atlanta 1

The Auger and The Augment: Image Release as Transsexual Cataclysm

By using corruptive and augmentative processes to alter the theoretical biology of their photographs, Jamie Pittinos explores how both chemistry and the body are transmutable and nonbinary. read more