A.I. Across Creative Frontiers

Biographies

Ericka Dunlap ‘05 is the CEO and Principal Consultant of Crown Communication Group, a PR Firm dedicated to improving brand relationships and reputations through strategic communication strategies, event curation, and media engagement. Her company derived from her expansive public speaking, television and media expertise as Miss Florida and Miss America. A dynamic singer, peak performer, show producer and recording artist, Ericka is a very active member and supporter of the Arts. She also serves on several boards as a trusted advisor with deep community relationships, and she is an esteemed member of the Winter Park Institute Board of Directors.

Emily K. Johnson is an Assistant Professor in the Department of English (Technical Communication) and core faculty in the Texts and Technology Ph.D. program at the University of Central Florida. She is co-author of Playful Pedagogy in the Pandemic: Pivoting to Games-Based Learning (with Anastasia Salter, Routledge 2022) Dr. Johnson is currently Principal Investigator of a project funded by the U.S. Department of Education investigating the efficacy of three virtual reality and two PC educational video games for language learning.

John Murray is an Assistant Professor of Games and Interactive Media and core faculty in the Texts and Technology Ph.D. program at the University of Central Florida. He is co-author of Adventure Games: Playing the Outsider (with Aaron Reed and Anastasia Salter, Bloomsbury 2020) and Flash: Building the Interactive Web (with Anastasia Salter, MIT Press 2014). His research focuses on interactive narratives and reality media, which includes augmented, virtual, and mixed reality and is currently studying the use of generative AI in immersive authoring.

Anastasia Salter is a professor of English at the University of Central Florida, and Director of Graduate Programs for the College of Arts and Humanities. Dr. Salter is the author or co-author of eight books on digital culture and electronic literature, including most recently Playful Pedagogy in the Pandemic: Pivoting to Games-Based Learning (with Emily Johnson, Routledge 2022) and Twining: Critical and Creative Approaches to Hypertext Narratives (with Stuart Moulthrop, Amherst College 2021), and currently serves as Vice President of the Electronic Literature Organization.

Mel Stanfill is an Associate Professor with a joint appointment in the Texts and Technology Program and the Department of English at the University of Central Florida. Key focuses of Stanfill’s work include the uses and abuses of platforms and cultural studies of the law. They have been published in venues including New Media and Society, Cultural Studies, Television & New Media, and their most recent book, Rock This Way: Cultural Constructions of Musical Legitimacy (Michigan, 2023).

We extend particular gratitude to the staff and administration of Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts for their partnership over the past ten years.

Thank You to Our Supporters

Sponsored in part by the State of Florida through the Division of Arts and Culture and the National Endowment for the Arts.

• The Judith and David Albertson Endowment in the Arts
• Cartwright Family Humanities & Arts Endowment
• Phil and Jane Easterling
• LIFE at UCF
• Orlando Downtown Development Board
• OUC – The Reliable One
• Women’s Club at UCF, Inc.

Thank You to Our Festival Partners

• Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts
• National Young Composers Challenge
• Orlando Family Stage
• Orlando Shakes
• Orlando Philharmonic Orchestra
• UCF College of Health Professions and Sciences
• UCF Global Perspectives and International Initiatives
• UCF Rosen College of Hospitality Management
• Winter Park Institute
• WUCF