Keynote Speakers

Kathleen M. Goodyear PhD, U.S.A.

Olympia Agalianou PhD, Greece

Shirley Salmon, MPhil, Austria

Frances Hassett, MA, Ireland

Polina Samochkina, MA, Poland

Keynote Speakers

Kathleen M. Goodyear PhD, U.S.A.

Dr. Goodyear received her PhD from Ohio State University in arts education with an interdisciplinary specialization in college and university teaching. Her dissertation is entitled Undergraduate Identity Exploration Through the Arts: Increasing Self‑Awareness and Cultural Sensitivity. Her teaching focus is on undergraduate diversity and social justice education through arts/cultural, historical, and critical lenses, and her research/praxis focus is on undergraduate arts-based identity exploration pedagogy. She previously earned an MS in library science from Clarion University of Pennsylvania and a BA in psychology from Metropolitan State College of Denver, focusing on humanistic and transpersonal psychology and psychology and the arts.

Olympia Agalianou PhD, Greece

She got her PhD on pedagogy in National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (N.K.U.A.) and also physical education / sport science and dance degree in N.K.U.A. again. She did postgraduate studies in Orff-Schulwerk, degree in music harmony and studies in dance therapy and systemic thinking. She teaches in life long education programs in Greece and other countries since 2000. She is co-author in collective books and has publications in academic journals and conference proceedings. Today she serves as Special Teaching Staff in the Department of Early Childhood Education, N.K.U.A. and teaches dance and music pedagogy in postgraduate master programs in University of Macedonia, Democritus University of Thrace, Ionian University and N.K.U.A.

Shirley Salmon, M Phil., Austria

She studied music and educational science and trained as a kindergarten and primary school teacher. She has worked with children and adults without and with disabilities in different contexts, e.g. in kindergartens, schools, projects, sheltered workshops for 40 years, especially in inclusive groups. Lecturer at the Orff-Institute, Mozarteum University Salzburg for “Music and Dance in Social Work and in Integrative Pedagogy” from 1984 – 2019. She is a lecturer at the teacher training universities in Graz, Austria. She teaches and lectures nationally and internationally and has published books, a DVD and numerous articles. Her research interests are inclusive music education, AQR assessment of the quality of relationship, joint attention.

Frances Hassett, MA, Ireland

Frances originally qualified as a Geographer from the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. She went onto train as a teacher and psychotherapist, and later as an environmental manager working for the UK Government for many years. Latterly, she lived and worked in France training in Chinese Medicine in Toulouse, Japan, and Ireland to eventually practice as a holistic therapist. After qualifying with an MA in Art Therapy, she registered to do a PhD with the University of Limerick where she is now researching art therapy and mental wellbeing with people living with an intellectual disability.

Polina Somochkina, MFA, Poland

Somochkina is a contemporary artist and a curator based in Istanbul, an art director and co-founder of the Istanbul Artist Residency. She holds a master’s degree in art restoration from  Lviv National Academy of Arts, Ukraine. Her undergraduate degree is in arts and art restoration, from Lviv State College of Decorative and Fine Arts named after Ivan Trush. In 2015 awarded with Gaude Polonia Diploma by Minister of Culture of Poland. After several years at the Restoration studio “Studion” in Lviv, Ukraine where she curated the conservation and restoration works of easel paintings, she moved to Turkey namely Istanbul. In 2019 she cofounded an artist residency platform in Istanbul where she currently works as an art director. In her artworks, she explores the theme of intercultural dialogue based on traditional ornaments.