Aletheia Ida is an architect, designer, philosopher, and socio-environmental technologist. She has over twenty-five years of experience in professional architecture practice and academia and is fluent in building performance analytics. Aletheia holds a Doctorate of Philosophy in Architectural Sciences from the Center for Architecture, Science, and Ecology at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. In her practice activities, Dr. Ida conducts design research for emerging environmental building technologies and alternative building methods to achieve symbiosis between human experience and nature. Her newest venture is founding AIDA, LLC, a unique practice that provides affordable access to design knowledge and guidance for healthy, beautiful, and energy-efficient homes and workspaces. Aletheia is also the co-founder of Analemma, a creative partnership for innovative art, experiences, and design. She has served as an associate professor of architecture at the University of Arizona, a lecturer at the University of Pennsylvania, as a guest lecturer at Yale, Princeton, and Howard University, and as a guest critic at the University of Michigan, the University of Washington, and others.

Aletheia's CV is available here. 

James Fortuna’s research focuses primarily on the twentieth century and is situated at the intersection of cultural and diplomatic history. He is especially interested in the architectural production of the interwar period and its relationship to the construction of national, ethnic, or civic identity.  

Fortuna received his PhD from the University of St Andrews in 2024 and is spending the current academic year as a visiting scholar at Columbia University where he is working on his first monograph. Entitled The 1939 New York World’s Fair: Cultural Diplomacy in the Age of Fascism, the book explores the relationship between diplomacy and design at the final international exposition held before the Second World War. This project has been supported by several different organizations, including the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations, Association for the Study of Modern Italy, and Italian Art Society. 

He is co-editor, with Lisa D. Schrenk, of the forthcoming volume entitled International Expositions, 1851 to Today (Routledge, 2026), and author of several recent articles, including “Building Bridges on the Brink of War: Urban Planning, Pan-American Identity, and the International Expositions of 1939” Planning Perspectives (2025). He has also published on the environmental design of the Civilian Conservation Corps in the United States and the evolution of Fascist design throughout the ventennio.

Fortuna is co-founder of the Institute for the Study of International Expositions and welcomes opportunities for interdisciplinary collaboration and public engagement.
 

Adam Amram is a multidisciplinary artist working across painting, sculpture, printmaking, and animation. Amram creates vibrantly colored portraits of humanity that capture fleeting moments—both quotidian and mesmeric. His work is deeply rooted in the study of memory and the act of forgetting, exploring how these forces shape perception, identity, and emotional resonance. Often rendered through distorted perspectives, Amram’s compositions evoke a visceral, uneasy closeness to their subjects. Across mediums, his work is marked by a profound sense of yearning. Through unique color palettes, spatial tension, and fantastical narrative, he invites viewers to contemplate the fragility of recollection and the beauty found in its impermanence.
 
Amram holds a BFA in Painting and Printmaking from the Maryland Institute College of Art (2016) and an MFA from Yale University (2024). His work has been exhibited internationally, including recent shows at Huxley-Parlour (London, UK), Spurs Gallery (Beijing, China), and Yossi Milo (New York, NY). Additional exhibitions include Zepster Gallery (Brooklyn, NY), David Castillo Gallery (Miami, FL), Atlanta Contemporary (Atlanta, GA), Mother Gallery (Beacon, NY), the de Young Museum (San Francisco, CA), Works On Paper Gallery (Philadelphia, PA), Harpy (Rutherford, NJ / Brooklyn, NY), Melanie Flood Projects and Adams and Ollman Gallery (Portland, OR), and Resort (Baltimore, MD). He recently participated as an artist-in-residence at Fountainhead (Miami, FL) in October 2024 and at MASS MoCA (North Adams, MA) in January 2025. He currently lives and works in South Orange, NJ.

Image Caption. "Scarlet Billows", 2024. Acrylic and pigment on canvas. 72 x 48 inches.