GCI & Malakta International Creativity Symposium 2024

Nature-Infused Creativity: An Outdoor Writing Workshop led by Kirsi Reinola, who is a screen writer, a doctoral candidate at Aalto Arts University in Finland and an international lecturer.

Magdalena Lindroos is the Manager and Project Leader at Malakta Art Factory - an artist community on the outskirts of Vaasa, Finland. www.malakta.fi

Elisabeth Morney is the chair for the GCI & Malakta Symposium and the co-chair of Global Creativity Initiative. She is an experienced content producer and director at the Finnish Broadcasting Company, Yle. She was a visiting Scholar at the Torrance Center for Creativity and Innovation at the University of Georgia, USA 2015. In 2024, Morney will defend her doctoral dissertation on the creative process in the innovation of television formats at Aalto University in Finland in September 2024.

Vlad Glăveanu, PhD, is Full Professor of Psychology in the School of Psychology and Director of the DCU Centre for Possibility Studies at Dublin City University, and Professor II at the Centre for the Science of Learning and Technology, University of Bergen. He is the founder and president of the Possibility Studies Network (PSN). His work focuses on creativity, imagination, culture, collaboration, wonder, possibility, and societal challenges. He edited the Palgrave Handbook of Creativity and Culture (2016) and the Oxford Creativity Reader (2018), co-edited the Cambridge Handbook of Creativity Across Domains (2017) and the Oxford Handbook of Imagination and Culture (2017), authored The Possible: A Sociocultural Theory (Oxford University Press, 2020)

Dr. Rob Swigart is a futurist, award winning writer, international speaker and computer game designer - interactive novel computer game, Portal (Activision, 1986). He was a Professor of English at San Jose State University , CA,an affiliate of the Institute for the Future in Palo Alto, and was a visiting archeology scholar at Stanford University, CA, USA.
He is best known for his satirical work, archaeology writing, science fiction, and interactive novel computer game, Portal (Activision, 1986)

His talk at the symposium will be about creating the future and the past.

Camilla Richardsson is an elite athlete, Olympic marathon runner from Finland. She holds several Finnish long distance records.

Emerita professor Fredricka Reisman, PhD, is Founder of the Drexel School of Education and Director of the Freddie Reisman Center for Translational Research in Creativity and Motivation. She is the creator and former Director of Drexel Creativity and Innovation Programs and Co-Director, Drexel/Torrance Center for Creativity and Innovation. She is Co-Founder of Education, Learning, and Brain Sciences (E-LaBS) Research Collaborative and President Emerita, of the American Creativity Association.

Larry Keiser, PhD, is Associate Director of the Freddie Reisman Center for Translational Research in Creativity & Motivation (FRC) at Drexel University dedicated to bridging the gap between creativity and motivation research and its practical application.

Astrid Heimer, PhD, is an Associate Professor from the Dept of Product Design, OsloMet University, Norway.

Rebekah Rousi, PhD, is an Associate Professor of Communication and Digital Economy at the University of Vaasa, Finland

Fanny Carinasdotter is an artist and Regional Visual Arts Coordinator at Konstfrämjandet i Västerbotten, Sweden.

Gayle Byock is co-director of GCI. She is former assistance vice chancellor of research at UCLA, USA. She lives part time in Iceland. Her research is about finding the inner voice through poetry.

Keynote speaker Michael Mumford is a distinguished industrial/organizational psychologist and eminent scholar of creativity, leadership and ethics, at University of Oklahoma, USA. He is Senior Editor of the Creativity Research Journal and past Senior Editor of The Leadership Quarterly.

Keynote speaker Mark Runco, PhD, is a distinguished creativity researcher awarded for his lifetime achievement in creativity research. He is the director of Creativity Research & Programming, at Southern Oregon University. He is the Editor in Chief for the Journal of Creativity and the founding editor of the Creativity Research Journal. Since 2015 he has been editor of Business Creativity & the Creative Economy, and the Journal of Genius and Eminence.

Keynote Speaker Ruth Richards, Emerita Professor, at Saybrook University, USA.

Dr. Ruth Richards is an educational psychologist and board-certified psychiatrist with more than 25 years of experience. She is also a Fellow of the American Psychological Association (APA) in Divs. 10, 32, and 48, and a member of Div. 34. Dr. Ruth is a professor at Saybrook University in Creativity Studies, and Consciousness, Spirituality, and Integrative Health. She has published numerous articles, edited/written four books on everyday creativity, and received the Rudolf Arnheim Award from Div. 10 APA for Outstanding Lifetime Accomplishment in Psychology and the Arts.

Dr. Richards’ 2018 Everyday Creativity and the Healthy Mind (Palgrave Macmillan, 2018 hardbound, 2019 paperback) won a Silver Nautilus Award (“Better Books for a Better World”).

BBQ & World Music

If the weather allows we will barbeque outdoors. Chicken, pico de gallo, tacos.

Musicians: Barnabas Mebrahtu, Roberto Tito Urrutia, and Elisa Bastarrica.

Barnabas is one of Eritrea's leading classical music directors. He was also on the jury of Shingwra, the Eritrean version of Idols.

Tito is a musician and teacher in Vasa, Finland, originally from Peru, and one of the founding members of Los Cubatas.

Elisa is originally from Uruguay. She works as a medical doctor in Vasa, Finland, and plays rhythm instruments as a hobby.

Finnish Traditional Sauna

There will be an opportunity to bathe in a woodheated Finnish traditional Sauna for those who wants, with a possibility to swim in the river. Bring your towel.