Barbara Bickel is an artist, researcher, teacher and Emerita Faculty of Art Education, Southern Illinois University. She co-founded and co-directs Studio M*: A Research Creation Lab Intersecting Arts, Culture & Healing in Canada where she teaches art as an inquiry process and engages social art practices with the human and the more than human world. A co-founder and active member of the Gestare Art Collective (2009-2021) her art and performances have been exhibited internationally. She is author of the book Art, Ritual and Trance Inquiry: Arational Learning in an Irrational World, co-editor of the book Arts-Based and Contemplative Practices in Research and Teaching: Honoring Presence, and co-editor of Artizein: Arts and Teaching Journal. To learn more about her art and writing go to www.barbarabickel.ca www.studiom.space