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DE&I Colloquium
30/10/2024 @ 17:00 – 18:30
AES Germany Hosts Its First Research Colloquium on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DE&I) in Audio Engineering
We are excited to announce the Audio Engineering Society (AES) Germany’s very first Research Colloquium on Diversity and Inclusion in Audio Engineering. This event will focus on important issues including the gender pay gap, strategies for overcoming obstacles in male-dominated industries, and the inclusion of individuals with disabilities in the audio engineering field. We will explore how different countries are addressing these challenges and what we can learn from one another.
The colloquium will bring together experts who will share insights and real-world examples from both industry and research. Our featured speakers include Leslie Gaston-Bird, President of the AES, Jiayue Cecilia Wu and Mary Mazurek, chairs of the Diversity and Inclusion Committee at AES and Michelle Guadalupe Felix Garcia, an advocate for equal employment opportunities for professionals with disabilities. We are also pleased to have Ingo Weismantel share insights from the “Women in Sound” discussion series by the German Association for Audio Professionals (VDT).
This colloquium presents a unique opportunity to engage in meaningful discussions and explore actionable solutions for creating more inclusive and accessible workplaces in audio engineering.
Short Biographies:
Leslie Gaston-Bird
Dr. Leslie Gaston-Bird CAS, MPSE began her term as President of the Audio Engineering Society this year. As Supervising Sound Editor and Re-Recording Mixer, she was also nominated for an MPSE Golden Reel award for Outstanding Achievement in Sound for a Non-Theatrical Feature for her work on Publish or Perish, a dark comedy by David Liban. In addition, Leslie is currently a Senior Lecturer in Sound Recording & Music Production at City, University of London. She is founder and director of Immersive and Inclusive Audio, CIC, which provides training in Avid Pro Tools and Dolby Atmos certification for underrepresented groups, an initiative which she created as part of her PhD at the University of Surrey. Leslie is author of the books Women in Audio (Routledge) and Math Fundamentals for Audio (A-R Editions). She is a Pro Tools | Dolby Professional Avid Certified Instructor and Dante Level 3 Certified audio engineer specializing in re-recording mixing and sound editing. She is a member of the Recording Academy (The Grammys®), BAFTA, Cinema Audio Society, and Motion Picture Sound Editors (MPSE). She has worked for National Public Radio (Washington, D.C.), Colorado Public Radio, the Colorado Symphony Orchestra, Post Modern Company, and was a tenured Associate Professor at the University of Colorado Denver.
Jiayue Cecilia Wu
Dr. Jiayue Cecilia Wu (AKA 武小慈), a scholar, composer, and audio engineer, specializes in harnessing music technology for healing. With a B.Sc. in Design and Engineering, she spent a decade as a music producer and consultant with EMI Records, Universal Music Group, and Shazam. Her academic journey led her to earn a Master of Art in Music, Science, and Technology from Stanford University and a Ph.D. in Media Arts and Technology from UC Santa Barbara. Her music has been performed in Asia, the U.S., Canada, Australia, South Africa, Brazil, and Europe. Her significant intellectual contributions include 27 peer-reviewed journal articles, three book chapters, two book publications, and 100+ multimedia compositions, exhibitions, and installations showcased globally. Currently, Dr. Wu is an Assistant Professor and Program director at the University of Colorado’s College of Arts and Media. She actively participates in her academic community, serving as a peer-reviewer for high-impact research journals, chairing the DEI Committee at the Audio Engineering Society (AES), and holding leadership roles in the Society for Electro-Acoustic Music in the United States (SEAMUS) and the International Computer Music Association (ICMC). Dr. Wu’s expertise extends worldwide, with guest lectures and workshops in Embodied Sonic Meditation at prominent R1 research institutions and international events.
Mary Mazurek
Dr. Mary Mazurek is currently an Assistant Professor of Digital Audio Arts at the University of Lethbridge in Alberta, Canada and a GRAMMY-nominated recording engineer. The Recording Academy awarded her nomination at the 61st Annual Grammy Awards in the category of Best Engineered Album, Classical for the album Liquid Melancholy Clarinet Music of James Stephenson. Her audio work is also regularly featured on WFMT Radio and WFMT.com. Additionally, she is an author, sought-after speaker and educator who enjoys contributing in the classroom and on panels and committees within her industry and beyond. She serves as a role model and advocates for women in the recording industry, which is currently less than 5% female. Furthermore, she serves as a governor and the Diversity Equity and Inclusion Chairperson for the Audio Engineering Society.
Michelle Guadalupe Felix Garcia
Michelle Guadalupe Felix Garcia is a passionate audio engineer, composer, tech enthusiast and lifelong learner from Mexico. She graduated from the music recording technology and audio design program at San Diego State University. After a life-changing invitation to spend an afternoon at Coldplay’s studio, she realized the ways blind audio engineers record, edit, produce and mix are beautiful, worthy of celebrating and sharing with the world. She launched a video series to educate the sighted community, encourage more blind people to join this fascinating field, and to generate awareness that leads to equal employment opportunities for people with disabilities. She is an enthusiastic member of the Audio Engineering Society’s Accessibility Subcommittee, and serves as chair of the hardware and software standards group, providing guidelines that can help manufacturers make accessibility the norm in every product from the start. As a freshman, she was the only woman enrolled for an audio degree. The statistic for women joining the workforce has been steadily increasing. The same cannot be said for professionals with disabilities, for whom there is no research or statistics available. She actively works towards the day when blind engineers are welcome in every workplace as tour crew members, A1’s in theaters, in-studio producers, and can show up to work, no questions asked, being recognized as valuable contributors who move the music industry forward.
Ingo Weismantel
Ingo Weismantel is a labor engineer at Darmstadt University of Applied Science, where he has worked since 2021. Previously, he served as an event production manager at the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek and the Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst in Frankfurt. He holds a B.A. in Sound and Music production and a qualification as a Master of Event Technology from the Europäische Medien and Eventakademie.
In addition to his professional roles, he is active in the sound engineering community, co-founding the platform wiki.audio and serving as the Officer for Training and Further Education in the Association of German Sound Engineers. He plays a key role in the organisation’s “Women in Sound” discussion series, promoting diversity and inclusion in the audio industry.