Kristen Shahverdian

Program Director, Campus Free Speech

Kristen Shahverdian is the program director of campus free speech at PEN America, developing campus engagements and public events related to free expression and education. Teaching has been a consistent interest throughout her career: After a decade in dance and choreography, she began researching best practices for participatory art projects and how to teach art that depicts violence and traumatic events. She previously served as a project manager for the Philadelphia Folklore Project, and facilitated workshops on trauma and art at the College Art Association and Dance Studies Association. She is also a writer and editor at the online dance journal thINKingDANCE.

Before joining PEN America, she was a senior lecturer at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia and previously was an adjunct professor at Rowan University and Temple University. She received her BA in history and dance from Hamilton College, her MFA in dance from Temple University, and her MA in socially engaged art from Moore College of Art & Design.

Participants

Campuses for All: How Free Speech Education Can Protect and Enrich Colleges and Universities
Change: The Magazine of Higher Learning, November 2023

How campuses can protect free speech and student safety amid the Israel-Hamas war
Higher Ed Dive, November 2023


Articles by Kristen Shahverdian

Friday September 22

A Disability Activist Is Asked to Change Her Speech By Boston University Her Response: In Future Speaking Contracts, No Changes will be Allowed

Free speech is for everyone; using accessibility tools to screen speech that could otherwise not be pre-reviewed flies in the face of this principle.