Dr. Maiza Laurent Hixson holds a PhD in Theater, Dance, and Performance Studies and an MFA in Art from the University of California Santa Barbara. She writes about the performative staging of urban space and analyzes how public art both participates in and often catalyzes resistance against branded narratives of cities and place. From 2015-2017, she was Curator of Public Art for the Santa Barbara County Arts Commission and Co-Director of the Santa Barbara Center for Art, Science and Technology. She also served as Chief Curator of the Delaware Center for the Contemporary Arts from 2010-2015 during which time she taught and lectured at Towson University in Baltimore and University of the Arts in Philadelphia. She attended the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and holds an MA in Critical and Curatorial Studies from the University of Louisville.