Gianina K. Lockley is a scholar and interdisciplinary artist working primarily with themes related to identity, race, class, education and performance. She received her MFA in Interdisciplinary Art and Media from Columbia College Chicago and a BS in Chemistry from Howard University. She has traveled extensively throughout East and West Africa, including a visit to the slave castles of Cape Coast, Ghana, and has studied abroad at the United States International University in Nairobi, Kenya.