JIM SPATES is Distinguished Professor of Sociology Emeritus at Hobart and William Smith Colleges in Geneva, New York. He has been studying, lecturing, and publishing on Ruskin for over three decades. His enthusiasm for the great Victorian--for his work and his continuing significance in our own time – has only increased over this period. He is Cofounder of the Ruskin Society of North America (with Sara Atwood) in 2000, a former holder of the Class of 1964 Endowed Chair at Hobart and William Smith, currently The Arthur Dove Honorary Chair at The Dove Block Project in Geneva, New York, and a member of Riskin’s Guild of St. George

Poet-journalist Gabriel Meyer is an award-winning foreign correspondent who has lived and worked throughout the Middle East, the Balkans, and East Africa. He was especially acclaimed for his coverage of the first Palestinian intifada and of the Bosnian war. His reporter’s diary on the civil war in Sudan, War and Faith in Sudan (Eerdmans), won ForeWord Magazine’s Book of the Year award for essays in 2006. He was awarded an honorary doctorate in recognition of his work as a journalist by the Dominican School of Philosophy and Theology at UC Berkeley in 2017. He has published poetry and two novels; a large-scale nonfiction work, The Testimony of Stones, a “biography” of Jerusalem’s Church of the Holy Sepulcher, is awaiting publication. He had been involved with the historic Ruskin Art Club since 1998 and currently serves as its executive director. He is a Companion of the Guild of St. George.

Dr Kay J Walter is a Professor of English and the Director of the Master of Fine Arts Program at the University of Arkansas at Monticello. She teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in various topics including British literature, the British Novel, and Shakespeare. She is a member of multiple academic academic organizations related to her scholarship - most importantly she is a Companion of the Guild of St. George. She writes and publishes on Ruskin related topics regularly. She enjoys traveling the world, but mostly she loves visiting the United Kingdom. 

Sara S. "Sue" Hodson is the retired curator of literary collections for The Huntington Library, where she oversaw all the British and American literary material, including manuscripts by John Ruskin.  An expert on privacy and confidentiality in modern personal paper collections, she is a Fellow of the Society of American Archivists.  Her most recent books are I Promise You I'll Be Home (2024), which publishes letters from the Korean War front written by noted columnist Al Martinez, and Jack London, Photographer (2010), which reproduces photographs of important events and locations around the world, captured by the author.

Bob is a graduate of the University of Western Ontario (now Western University) in London, Ontario and the University of Toronto. He taught high school English for over 20 years. For nearly 60 years he has collected first editions of Ruskin’s books and Ruskiniana.

Zachary Bullock is an educator living in Scottsville, Virginia. He first studied Ruskin at Hobart College and has remained active in the Ruskin world, publishing “From Labor to Value” on The Victorian Web in 2019 and participating regularly in Ruskin Art Club study sessions. He is a Companion of the Guild of St. George.

Braden D Taylor attended the University of Arkansas at Monticello where he received his Bachelor’s degree in English Literature. He then attended the University of Arkansas where he received his Master of Arts in English Literature with a focus in Cultural Studies. His thesis is titled “Poesis and Sympathy: Community Through Craftsmanship.” He is deeply interested in what working class people do for their communities and how their work betters those around them.