Contributors

Emma Whipday is Senior Lecturer in Renaissance Literature at Newcastle University, an AHRC BBC New Generation Thinker, and a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society. She is an expert in Shakespeare, early modern literature, women's history, theatre history, and the history of the home and family.

Deana L. Weibel, Ph.D. is a Professor of Anthropology at Grand Valley State University
(jointly appointed in the School of Interdisciplinary Studies) and Chair of the Chicago/Great 22 Lakes Chapter of The Explorers Club.

A scholar of exploration, spirituality, and symbolism, she is the author of The Ultraview Effect: What We Can Learn from Astronauts About Awe, Humility, and Exploring the Unknown, published by University of California Press in 2026.

Weibel's work bridges cultural and scientific study, exploring how acts of discovery become expressions of faith and curiosity. In Voyager's Golden Record, she examines the Golden Record as both scientific artifact and act of self-expression, a planetary statement that is as much about being human as about being heard.

Erin White is an essayist and the author of the memoir Give Up for You. Her writing has been previously published in The New York Times, The Rumpus and elsewhere. She lives in Minnesota with her wife and daughters.

Dame Vivienne Westwood is one of the icons of our age: fashion designer, activist, co-creator of punk, global brand and grandmother. Her career has successfully spanned five decades and her work has influenced millions across the world.

Alex Wheatle (1963-2025) was born to Jamaican parents living in London. He spent most of his childhood in a children's home, which he left at 14 to live in a hostel in Brixton. At 18, he was involved in the Brixton uprising and went to prison for 3 months. On his release, he continued to perform as a DJ and MC under the name Yardman Irie, moving in the early '90s on to the performance poetry circuit as The Brixton Bard. His second novel, East of Acre Lane, won the London New Writers Award (2000).

Clive Webb is an award-winning historian based at the University of Sussex, where he is Professor of Modern American History and is the recipient of a Leverhulme Fellowship. He has written for numerous magazines and newspapers, including the Guardian, Independent and The New York Times. He has also contributed to news programmes and documentaries on radio and television in Britain and the United States.

Arthur De Weduwen is associate editor of the Universal Short Title Catalogue project at St Andrews. This is his fifth book.

William Weir was born in 1933 and is the fourth generation of the family to have worked for the Weir Group. He succeeded his father as the third Viscount Weir in 1976. In 1999 he retired from the company having worked in a number of positions and served as chairman for 24 years. Educated at Eton and Trinity College, Cambridge, he joined Weir's in 1958 after National Service in the Royal Navy.

His other business appointments have included being a member of the Court of the Bank of England, chairman of Balfour Beatty and C. P. Ships Ltd, and a director of British Steel Corporation, the British Bank of the Middle East and Canadian Pacific Railway. He has also been president of BEAMA, the trade association for the electrical manufacturing industries, and a member of the House of Lords Select Committee on Monetary Policy.

He is married and lives in Ayrshire, and has three children.

Silke Rose West is a Waldorf teacher with over thirty years of experience teaching kindergarten-aged children. In 1995, she cofounded the Taos Waldorf School and today she runs an independent forest kindergarten called Taos Earth Children. She is renowned in Taos for her puppet shows and storytelling and consults with teachers and schools across the US.

Michael Wex (born September 12, 1954) is a Canadian novelist, playwright, translator, lecturer, performer, and author of books on language and literature. His specialty is Yiddish and his book Born to Kvetch was a surprise bestseller in 2005. Wex lives in Toronto with his wife and daughter Sabina.
Michael Wex was born in Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada to a family of descendants of Rebbes of Ciechanów and Stryków. He has taught at the University of Toronto and the University of Michigan.