Stephen Duncombe is an associate professor at the Gallatin School of New York University, where he teaches the history and politics of media. His lecture is titled, "But Does it Work? Exploring the Efficacy of Political Art."

Duncombe is the author of Dream: Re-Imagining Progressive Politics in an Age of Fantasy and Notes From Underground: Zines and the Politics of Underground Culture, and the editor of the Cultural Resistance Reader, among other books. He also writes on the intersection of culture and politics for a range of scholarly and popular publications, from the cerebral, The Nation, to the prurient, Playboy. Duncombe is a lifelong political activist, co-founding a community-based advocacy group in the Lower East Side of Manhattan and working as a lead organizer for the NYC chapter of the international direct action group, Reclaim the Streets. Currently, he is a research associate at the Eyebeam Center for Art and Technology in New York City where he helped organize "The College of Tactical Culture" and is engaged in an ongoing investigation into the efficacy of political art.