Mother Tongues Festival's team
Meet the international team behind the Mother Tongues Festival!
Dr Francesca La Morgia
Festival Director
Francesca La Morgia is the founder and director of the Mother Tongues Festival. She is passionate about languages and community, and an Olympic champion in non-stop chatting! When remembering the previous editions of the Mother Tongues Festival she thinks of the warmth of children’s laughter, the dances of people from all over the world embracing each other, the powerful messages written on a wall. When she is not daydreaming about Mother Tongues, Francesca can be found in lecture rooms in Maynooth, Dublin and Belfast teaching linguistics to the next generation of language lovers.
francesca [at] mothertongues.ie
Gea Gojak
Producer
Gea Gojak is a theatre director and the main focus of her practice is exploring socio-political issues. She holds a BA in Acting and Puppetry from The Academy of Arts and Culture in Osijek, Croatia, and an MA in Acting from the Art Academy Novi Sad, Serbia. In 2014 she shifted her interest in directing and creating theatre projects of informal social education and audience development. On that path, she also gained experience as a producer, project coordinator, PR and leader of diverse workshops. Gea moved to Dublin in 2019 and her artistic approach was recognized and awarded with Create and Fire Station Artists’ Studios 2021 Residency Award, and Artist in the Community Scheme Bursary Award 2021: Collaborative Arts and Cultural Diversity.
gea [at] mothertongues.ie
Elena Cristofanon
Creative Project Manager
Elena Cristofanon is an Italian creative with a growing passion for project management. She oversees the production, marketing and management of the Festival and of Mother Tongues as a whole.
Elena has been behind the Festival machine since its inception in 2017 and is extremely proud of its fast growth.
She has been recently awarded the Arts Council’s Agility Award to expand the Contatto project on a national scale. Elena is currently studying to become fluent in French so to have four languages to make embarrassing jokes in!
elena [at] mothertongues.ie – www.elenacristofanon.com
Lauren Fahey
Community and Programme Development officer
Lauren was born in England but have lived in Dublin for most of her life. She has a BA in German and History which she studied at Maynooth University. During her Erasmus year, she worked in Germany as a language assistant in a school for the blind and visually impaired. She is currently studying Cultural Policy and Arts Management in UCD as a postgraduate degree.
Ema Stapleton
Production and Fundraising officer
As a musician and lecturer, Ema is passionate about inclusivity and diversity in the arts. In her role with Mother Tongues, she brings together her specialist music industry, event management and artist liaison experience to help deliver an enjoyable programme for the annual Mother Tongues Festival. Outside her work with Mother Tongues, Ema is a music lecturer for BIMM Institute, a music-focused Higher Education Institute. She holds a Masters degree in Popular Music Research from Goldsmiths College, London, and a Postgraduate Certificate in Learning and Teaching from the University of Sussex.
Steering group members
Mother Tongues festival relies on a group of dedicated and talented individuals who support our team in delivering all that we do to the highest standard.
Rebecca Blake
Irma Bochorishvili
Tony Fagan
Lianne Quigley
Jo Dukkipati
Sandra Ruiz Moriana
Zoe O’Reilly