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biography
education
Ph.D. Media, Arts and Sciences, 2007, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
I completed my doctoral thesis "Everyday Storytelling: supporting the mediated expression of online personal testimony" under the advisement of Glorianna Davenport in the Media Fabrics research group at the MIT Media Lab. My thesis presents "Everyday Mediated Storytelling", a model of the casual storyteller's process of capturing, creating
and sharing personal mediated narratives. The purpose of this model is to better support rich-media storytelling through systems that enable storytellers to engage with personal media in a reflective, meaningful and shareable process. Based on this model, I designed and developed 'Confectionary', an online authoring and
publishing application for creating everyday rich-media narratives. Confectionary provides the storyteller with a spatial rich-media authoring environment that encourages creativity, supports a wide variety of story-making styles and protects the disclosure of personal stories through adaptable privacy settings.
M.S. Media, Arts and Sciences, 2001, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
I completed my Masters thesis "PlusShorts: using punctuation as an iconic system for describing and augmenting video structure" under the advisement of Glorianna Davenport in the Interactive Cinema research group at the MIT Media Lab. My thesis described the design, development and evaluation of the PlusShorts networked software application. PlusShorts allowed a distributed group of users
to collaboratively create shared movie sequences and introduced
an iconic language, consisting of punctuation symbols, for annotating, sharing and
interpreting conceptual ideas about cinematic structure. The PlusShorts
application presented individual movie sequences as elements within an evolving
cinematic storyspace, where participants could explore, collaborate and share ideas.
M.Sc. Multimedia Systems, 1998, Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland
I completed my Masters of Science applied project <labyrinth> under the advisement of Marie Redmond at Trinity College, Dublin. <labyrinth> was an experimental website and art installation that used a labyrinth metaphor both to demonstrate the complex interweaving structure of the Internet and the feelings of enchantment, disorientation, and confusion associated with navigating a maze. I was project lead, designer and a developer on this collaborative group project which received a Telecom Eireann award.
B.A. Communication Studies, 1996, Dublin City University, Dublin, Ireland
I completed my First Class Honors degree and B.A. thesis "Sisterfire: an analysis of the representation of African-American women in contemporary film" under the advisement of Luke Gibbons at Dublin City University. My thesis provided a theoretical critique of Marxist, white feminist and black liberation ideologies in proposing an oppositional black feminist perspective for examining the representation of African-American women in contemporary film.
employment
Associate Professor, 2015 - present
Dept of Computer Science, Virginia Tech
Institute for Creativity, Arts, and Technology
Associate Professor, 2012 - 2015
School of Design, Carnegie Mellon University
Adjunct Appointment, Human Computer Interaction Institute
Assistant Professor, 2006 - 2012
Joint appointment with the School of Arts, Media and Engineering and The Design School, Arizona State University. Lead the Reflective Living Research group, collaborate with colleagues in the K12 Embodied Learning group and teach courses in Media Theory, Media Editing, Multimodal Environments and Design for Healing.
Visiting Assistant Professor, 2005 - 2006
Arts, Media and Engineering Program, ASU. Collaborated with colleagues in the Situated Communications research group creating and analyzing hybrid physical-digital media environments and taught a Media Theory course.
Graduate Research Assistant, 1999-2005
Interactive Cinema/Media Fabrics Group, MIT Media Laboratory.
Designed, implemented, and evaluated tools and methodologies for documenting life experiences as shareable, rich-media stories. Advanced theoretical perspectives on the use of everyday storytelling in support of reflective learning, networked communication and shared social understanding. Supervised 9 students involved in the Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program (UROP). Students designed, built and documented video editing software, content-management systems, media annotation software, interactive museum exhibits and cellphone applications with the Media Fabrics Group.
Lecturer, 1998 - 1999
Department of Computer Science, Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland. Taught graduate courses in Multimedia Programming and Digital Video Technology in the Computer Science Department and co-taught a graduate course in Music Technology and Programming in the Engineering Department. Coordinated the Multimedia Systems Program which involved supervising 30 graduate students, running a computer laboratory, hosting invited speakers and organizing collaborations with other university departments.