Fabiola Hanna

Fabiola Hanna is an Assistant Professor of Emerging Media at The New School's School of Media Studies within the Schools of Public Engagement. Her work bridges new media art and software theory, focusing on digital media’s intersection with historical memory archives. She holds a PhD and MFA from UC Santa Cruz and a BA from UC San Diego.

Education:

• PhD, Film and Digital Media, UC Santa Cruz
• MFA, Digital Arts & New Media, UC Santa Cruz
• BA, Interdisciplinary Computing in the Arts, UC San Diego

Research Interests: Fabiola explores how software interfaces engage with contested historical narratives, particularly in non-Western contexts. Her work emphasizes activist interactive documentaries, feminist media genealogies, and digital curation practices. Recent projects include a special issue on activist documentaries in the Global South and exhibitions at institutions like the Museum of Art and History (Santa Cruz).

Professional Contributions:

• Developed UCSC’s coding literacy curriculum for incoming students
• Organized symposia on digital surveillance and war/security media
• Co-lead Video Vortex XI panel on interactive documentaries

Awards:

• 2018-19 Data & Democracy Fellowship, UCSC Humanities Institute
• Inaugural Fellow, New School’s Institute for Critical Social Inquiry

Labs/Initiatives: Active in digital humanities projects, including automated curation systems and participatory cartography. Collaborates with institutions like the MIT FabLab and the Digital Arts Research Center.