Nicholaus Gutierrez

Nicholaus Gutierrez is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Cinema & Media Studies at Wellesley College. His research and teaching focus on the history and theory of media technologies, particularly digital media and computing history, and their intersections with social, political, and cultural frameworks.

• Education:
  • B.A., College of William and Mary
  • M.A., New York University
  • Ph.D., University of California-Berkeley

His work examines the cultural and development history of virtual reality (VR) technology, exploring questions of embodiment, subjectivity, and the challenges to Silicon Valley's dominant narratives of innovation. He investigates racial and gender bias in digital media design (interfaces, algorithms, human-computer interaction) and the historical relationships between emerging and traditional media forms, such as camera obscura, telegraphy, video games, and VR.

His courses emphasize themes like social control, ideology, and the evolution of media technologies, often critiquing the notion of “disruption” in tech history.