Todd Presner

Todd Presner is the Charles Speroni Chair and Professor in the Department of European Languages and Transcultural Studies at UCLA, serving as Special Advisor to the Office for Research and Creative Activities. He leads initiatives like the Urban Humanities program and the Social Justice Curriculum grant, funded by Mellon. His research bridges Digital Humanities, Holocaust Studies, and German-Jewish History, with notable works including HyperCities (2014), Digital_Humanities (2012), and his forthcoming Ethics of the Algorithm (2024). Awards include the 2008 MacArthur Foundation/HASTAC prize for HyperCities. His projects emphasize spatial justice, cultural mapping, and ethical technology in humanities research.

Presner’s academic roles include former director of UCLA’s Digital Humanities Program (2011–2021) and the Leve Center for Jewish Studies (2011–2018). He co-leads interdisciplinary grants totaling $5M+, focusing on social justice pedagogy. His research spans from 19th-century German-Jewish intellectual history to computational analysis of Holocaust testimonies, blending critical theory with digital innovation.

Key contributions include foundational texts in Digital Humanities and collaborative platforms like HyperCities, which explore layered urban histories. His recent work probes ethical frameworks for algorithmic analysis in cultural memory, addressing tensions between individual testimony and large-scale data interpretation.