People
I am an Associate Professor and settler of Irish and German descent specializing in Media at Simon Fraser University’s School of Interactive Arts and Technology. I am an anthropologist with a PhD in Anthropology from the University of British Columbia and an MA in the Anthropology of Media from the University of London, School of […]
Dr. Kate Hennessy
Director
Dr. Gabriela Aceves Sepúlveda is a Mexican-Canadian interdisciplinary media artist and cultural historian with a research focus in media art history in the Americas. She is Assistant Professor in the School of Interactive Arts and Technology at Simon Fraser University where she leads criticalMediaArtsStudio (cMAS). cMAS is an interdisciplinary research studio that produces work that interrogates how […]
Dr. Gabriela Aceves Sepúlveda
Faculty Associate
Tylar Campbell is a PhD student in the School of Interactive Arts & Technology at Simon Fraser University. His research explores storytelling, digital humanities, and VR. As a new member of the Making Culture Lab, Tylar is excited to explore visual anthropology, media archaeology, and how humans interface with technology to create new realities. Tylar […]
Tylar Campbell
PhD Student
Reese Muntean is a PhD student at the School of Interactive Arts & Technology at Simon Fraser University. Her research interests include digital cultural heritage and collaborative development of ethnographic new media projects, as well as tangible computing, 3D scanning, and virtual reality applications for cultural documentation and preservation. Building on her background as a […]
Reese Muntean
PhD Student
Brett Gaylor is a documentary filmmaker and interactive producer. His interactive series Do Not Track is the recipient of the International Documentary Association award for best nonfiction series, the 2016 Peabody Award, and the Prix Gemaux for Best Interactive Series. His short OK Google animated a year of his son Rowan’s accidental voice searches and […]
Brett Gaylor
PhD Student
Meta Vaughan is working to improve the emotional impact of chronic illnesses, especially cystic fibrosis. Through a series of short documentary films, Meta aims to create positive representation, and raise awareness of known emotional responses, including medical PTSD, survivors guilt, procedural anxiety, and the human right to contribute to society. Meta was the 2020 winner of the Terry Fox […]
Meta Vaughan
MA Student
Cynthia Cui is an interdisciplinary product designer and researcher with a background in psychology. She is most interested in decolonising research methods and co-design, and how this methodological design can be used to create good design. In her offline hours, she is an avid photographer and reader.
Cynthia Cui
MA Student
Dr. Hallenbeck was a SSHRC Postdoctoral Scholar in the MCL from 2020-2022. She is now a Banting Postdoctoral Fellow working with Dr. Dylan Robinson at Queens University. Jessica Hallenbeck completed her Ph.D. in the Department of Geography at the University of British Columbia in 2019. Her dissertation “ The Water we Call Home: Five Generations […]
Dr. Jessica Hallenbeck
Research Associate, MCL Alumna SSHRC Postdoctoral Scholar
Shumeng Dai was a conservator for artworks particularly focusing on museum environment monitoring/control and traditional scroll paintings. She holds an MSc in Care of Collections from Cardiff University and a BA in Media Production from the University of Bedfordshire. Her research interests are AI application in the museum context and engagement in artworks conservation. As […]
Shumeng Dai
MA Student
I am an artist and anthropologist with an interdisciplinary PhD from University of Victoria, Canada. Over the past 15 years I have explored relationships between photography as object, image and event, through installation, performance, and in academic research and writing. My artistic and academic practices are platforms to address the significance of photography by […]
Dr. Trudi Lynn Smith
Research Associate; Artist-in-Residence (2017-19)
Rachel M. Ward is an artist, filmmaker and Ph.D. candidate focusing on digital anthropology, ethnography, time-based art, archives, gender, artistic creation and technological processes. She is currently working as a Research Associate at Small Data Industries in Brooklyn as a recipient of the National Digital Stewardship Residency (NDSR) award. She earned her Master’s degree (M.Sc.) in Social […]
Rachel Ward
PhD Student
Tanya Boyanova is an artist and anthropologist with a research focus on historical and contemporary iconography. In the context of contemporary art production, where the uniqueness of an art object is highly revered, the renewed interest in the Eastern Orthodox act of copying icons is of special interest to her. She is intrigued by the […]
Tanya Boyanova
PhD Student
Dissertation: Carrying Others: A Feminist Materialist Approach to Research Creation. Dr. prOphecy sun is an interdisciplinary performance artist and researcher based in Vancouver, BC. Her practice threads together both conscious and unconscious choreographies, sound, and environment to create exploratory works that invoke deep body memory. Over the last ten years, she has been self-releasing music, […]
prOphecy sun
MCL Alum, PhD 2021.
PhD Dissertation: Bill Reid’s Tupperware Fleet: Meaning and Agency in the Cultural Lives of Four Northwest Coast Canoes I am currently the Associate Director of the Bill Reid Centre for Northwest Coast Studies at SFU and a Lecturer in the Department of Indigenous Studies at SFU. My research interests include Indigenous cultural heritage in digital […]
Dr. Bryan Myles
MCL Alumni, PHD 2022. Lecturer, Indigenous Studies, SFU. Bill Reid Centre for Northwest Coast Studies
Dr. Hannah Turner was a SSHRC Postdoctoral Fellow in the Making Culture Lab from 2017-2019. She is now as Assistant Professor in the iSchool at the University of British Columbia. Dr. Hannah Turner is a critical information studies scholar who investigates the connection between documentation, culture, and technology. She broadly investigate how ethnographic material culture has been produced and […]
Dr. Hannah Turner
Research Associate; Assistant Professor, UBC iSchool | Postdoctoral Alumna 2018
Dr. Aynur Kadir completed her PhD in Spring 2019; in the summer of 2019 she began a tenure track position as Assistant Professor in Communication Arts at the University of Waterloo. In 2021 she joined the University of British Columbia as Assistant Professor of Indigenous Lifeways of Asia, Department of Asian Studies. Dr. Aynur Kadir’s research […]
Dr. Aynur Kadir
Research Associate; Assistant Professor, Indigenous Lifeways of Asia, University of British Columbia | Alumna, PhD 2019
I am a 4th year undergraduate student at Simon Fraser University, exploring my love for various forms of media through my Communication and SIAT studies. I’ve always had an interest in the production of video, especially short narrative films. Through my SIAT course with Kate (IAT 344), however, I discovered an interest in the production […]