I am a media scholar, filmmaker and media producer, and creative technologist. My work brings together research, media production, and computational methods to explore connections between art, industry, technology, and society. I currently serve on the editorial board of Screenworks, a UK-based peer-reviewed journal of media practice research.
I hold a PhD in Communication Arts from the University of Wisconsin–Madison and have taught at several universities, including NYU, UW–Madison, and Fordham University. In my research, I focus on media histories, visual cultures, and the political economy of power, with particular attention to Iranian cinema, Persianate visual traditions, and transnational networks. My writing and presentations often examine how images, narratives, and modes of media production shape — and are shaped by — social, economic, and political contexts. I have published several pieces in the Journal of Cinema and Media Studies (JCMS).
As a filmmaker, I have worked across forms, from observational landscape films to narrative fiction, mockumentaries, and computational moving images. Beyond filmmaking, I have been active in organizing film programs and curating screenings that highlight underrepresented voices and global labor struggles. I am currently the Exhibition Group Convenor and a Steering Group member of the Radical Film Network, the largest international network of filmmakers, academics, critics, and curators engaged in experimental and activist cinema.
I also work with new media and emerging technologies, building interactive tools and experiments that invite people to engage with collective histories in new ways. My technical projects often blend computational approaches with humanistic inquiry, reflecting my interest in using digital tools to open up new ways of seeing and thinking rather than simply automating familiar methods. This includes co-creating the Urban Video Archive, an interactive digital archive of video activism in Rio de Janeiro (2013–2023), as well as recent projects focused on decolonizing AI.
Research and creation are not complete without community service and education. I have organized free digital storytelling workshops for disenfranchised communities in Wisconsin, aimed at studying and addressing digital inequalities. Connecting communities with academia, I have also organized Civic Media Workshops at Fordham University to collaborate with artist-activists and train students in community-engaged media and technology development.
Across these activities, I aim to create spaces for curiosity, dialogue, and shared reflection. I work across disciplines and media, drawing inspiration from the conversation between historical materials and present conditions.
Please find my CV here.
Hamidreza Nassiri 