Welcoming New Undergraduate Certificate Students
We are delighted to welcome our inaugural cohort of undergraduate certificate in new media students! Hailing from a range of disciplines, the undergraduates who applied exemplified the interdisciplinary community the Center serves.
MacKenzie Alessi (Interdisciplinary Studies) is interested in the intersection between law, politics, society, and technology. She seeks to research how societal factors allow technology to permeate certain sectors, how values influence legal decisions dealing with technology, and how technology pushes back against the structure that allowed it to flourish.
Andrew Frankel (Rhetoric) is excited to integrate art with science and technology. A musician and artist himself, Andrew has been offering the decal "Right-Brained Music" in which he discusses the physics behind music. Currently he is interested in the visualization of sounds and cognitive prejudices towards line and shape.
Jacqueline Garcia (Computer Science) is passionate about social change and views computer science as a means to make a difference in the world. Jacqueline is hoping to study the bridge between social justice and technology through the Center for New Media, and hopes this will shape her future in the field.
Lina Jemili (Political Science, minor in Arabic) is fascinated by electronic news media and social change. She has been studying the Arab Spring as well as protests in Ferguson to grasp how increasing accessibility to both the reading and creation of news through microblogging can shift power structures.
Jeremy Kingston Cynamon (Political Science) is interested in how technology shapes legal and political culture. In particular, he seeks to understand how private enterprise shapes our cultural discourse through media, especially in the cyber sphere. His goal is to establish what effect this discourse has on constructing, deconstructing, and reconstructing liberal democracies.
Mark Lam (Media Studies & Art Practice) is an artist who explores the boundaries that connect individuals. Trans-disciplinary in nature, he seeks to create an immersive, participatory experience. Currently, he is experimenting in video and animation to investigate temporality and movement in a fixed environment.
Akhila Raju (Computer Science and Cognitive Science) is passionate about human centered design. She hopes to enhance human experience through the intersection of the humanities and computer science, gaining perspectives and context that will inflect her research and allow her to create visionary technologies for social good.
Maddie Stearns (Interdisciplinary Studies) comes to new media from the field of performance art and is interested in creating performances that isolate the senses through new mediums to create a singular, unique experience.
Mitchell Alan Stieg (Chemistry and Interdisciplinary Studies) came to UC Berkeley for the world-class Chemistry department, but discovered upon his arrival the exciting critical analysis taking place in the social sciences and humanities. Mitchell hopes to take advantage of these fields through the BCNM and pursue topics of due process regarding cyber terrorism in the future.
James Toshiaki Uejio (Undeclared) has a strong passion for music and technology. James is a jazz musician and songwriter and has recently become interested in artificial improvisation. He is also hoping to learn more about the possibilities for 3D printing and other technologies and music during his time with the BCNM.
Lydia Tuan (Rhetoric and Comparative Literature) was inspired to join the BCNM after studying the ways images shape the way we perceive the world through a UCB Rhetoric course and attending the BCNM's Image as Location conference. Lydia hopes the Certificate will broaden her knowledge of technological mediation in the arts and humanities.