November 06, 2025

Faculty & Staff

Brea Heidelberg, PhD, professor of Entertainment & Arts Management, is the keynote speaker representing the United States at the Cultural Trends Global Dialogue conference, hosted by Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú.

Laura-Edythe S. Coleman, PhD, associate professor of Arts Administration, published her latest book, Curatorial Voice: The Gatekeeping of Culture, Routledge 2025.

Frank Lee, PhD, professor of Digital Media, received a Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) grant from the National Institute of Nursing Research at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Lee is Co-Investigator on the project titled "Life at 100.4: An Immersive Social Virtual Reality Education Tool for Adolescent and Young Adult Cancer Patients and Caregivers," which will develop and evaluate an immersive VR-based program designed to improve patient understanding and management of febrile neutropenia during cancer treatment. The Principal Investigator on the project is Dr. Asher Marks, Yale School of Medicine, with co-investigator DJ Smith, Chief Creative Officer, The Glimpse Group. Dr. Lee has been awarded Visiting Professorship for his sabbatical from Sogang University in Seoul, South Korea.

Ari Gass, PhD, assistant professor of Digital Media, published an article titled “Worms Through Time: Deep Learning Super Sampling and Temporal Manipulation in Control (2019)” in the Journal of Gaming and Virtual Worlds. Dr. Gass’s theatre company, Obvious Agency, was awarded a William Penn Foundation grant to engage community participants in workshops to develop and perform SPORTS!, a participatory play exploring the intersection of queerness and sports.

Michael Wagner, professor of Digital Media, published 12 peer-reviewed academic articles on AI in education, including 10 conference papers and two journal articles in the Zeitschrift für Medienpädagogik and the Athens Journal of Humanities & Arts. Wagner book titled “The Ghost in the Machine in Your Classroom: Navigating the Future of Education in the Age of AI.”

Assistant Professor of Screenwriting & Playwriting Savannah Reich’s play Oedipus in Seattle ran at Norristown's Theater Horizon in September. Oedipus in Seattle is a mash-up of Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex and Nora Ephron’s Sleepless in Seattle, performed by two actors who have never rehearsed it, guided only by instructions coming from their headphones. A star-studded cast of Philadelphia actors rotated through the roles, with different actors each night.

Assistant professor of Product Design June He’s solo exhibition of color pencil illustrations was presented at The Study at University City.

Max Vasapoli, academic advisor and adjunct professor, performed in EgoPo Classic Theater’s production of The Drag, which was nominated for the Philadelphia Award for Social Insight at the 2025 Barrymore Awards. The Philadelphia Award for Social Insight seeks to honor the spirit of Philadelphia by acknowledging a production from any period or genre that demonstrates the ability of theatre to illuminate the way we live and interact with others as we seek to build community. The award, funded by the Virginia Brown Martin Fund of the Philadelphia Foundation, recognizes a production that leaves its audience with a deeper appreciation of the people we interact with, and a more focused understanding of the conditions and interactions inherent in our social world.

Antonio Martinez-Molina, associate professor of Architecture, published the results of a research project conducted in a lecture taught at Westphal. The experiment involved portable electroencephalogram (EEG) headbands to test how air temperature, humidity, and natural light affect students’ attention and relaxation during lectures.

Rachil Higgins, instructor of Fashion Industry & Merchandising, was recently quoted in a Wall Street Journal article about fashion sustainability and waste.

Rashidah Abdul Salam, adjunct professor of Art & Art History, was commissioned by the Mural Arts Program of Philadelphia and Temple University to create a mural for the Temple University College of Public Health (CPH) newly renovated Paley Hall.

Students & Alumni

In September, the artwork “Bluebird” by Arefeh Ahmadi, PhD Digital Media, was displayed on digital billboards during The Armory Show 2025. The installation appeared across high-visibility sites in New York and New Jersey. The artwork was later showcased on digital billboards in Tokyo during Tokyo Gendai 2025, reaching audiences across major districts during the fair. The fair featured sixty-six galleries from across 16–17 countries.

Erin Truesdell (BS Game Design & Production ’19) and Frank Lee, PhD, professor of Digital Media, are among 10 recipients of the Young Futures “Here Comes the Fun” funding challenge in partnership with the Joan Ganz Cooney Center at Sesame Workshop, with support from Niantic. This challenge will uplift and scale solutions that design, build, and facilitate play that meets pre-teens and teens where they are to enhance wellbeing outcomes across digital experiences.

Digital Media PhD students Darya Ramezani and Gene Santiago-Holt created an interactive, location-based augmented reality (AR) experience for mobile devices entitled "Dreamscape Hatchlings" which was featured at SIGGRAPH 2025.

Vivian Tian (MS Digital Media ’25), NSF Graduate Fellow, has been accepted into USC School of Cinematic Arts' prestigious PhD program in Media Arts and Practice, where she has been awarded an Annenberg Fellowship. This five-year fellowship provides full tuition and stipend support. During her master's studies, she worked under the advisement of Dr. Frank Lee.