My name is Marina Hassapopoulou, and I am a tenure-track Assistant Professor in the Cinema Studies department of New York University. During my time at New York University, I have been working on expanding the interdisciplinary theory-practice and “critical making” curriculum of the Cinema Studies department to ensure that students have more options to explore their creative strengths beyond traditional academic paths and forms of scholarship. In terms of research, I am currently working on finishing my book manuscript, Interactive Cinema and the Ethics of Media Participation in the Era of (Dis)Connection, that focuses on participatory multimedia experiments in the history of cinema/media arts and develops new frameworks for spectatorship in the digital age. Alongside teaching and research, I am passionately involved in several initiatives that aim to create more inclusive and diverse opportunities within the field of Cinema and Media Studies, and in the Humanities in general. These initiatives include: contributing to inclusive teaching resources and methodologies,  creating an archival resource alongside research on marginalized activist creative experiments in Artificial Intelligence (for which I have won an International Research and Collaboration Award for Histories of AI: A Genealogy of Power from the University of Cambridge), working on a project involving the creation of new curatorial platforms and digital tools to support ongoing social impact and peace advocacy campaigns, in collaboration with a non-profit organization (Visual Voices) and artists working in conflict zones (winner of a Mega Grants Incubator award from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts), and advocating for more diversity in mainstream media representation through being an active member of the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences (IADAS) and a Webby Awards  & Anthem Awards nominating jury member. You are welcome to find out more about my work through my blog: https://marinahassap.wordpress.com