Institute for the Arts and Humanities (IAH)
Institute for the Arts and Humanities (IAH)
Kasra headshot

Mona Kasra

Associate Director IAH, and Associate Professor of Digital Media Design, Department of Drama & Department of Art
Email: mona.kasra@virginia.edu

Biography

Mona Kasra (Associate Professor, Department of Art and Department of Drama) is a new media artist, designer, and interdisciplinary scholar whose work bridges contemporary art, performance, emerging technologies, and critical media studies. As Associate Director of the Institute for the Arts & Humanities, she leads the development of the IAH Experimental Artspace, an initiative creating new spaces and opportunities for interdisciplinary artistic experimentation, research, exhibition, and performance across the University.

Kasra’s research examines the political, cultural, and aesthetic implications of visual media technologies, with particular interests in synthetic media and artificial intelligence, visual culture, representation, and authenticity. Her creative practice works across moving image, digital media, installation, and performance, experimenting with emerging technologies as both artistic tools and systems that shape how we see, represent, and experience the world. She frequently collaborates with artists, musicians, choreographers, and theater-makers to explore new relationships among media, performance, narrative, and audience experience. Her artwork has been exhibited nationally and internationally, and she has served as a curator and juror for international exhibitions, festivals, and conferences, including Ars Electronica and SIGGRAPH. As a projection and media designer, she creates work for theater and live performance, with four Helen Hayes Award nominations for Outstanding Projections/Media Design.
 
At UVA, Kasra also serves as Director of the Miller Arts Scholars Program and as a faculty co-lead of the Democracy’s Digital Technology for Democracy Lab. She previously served on the ACM SIGGRAPH Executive Committee (2019–2025), including as Chair from 2023-2024, and currently serves on the Board of Directors of the New Media Caucus. She holds a PhD in Arts & Technology and an MFA in Video/Digital Art.