Biography

Tessa Joseph-Nicholas is a Lecturer in the Department of Computer Science at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She was awarded a PhD in English and Comparative Literature from UNC-Chapel Hill in 2008, and also holds an MFA in Creative Writing from Cornell University. Her doctoral research included a study of new media poetry and poetics and the effect of online communities on artistic and social communication and production. She is a recent recipient of an Ueltschi Service-Learning Course Development Grant for her collaboration with UNC's Digital Story Lab and the interactive theater group Theater Delta, and is co-recipient of a two-year Innovation Grant from UNC's Institute for the Arts and Humanities for the project "Reimagining Gaming: Program in Alternative Games and Digital Innovation."

Research interests include digital media arts and poetics, online identity construction, digital-age intellectual property and creativity, alternative and serious games, and online instructional strategies. She currently teaches COMP 380: Computers and Society and COMP 590: Advanced Cyberculture Studies for the Computer Science department, as well as online poetry workshops for the Department of English and Comparative Literature through Carolina Courses Online.