dr. diane derr
Director, Institute for Creative Research
Associate Dean for Research and Development, VCUarts Qatar
Diane Derr is Associate Dean for Research and Development at VCUarts Qatar. Derr’s practice-based research is framed within the areas of media arts, critical design, and narratology. Within this framework, she has two primary areas of inquiry: the construction of intertextual narratives across systems of communication and the phenomenology of interaction enabled by mediation technologies.
Derr has exhibited, lectured, and published internationally with venues and organizations that include the University of the Aegean (Greece), Architecture, Media, Politics, and Society (AMPS), the German University of Cairo (Egypt), Fábrica de Arte Cubano (Cuba), Frameless Labs (RIT), the University of Aveiro (Portugal), Gezira Art Center (Egypt), the Alliance for Arts in Research Universities (A2RU), Leeds College of Art (United Kingdom), The Editorial (Universidad de Sevilla)Shanghai Institute of Visual Arts (China), the Center for Art and New Technology (Czech Republic), the International Symposium on Electronic Art (ISEA), the Ionion Centre for arts and Culture (Greece), Design Days Dubai (United Arab Emirates), and the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (Brazil), and the Technoetic Arts: Journal of Speculative Research (Intellect).
Prior to her current appointment, Derr was Associate Professor in Design Studies at VCUarts Qatar. She received her Ph.D. from the Centre for Advanced Inquiry in Interactive Arts (CAiiA) in the School of Art, Design and Architecture at the University of Plymouth, UK, and her MFA in Interdisciplinary Art and Media from Columbia College Chicago. She holds a dual-degree BFA in Photography + Film and Sculpture + Extended Media from Virginia Commonwealth University.