Awards & Grants

About | Research Themes | Research Projects | Creative Practice | Teaching

Research Grants

Citizen Agency in AI: Democratizing Algorithmic Services in the City (CAAI), Awarded by the Kone Foundation on December 2, 2021. Duration: 1/1/2022 – 31/12/2025.

Critical AI and Crisis Interrogatives Seminar, Awarded by the Finnish Center for Artificial Intelligence (FCAI) and Helsinki Institute for Information Technology (HIIT) on 1/12/2001. Duration 27/10/2021 – 1/9/2022.

Color of Science: Engaging Critical Perspectives from Scientists of Color and the Indigenous, Awarded by the School of Science Diversity and Inclusivity Fund, Aalto University, 10/2/2021. Duration 10/2/2021 – 1/2/2022.

Reconstructing Crisis Narratives for Trustworthy Communication and Cooperative Agency, Academy of Finland, Special call on crisis preparedness and security of supply, Awarded on November, 25, 2020. Duration: 21/8/2020 – 30/11/2023.

Fellowships

Graduate Institute for Design, Ethnography and Social Thought (GIDEST) Faculty Fellowship for Research and Creative Practice, Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and The New School, 2018 – 2019.

Just Jerusalem Fellowship, MIT Department of Urban Studies and Planning and MIT Center for International Studies, 2009 – 2010.

Martin Fellow for Sustainability, Martin Family Foundation and the MIT Laboratory for Energy and Environment, 2002 – 2003.

Media Lab Asia Fellowship, Govt. of India and MIT Media Laboratory, 2001 – 2002.

British Telecom Fellowship, British Telecom and MIT Media Laboratory, 1998 – 2000.

Awards

Nominations for Distinguished University Teaching Award, The New School, 2014 and 2017.

Best Documentary (Feature-Length) Award for Flying Paper, 7^thInternational Children’s Film Festival (ICFF), Lucknow, India, April 2016.

Best Youth Feature for Flying Paper, Harlem International Film Festival, New York, USA, May 2014.

Jury Prize Winner, Human Images Competition for Flying Paper, Baghdad International Film Festival, Institute of Fine Arts, Baghdad, Iraq, October 7, 2013.

Award of Excellence, Best Documentary Featurefor Flying Paper at International Film Festival for Peace, Inspiration and Equality, Jakarta, Indonesia, September 12, 2013.

Best Documentary (Foreign) Award for Flying Paper at The Indie Gathering International Film Festival, Hudson, Ohio, USA, August 18, 2013.

Dedication to Activism through the Arts Award by the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, May 31,2008, for the Boston Palestine Film Festival held at the Museum of Fine Arts, Harvard Film Archive and Coolidge Corner Theater in 2007.

First Douglas Engelbart Best Paper Award for the paper “HyperCafe: Narrative and Aesthetic Properties of Hypervideo”, ACM SIGWEB Hypertext Conference, March1996.

Patents

Wilcox, L.D., Schilit, W.N., Sawhney, N., Sullivan, J.W. and Bickmore, T.W., Xerox Corporation and Fuji Xerox Co., Ltd., 1999. System for capturing and retrieving audio data and corresponding hand-written notes. U.S. Patent 5,970,455.

Grants (2006 – 2018)

OBJECT AMERICA with Selena Kimball, Pascal Glissmann, and Margot Bouman, Observational Practices Lab, Parsons, Cross School Based-Funds, The New School, May 2017 – June 2018, $4,000 awarded.

Research projects on Digital Collection Platforms, Embodied Borders, and Youth Media Programs. Student Research Assistant Fund, Faculty Research Support Initiative, Office of the Provost, The New School, $5,100 awarded each academic year from 2012-2018.

Paid Academic Leave, Office of the Provost, The New School, Spring 2016.

Participatory Media Engagement and Learning with Arab-American Youth in Brooklyn with Melissa Friedling, SPE Civic Engagement Fund, The New School, July 1, 2014 – June 30, 2015, $10,000 awarded.

Revitalizing NYC Neighborhoods through Public Innovation Places: Participatory Urban Investigations, Cooperative Design and Policy Alternatives with Eduardo Staszowski and Lara Penin (Parsons), Melanie Crean (Parsons), Vyjayanthi Rao (Anthropology) and Nidhi Srinivas (Milano) in partnership with No Longer Empty. Fund for Collaborative Innovation, The New School Collaboratory, September 2013 – 2015, $20,000 awarded.

Gaza from Within: Photography and Theater amidst War, Production of documentary shorts with Roger Hill,Geneviève McMillan-Reba Stewart Foundation, May 1, 2015, $10,000 awarded.

Engage Media Lab: A hub for participatory media learning and creative practice in NYC, with Peter Lucas, SPE Civic Engagement Fund, The New School, July 1, 2013 – June 30, 2014, $8,750 awarded.

No Man’s Land: Hearing the voices of young men in East Jerusalemwith Prof. Warren Spielberg (NSSR), Faculty Research Fund, The New School, July 1, 2013 – June 30, 2014, $9000 awarded.

Supporting DIY Maker Cultures at The New Schoolwith Peter Asaro, Katherine Moriwaki, Otto von Busch and Jane Pirone, Mutual Mentoring Grant, The New School, 2013 – 2014, $5,000 awarded.

Flying Paper film post-production with Roger Hill, Electronic Media and Film Finishing Funds Grant by the Arts Council of the Southern Finger Lakes and New York State, June 20, 2012, $2,500 awarded.

Mobile Storytelling for Youth Media Makers, Link Grant from the New York Community Trust and Hive NYC Learning Network, Partners: People’s Production House and Eyebeam Center for Art and Technology, New York, NY, October 2011 – September 2012, $50,000 awarded.

Flying Paper film production with Roger Hill, All RoadsFilmProject Seed Grant, National Geographic, May 2011, $9,500 awarded.

Art as Intervention – Creative Responses Course for MIT Undergraduate Experience in Service Learning through the Artswith Ute Meta Bauer for curricula development project in the MIT Program in Art, Culture and Technology (ACT), D’Arbeloff Fund, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, December 2010, $40,000 awarded.

Reimagining Gaza: Youth Media Digital Storytelling Project and Photography Exhibition, Geneviève McMillan-Reba Stewart Foundation, May 2010, $10,000 awarded.

Art as Intervention: Creative Responses to Conflict, Crisis & Trauma with Ute Meta Bauer for research project in the MIT Program in Art, Culture and Technology (ACT), The Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences (HASS), Massachusetts Institute of Technology, May 7, 2010, $15,000 awarded.

Youth Visions of Jerusalem, Digital storytelling program with youth through Voices Beyond Walls in partnership with the Woman and Child Centers in Shu’fat Refugee Camp, the African Community Youth Center, and the Al‐Ma’mal Foundation for Contemporary Art in Jerusalem. The Jerusalem Fund, Jerusalem Unit, The President’s Office, Palestinian Authority, Ramallah, West Bank, June 2009, $30,000 awarded.

Boston Palestine Film Festival, production, publicity and hosting of film festival program, Geneviève McMillan-Reba Stewart Foundation, 2007 – 2017, $10,000 awarded each year.

OpenClinica: Open Source Platform for Clinical Data Management and Research, Small Business Innovation and Research (SBIR) Phase I Research Grant, National Institutes of Health (NIH), January 2004 – February 2006, $200,000 awarded. Grant subsequently extended for Phase II Commercialization (3-years $1.5 Million) from 2006 – 2009. Funds awarded to Akaza Research, Cambridge, MA.

Voices Beyond Walls: Digital Storytelling in Palestinian Refugee Camps, capacity-building trainings and participatory media workshops conducted at the Yafa community center in Balata camp, Lajee Center in Aida Camp, Shufat Youth Social Center in Shufat Camp, and The Freedom Theater in Jenin camp, Palestine, The Hoping Foundation, U.K., 2008, $25,000 awarded.

Bahlam fi Falistine (Dreaming in Palestine): Digital Storytelling in Palestinian Refugee Camps, capacity-building and participatory media workshops conducted at Yafa community center in Balata camp and The Freedom Theater in Jenin camp, Palestine, The Hoping Foundation, U.K., 2006 – 2007, $20,000 awarded.