Laila Shereen Sakr

Laila Shereen Sakr is Associate Professor of Media Theory and Practice at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Her research and creative scholarship have deployed the idea, experimentation, and aesthetics of glitch to make a series of conceptual points culminating in her single-authored book, Arabic Glitch: Technoculture, Data Bodies, and Archives (Stanford University Press, 2023). At UCSB, she co-founded Wireframe, a studio promoting collaborative theoretical and creative media practice with investments in global, social, and environmental justice. As both producer and scholar of emergent media, she writes articles in venues like Minnesota University Press’ Debates in Digital Humanities series and Middle East Critique, develops open source machine learning software, and solo art exhibitions such as Capitol Glitch: Arab Cyborg Turns to D.C., on the January 6th Capitol insurrection, to analyze contemporary global culture. As VJ Um Amel, she has been featured in prestigious venues such as the SF MoMA, National Gallery of Art in Jordan, Camera Austria, Cultura Digital in Brazil, Kirchner Cultural Centre in Argentina, Tahrir Cultural Center in Egypt, Lagos Biennial in Nigeria, and the Qualcomm Institute in San Diego. Scholars, activists, and artists have engaged in her work and reviews have appeared in dozens of publications. She is Faculty Affiliate in the Department of Feminist Studies, Department of Media Arts and Technology, Center for Responsible Machine Learning, Center for Middle East Studies, and the Center for Information Technology and Society.