Student Information
Graduate Student
Comparative Culture and Language
The College of Lib Arts & Sci
Long Bio
Arina Melkozernova is an instructional professional and PhD Candidate at the Comparative Culture and Language program, SILC, ASU. Arina has a multidisciplinary background in art (intermedia), science (biology), environmental humanities, educational technology and an instructional design. Her area of concentration is digital humanities. As a researcher, Arina collaborates with communities to restore their “place‐embodied” narrative. She contributes to building new research pathways within academia with criteria for inclusivity, data transparency and epistemological flexibility.
As a teacher, Arina applies theories and methodologies from environmental humanities, biosemiotics, science and indigenous ecology to discuss tensions between Western science and non-Western knowledge systems that exemplify the traditional cultural practices. She is open to new challenges and responsibilities in higher education setting, multidisciplinary collaborations, online education and curricular development. Arina actively supports services that celebrate diversity and inclusion.
Arizona State University PhD candidate Arina Melkozernova was recently named the recipient of the 2021 Future Steward Excellence Award from the National Digital Stewardship Alliance in recognition of her work in partnership with several Indigenous communities.
Education
- Doctor of Philosophy, (Expected 2024), School of International Letters and Cultures, Arizona State University
- Digital Humanities Certificate, Arizona State University
- M.F.A in Intermedia, School of Fine Arts, Arizona State University
- B.Sc. (Biology), Perm State University, Department of Biology, Perm, Russia
- Tri-lingual: fluent in English, Russian, with basic conversation and reading skills in French.
Research Interests
Over the course of my career, I have worked in different fields: teaching science to high school students (Biology/Chemistry), conducting scientific research in biology (Ichthyology/Ecology/Microbiology), teaching creativity to university students (Intermedia/Art Appreciation), and training educators to enhance teaching and learning with technology (Instructional Design). All of my background experiences have sparked my interest in further examining the relationships between the arts and the sciences in non-Western and Western value systems. My research focus is on the developing and implementing creative solutions for digitizing culturally valuable information to promote the notion of “sovereignty” in relation to digital technologies and infrastructure. My goal is to help in requests and prospects of new generation of tribal knowledge workers.
Read more about my research here.
Research Group
North American Observatory Affiliate, Humanities for the Environment
Publications
- Map - Melkozernova, Arina. "Coushatta homes along Bayou Blue, ca. 1970." Langley, Linda P, and Denise E. Bates. Louisiana Coushatta Basket Makers: Traditional Knowledge, Resourcefulness, and Artistry As a Means of Survival. 2021, p. 23. Map.
- A.Melkozernova (2019) “MAKING TRIBAL HISTORIES ACCESSIBLE: Collaborating with the Coushatta Tribe of Louisiana”. Poster presentation. Doing Research in Indigenous Communities conference (DRIC), ASU, 2019; Online Edition of DHSI Conference and Colloquium, 2020.
- A.Melkozernova (2017) WEB OF SCIENCE DATABASE: KNOWLEDGE OF THE HOPI. A Prototype for the Future Research: Sampling and Patterns. Poster presentation. DISI Graduate Research Conference, Tempe, AZ, 2018. The 19th Annual American Indian Studies Association Conference, Tempe, AZ, 2018. HTRC UnCamp 2018, UC Berkeley.
Research Activity
- “COUSHATTA (KOASATI) BASKET WEAVERS: MAPPING GIFT ECONOMY or How not to lie with maps”, Poster presentation, the 2022 conference Doing Research in Indigenous Communities: Being a Good Relative in Research, ASU, December 16, 2022
- “You say Borscht I say Borsch”, presentation, 2022 Emerge Festival: Eating at the Edges (Collaboration with Sara El Sayed, Shared Food, Shared Land workshop, College of Global Futures & Swette Center, Arizona State University, November 19, 2022)
- “Seed to Basket”, presentation, SIMA 2022 Symposium, Q?rius Theater, NMNH, Washington DC. July 8, 2022
- “Russian Text Analysis: Preliminary Approaches for Assessing the Impact of COVID-19 on the Indigenous Peoples of Russia”, Poster presentation, the DHSI 2022 – Online Edition Conference & Colloquium, June 10, 2022.
- “Applying Digital Humanities Methods for Russian Mainstream News Analysis: Preliminary Approaches for Assessing the Impact of COVID-19 on the Indigenous Peoples of Russia”, Poster presentation, DH Unbound 2022, May 18, 2022.
- “Learn about Seed Mapping”, Presentation, 2022 Slow Seed Summit, May 13, 2022.
- “Women & Seeds in Basilicata, Italy”, Presentation, 2022 Slow Seed Summit, May 15, 2022.
- “The Coushatta Tribe of Louisiana: Revealing a Diplomacy Map from the History of Basket-weaving Traditions”, Lightning talk, the Culture Mapping Digital Humanities 2022 Conference, April 8, 2022, NYU.
- Paper presentation, SILC graduate student colloquium “Russian Text Analysis: Preliminary Approaches for Assessing the Impact of COVID 19 on the Indigenous Peoples of Russia”, April 16, 2021
- Poster presentation “MAKING TRIBAL HISTORIES ACCESSIBLE: Collaborating with the Coushatta Tribe of Louisiana” at the Online Edition of DHSI Conference and Colloquium, June 5, 2020
- Spring 20 Indigenous Research Roundtable Talk: Making Tribal Histories Accessible: Collaborating with the Coushatta Tribe of Louisiana
- Poster presentation “MAKING TRIBAL HISTORIES ACCESSIBLE: Collaborating with the Coushatta Tribe of Louisiana” at the Doing Research in Indigenous Communities conference (DRIC), 2019
- Pitch “Breaking the wall of displacement” at the Falling Walls Lab Arizona pitch-style forum, 2019
- Presentation “Mapping the ‘Mediterranean Diet’, the knowledge systems of traditional foods from the Campania region” - at the research conversations session in the SILC graduate colloquium, 2019
- Mukurtu KMS Presentation for Tribal Council, the Coushatta Tribe of Louisiana, March 2019
- A research-related translation project involving an early 20th-Century Russian language text, 2019
Courses
2023 Fall
2023 Spring
2022 Fall
2022 Spring
Honors / Awards
- Sun Awards for Individual Excellence, ASU, 2014 – Present
- 2021 National Digital Stewardship Alliance (NDSA) Future Steward Excellence Award Graduate
- The CCI Chairs’ Award recognizing outstanding service and contribution to the work of CCI (Committee for Campus Inclusion), 2020
- Summer 2020 Pandemic Impact Award
- University Graduate Fellowship 2020, 2021
- The Graduate Excellence Scholarship from The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences for the 2019-2020 academic year
- 2019-20 Graduate College Travel Award
- DHSI - ESUDH 2019 Bursary
- National Humanities Center Internship Program West Fellowship 2019
- The Humanities and the Arts Pitch Competition Research Funds Award 2019
- Graduate College Fellowship Award (GCF) 2019
- SILC Graduate Colloquium Award, 2019
- SILC Small Research Grant Award 2019
- DRIC 2019 Poster competition, second place
- Falling Walls Lab Arizona Certificate of participation, 2019
- Award recipient from President M. Crow, Graduate College Fellowship, 2019
- The “Humanities Data and Mapping Environments” Workshop, The 10th European Summer University in Digital Humanities "Culture & Technology", Leipzig, Germany - Certificate of participation, 2019
- Connected Academics Pitch competition award, first place, 2018
- The Knowledge Enterprise Development Service Award, 2017
- Professional Development Grant by the Arizona Commission on the Arts, 2013
- Artist in Residency, CAMAC, France, 2010
- Professional Development Grant by the Arizona Commission on the Arts, 2010
- Continuing Education Award, Rio Salado College, Spring 2009, Fall 2009
- Invited Artist at the SIGGRAPH 2007 Art Gallery: Global Eyes, the 34th International Conference and Exhibition on Computer Graphics and Interactive Techniques, August 2007, San Diego, California, USA http://www.awn.com/articles/global-eyes-look-near-and-far-siggraph-art-gallery/page/2%2C1
- Graduate and Professional Student Association Travel Grant Award, 2005
- Student Enrichment Grants, 2003, 2004, 2005
- Nathan Cummings Travel Fellowship Award, 2004
- Individual Creative Excellence (ICE) award of the National Broadcasting Association in the Graphic and Animation/Student category, 2004
- Student Travel Grant, 2003
- Nomination of the 3D animation “Self Transparency” in the Short Film Category of DAMAH Film Festival, Seattle, WA, 2003
Editorships
- CCI-Tempe Podcast Project 2020 – Present
- ASU Innovation Week 2020: ASU Sync Tips and Tricks for Students
- The Coushatta Tribe of Louisiana: Making History Accessible digital humanity project with Coushatta Tribe of Louisiana Heritage Department, 2019 – Present
- Collected and translated tribal stories from Russia in contribution to the collection of the Global Indigenous Stories of COVID19 in the digital archive called “A Journal of the Plague Year: An Archive of CoVid19” (https://covid19.omeka.net/), that was created in response to the needs of the indigenous partners, 2019
- Video production for the Refugee Health Project (RHP) EcoMedia in collaboration with Refugee Health Partnership, Dignity Health, Catholic Charities Community Services, Arizona State University, 2017 – Present
- Video production for the Green Futures Exchange in collaboration with the Stevens Initiative, the Aspen Institute, An Najah National University (Palestine), Arizona State University, 2017 - Present
- Video production for Global Sustainability Science (GSS) Program in collaboration with Leuphana University of Lüneburg, Germany, Arizona State University, 2017 – Present
- Video production for the ASU SEC Mitigation Project, Arizona State University, 2017
- Video production for the Humanities Lab project, Arizona State University, 2016
- Video production for the West Cluster of the Humanities for the Environment (HfE), Arizona State University (2013 - 2014)
- Video production for the Center for Bio-Inspired Solar Fuel Production (BISfuel), Arizona State University (2013 - 2014)
- ASU News Releases: media for Teaching with technology at the School of Sustainability article; media for Natural Capital article
Professional Associations
- ESA - The Ecological Society of America
- Association for Computers and the Humanities
- Biosemiotics Organization
- AASHE - Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education
- HASTAC (Humanities, Arts, Science, and Technology Alliance and Collaboratory)
- Quality Matters Peer Reviewer program
Graduate Faculties / Mentoring History
- 2021-2022 Chloe Larson, Barret Honors College, Preserving Traditional Knowledge of Plants & Land in Southern Italy Podcast Production
- 2012-2018 ASU101-SOS undergraduate student-facilitators, School of Sustainability, Facilitation training
Work History
- Instructional Designer, School of Sustainability, ASU 07/2011 – present
- Faculty Associate, ASU 03/2022 – present
- Research Professional, ASU 07/2019 – present
- Graphic Designer, Rio Salado College 11/2006 –06/2011
- Instructional Designer, American Express 10/2005 – 11/2006
- Adjunct Faculty, Rio Salado College 01/2008 – 08/2011
- Faculty Associate, Intermedia, School of Fine Arts, Arizona State University 08/2008 – 05/2010; 08/2005 – 05/2007
- Instructor, 3D/2D Computer Animation & Graphics, Herberger College for Kids, Arizona State University 08/2005 – 05/2006
Service
- Member of the SOS JEDI Committee, ASU, 2020 - Present
- ASU Committee for Campus Inclusion (CCI), Tempe, appointment 2015 – Present
- University Hearing Board Title IX Member, 2018 - Present
- Member of the SILC Search Committee for Environmental Humanities position, 2019
- Panel discussion: Innovative Uses of Technology to Promote Inclusion in the Classroom, CCI Diversity & Inclusion Conference, ASU, Tempe, 2016
- Video production for Echo Systems project (Collaboration with Grisha Coleman, Assistant Professor, School of Arts, Media and Engineering/School of Dance, Arizona State University, 2014)
- Video production for Emerge: The Carnival of the Future (Collaboration with the Consortium for Science, Policy and Outcomes & School of Sustainability, Arizona State University, 2014)
Industry Positions
Instructional Designer, American Express
