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IVAN ALLEN

Undergraduate Degree:
SUNY Binghamton

Doctoral Degree:
Harvard University

Janet Murray

Neither of my parents graduated from high school, but I benefitted from the 1950s U.S. emphasis on education and the excellent public school system in New York City, and well-subsidized public college system of the City and State. I graduated from SUNY Binghamton a semester early and trained as a systems programmer for IBM.  I got my PhD in English from Harvard University where I taught one of the first courses in women’s studies. At MIT from 1971-1999, drawing on both my programming and literature background I led several pioneering humanities computing projects. In 1999 I came to Georgia Tech, where I am a full professor in Literature, Media, and Communication, former director of the graduate program in Digital Media, and current Associate Dean for Research in Ivan Allen College of the Liberal Arts and Director of the Digital Integrative Liberal Arts Center. I taught the first courses in interactive narrative at Tech as I had at MIT and I also taught Georgia Tech’s first course in game design. My research focus is on digital interactive narrative, which I pursue by making prototypes with my students at penlab.gatech.edu and in my analytical writings, including Hamlet on the Holodeck: the Future of Narrative in Cyberspace (Free Press 1997; MIT UP 1997, 2018). I am also an emerita Trustee of the American Film Institute and emerita Board Member of Peabody Awards. My research has been supported by NSF, NEH, Mellon Foundation, Annenberg Foundation, Apple Computer, Intel, Oculus, and IBM.