PhD, University of Waterloo
MA, NTU
BA(Hons.), NTU
Email: sffernandez@uwaterloo.ca
Biography
As a member of the higher education community, I have acquired extensive experience in fostering inclusive teaching and learning environments. Over the years, I taught courses in such diverse areas as rhetoric and communication, digital media studies, disability studies, critical making, and inclusive design. As an educator, I care deeply about my students’ academic development and wellbeing. I am committed to supporting the learning needs of students and promoting an inclusive culture of learning that is accessible to all students, regardless of background, identity, or belief.
Besides my teaching practice, I am also active in research. Working at the intersection of disability studies, digital media studies, and critical design, my research attends to the impact of digital media technologies and design practice on contemporary society and culture. My peer-reviewed work has appeared in Technoculture, The International Journal of Performance Art and Digital Media, The Canadian Journal of Disability Studies, and The International Journal of Inclusive Education, among other venues. As an academic, I have served as an external expert reviewer for government grant agencies as well as a peer reviewer for reputable scholarly journals in the humanities and social sciences. I am also a current member of the Editorial Board of Technoculture.
Selected Publications
“Critical Techno-dramaturgy: Mobilizing Embodied Perception of the Human-Technology Relationship in Performance.” Routledge Companion to Performance and Technology. Eds. Maaike Bleeker and Norah Zuniga-Shaw. (Forthcoming 2025)
“How Mobile Health Technologies Can Transform Social Relationships in a Population-Level Fitness Promotion Campaign.” Proceedings of the 2022 IEEE International Symposium on Technology and Society (ISTAS), IEEE Xplore. https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/10227088 (Co-authored with S. L. Seah)
“Making Space in Higher Education: Disability, Digital Technology, and the Inclusive Prospect of Digital Collaborative Making.” International Journal of Inclusive Education Vol.25 No.12 (2021): 1375-1390. https://doi.org/10.1080/13603116.2019.1610806
“Approaching Techno-Dramaturgy and Disability: Prosthetic Bodies and the Cyborg in Intermedial Performance.”, Keynote Lecture, Future Bodies Transhumanism Seminar, Oktoberdans 2020 Festival, 22 – 31 October 2020, Bergen, Norway.
“Ich Bin Ein Schauspieler: Making Crip Performance in Toronto with Theater HORA’s Disabled Theater.” Canadian Journal of Disability Studies Vol.7 No.3 (2018): 1-30. https://doi.org/10.15353/cjds.v7i3.449
“The Mosaic Body: Interpreting Disability in Performance.” The Contemporary Arts as Political Practice in Singapore. Eds. Wernmei Yong Ade and Lim Lee Ching. London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2017. pp.63-80. https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1057/978-1-137-57344-5_5
“Performing ‘Technodrama’: Towards a Technocultural Aesthetic in the Age of Digital Anxiety.” Technoculture: An Online Journal of Technology in Society Vol.1 (2011): n.pag. https://tcjournal.org/vol1/fernandez/
“Digitally Augmented Reality Characters in Live Theatre Performances.” International Journal of Performance Arts and Digital Media Vol.5 No.1 (2009): 35-49. https://doi.org/10.1386/padm.5.1.35_1
Fellowships and Awards
Blackberry® Inc. Graduate Scholarship (2011)
Current Research
My current research examines the role that the multisensory and techno-somatic capacity of our body plays in shaping our embodied perception of our interactions with various media technologies that we
encounter on a daily basis. Combining techniques of critical making with soma-based design methods that involve the designer’s body in the design process, my research deploys a techno-somatic design approach towards improving the multisensory experiences of people with disabilities and elderly persons who interact with digital media technologies.
Thinking with the concept of “social futures”, which explores the importance of the social in the conceptualization and creation of diverse social and technological futures, I seek to discover new approaches to designing inclusive human-technology interactions by understanding how the development of sensorial and perceptual awareness through techno-somatic experiences can help users become attuned to different experiential modes of interacting with digital media technologies.
Complementing my design research, I am also studying the impact of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) on inclusive education and the development of accessible learning experiences that incorporate GenAI systems and tools. I seek to understand how the use of GenAI in higher education, particularly in the context of contemporary liberal arts education, affects the learning experiences of disabled students and students from minoritized social backgrounds.
Research and Teaching Areas
- Disability Studies
- Rhetoric, Writing, and Communication
- Digital Media Theory and Intermedial Practice
- Impact of Generative AI on Inclusive Education
- Critical Making and Design
- Inclusive Design and Accessibility
- Somatic and Sensory Studies