Laura Herman

Laura is a DPhil student at the Oxford Internet Institute, where she also completed an MSc on the Social Science of the Internet. Her MSc thesis research, supervised by Professor Gina Neff, took a mixed-methods approach to produce a viewer-defined conceptualization of online digital creativity. Laura’s DPhil research, supervised by Professor Kathryn Eccles, examines the impact of algorithmic curation on human creation. Her inclusive and international approach centres lived experiences in the Global South; this work is supported by a fellowship with FemLab at Erasmus University Rotterdam and an OII-Dieter Schwartz AI & Work fellowship. 

Laura’s role as a Senior Research Lead at Adobe has enabled her to lead a team that researches emerging creative technologies & platforms in industry. In previous research positions at Intel and Harvard, she has studied multisensory user experiences in ubiquitous computing, computer vision, and VR/AR environments. Her undergraduate research at Princeton University, from which she graduated with honors in Neuroscience & Psychology, investigated the perceptual expertise of artists and was awarded the George A. Miller Prize in Cognitive Science.

A common thread runs through Laura’s research: an investigation of how emerging technology influences human creativity. Her understanding of the creation process has been deepened by her own artistic practice, and she has exhibited projects at the Tate and Ars Electronica. Laura also sits on the Boards of Trustees for Eastside, which provides creative education for historically marginalized youths, and the Old Fire Station, which serves as an artistic hub for people experiencing homelessness.