Heather Snyder Quinn

Heather Snyder Quinn comes to the Sam Fox School from DePaul University, where she is an assistant professor of design in the College of Computing and Digital Media, as well as a 2021-22 Wicklander Fellow from DePaul’s Institute for Business and Professional Ethics and a 2021-22 OpEd Public Voice Fellow from DePaul’s College of Communications. Her work uses design fiction to challenge technocratic power and imagine the future impacts of emerging technology on human freedoms. Heather regularly serves as a bridge between academia and industry. Her writing is published by The World Economic Forum, Slanted Magazine, and AIGA. Her project “Using Speculative Design to Inform Tech Policy for the Metaverse” was presented at Yale Law School’s Technologies of Deception Conference. Most recently, Heather launched “Mariah: Acts of Resistance,” a site-specific, augmented reality application that narrates stories of historical injustice through the backdrop of significant cultural institutions and the funding that has allowed them to exist. Mariah has received considerable press from The Washington Post and Hyperallergic.

Heather earned her BFA in Graphic Design from Rhode Island School of Design in 1996 and taught there from 2001-2010. In 2018 she earned her MFA in Graphic Design from Vermont College of Fine Arts.