People

Dr. Kurt Fendt is Senior Lecturer in Comparative Media Studies/Writing (CMS/W) and Director of MIT’s Active Archives Initiative. He teaches Digital Humanities subjects in CMS/W and German Studies courses in Global Languages. He is PI of the collaborative annotation platform Annotation Studio and several other digital media and archival projects.

Daniel Kessler is a digital narratologist holding an M.A. in Narrative Systems Analysis from NYU Gallatin and a B.A. in Theatre and Creative Writing from Oberlin College. Daniel’s research focuses on the interpretation of written and spoken transcripts, virtual story worlds, and the psychosocial impacts of contemporary forms of narrative discourse. Most recently, Daniel worked as a RallyPoint Fellow and Research Assistant at Harvard University’s Nock Lab, where he studied disclosures of suicidal ideation within peer-to-peer networks, and where he designed numerous digital interventions for this population. In his past professional work, Daniel has specialized in community partnership development, fundraising and marketing, museum exhibit design, educational resource development, graphic design, journalism, and project management. Daniel has held numerous residencies and fellowships for his artistic work and has received several research grants for the study of narrative-based learning games that teach foundational environmental science principles. Daniel enjoys a quiet life that he shares with his wife, dog, and aquatic snails in Cambridge, MA.