ABOUT

Hamida is a fourth-year Ph.D. candidate in the Arts, Technology, and Emerging Communication program at the University of Texas at Dallas. As an interdisciplinary artist and storyteller, she combines traditional drawing, sculpture, stop-motion animation, and virtual reality to explore the anthropomorphic representation of human emotions.

Her doctoral project reimagines timeless tales of vice and virtue through medieval Islamic philosophy using virtual reality. Inspired by works such as Kalīla wa-Dimna, Ḥayāt al-Hayawān Al-Kubrá, Aja’ib al-Makhluqat wa Ghara’ib al-Mawjudat, and the Rasā’il al-Ikhwān al-Safā’, she examines concepts like maskh (transformation into monstrous forms) and wāḥš (savagery) to understand how unresolved trauma shapes human behavior.

By connecting pre-modern Indo-Persian storytelling traditions to contemporary contexts, Hamida’s work offers tools for self-reflection and insights into the impact of trauma, vices, and virtues on human nature.