Award-winning animator and scholar Dr. Zeynep Akcay will move from Australia to North Texas to teach experimental animation at the Harry W. Bass Jr. School of Arts, Humanities, and Technology at The University of Texas at Dallas through Spring 2025.
Dr. Akcay, who serves as a senior lecturer in the animation program at the Griffith Film School at Griffith University in Brisbane, Australia, is coming to UT Dallas through the prestigious Fulbright Scholar-in-Residence Program.
Dr Akcay is an animation scholar with international industry experience. Before joining the Griffith University faculty in 2018, she worked in various 2D and 3D animation projects for studios in Canada and Turkey. Her 2020 film Kam earned several accolades at international festivals and was screened for audiences worldwide. It was also featured in the Australian Animation Showcase touring the United States and Europe for ASIFA International Animation Day celebrations.
In 2023, Assistant Professor Dr. Christine Veras and Associate Dean of Graduate Studies Dr. Shilyh Warren, were co-authoring a chapter for the forthcoming book Women and Global Documentary: Practices and Perspectives in the 21st Century. As part of their research on “Feminist Animated Documentary: Ways of Confronting Violence Against Women,” they interviewed four animators featured in the chapter, including Dr. Akcay, and discussed her film Kam.
This exchange sparked a professional relationship that ultimately led to a collaboration, resulting in Dr. Akcay joining the Bass School as a visiting faculty member for a semester. This spring, she will teach an undergraduate and a graduate course and collaborate on projects with the experimenta.l. Animation Lab, led by Dr. Veras.
“I was in touch with Dr. Warren and Dr. Veras via my film already, and I love both their works. Their writings aligned with my thinking and drive in so many ways,” Dr. Akcay said. “experimenta.l. Animation Lab is very well regarded in the animation community. It’s also a very nice model for other schools to produce and work with students, teaching animation.”
What excites Dr. Akcay the most is working at a school that brings together experts across diverse disciplines. She values the opportunity to collaborate with students and scholars from various fields within the arts, humanities, and technology, she said.
“With technology evolving so rapidly, the future of human civilization depends on uniting the arts, sciences, technology, and humanities,” Dr. Akcay said. “We need to embrace a multidisciplinary approach. By developing experimental, creative, and interconnected ways of thinking across all fields, we can effectively adapt to change.”
This spring, Dr. Akcay will teach Creativity: Time-Based Arts Workshop (VPAS 6393), a graduate course that uses animation as a medium to explore complexity, uncertainty, and interconnectedness. The course delves into themes of entanglement, “sympoiesis,” ecological “response-ability,” and the layered relationships between humans, nonhumans, and the art-making process. Students engage with these ideas through alternative animation techniques and hands-on methods such as optical toys, pixilation, rotoscopy, stop motion, time-lapse, and procedural and interactive animation.
Dr. Akcay will also teach Video Painting (ARTS 3381), an undergraduate course exploring alternative animation techniques for short storytelling format that is ideal for social media. This hands-on course is open to students from all disciplines and no prior experience in animation is required.
“When the opportunity came to suggest a name for the Fulbright Scholar-in-Residence Program, Dr. Akcay’s name was at the top of our list due to her accomplishments as a scholar and animator, focusing on character animation and experimental animation,” Dr. Warren said. “We believed her academic and practical approach would benefit students from different majors within our school and campus and encourage students to think about photography, filmmaking, and animation from an innovative, interdisciplinary, creative, and global perspective.”
Dr. Akcay’s institution, the Griffith Film School, is among the top 10 globally in the International Animation School Rankings and is home to several animation industry legends, including Joe Brumm, creator and writer of the ABC animated series Bluey, and Matthew Schofield, supervising storyboard director of The Simpsons. The school is also the alma mater of Lachlan Pendragon, who created the stop-motion animated short An Ostrich Told Me the World Is Fake and I Think I Believe It as part of his PhD project. The film earned a nomination for Best Animated Short at the 95th Academy Awards.
In her current role at Griffith Film School, Dr. Akcay pursues her artistic research, focusing on experimental aesthetics and innovative uses of animation in different environments. She also serves as the Higher Degree Research convenor. In this capacity, she supports researchers and postgraduate students by offering guidance on resources, facilities, research activities, and networking opportunities related to animation and film.
Dr. Akcay’s work seeks to expand animation’s traditional frontiers and narratives, exploring how it can convey meaning, particularly in addressing themes such as gender, ecology, displacement, and audience interaction.
In recent years, she has authored and co-authored numerous works, such as A Review of Indie Games for Serious Mental Health Game Design, Dance, Long Exposure and Drawing: An Absurd Manifesto about the Female Body, and Using Indie Games to Inform Serious Mental Health Game Design.
Before transitioning to an academic career in 2013, Dr. Akcay was the animation director of the film, video, and animation studio Renk Production, based in Istanbul, Turkey. She also worked in Montreal, Canada, as character animator for TV series and independent productions.
The Fulbright Scholar-in-Residence Program brings scholars from outside the United States to U.S. campuses for a semester or a full academic year. These scholars teach courses, contribute to curriculum development and guest lectures, foster study-abroad partnerships, and engage with both the campus and local communities. The program is designed to enhance internationalization and promote cross-cultural understanding in higher education institutions nationwide.
This initiative, administered by the Institute of International Education on behalf of the U.S. Department of State, supports efforts to broaden global perspectives and strengthen international connections. At UT Dallas, the program is managed by the International Initiatives department, which facilitates partnerships with universities and institutes worldwide while promoting global awareness within the campus and local communities.
Leading these efforts is Dr. Jennifer Hilton Montero, senior director of International Initiatives at UT Dallas. She oversees the University’s international partnerships, agreements, and visiting delegations, as well as its overall internationalization strategy.
“We are really here to facilitate and encourage as much international exchange as possible to give our students this exposure, Dr. Hilton Montero said. “Dr. Akcay is actually from Turkey and also is coming from working in Australia and Canada. She’s bringing three countries of expertise and her unique perspective from her background and animation experience to our UT Dallas classrooms.”
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