Bio

Deena Engel is Clinical Professor Emerita in the department of Computer Science of the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences at New York University. Deena's research interests focus on contemporary art, specifically on the conservation and theory of time-based media art with a focus on computer-based art.

Engel is the Co-Director along with Prof. Glenn Wharton of the Artist Archives Initiative with a focus on leveraging technology to house and disseminate information on contemporary art. She has worked with major museums over the past 15 years on projects which address the challenges involved in the conservation of Time-based media art and is co-editor with Joanna Phillips of Düsseldorf, Germany of the forthcoming Routledge volume Conservation of Time-Based Media Art.

Engel has taught undergraduate computer science courses on web and database technologies, as well as courses for undergraduate and graduate students in the Digital Humanities and the Arts. She is the recipient of four teaching awards at New York University: The Teach/Tech Award with Prof. Craig Kapp of The College of Arts and Science in May, 2016; the Courant Institute Samuel L. Marateck Prize for Outstanding Teaching in Computer Science in May, 2014; the College of Arts and Science Golden Dozen Teaching Award in May 2006; and a College of Arts and Science Outstanding Teacher Award in May 2001.

She has a B.A. from Jackson College of Tufts University in French and German; an M.A. from SUNY-Binghamton in Comparative Literature with a focus on Literary Translation from French and German; and an M.S. in Computer Science from the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences at New York University. She is currently pursuing a PhD at the Bard Graduate Center in New York City in material culture where she won the 2023 Heather Jane McCormick Prize for her paper, Richard Avedon and Marian Anderson: A Confluence of Photography, Opera, and Race. This prize, which honors BGC alumna Heather Jane McCormick, is awarded annually to a BGC student for outstanding work in the decorative arts, design history and material culture of New York.