Steven Geofrey

Steven Geofrey (they/he) is an Associate Teaching Professor and Coordinator of Creative Coding in the Department of Art + Design. As a research-practitioner in data, design, and computation, Steven’s applied practice uses the methods of data visualization, information design, and computation to examine representations, and how those representations are situated in larger systems of meaning-making. Steven’s work is interdisciplinary, drawing on interests and experiences across the arts and humanities (Japanese studies), social sciences (information and media literacy), and natural sciences (biophysics and biochemistry). Beyond their teaching at Northeastern, Steven is a Senior Research Scientist with Project Information Literacy, a nonprofit research institute that studies how students engage with the news and media literacy, and is also a Research Associate with Partnering Lab, which studies the ethics of somatic partnering and physical interaction. They also maintain a freelance practice in digital humanities, with a particular focus on digital methods in Japanese studies.

In their work, Steven has collaborated with many groups of interdisciplinary researchers and practitioners, including the Environmental Data and Governance Initiative, the lab of Watanave Hidenori at The University of Tokyo, the Civil Rights and Restorative Justice Project and NuLawLab at Northeastern University, and the Digital Scholarship Group at Harvard University. Steven has previously worked as a Front-End Software Developer with the Growth Lab at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, Designer in Residence for the Center for Design at Northeastern University, and Data Analytics and Visualization Specialist in the Northeastern University Library. In their teaching, Steven has taught courses on creative coding, data visualization, programming for the web, statistics and data analysis, and information design for students in journalism, design, and more.

Steven received their B.A. (2011), summa cum laude, in chemistry (with distinction) and Asian studies (with distinction) from St. Olaf College. After graduating, they lived in Kyoto, Japan as a Fulbright Fellow, carrying out computational biophysics research at Kyoto University. After returning to the United States, they received their M.S. in molecular biophysics and biochemistry in 2013 at Yale University.