Sana Akram is an interdisciplinary media artist, designer, and researcher of Immersive Storytelling and Performance whose doctoral research-creation explores extended reality, worlding, and expanded scenography, in and by way of the Indo-Islamicate Tilismi Dastan tradition. Her work spans interactive/new media documentary, essay film, photography, virtual environment design, and immersive mixed reality. She has showcased at several international festivals and group exhibitions and published in Convergence: The International Journal of Research into New Media Technologies. Her broader research interests lie in emergent media technologies; cocreation and research-creation; Islamic art, literature, esotericism, and occult sciences; space and place; the urban imaginary and community engagement.
She is a formally trained architect-urbanist and a Fulbright alum, and holds an MS in Design and Urban Ecologies from Parsons School of Design, The New School. Currently, she is a PhD Candidate in Cinema and Media Studies at York University as the recipient of the prestigious Elia Scholars Program Award.
Honors & Awards
2023 - 2026: Ontario Graduate Scholarship
2022 - 2026: Elia Scholars Program Award, York University
2021: Best Interactive Media: Little Pakistan - Future Histories, awarded at the Society for Visual Anthropology Film and Media Festival
2021: Best Brooklyn Project: Little Pakistan - Future Histories, awarded at the Brooklyn Film Festival
2020: Graduate Speaker, School of Design Strategies Commencement Ceremony, Parsons School of Design, The New School
2019: Fulbright Project Support Grant: Little Pakistan - Future Histories, awarded by the Fulbright Program
2018 - 2020: Dean's Merit Scholarship, School of Design Strategies, Parsons School of Design, The New School
2018 - 2020: Fulbright Scholarship, The Fulbright Program
2017: Mehdi Ali Mirza Award, awarded by the Institute of Architects Pakistan
2015 - 2016: IAP Merit Based Scholarship, awarded by the Institute of Architects Pakistan
Peer-Reviewed Publications
Akram, S. (2023). Engender(ing) immigrant space: A praxis through collaborative storytelling and interactive documentary. Convergence, 29(2), 249–267. https://doi.org/10.1177/13548565231161258
Conference Presentations (Peer-Reviewed)
2026. Of the Tilism of Tilismi Dastan: Nested Worlds, Talismanic Ritual and the Gendering of the Occult in the Indo-Islamicate Dastan Tradition. The Annual Meeting of the American Comparative Literature Association (ACLA), Montréal, Canada (Paper Presentation)
2024. Technologies of Enchantment and Talisman-Performance Assemblages. Prague Quadrennial of Performance Design and Space - Symposium: Technologies in Theatre, Performance, and Exhibition Design, Prague, Czechia. (Paper Presentation)
2024. The Enchantment of Immersive Storytelling and the Efficacious Powers of XR. Zip-Scene Conference on Immersive Storytelling, Prague, Czechia. (Paper Presentation)
2024. Tilismi Dastan: The Enchantment of Storytelling. The Annual Conference of the Film and Media Studies Association of Canada (FMSAC), London, Canada (Roundtable Presentation)
2023. Points of Contact - Situating the storytelling arts of Qissah and Dastan with(in) emergent documentary ecologies in the 21st century. Visible Evidence XXIX, Udine, Italy (Paper Presentation)
2018. City as Mise en Scène: Experiencing the Urban Stage through the Aperture. The IAPEX Forum – Architourism: Explore, Evolve, Excel, organized by the Institute of Architects Pakistan, Lahore, Pakistan (Paper Presentation/Photo Essay)
Festival Screenings, Showcases & Presentations
Alam-e-Alam (The States of Worlding): Tilism Sazi
2025: Annual Conference for the Electronic Literature Organization (Canada)
2025: Sari-Sari Xchange x Centre[3] Exhibition Series (Canada)
Sun (Listen) - A Deep Listening Tilismi Environment
2024: Prague Quadrennial's Symposium on Technologies (Czechia)
2024: Vector Festival (Canada)
2023: Sari-Sari Xchange Mini-Symposium and Exhibition at Reel Asian (Canada)
Little Pakistan - Future Histories
2023: RAI Film Festival (UK)
2022: Mimesis Documentary Festival (USA)
2022: Screening Scholarship Media Festival (USA)
2022: Slamdance Film Festival (USA)
2021: ETHNOFEST - Athens Ethnographic Film Festival (Greece)
2021: Society for Visual Anthropology Film and Media Festival (USA)
2021: Tasveer South Asian Film Festival (USA)
2021: Open City Documentary Festival (UK - International Premiere)
2021: Asian American International Film Festival (USA)
2021: Brooklyn Film Festival (USA - US Premiere)
2021: Lahore Digital Arts Festival (Pakistan - World Premiere)