Imani Cooper Mkandawire (ICM) is an interdisciplinary artist and researcher exploring the expansive nature of language—how it shapes ways of knowing, storytelling, and social dynamics. Through multimedia storytelling, she works across sculpture, performance, photography, film, artificial intelligence, and experimental writing to create immersive works that challenge the boundaries between technology, culture, and ancestral memory.
Her practice bridges artistic inquiry with critical explorations of science and technology. From training AI models on oral histories to translating mathematical equations into poetic structures, ICM’s work reimagines how knowledge is encoded, preserved, and communicated. She often draws from Black cultural traditions, particularly those of the African diaspora and Gullah communities, to investigate the intersections of computation, embodiment, and cosmology.
ICM earned a PhD in Comparative Literature from the University of Michigan, where she studied the role of African and African American literature and visual culture in shaping machine learning processes. She is the founder of Undisciplined, a research lab that integrates artistic experimentation with algorithmic design, exploring new models of AI.
Her work has been exhibited at the Festival for Unconventional Computing (UK), the Ann Arbor Art Center, and the Avery Research Center, and she has received honors including the Mozilla Creative Media Award. She has also presented her research at the Society for Literature, Science, and the Arts and the American Studies Association.
E D U C A T I O N
2022 University of Michigan, Ann Arbor MI Ph.D Comparative Literature
Dissertation: Ancestors and Algorithms: Ethnocomputing AI with African and African Diasporic Knowledge systems. Defended 07/15/2022. 2022 University of Michigan, Ann Arbor MI Digital Studies Institute Graduate Certificate Program
2015 The City College of New York B. A English, French minor
2013 Université Sorbonne-Nouvelle (one year study abroad) French Literature, Art, Urban Anthropology
P R E S E N T A T I O N S W O R K S H O P S & E X H I B I T I O N S
2024| co-exhibition| The Avery Research Center| Charleston, SC
2023| Workshop| University of Michigan| Ann Arbor
2022| Workshop| Ball State University
2022| co-exhibition| 100th All Media Show | Ann Arbor Arts Center
2022| co-exhibition| Festival for Unconventional Computing| Bristols, UK
2022| co-exhibition| Post- Apocalyptic Computing and Technology| Bristols, UK
2021| Panelist | Society of Literature Science and Arts (SLSA)
2021 | Talk | “Building an Academic Public Presence” | Digital Studies Institute at U of M
2019 | Panelist | American Studies Association (ASA)
2018 | Workshop | Association for the Study of the Arts of the Present (ASAP)
2016 | Panelist | York University Graduate Student Conference
2015 | Panelist | New York African Studies Association
P U B L I C A T I O N S
2022 | “In my Father’s House” | Are.na Annual
2022 | “Knowledge Representation and Reasoning a Transdisciplinary Definition” | Chimeras: Inventory of Synthetic Cognition | Onassis Publication
2022 | “The Lag Manifesto”| The Digital Inequalities Lab | Afterimage , vol 49, Issue 1, 2022 pp. 110-126.
2019 | Absinthe A Journal of World Literature in Translation “Inheritance, An Ode to NTOO”
G R A N T S, A W A R D S, N O M I N A T I O N S
2023 | Mozilla Foundation Creative Media Award
2022| Curator's Choice Award, Post- Apocalyptic Computing and Technology Exhibit
2021| National Center for Institutional Diversity & Inclusion Research Grant
2021 | Nomination Claudia Jones Alexander Trailblazer Award for Contributions in STEM
2019 | Digital Studies Institute Research Grant
2018 | Honorable Mention Ford Predoctoral Fellowship
2017 | Social Science Research Council Research Grant
2017 | Weiser Center for Europe & Eurasia Studies Research Grant
2015 | Rackham Merit Fellowship
2015| Sydney and Helen Jacoff Award
2015| The Irwin & Alice Stark Award
2013 | Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship
TEACHING EXPERIENCE
Comparative Literature 122 Digital Literacies-first-year writing course (Main Instructor) University of Michigan-Ann Arbor, LSA January 2021 - April 2021
Comparative Literature 141 Great Performances (Graduate student Instructor) University of Michigan-Ann Arbor, LSA August 2020 - December 2020
SIADS 503 Data Ethics, (Instructional Aid). University of Michigan-Ann Arbor, School of Information September 2018 - April 2020
Comparative Literature 122 Writing Images-first-year Writing course (Main Instructor). University of Michigan-Ann Arbor, LSA September 2017 - April 2018
English 125 Embodying Argumentation-first-year writing course (Main Instructor)
University of Michigan, LSA September 2016 - April 2017, Ann Arbor
English Language Instructor The Paris Graduate School of Digital Innovation (EPITECH) Paris, France September 2013 - January 2014
English Language Instructor Babylangues, Paris, France September 2013-January 2014
RELATED WORK EXPERIENCE & ACADEMIC SERVICE
AI Strategy Advisor to Project Manager, Bison Rail Systems -present
undisciplined, Art-based STEM research lab Founder + Director, March 2023-Present
Ad-hoc peer reviewer, Catalyst: Feminism, Theory, Technoscience -present
Reach Church Sunday School Ministries (Volunteer) STEAM Curriculum developer, August 2024- present
Backstreet Gallery & Custom Framing, New Rochelle Gallery Technician & Operations Manager, September 2011- May 2014