Dr. Loui’s work has been supported by National Science Foundation, National Institutes of Health, received multiple Grammy awards, a young investigator award from the Positive Neuroscience Institute, and a Career award from the National Science Foundation. Her projects have been featured by the Associated Press, New York Times, Boston Globe, BBC, CNN, the Scientist magazine, and other news outlets.
Northeastern University
The Arts at Northeastern University
Northeastern University offers a highly interdisciplinary arts ecosystem where art, design, music, theatre, media, technology, and experiential learning intersect. Anchored by the College of Arts, Media and Design (CAMD), Northeastern’s creative community spans architecture, art and design, communication studies, journalism, music, and theatre, with students encouraged to explore the connections between creative practice and emerging technologies.
Visual arts and design students have access to an extensive network of studios, fabrication spaces, and digital labs. The Department of Art + Design supports programs in studio art, design, media arts, game design, and animation, with dedicated art studios for drawing and painting as well as a fabrication lab that supports woodworking, model making, CAD, laser cutting, 3D scanning, and 3D printing. The Ryder Makerspace further encourages students to experiment across disciplines, providing a shared environment where arts and design projects can intersect with science, technology, business, and engineering.
Northeastern is known for embracing the intersection of artistic practice and technology. The Department of Music offers programs ranging from traditional music study to music industry and music technology, including interdisciplinary degrees that combine music with computer science, electrical engineering, and communication studies. The Center for the Arts serves as another important hub for Northeastern’s creative community, specifically examining the intersection of the arts with STEM, health sciences, technology, and society. The Center produces exhibitions, performances, artist talks, panels, symposia, and arts-integrated research throughout Northeastern’s global network. This approach reflects Northeastern’s broader philosophy that creative practitioners can work across disciplines and use design and performance to imagine new ways of interacting with the world.
The university’s location in Boston further expands the arts experience. Students can take advantage of Northeastern’s proximity to major cultural institutions such as the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and the Institute of Contemporary Art. At the same time, the university’s co-op model creates pathways into professional arts, media, design, entertainment, and cultural organizations. Combined with Northeastern’s global campuses and partnerships, these opportunities allow students to experience the arts not simply as an academic discipline, but as a professional and community-facing practice.
From experimenting with 3D fabrication in the Ryder Makerspace to producing music in professional recording studios, creating immersive experiences with motion capture and VR, exhibiting work in Gallery 360, or developing interdisciplinary performances, Northeastern students encounter an arts ecosystem defined by creative experimentation, technological innovation, and real-world application.
Jump to:
a2ru Campus Contacts
Ben Knapp
Dean of College of Arts, Media and Design
R. Benjamin Knapp, a researcher who has held leadership roles at various universities, is the dean of the College of Arts, Media and Design, or CAMD.
Knapp joined Northeastern after over 14 years as the founding executive director of the Institute for Creativity, Arts and Technology at Virginia Tech. Prior to working at Virginia Tech, Knapp spearheaded auditory research initiatives at Queen’s University, Belfast.
Outside of academia, Knapp served as director of technology at MOTO Development Group, a consulting firm that has worked with technology companies including Apple, Sony and Microsoft.
Knapp’s research has included developing a bio-mechanical system at Stanford University’s Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics, and creating a database of emotional responses to music with the pan-European SIEMPRE project.
Knapp was also a principal investigator at a National Endowment for the Arts lab, and he led the first iteration of Creativity, Empathy and AI: A National Summit on The Human-AI Creative Partnership.
Psyche Loui
Emerging Creatives Lead
Psyche Loui is Associate Dean for Research, Professor of Creativity and Creative Practice in the Department of Music, and director of the MIND (Music, Imaging, and Neural Dynamics) lab at Northeastern University.
She also serves as the Emerging Creatives Lead. The Emerging Creatives Lead submits nominations for students from this institution to attend the a2ru Emerging Creatives Student Summit. Please contact this Lead with an email, subject line: Emerging Creatives interest.