Jesse Colin Jackson Named Inaugural Associate Dean, Research and Innovation

Dean Stephen Barker has named Jesse Colin Jackson, associate professor in the department of art, to the inaugural role of associate dean, research and innovation at the Claire Trevor School of the Arts (CTSA).

The associate dean will be responsible for developing a vision and plan for faculty and student research at CTSA. In the arts, research takes a variety of forms from the purely academic to the performative and the material. Jackson will encourage and support emerging and ongoing research, and act as a catalyst, bringing discrete but related research projects into conversation with one another.

“Arts-based research is one of UCI’s most unheralded forms of excellence, and I’m excited to bring more visibility and support to our faculty’s creative successes,” said Jackson, “These challenging times provide unique creative challenges and opportunities that will require collaborative efforts; this position is more essential than ever.”

Associate Dean Jackson joined the CTSA department of art at UC Irvine in 2013, where he runs the Speculative Prototyping Lab. Jackson served as the director of the Digital Arts minor from 2014–20. He has been named a UCI Beall Applied Innovation Faculty Innovation Fellow (2019–20); a UCI Hellman Fellow (2014–15); a Howarth-Wright Fellow at University of Toronto (2008–10); and the CTSA Dean’s Honoree for Teaching Excellence (2016).

Most recently, during the COVID-19 pandemic, Jackson led a collaboration with UCI Beall Applied Innovation and the School of Engineering to design and fabricate over 20,000 face shields for UCI Health using his lab’s 3D printers and other advanced technologies. In fall 2019, he co-chaired Experimental Engagements: the 33rd Annual Meeting of the Society for Literature, Science, and the Arts with Art Professor Antoinette LaFarge. Jackson continues to serve in leadership roles on the department of art’s executive committee and many committees across campus, including with the UCI Master of Human Computer Interaction and Design program; UCI Sustainability; and UCI-NATURE.

Trained as an architect and designer, Jackson received a Master of Architecture from the University of Toronto and a Bachelor of Applied Science from the University of British Columbia. His creative practice focuses on object and image-making as alternative modes of architectural production. Jackson’s projects have received funding from the California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology; the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada; the Centre for Innovation in Information Visualization and Data-Driven Design; the Digital Media Research and Innovation Institute; and the Ontario Arts Council. He regularly exhibits work nationally and internationally, most recently in a group show at the Laguna Art Museum.  

Associate Dean Jackson assumed his role at the beginning of the academic year on July 1, 2020, and will serve for three years.

Posted Date: 
Aug 11, 2020