Deborah Hardt is a Nebraska-born and raised photographer, artist, and assistant professor of Cinema and Digital Media at the Izmir University of Economics in Izmir, Turkey. Her research lies at the intersection of post-humanist philosophies, cinema, and non-human animals, with a keen interest in the complications these relationships generate.
Deborah holds an MA in media studies from The New School and a Ph.D. in philosophy, art, and critical thought from the European Graduate School. Her master’s thesis “To Have and to (Virtually) Hold: A Marriage” was an ethnographic documentary shot entirely inside the MMORPG Second Life, using machinima technology to document the phenomenon of virtual marriage. Her doctoral thesis, “Animal Revolt: The Violent Reversal of Human Sovereignty” explored incidents where captive animals violently kill their captors.
Deborah’s work with documentaries has taken her around the world – to Africa to shoot with Jane Goodall, the Great Barrier Reef to dive with sharks and to Western China to retrace Marco Polo’s route. Working with the ground-breaking interactive education company Classroom Connect, she produced some of the first interactive web videos ever created specifically for the Internet. As a photo director in New York, she created still photography for numerous publications and worked with the most talented photographers in the country, art-directing original imagery for countless cookbooks and magazine articles. She is proud to have worked on national PBS programs including the Peabody award-winning Liberty! The American Revolution, Jane Goodall: Reason for Hope, Dakota Exile, & Literature and Life. Clients & collaborators have included: Middlemarch Films, Reelbiography, the Natural Resources Defense Council, Time Inc., Condé Nast, Classroom Connect, and Weight Watchers.