Dr. Katie Fisher is an educator and visual artist who facilitates collaborative, arts-based research projects. As an interdisciplinary artist her work explores environmental justice, slow violence against landscape assemblages, and human/more-than-human entanglements through creative data visualizations, counter-mappings, and site-specific installations.
Her recent counter-mapping project, Lines of Forgetting & Cartographic Watermarks: Surface Water Mapped in Mexico City, 1524–2025, traces the city’s rivers, canals, and lagoons across eight historical maps to reveal the cumulative forgetting of surface water and its return as a haunting presence. She is currently developing a book that counter-maps undead wetlands and artificial sinkholes in New Orleans.
Education
Ph.D. in Philosophy — Visual and Performing Arts
May 2024, University of Texas at Dallas | Dallas, TX
Dissertation Title: “Tracing Landscape Dismemberment Through Time: Mapping Sinkholes as Symptoms of Slow Violence Against Landscape Assemblages in Mexico City and New Orleans”
M.A. in Media Arts and Worship
May 2016, Dallas Theological Seminary | Dallas,
B.F.A. Graphic Design, Minor in Writing
December 2011, Concordia University | Seward, Nebraska
Selected Publications, Presentations, Invited Talks, Teaching Experience, Design Work, and Symposium Organization
Learn More About Research Initiatives and Creative Work
Publications
“Visualizing Injustice: Counter-mapping Nazi Records of Queer Men Imprisoned Under Paragraph 175,” Rebooting Holocaust Remembrance: Navigating the Intersection of Technology, Memory, and Human Rights. Co-author with Nils Roemer (Cambridge Scholars Publishing, forthcoming 2025)
Works In Progress
Dismembered Landscapes: Undead Wetlands and the Possibilities of Resistance, book-length manuscript.
“Cartographies of Forgetting and Re-membrance: Counter-mapping Surface Water in Mexico City.” Journal article manuscript, under review at Resistance: A Journal of Radical Environmental Humanities.
“Missing Witnesses: Queer Men at Dachau, Flössenburg, and Netzwiler” Co-author with Nils Roemer. Article manuscript.
Conference Presentations
“Counter-reading Land Reclamation Maps in New Orleans,” American Society for Environmental History, Presenter, Kansas City. Upcoming March 2026.
“Exploring New Frontiers: Digital Studies of the Holocaust Methodology,” The Annual Scholars’ Conference on the Holocaust and the Churches, Co-presenter, Dallas, TX. March 2025.
“Making Visible Historical Trauma: Counter-cartographies and Chronic Urban Trauma,” International Association of Genocide Scholars, Presenter, Barcelona, Spain. July 2023.
“Digital Studies of the Dachau Concentration Camp,” The Annual Scholars’ Conference on the Holocaust and the Churches, Co-presenter, Dallas, Texas, March 2023.
“Ensuring a Traumatic Future: Hurricane Katrina and Historical Trauma in New Orleans,” London Centre for Interdisciplinary Research, Presenter, London, UK, February 2023.
“Concrete Sarcophagus: The Sinking of Mexico City and Shriveling of Lake Texcoco,” The International Network of Genocide Scholars, Presenter, México City, Mexico, June 2022.
Invited Talks and Events
“Fire Weather and the Texas Wildfires in Conversation with John Vaillant,” at the Hay Festival Dallas Forum, Interviewer, The Wild Detectives, 2024.
“Cartographies & the Environment,” in Environment in America, Guest Lecture, University of Texas at Dallas, September 2024.
“Intro to the Environmental Humanities,” in Proseminar in Visual and Performing Arts, Guest Lecture, University of Texas at Dallas, April 2024.
“Integrating Digital Studies in the Classroom,” at the Summer Teachers’ Institute, Lecture, Ackerman Center for Holocaust Studies, Dallas, Texas, June 2023.
“Creative Voice & Storytelling for Artists,” Art of Business Workshop, Panel Discussion Moderator, Dallas, TX, April 2020.
“Arts Entrepreneurship Interview: James Hart (SMU),” Dallas Startup Week, Interviewer, Dallas, Texas, 2018.
Teaching Experience
“Exploration of the Humanities: Mapping Environmental Understandings,” Humanities Program Introductory Survey Course, University of Texas at Dallas. Instructor of Record. Spring 2025.
Online Teaching Certificate. UT Dallas Educational Technology Services. July 2022.
Curriculum Design: “History & Legacies of Trauma,” History Program, University of Texas at Dallas. Course Development. Fall 2021.
“Collaborative Practices in Art & Theology,” Dallas Theological Seminary. Co-taught. Fall 2016.
Design Experience
Dean’s Office at the Bass School for Arts, Humanities, and Technology at the University of Texas at Dallas: Data Visualization, PowerBi, 2024–2025.
Lead Designer for The Digital Studies of the Holocaust project at the Ackerman Center for Holocaust Studies: Data Visualization, PowerBi, Website Design 2021–2025.
Ackerman Center for Holocaust Studies: Graphic, Print, and Website Design, Podcast Editing (The Ackerman Center Podcast), 2021–2025.
Lead Designer for Art House Dallas: Website Design, Print and Graphic Design, 2018–2020.
Freelance: Website Design, Print and Graphic Design, 2013–2019.
Samaritan’s Purse Cambodia: International Disaster Relief: Map & Survey Designer, Print and Graphic Design, Feb – July 2012.
Workshop, Symposium, & Program Organization
“Faculty Research Symposium,” Symposium Organizer, axh Initiative, University of Texas at Dallas, February 2025.
“Digital Studies Interpretation Workshop: Mapping Queer Persecution Under Paragraph 175,” Workshop Organizer, Ackerman Center for Holocaust Studies, University of Texas at Dallas, January 2025.
“Introduction to Digital Studies of the Holocaust,” Workshop Organizer, Ackerman Center for Holocaust Studies, University of Texas at Dallas, February 2022.
“Artists in Residency,” Residency Coordinator, Art House Dallas in partnership with Dallas Theological Seminary, Funded by Communities Foundation of Texas, Spring 2020.
“Art of Business,” Workshop Organizer, Art House Dallas, March 2019, March 2020.
“Deploy Artist: Trauma-Informed Afterschool Arts Program,” Program Organizer, Art House Dallas, Monthly 2018, 2019, 2020.
“Awaken Creativity: Writing, Visual Art, Music Groups,” Program Organizer, Art House Dallas, Monthly 2018, 2019, 2020.
“Arts & Music Track,” Co-organizer, Dallas Startup Week, Dallas, Texas. 2018.