Between Borders and Classes
Shamim Shoomali is a PhD student in Georgia Tech’s Digital Media program. She works out of the TSRB building in Tech Square, blending art, design, and technology—and lately, documenting everyday campus life through her illustrated book, Between Classes. Her path to this interdisciplinary calling began thousands of miles away in Iran, sparked by a love of books and art that shaped her early creative ambitions.
Shoomali studied visual communication and graphic design at the Arts University of Tehran, initially building a career as a freelance graphic designer. She returned for a master’s degree in animation directing, pushing her artistic skills further. Yet even after completing her master’s thesis, which focused on interactive storytelling, Shoomali felt something was still missing: the element of technology. That missing piece fell into place when she discovered Hamlet on the Holodeck: The Future of Narrative in Cyberspace, a book by Dr. Janet H. Murray about how digital media can enable new forms of storytelling. The book’s vision of immersive, interactive storytelling deeply resonated with Shoomali’s passion for art and narrative.
Inspired and eager to explore interactive narrative further, Shoomali took a bold step. On a whim, she emailed Murray, who happened to be a digital media professor at Georgia Tech, to ask for advice. Despite widespread internet shutdowns in Iran at the time, Shoomali connected with Murray via video call. That conversation proved pivotal: Murray’s encouragement motivated Shoomali to apply to Georgia Tech’s PhD program in Digital Media. By 2023, she had arrived in Atlanta to begin her studies, determined to combine her art, design, and storytelling background with new technical skills.
Adjusting to a technology-driven academic environment was challenging at first. “At Georgia Tech, I had to get used to tech topics, and having come from an art/design background, I found it an adjustment,” she says, reflecting on her first months on campus.
She soon joined Professor Murray’s Prototyping eNarrative Lab (PeN Lab) at Tech, where she could collaborate on digital storytelling projects while learning new tools. Over time, Shoomali’s interdisciplinary outlook evolved into a clear research focus. She became interested in bridging media design with insights from neuroscience. For example, she began exploring how people cognitively engage with interactive stories and hopes to integrate this perspective into her work. Ultimately, Shoomali envisions applying her skills beyond academia, perhaps by designing interactive museum exhibits that combine art, narrative, and science.
Even as she immersed herself in research, Shoomali found ways to stay connected to her artistic roots. Last summer, while working as a graduate research assistant on a nearly empty Georgia Tech campus, she rediscovered her sketchbook. “Campus was empty and kind of depressing,” she says. “I began sketching and drawing people I would see all around me.” What started as informal sketches of fellow students and quiet corners of campus soon grew into a passion project. In late 2024, Shoomali pitched the idea of an illustrated book to an Arts at Tech initiative seeking creative projects about student experiences. When her proposal was accepted, she committed to developing the book.
Beginning in early 2025, Shoomali compiled her summer sketches and began digitizing them using an iPad and Procreate. She added brief captions to each illustration, turning the collection into a narrative snapshot of everyday student life. The finished work, titled Between Classes, is a colorful portrait of Georgia Tech through the eyes of a graduate student. Its pages capture the small moments “between classes” – a dozing student waiting for a lecture to start, friends chatting on the lawn, or a researcher lost in thought at the library. In creating these scenes, Shoomali documented the grad student experience and reconnected with the joy of drawing for its own sake.
Between Classes has allowed Shoomali to balance her technical research with creative reflection. The project harkened back to her original passions in illustration and storytelling, even as it enriched her perspective as a design researcher. Stepping away from the computer to draw people again proved rejuvenating for her creativity. “I will continue working on bringing playful design into our lives, as the world is often cruel and ignorant,” she says. Now, as she moves forward in her PhD journey, Shoomali continues to integrate art and technology in meaningful ways. Her journey illustrates how blending disciplines can open new paths and lead to personal fulfillment.