Fellows /

Julia Sebastien

Digital Storytellers Lab

2025-2026 Fellow

Strange Land (Genesis 15:13)

Milton Steinberg’s 1939 novel As a Driven Leaf follows Elisha Ben Abuya, a once-promising Jewish intellectual in 2nd-century CE Roman-occupied Judea, as he struggles to find truth and belonging amid the competing pulls of Hellenistic scholarship and his Jewish heritage during a time of political unrest.

Pulling on key themes and historical parallels that resonate deeply with Jewish students in Ivy League institutions today, “Strange Land” is a narrative-driven, choose-your-own-adventure digital game that invites players to navigate the precarity of pursuing Jewish and secular intellectualism, identity, and belonging, set against the 8-bit backdrop of the modern American Ivy League.

Built in Bitsy for publication on itch.io, this project will offer discussion facilitation resources for classrooms, workplaces, and workshops.”

Website

Julia Sebastien draws on her Ph.D. research in media psychology at Cornell University and her Master’s in Learning Design, Innovation, and Technology from Harvard in her ongoing quest to uncover how emerging technologies blur the boundaries between narrative, perception, and reality. Like her research, her creative work explores how immersive media shape human thought and behavior—from directing theatrical productions exploring truth and intercultural understanding to designing interactive digital games and VR experiences that foster self-reflection, experiential learning, and prosociality.