nnenne ogbonnaya (psychology & art)
Research and art on mental health, identity, and community, using media as a form of communication and a therapeutic lens.
Work
01—Dial-Up Installation, 2026
A sundial and world clock you can travel through. A hand-painted cardboard landscape sits under an arched frame, and a lamp moves along the arch to wherever the sun is right now for the place you choose.
Each place is a small 3D-printed object with an NFC tag inside. Tap one, like Egypt or New York City, and the light swings to that city’s current sun position, so objects become a way to travel through time zones. The piece can also be driven from Paragonday, the app made by my collaborator Norman O’Hagan, and Dial-Up was built partly to share it.
Conceived at Fidget Camp 2026 in San Francisco and later presented in a conference talk.
Type: Interactive installation · With: Norman O’Hagan · Materials: Cardboard, fabric, paint, 3D-printed NFC objects, Arduino, LEDs · Origin: Fidget Camp 2026, San Francisco
View on Are.na
Norman O’Hagan on Are.na
02—Ctrl Alt Del (AI Musings on Death) Installation, 2025
A collaborative installation with Sitoë Thiam: a poetry machine that asks an AI to think about death. Three oversized keys, Ctrl, Alt and Del, sit on an Arduino-powered box overgrown with moss and dried flowers. Pressing them sends a prompt to Google’s Gemini AI, which writes a poem that appears on a laptop half-buried in moss, baby’s breath and eucalyptus.
The shortcut people press to force a frozen computer to quit becomes a way to sit with endings, memory, and what a machine can say about mortality.
Type: Interactive installation · With: Sitoë Thiam (@unknotshop) · Materials: Arduino, oversized keycaps, laptop, moss, dried flowers, eucalyptus · AI: Google Gemini
Sitoë Thiam on Instagram
03—Dyke Deck Workshop, 2025
A workshop led at a New York City conference hosted by Sinister Wisdom, the long-running lesbian literary and art journal.
The session addressed the absence of Black lesbians in lesbian culture, then invited participants to make their own “dyke deck”: a set of cards built from images of Black lesbians living vibrant, fulfilling lives.
The workshop shaped my research interests and the ethos behind my decision to apply to doctoral programs.
Type: Workshop · Venue: Sinister Wisdom conference, New York
04—Blackness Between and Beyond the Binary Publication, 2024
Peer-reviewed study of how nonbinary Black womxn experience their gender identity in relation to Black womxnhood, produced with the CIRCLE research collective at the University of Kentucky.
Type: Peer-reviewed article · Journal: Psychology of Sexual Orientation and Gender Diversity · Authors: Kerney, Hargons, Peterson, Orphe, Haugabook, Hooks, Ogbonnaya, Kouadio & Johnson
Read the article (doi.org/10.1037/sgd0000732)
05—(Black) Sexuality, Space, Gender and the Gaze Paper, 2021
A research paper on how Black queer women make space for themselves, at home and in public, outside the gaze of white and heteronormative society.
It begins with Audre Lorde’s “Age, Race, Class and Sex” and the Combahee River Collective, then reads three spaces against each other. Simone Leigh’s Brick House claims public ground for Black womanhood. Amaza Lee Meredith’s Azurest South (1939), the home she designed for herself and her partner Edna Meade Colson, is set against Adolf Loos’s design for Josephine Baker, a house built around watching its Black subject. Harlem’s Ballroom houses, lesbian bars, and the piers show spaces that Black queer people have queered for themselves.
“It is incredibly important for Black queerness to decenter traditional spatial practices and queer not just the domestic but the public spaces as well. What is important is how a space not made to be for queer people can become a queer space, especially for Black queer people.”
The full paper (15 pages) is available on request. Email nnenne.0@gmail.com.
Type: Research paper · Course: Dark Space (ARCHA 4552), Columbia University · Instructor: Mario Gooden · Date: April 2021
06—COVIZ Virtual Reality, 2021
A virtual reality application for exploring how COVID-19 affected New York City, built by students in computer science and social work. Viewers handle 3D maps of the city directly, which gives a stronger sense of embodiment and ownership than reading the same data on a screen.
I worked on the study design, surveys, interviews, and user research, and the project was presented at the IEEE Conference on Virtual Reality and 3D User Interfaces.
Type: VR research, collaborative · Venue: IEEE VR 2021 (virtual) · With: Goetschel, Sekaran, Ren, He, Nkereuwem, Feiner, and others
07—Testing the Impact Research, 2021
My master's capstone: a pilot study asking whether The Machine to Be Another, a virtual reality experience that lets you see through someone else's eyes, can increase empathy and reduce aggression among young people.
Designed with CAMBA for students ages 17 to 21 at a New York City transfer high school, the study compares the VR experience with a standard social-skills workshop, measuring empathy and aggression before and after.
Type: Master's capstone · Partner: CAMBA · Supervisor: Courtney Cogburn, Ph.D. · School: Teachers College, Columbia University
08—Thee Dude 3D Sculpture, 2021
A digital sculpture made over about a week in Nomad Sculpt on a phone, inspired by The Big Lebowski (1998). The process post, written on an early blog I kept for coursework, covers the frustrating parts too, and argues for mobile sculpting as a way to keep practicing while physically distanced.
Type: 3D digital sculpture · Tool: Nomad Sculpt · Course: New Media New Forms
Read the process post on my early academic blog
10—I Love My Work Archive, Ongoing
An ongoing collection of my work across years and media, kept on Are.na.
Type: Archive
View on Are.na
11—Digital Love Language Sketches, 2019
Early sketches, archived on Are.na.
Type: Sketches
View on Are.na
About
Nnenne Ogbonnaya is a researcher and artist based in New York. Her work sits where psychology, art, technology, and community meet, using media as a form of communication and as a therapeutic lens.
She has co-authored peer-reviewed research on Black queerness and nonbinary Black womxn’s gender identity, and has spent years in clinical and community mental health work, most recently as a crisis coordinator for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities.
She is currently applying to doctoral programs, working toward research on how race, class, and gender shape mental health, and moving further into interactive art. Follow along.
nnenne.0@gmail.com · Are.na · Instagram
Education
- 2019–2021 — M.A., Counseling and Clinical Psychology, Teachers College, Columbia University · Concentration in Human Rights, Marginalized Identities, and Forensic Psychology. Capstone on virtual reality, empathy, and NYC youth, supervised by Courtney Cogburn, Ph.D.
- 2014–2018 — B.A., Psychology, Kean University · Minor in American Sign Language
Publications
- 2024 — Kerney, M. A., Hargons, C. N., Peterson, R., Orphe, P., Haugabook, J. E., Hooks, S., Ogbonnaya, N., Kouadio, K. C., & Johnson, M. C. Nonbinary Black womxn gender identity: Blackness between and beyond the binary. Psychology of Sexual Orientation and Gender Diversity.
Writing
- 2021 — (Black) Sexuality, Space, Gender and the Gaze · Research paper for Dark Space (ARCHA 4552), Columbia University, with Mario Gooden.
Presentations
- 2021 — Goetschel, E., Sekaran, J., Ren, W., He, M., Ogbonnaya, N., Nkereuwem, M., … & Feiner, S. COVIZ: Visualization of effects of COVID-19 on New York City through socially impactful virtual reality. IEEE Conference on Virtual Reality and 3D User Interfaces Abstracts and Workshops (VRW), 703–704. Virtual.
Exhibitions & Workshops
- 2026 — Dial-Up, interactive installation, with Norman O’Hagan · Conceived at Fidget Camp, San Francisco; presented in a conference talk
- 2025 — Ctrl Alt Del (AI Musings on Death), interactive installation, with Sitoë Thiam
- 2025 — Dyke Deck, workshop, Sinister Wisdom conference, New York
Research
- 2023–Now — Community Advisory Board Member, CIRCLE Research Collective · University of Kentucky, Department of Educational, School & Counseling Psychology · PI Monyae A. Kerney
Community-based participatory research on how nonbinary Black womxn experience their gender identity. I coordinate four concurrent studies, from IRB preparation through recruitment and dissemination, and mentor research assistants.
- 2020–2021 — Research Staff, Cogburn Research Group · Columbia University School of Social Work · PI Courtney Cogburn, Ph.D.
Worked on COVIZ, a virtual reality tool for exploring the effects of COVID-19 on New York City. Helped design the study and its surveys and interviews, ran user research, and analyzed data in R and NVivo.
- 2018–2021 — Research Assistant, Division of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry · New York State Psychiatric Institute · PI Prudence Fisher, Ph.D.
Helped update the Diagnostic Interview Schedule for Children (DISC) for the DSM-5, including testing questions against diagnostic criteria and building scoring logic.
- 2016–2018 — Research Assistant, Stress and Justice Adolescent Imaging Study · New York State Psychiatric Institute · PI Christina Hoven, Ph.D.
Supported MRI and fMRI analysis in a study of how police violence affects mothers and children, and conducted 20+ structured clinical interviews.
Clinical & Counseling
- 2024–Now — Crisis Coordinator, NY/START · Young Adult Institute, New York
Support 20 adults and children with intellectual and developmental disabilities and co-occurring psychiatric needs, writing crisis prevention plans and coordinating care.
- 2023–2024 — Case Manager, Brooklyn Community Services · Brooklyn
Led drop-in support groups for families involved with child protective services, covering stress, self-care, and harm reduction.
- 2022–2023 — Mental Health Worker, Manhattan Psychiatric Center · New York
Co-facilitated DBT and relapse-prevention groups and planned discharges with a multidisciplinary care team.
- 2021–2022 — Care Manager Supervisor, BronxWorks · Bronx
Provided intake, assessment, and counseling for adults in homeless outpatient programs.
- 2021–2022 — Resident Staff Coordinator, Fountain House · New York
Case management for older adults, including housing, clinical linkage, and medical follow-up.
- 2019–2021 — Case Manager, Community Impact at Columbia University · New York
Counseled adults and organized support groups for LGBTQ+ people around gender identity, sexual orientation, and self-advocacy.
Teaching
- 2020–2021 — Graduate Assistant, Forensic Psychology · Teachers College, Columbia University
Led discussions, graded, and supported students through the move to remote teaching.
Interests
- LGBTQ+ health disparities and access to gender-affirming care, minority stress, digital interventions, culturally responsive counseling and research, crisis intervention, and intellectual and developmental disabilities.
Skills
- R, SPSS, NVivo, ATLAS.ti, Qualtrics, G*Power, Zotero, Microsoft Office.
Memberships & Certifications
- 2025 — Certified Coordinator, National Center for START Services (NCSS)
- 2019–Now — American Psychological Association (APA)
- 2019–Now — Psi Chi, the International Honor Society in Psychology · Lifetime member