- About

Stella Iman is a scholar activist, visual artist, and UX researcher originally from golden San Jose, CA.

As a scholar activist, she is inspired to produce work that incites thought concerning the decolonization of history and the present and future of the Africana Diaspora. Her training as a visual anthropologist has taught her that the present is an ever-evolving door to the past. Which, is why she values the importance of native documentation of Black communities at home and across the Diaspora.  

As a visual artist, she is guided by anthropological methods as much as she is inspired by personal experience. Undoubtedly, each project is influenced by the upbringing of two, often times, competing worldviews — her father, a Belizean immigrant and mother, daughter of two Black American doctorate professionals. 

Stella Iman’s most recent work is her Master of Art’s Creative Thesis Project for San Francisco State University. Her Master of Arts in Visual Anthropology was earned through the completion of a short ethnographic film titled, Naturally Free, and user-guide produced to make aware the historical, cultural symbolism, individual motivations, benefits and challenges of wearing hair in its natural state, as expressed by a few Black women in San Francisco Bay Area. Naturally Free is currently on the film festival circuit.

As a UX researcher, she drives product development and new market and business strategy opportunities through the lenses of inclusivity, innovation and empowerment. She specializes in ethnographic, concept and usability testing and other user-centric methods of research. Her objective is to always represent the users’ voice from exploration to development.

Overall, she seeks to produce artful work that educates, heals, humanizes and empowers BIPOC women, activists, youth, and most other underserved yet, powerful groups.