Graduate Media Studies Colloquia
Graduate Media Studies at Queens College convenes regular colloquia to engage colleagues and outside practitioners in conversations about their work, research and scholarship.
Unless noted, all colloquia take place on Wednesdays from 5:30-6:20pm in G Building, Room 200 and are open to the entire CUNY community.
Fall 2018
Digital Punishment: Criminal Records in a Digital Age (September 12)
Sarah Lageson, PhD is a sociologist who studies the criminal justice system, technology, and inequality. She currently researches the growth of online crime data, mugshots, and criminal records that remain publicly available, creating new forms of digital punishment. She is an Assistant Professor at Rutgers University.
Transformative Story: From Exonerated to Almost Home (October 3)
Jessica Blank is a writer, director, actor, speaker, and coach on a mission to improve our world through the transformative power of story. Her projects include the long-running play “The Exonerated” about innocent people on death row, and the movie and novel Almost Home. Blank teaches work-shops in storytelling and script development.
Tactical Hybridity: A Work-In Progress Discussion of THE INFILTRATORS (October 10)
Alex Rivera is a digital media artist and filmmaker. Known for his acclaimed 2008 feature film, Sleep Dealer, Rivera’s work explores the contradictions of a free-flowing globalized economy and the simultaneous stigmatizing of immigrant laborers and erecting of border walls. He will be discussing his application of “tactical hybridity,” the intermingling of fiction and documentary to create a visual narrative of state practices that are intentionally hidden. Rivera is a Visiting Professor of Media Studies at Queens College.
The Social Impact Campaign (October 17)
Stephen Friedman served as President of MTV for seven years, where he developed campaigns to address voting, teen pregnancy, STDs, genocide, and other social issues. He now works on social impact campaigns full-time through SY Partners, and serves on the Board of Directors for the Genocide Survivors Foundation.
Research-Informed Film Practice: The Archive as Inspiration and Material (October 24)
Madeleine Hunt-Ehrlich is a filmmaker who has completed fiction and documentary projects in Kingston, Jamaica, Miami, Florida, and extensively in he five boroughs of New York City. She has received grants from the Manhattan Council as well as the National Black Programming Consortium. Her work explores the themes of physicality and female subjectivity. She is an Assistant Professor in Media Studies at Queens College.
- Official Website
- ESSENCE Black Girl Magic: Episode 2 — Behind The Scenes
- Guernica Interview
The Revolution Reality Show: Researching Cultural Industries and Emergent Journalism from the Inside Out (November 7)
Chenjerai Kumanyika is a researcher, journalist, and artist who works as an Assistant Professor at Rutgers University’s Department of Journalism and Media Studies. He won a Peabody Award this year for an episode of his Uncivil podcast about “The Raid” that liberated 750 slaves during the Civil War. He is also known for extensive public intellectual and activist activities.
The Commodity of Authenticity (November 14)
Jamie Cohen studies the commodification of authenticity, memes, algorithms, monetization, and digital livelihoods. He has lectured on the way YouTube became a commodity space for popular movements, and is currently writing a critical history of virtual reality. He is an Assistant Professor and Director of the New Media Program at Molloy College.
Thesis Colloquia (November 28, December 5, December 12)
Masters Students will present their thesis research and projects to the community, followed by ques-tions and comments from professors and peers. This session is open to the entire CUNY community, but questions and comments will be limited to members of the Media Studies program.