At Haverford College, I have helped build mediamaking capacity and programs over the past decade.  Both a new Visual Studies Minor and a media arts building, VCAM, were launched in Fall 2017.  These, along with a plethora of programs including DocuLabs, Strange Truth, and the Flaherty Seminar Scholars program, are transforming Haverford College into an institution that can fully support 21^st Century explorations into the theory, practice, and exhibition of moving image media.

Visual Studies Program

As a member of the Visual Studies Working Group from 2016-2018, I am proud to be part of the team that shaped, proposed, and launched the new Visual Studies Interdisciplinary Minor at Haverford College.

Interdisciplinary Visual Studies Minor
Visual Studies Minor Faculty

VCAM

I have been active in the transformation of the College’s old Ryan Gym into our new media arts building: VCAM – Center for Visual Culture, Arts, and Media.  I was part of the broad team of faculty, staff, and students who helped envision the building and who weighed in on design elements important to our pedagogical and research work.  The resulting facility is a quantum leap forward in our ability to teach, make, and exhibit media arts at the College. The renovation, by the wonderful architects at MSR Design, won an American Institute of Architects (AIA) Award of Excellence in 2018.

Visual Culture, Arts & Media (VCAM)

Tri-Co Film Festival

The annual Tri-Co Film Festival showcases exemplary film and media work by students in the Tri-College consortium of Haverford, Bryn Mawr, and Swarthmore Colleges.  Highlighting the diversity of media production within the Tri-Co, the program seeks work that demonstrates creativity, craft, and intentionality across a variety of genres and aesthetics.

Since its founding in 2012, I have helped organize and develop the festival and strategize for its sustainability.  The Tri-Co Film Festival is now a well-established program, supported by faculty and staff from all three colleges.  The festival is supported by the Film and Media Studies Department at Swarthmore College, the Film Studies Program at Bryn Mawr College, the John B. Hurford ‘60 Center for the Arts and Humanities at Haverford College, and the Bryn Mawr Film Institute.

Additional Links

Tri-Co Film Fest
About the Festival

HCAH Flaherty Seminar Scholars Program for Students, Faculty, and Staff

With the support of the John B. Hurford ‘60 Center for the Arts and Humanities (HCAH), I designed a fellowship to send students, faculty and staff to attend the Flaherty Seminar each June.  The weeklong Seminar is one of the most important annual documentary events in the country, bringing together filmmakers, artists, curators, scholars, students, and film enthusiasts to celebrate the power of the moving image.  The two student scholars we send go on to curate an on-campus event, showing a program of works they saw at the Seminar.  The long-term goal is to build film culture at the College by connecting the College’s film community to the larger documentary film community.

Informational PDF
Summer Centered: Sarah Moses ‘16 and Harlow Figa ‘16 Zoom in on Documentary Filmmaking

What You See Is What You Get:  Vision, Knowledge, and Technology Across the Disciplines

WYSIWYG was a series of conversations for anyone at Haverford College interested in visual studies, broadly construed.  The series allowed members of our academic community to discuss ideas, questions, histories, practices, and possibilities.  Held during the 2012-2013 academic year, WYSIWYG was convened by Associate Provost Maris Gillette, Postdoctoral Fellow John Muse, and myself.  It was supported by the Haverford College Libraries, the John B. Hurford ‘60 Center for the Arts and Humanities, and the Provost’s Office.  The WYSIWYG discussion series was a key step in developing our guiding concepts for both VCAM and the Visual Studies Program.