Friday, April 30th, 2021
3 – 4:30PM EDT/12 -1:30 PDT on Zoom
REGISTRATION IS REQUIRED. Register here for the Zoom session.
How can leaders in college-level film and media programs – chairs, deans, diversity officers, program heads – foster an inclusive and equitable environment from the top down? Hear from administrators working in this arena about their priorities, approaches, successes, and challenges. This roundtable will begin with a prepared question and answer format and then open up to questions from attendees. Faculty and administrators are welcome to join.
Panelists:
Leena Jayaswal is a documentary filmmaker, award-winning photographer with deep expertise and interest in issues that intersect race, representation and identity. Her photography has been nationally recognized in galleries around the country, and her films have been broadcast on PBS affiliates through National Educational Telecommunications Association, and through New Day Films. She just finished a film on what it means to be mixed race in America. Jayaswal is a Professor in the Film and Media Arts Division at American University. She is the director of the photography degree and is currently Interim Associate Dean for Faculty Affairs in the School of Communication. She was also the School of Communication’s first Inclusion Officer.
Victoria Sturtevant is currently an Associate Professor of Film and Media Studies and Faculty Director of the College of Arts and Sciences Student Success Center at the University of Oklahoma. She has served as Director of Film and Media Studies (2009-2014) and Associate Dean of Arts and Sciences (2014-2019) at OU and oversaw the college’s strategic planning committee in 2015. Her scholarly work looks at race, class, and gender in American film and television, and her most recent book is the anthology Hysterical: Women in American Comedy (University of Texas Press, 2017), co-edited with Linda Mizejewski.
Ya’Ke Smith, known for his unflinching and veracious style of storytelling, is a rising voice in independent cinema.
His films have received world-wide acclaim, screening and winning awards at over 100 film festivals. The Director’s Guild of America, the Student Academy Awards, HBO, Showtime, the City of Buffalo, NY, which proclaimed February 23, 2013 as Ya’Ke Smith Day and the city of Cincinnati, OH which proclaimed October 6, 2019 as Ya‘Ke Smith Day, have honored him.
He has been featured on NPR, CNN, HLN, Ebony Online, Indiewire, Filmmaker Magazine and Shadow&Act.
Ya’Ke graduated with his B.A. from the Communication Arts Department at the University of The Incarnate Word, where he later became the youngest recipient of the Alumni of Distinction for Professional Achievement award. He received his M.F.A. from the University of Texas at Austin’s film program, where he is currently an Associate Professor of film and the Associate Dean of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in the Moody College of Communication. Variety magazine named him one of the best film educators “from across the globe.”
Moderated by Miranda Banks, Ph.D. (Loyola Marymount U) and Jennifer Proctor, MFA (U Mich – Dearborn), co-founders, EDIT Media
