MIT Graduate Program in Comparative Media Studies

You gotta feel bad for our prof Justin Reich. One of the most upbeat people we know, yet he's become reporters' go-to source for online learning buzzkill:

“'When we switched to virtual, it was very overwhelming and it seemed like such a daunting task,' she said. And now 'I am so happy with what the kids have been able to do.'

Justin Reich says Kozicki’s experience is unusual for teachers this year."

5 Things We've Learned About Virtual School In 2020 | WAMU Most schooling has been offered online this semester. Teachers are working hard to improve that experience, but many students are still left behind.

Livestreamed, tomorrow (Thursday) at 5pm EST...

Reworking the Archive: The Southeast Chicago Archive and Storytelling Project — MIT Graduate Program in Comparative Media Studies Presenters include creative director and i-doc pioneer Jeff Soyk and the project directors, anthropologist Chris Walley and filmmaker Chris Boebel.

Next Thursday, join us to discuss new approaches to engaging public history...

What are some unexplored ways that online environments can help us rethink “the archive”? How might i-doc storytelling tools expand what an archive can be as well as public engagement with history itself? This presentation explores these questions through a demonstration of the online Southeast Chicago Archive and Storytelling Project. The project is based on a collaboration with the Southeast Chicago Historical Museum, a small volunteer-led museum in a diverse former steel mill region. The digital archive highlights objects saved and donated by community residents, what those items meant to donors, and the stories told around and through these objects. The website uses a variety of online storytelling techniques to help viewers connect with the objects and the histories from which they emerge. It also highlights how the historic conflicts found in this multi-racial working-class community – including those around labor, immigration, racial, and environmental struggles – continue to resonate in the contemporary moment. The website helps diverse working-class histories come alive for viewers through both objects and the spoken word in ways that are simultaneously striking and reflective of everyday life. Presenters include creative director and i-doc pioneer Jeff Soyk and the project directors, anthropologist Chris Walley and filmmaker Chris Boebel.

Jeff Soyk is an award-winning media artist with credits as creative director and UI/UX designer on PBS Frontline’s Inheritance (2016 News & Documentary EMMY winner and Peabody-Facebook Award winner) as well as art director, UI/UX designer and architect on Hollow (2013 Peabody Award winner and News & Documentary EMMY nominee).

Christine J. Walley is a Professor of Anthropology at MIT. She is the award-winning author of Exit Zero: Family and Class in Post-Industrial Chicago (University of Chicago Press, 2013) and a co-creator of a documentary film Exit Zero: An Industrial Family Story (2017).

Chris Boebel is Director of Media Development at MIT Open Learning, where he oversees media production for professional education and explores the uses of media in education, including VR and interactive media. A filmmaker by training, he has produced and directed feature films, documentaries, and television. His work has been shown on many networks around the world, including PBS and the BBC, and at more than 50 film festivals, including Sundance.

Reworking the Archive: The Southeast Chicago Archive and Storytelling Project — MIT Graduate Program in Comparative Media Studies Presenters include creative director and i-doc pioneer Jeff Soyk and the project directors, anthropologist Chris Walley and filmmaker Chris Boebel.

The Mahindra Humanities Center at Harvard is about to host some CMS all-stars on Wednesday! "Play, Civic Identity and Civic Lives" will feature Creative Director Scot Osterweil, alum Sangita Shresthova, and visiting professor Eric Gordon:

Play, Civic Identity and Civic Lives: Scot Osterweil in Conversation with Sangita Shresthova LUDICS SPEAKERS: SCOT OSTERWEIL, MIT; SANGITA SHRESTHOVA, USC MODERATOR: ERIC GORDON, MIT

Miss last night's talk with Adam Charles Hart? We've posted the video and transcript! Enjoy “Beyond the Living Dead: Treasures from the George A. Romero Archive”

Video: Adam Charles Hart, “Beyond the Living Dead: Treasures from the George A. Romero Archive” - MIT Graduate Program in Comparative Media Studies "The largest and most revelatory component of the archive is the hundreds of projects that George A. Romero never got to make."