Film & Digital Media Ph.D. Cohorts
Class of 2016
Anita Chang
Program Research emphasis: Digital Documentary
Institutions/Degrees: M.F.A. San Francisco State, Cinema; B.A. Tufts University, American Studies/English
Bio: Anita Chang is an independent filmmaker, educator and writer. Her award-winning works have screened internationally and broadcast on public television and cable outlets in U.S. and Taiwan. Chang's experimental and documentary works are inspired by and engaged in discourses on postcolonialism, ethnography, diaspora, and cross-cultural representation. She has taught production and studies courses in numerous contexts, such as the Academy of Audio Visual Arts & Sciences in Kathmandu Nepal, the renowned Motion Picture Department at National Taiwan University of Arts as a Fulbright Scholar, and the Department of Indigenous Languages and Communication at National Dong Hwa University in Taiwan.
Website: http://www.anitachangworks.com/
Alex Johnston
Research emphasis: Documentary
Institutions/Degrees: M.A. UC Santa Cruz, Social Documentation
Bio: Alex Johnston is a filmmaker and educator, whose work explores social and cultural histories using non-traditional aesthetic and narrative techniques. He holds a Master's degree in Social Documentation also from UC Santa Cruz, and has taught courses there in people's history and documentary practices. Prior to his career in academia, Alex spent a number of years working with, and as an advocate for, some of the 180,000 men, women and children incarcerated in prisons, jails and juvenile institutions throughout California.
Karl Mendonca
Research emphasis: Participatory Art
Institutions/Degrees: MA New School, NYC, Film and Media Studies; B.A./M.A. Mumbai, English Literature
Bio: Karl Mendonca is an experimental filmmaker and new media artist interested in participatory cultures and alternative media networks in South Asia. He has produced work across a variety of media and has shown at diverse venues including the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, InLight Richmond, The Phillips Collection (DC), Oxford Film Festival, Stuttgart Filmwinter 2010, Jersey City Museum, Monkeytown (NY), and Experimenta (India).
Karl has a Master's degree in English Literature from Bombay University and an MA in Media Studies at the New School in New York, where he also taught hybrid media theory and production courses at Eugene Lang.
Website: http://www.karlmendonca.com
Brian Rogers
Research emphasis: Documentary Form and the Essay Film
Degrees: B.A. UC Berkeley, Rhetoric
Bio: Brian Rogers is an artist and writer. He was born and raised in California, and studied Rhetoric at UC Berkeley. His work includes film and video installations, curatorial projects, moderation, and production. His research interests include: relations between sound, text and image; the potentialities of the essay film; postwar liberation movements; cybernetic theory; science-fictions and geoaesthetics.