The Summer 2022 issue of Journal of Cinema and Media Studies is introduced with an urgent call to action: “integrate antiracist approaches into all levels and all aspects of film and media education.”
SFTV Associate Professor Miranda Banks, co-edited and wrote the issue, Antiracist Strategies for Inclusive Film and Media Education, with Jennifer Proctor, Associate Professor of Journalism and Media Studies at University of Michigan-Dearborn. It is based on work and workshops conducted over the last two years with EDIT Media, a consortium of production faculty dedicated to developing and disseminating best practices in inclusive teaching.
“Our mission is to effect both pedagogical and administrative change in our academic fields to produce and engender educational experiences that are equitable, just, supportive, and engaged for all students and for all faculty,” Banks and Proctor write. As such, they call upon contributors across various fields including screenwriting, production, and documentary.
In Elements of a Global Classroom, MFA Screenwriting student Dongwon Oh draws from personal experience gathered from years attending an international high school and living abroad. He was born in Daegu, South Korea, raised in New Delhi, India, and attended college at SUNY Geneseo in upstate New York before moving to Los Angeles. “I had been part of the student government senate, and specifically, the sub-committee dealing with issues of diversity and equity in my undergraduate college of SUNY Geneseo, and I wanted to continue my work here at LMU,” Oh says. He credits the SFTV Equity Council, specifically Banks and Associate Dean of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Charles Swanson, for helping him produce this work.
Formed in 2021, the SFTV Equity Council is made up of 5 subgroups, each taking on a specific area of focus: climate and culture, communications, hiring, research, and training and education. “If you are interested in expanding the equitable experiences of your classmates, staff members, and faculty and aim to help transform the industry we work within and train our students to enter, please consider joining us,” Swanson says. To learn more, please contact him directly: Charles.Swanson@lmu.edu
