#nyuspspalace

Lunch with Marjorie Merriweather Post: A Lively Discussion

March 30, 2023 by Mormei Zanke

“This program was fantastic! I really enjoyed it. Great speaker.” Betty Perlish (attendee)

speakers — Ken Mensing with Amy McIntosh

On March 22, NYU SPS Academy of Lifelong Learning (ALL) hosted a free lunchtime event with historian Ken Mensing on the fascinating socialite and philanthropist, Marjorie Merriweather Post. It was well-attended at the midtown campus, with many ALL students and the SPS community in the audience, including Amy McIntosh, Chief Marketing Officer of NYU SPS with whom Ken works.

Ken said “It is always a thrill to be able to share the story of Marjorie Merriweather Post with a new audience. Marjorie was such an inspirational woman and having the opportunity to share a bit of her extraordinary life with others is such a privilege for me.” Mensing is a Marjorie Merriweather Post expert, having been the first historian of the LIU Post Campus (located on the late businesswoman’s estate), and also he has spoken to many of Post’s close family members. As ALL student, Marsha Starr commented, “Ken was beyond knowledgeable and you could feel his fondness for Majorie Merriweather Post as well as her family.” Mensing led an engaging conversation about the life of this successful American woman, which sparked many questions at the end of his presentation.

Marsha Starr, Ken Mensing, Amy Tannenbaum

“I thought the lunchtime presentation was relaxed and I do not think there was one question, even if esoteric, Ken did not have a thorough and confident answer for, which was nice and very professional,” said student, Amy Danziger Tenenbaum.

Join us for our next lunchtime event, “When Harry Meets Sara”: Lunch & Chat with Harry Chotiner & Sara Lukinson on June 5^th from 12-1:30pm, where the two instructors will dive into their favorite films and personal stories from within the industry.

These events are free!

To to explore all upcoming course offerings in the humanities and global affairs as well as participate in events and clubs.you can visit the Academy of Lifelong Learning website

Bias In American Media: An Interview with Journalist Cathy Garrard

February 15, 2023 by Mormei Zanke

How do you know if the article you’re reading has its facts straight? This is the central question that inspired Cathy Garrard’s class, Bias in American Media. Garrard is a journalist with over 25 years of experience and is currently a senior editor at Hearst Magazines. In Garrard’s course students will learn how to become savvy consumers of news as well as thoughtful editors. Read our interview with Garrard below!

What can students expect from the Bias in American Media class?

CG: I’m coming at this media literacy course from two different directions. It’s essential to learn how to recognize balanced, well-reported news stories, but it’s equally important to understand how your own personal bias impacts how you interpret the news you read. In many cases, personal bias has a major impact on the news outlets you regularly follow, which leads to continued left-side/right-side divisions in American society.

What inspired you to teach this course?

CG: When I first started teaching Fact-Checking for Accuracy in Spring 2019, I added a media literacy element in the form of a weekly reading assignment. I asked students to read the same news story across three different websites with differing political bias, using Allsides.com as a gauge. The students love it and learn so much—as do I!—so it seemed clear that an entire course could and should be taught on the subject.

Why do you think it’s important to not only be a savvy consumer but also a thoughtful editor of the news?

CG: When people understand how to spot the difference between accurate reporting and misleading or untruthful news, you can help stop the rampant spread of misinformation. People thoughtlessly share inaccurate information all the time both on social media and in casual conversations. If you want to work in the media industry, you need to understand how to present information in the most accurate, informative way possible. Otherwise, you’re part of the problem.

How has your experience as a journalist informed how you teach this subject?

CG: I got my first fact-checking gig in the 90s. Back then, “fact-checking” was not a household term. It was mainly done by magazine publishers, and most readers weren’t even aware it was happening. My colleagues and I used to joke that we were “the janitors of truth.” A description that I would happily put on my tombstone, may I add. But content certainty has been part of my journalistic DNA since the very beginning of my career. If you can’t believe what you read, why bother?

What do you find most rewarding about teaching this class?

CG: Quite honestly, teaching media literacy skills is one of the most rewarding things I’ve ever done in my career. I’ve had students tell me that they were able to diffuse tensions at the Thanksgiving dinner table with the tools they learned in the class. Or that they started following the news again because they’re less intimidated by it. To have that kind of positive impact in people’s lives is extremely meaningful to me.

Bias in American Media starts February 28^th, sign up here.

Writing About Health and Beauty: An Interview with Journalist Estelle Erasmus

February 3, 2023 by Mormei Zanke

Health and beauty is an expanding genre of writing that editors are hungry for. How do you craft a compelling service journalism piece, personal essay, or reported feature on this topic? In Estelle Erasmus’ course Writing About Health and Beauty, you can learn the ins and outs of finding your story, reporting, and pitching on this subject. Erasmus is an award-winning journalist and writing coach who has published extensively in this genre. Read on below for our Q&A with Erasmus to learn more about the eight-week course!

What can students expect from the Writing about Health and Beauty course?

EE: Health and beauty writing is a growing area in publishing, covering a wide range of topics from chronic illness, mental health, and preventative strategies to beauty routines and new therapies and products. In this eight-week course, I offer strategies, tips, and tricks on how to brainstorm the next big topic, pitch to online and print publications, and research and find credible experts to build your story from the ground up. I will work directly with students on pitches, essays and articles, and brainstorm topics. During the course, you will receive recorded video interviews from editors who cover health with insight and advice on submitting, and new interviews are added each semester. Students will also have the opportunity to interview and build connections with working experts in the health and beauty field. Students will leave class with one service piece, ready-to-publish personal essay, or hybrid essay/reported piece on health or beauty. Previous participants have published articles and essays generated in class in The New York Times, The Washington Post, Next Avenue, Chicken Soup for the Soul, The Daily News, Wired, GH, and more. I always say editors are in the field searching for writers with good stories. Why not let that writer be you?

How would you define this genre of writing? What does it encompass?

EE: This is such a wide-reaching genre of writing. It encompasses psychology, self-esteem, mental health, physical, emotional, medical, and even spiritual health issues, as well as specific diseases, chronic issues, alternative and covering every beauty and health remedy available, including cosmetic surgery, from a service-oriented, reported journalistic or anecdotal perspective.

My focus is mainly on health writing because it is a burgeoning field for writing opportunities, including in the parenting and aging space, but many times the editors who cover beauty also cover health, so it is very much a linked subject.

Why do you think writing about health and beauty is compelling?

EE: Because everyone is interested in maintaining optimum health, and let’s face it we are a society where packaging is important and remaining healthy showing our best selves in the area of visual mediums like television, TikTok and Instagram only helps us advance in our careers.

Also, when publications make staff and space cuts, it seems that one safe area is the health space, because with a growing older population, health is on the frontline of every person’s thoughts.

How has this genre shaped your career as a journalist and storyteller?

EE: I started my career in publishing as Associate Beauty Editor, writing about health and beauty for Woman’s World magazine, and co-authored a beauty book with a dermatologist. I went on to cover fitness, mind/body therapies as a columnist and contributor for First for Women, a columnist for New Body, and Let’s Live, and have contributed health and beauty articles to over 100 publications. I also launched the American Breast Cancer Guide for women with or at high risk for breast cancer, and I launched a magazine that covered health and cosmetic surgery. Once I had my daughter, I also covered health and mental health from a parenting perspective for GH, Parents.com, The Washington Post, The New York Times, and more. I loved telling stories about people in the health space, experts, and anecdotal, too, and enjoy teaching my students how to approach those kinds of stories, as well, and cover more in the Freelance Writing Direct podcast and in my book WRITING THAT GETS NOTICED: Find Your Voice, Become a Better Storyteller, Get Published, out from New World Library in June, available now for pre-order. And sign up for my newsletter to get publishing advice and opportunities.

What do you find most rewarding about teaching this course?

EE: The journalism skills I teach in this course are complementary to any other journalism program or master’s program at NYU or another university. I enjoy continually evolving my classes, and many of my students take my courses over and over. I have changed the syllabus to encompass more service journalism, interviewing experts (with actual experts available for interviews), new editor interviews in the space — since editors change positions often.

I’ve focused on increasing the engagement in my online forums, not just between myself and the students (which has always been active), but between the students themselves. Many of my students have stayed connected and even formed writing groups out of the comradery they’ve found in my classes.

Also I have a free Editor-on-Call webinar in collaboration with NYU on March 2 from 12:30-1:30 pm EDT in conversation with Julia Calderone, Senior, Editor Well for the New York Times (who covers health and science). This is the link to get your spot. I hope to see many of you there and in my class.

Seeing the World Through Foreign Film: An Interview with Film Instructor Roberta Seret-Bayer

January 24, 2023 by Mormei Zanke

Films can be transportive. Foreign films in particular can take you to other parts of the world and deepen your understanding of different cultures and global issues. The NYU SPS Academy of Lifelong Learning (ALL) course, Global Hotspots Through Foreign Film, will allow you to delve into rich foreign films from diverse cultures. This class begins February 23^rd, and will be taught by adjunct instructor, Roberta Seret-Bayer. Seret-Bayer is the Director of Advanced English and Film at the United Nations for the Hospitality Committee and Founder of the NGO at the UN, International Cinema Education. She’s the author of World Affairs in Foreign Film, and her fiction series Transylvanian Trilogy.

Read on below for our interview with Seret-Bayer and learn more about her course!

What can students expect from the global hotspots through foreign film class?

RS: Foreign film entertains, educates and inspires. Each film we view is made in another country, using history and politics as the factual background and fiction for the storyline. Fact and fiction blend together to take the viewer to a different culture. Discussing them in class opens our mind and allows us to share thoughts and learn from others.

How did you curate the film list for the course? Which films will be in the curriculum?

RS: Following foreign events and matching a film from a global hotspot is a passion and puzzle for me. International filmmakers tend to share my interest and use the current events of their country as their film’s infrastructure. Directors today of global cinema are journalists. They use cinema as their tool to show what is happening in their country and make their viewers around the world aware of their country. Many of these films win prizes at Cannes, Berlin, Toronto. Watching these films allows us the pleasure of travelling without needing a passport or visa. And we can enter a country through the screen that might be prohibitive to us.

This Spring semester we will travel all over the world to Global Hotspots by using cinema as our vehicle. The list is exciting of our 8 films from 8 different countries:

“Lydia Tar/ Tar” (Germany/ USA)

“Persepolis” (Iran)

“Olga” (Ukraine)

“Triangle of Sadness” (Sweden)

“Tsotsi” (South Africa)

“Bardo “(Mexico)

“Argentina” 1985 (Argentina)

“The Fencer” (Estonia)

What can foreign films teach us about geopolitics and cultures around the world?

RS: The world is very much with us. The internet, social media and television have made global events come closer and faster to us. What happens in Ukraine or China in the morning becomes part of our awareness in the afternoon and evening. The foreign films from our class give us the factual background via storyline and visuals. This helps us better understand the country’s culture and today’s current events. For each film, I give my students a packet of handouts that includes a map of the film’s host country, historical and political background, and a summary of the film and analysis. The literature reinforces the visual and at the end of our 2-hour class, we understand better the film as well as the country’s geo-politics.

How has your experience at the U.N. influenced how you teach film?

RS: I have the privilege through my NGO at the United Nations, International Cinema Education, to teach diplomats and their families ESL by using foreign films. The captions help increase their vocabulary and our discussions help improve their fluency in speaking English. Often, I have a student from the host country of the film, and we get first-hand commentaries and explanations. In this way, we learn some hidden secrets. These are the films that I share and screen for my NYU students, and I include this first-hand, inside information.

What do you find most rewarding about teaching this class?

RS: EVERYTHING! I am the one who learns the most. I see each film 2 or 3 times as I prepare it for my class, and that allows me to delve deeper and concentrate on details. I also value our discussions. We form a community of friends in our class that extends outside the classroom. This coming together offers us an ease in communicating to each other in class and sharing what we think. What could be more exciting than to use cinema as a vehicle to learn and enjoy at the same time? And the films take us to countries we may have seen in the past or on our wish list to visit.

Five African Nobel Laureates: A Discussion with Nicholas Birns

December 13, 2022 by Mormei Zanke

The Nobel Prize for Literature has been awarded to several authors in English from sub-Saharan Africa—including Abdulrazak Gurnah, Doris Lessing, J. M. Coetzee, Wolé Soyinka, and Naguib Mahfouz. How do these writers resist colonial oppression in their work? The NYU SPS PALA course, Five African Nobel Laureates, will examine this question as well as uncover some of the problems and ironies of writing the nation, and engage with the aesthetics of contemporary narrative. Adjunct instructor Nicholas Birns will be teaching the course, which starts on March 14, 2023. We had the chance to talk to Birns about the seminal work of each of these authors, and why he feels this literature course is important.

Read on below for Birns’ course overview.

Why do you feel this literature course is important to teach?

NB: There are still not too many courses in literature departments specifically on African literature, in general, as opposed to one or two African novels being put in a world literature seminar. The award of the 2021 Nobel Prize in Literature to the Tanzanian writer Abdulrazak Gurnah presented an opportunity to develop a course on African Nobel Laureates that would be a way to focus on the entire body of African fiction as well as to further diversify and decolonize the literature curriculum. People in the United States, still know far too little about Africa, and reading these books is a way for us to learn more.

What is notable about each Laureate’s work?

Abdelrazak Gurnah

NB: Abdelrazak Gurnah has been living in Britain for many years, where he taught as a literature professor, but is ultimately from the Indian Ocean island of Zanzibar. Zanzibar is now part of the nation of Tanzania, but have an independent history from the mainland, formerly Tanganyika, having far more Arab and Middle Eastern influence. Gurnah both excavates this distinct history and, in novels such as Gravel Heart, explores what it is to live in exile from it, and his work is set equally in the homeland and diaspora. Even when he deals, as he often does and does incisively, with personal or emotional relationships, it is always against this cultural background.

Doris Lessing

NB: Doris Lessing is famous as a writer of feminist fiction, such as The Golden Notebook, and speculative fiction, such as her Canopus in Argos series. But she started out as a writer about white settler colonialism in Southern Africa using predominantly social-realist and psychological modes. She grew up in what is now Zimbabwe and her first six novels are partially or entirely set there. We study her first novel, The Grass Is Singing, which is a searing portrait of a marriage gone wrong but also an examination of what it is to be a white person in Africa. At once a crime novel and a portrait of people in a landscape, Lessing’s first novel is a compressed nightmare of squandered possibility.

J.M. Coetzee

NB: J. M. Coetzee became known as a writer who excavated the injustices of the apartheid system in South Africa. In his later work, he has explored issues such as displacement, animal rights, contemporary global capitalism, and how a writer can meaningfully speak in a way that is both creative and socially responsible. Disgrace is a hinge book between those two phases. Its protagonist, David Lurie, is an academic who loses his job after a disastrous love affair with a student and then goes out to the South African countryside to live with his adult daughter. When the two are victims of a violent crime, the protagonist finds that he has to adjust to the new realities of a decolonized Africa, and to take the true measure of himself as a person. That was a short novel, it is one of the texts I have taught that is most generative of discussion; every student has something to say about it, and very few will remain unaffected by its power.

Wolé Soyinka

NB: Soyinka has been a presence on the Nigerian literary scene almost as long as his country has been independent. His early poem “Telephone Conversation” memorably captures the racism facing an African student in London, and his plays, especially Death of the King’s Horsemen, and memoirs have been acclaimed worldwide. He is perhaps less famous as a novelist, but his recent novel (published at the age of 87!) Chronicles from the Land of the Happiest People on Earth, shows he is supremely accomplished in that form as well. This book is a scalding satire of corruption in contemporary Africa which also offers some hope that people will continue to strive for honor and dignity. It is a book as funny as it is prophetic.

Naguib Mahfouz

NB: Mahfouz was the great novelist of modern Egypt and especially the city of Cairo. But early in his career he also wrote some novels about ancient Egypt which I think broadened his sense of how people, cultures, and communities interrelate. We study his short novel Midaq Alley, in which the entire neighborhood the book depicts acts as a sort of protagonist. Midaq Alley as a community is a compassionate place which takes in outcasts and strangers, but also is a poor and marginal ghetto that some young people will pay any price to leave. Mahfouz deftly juxtaposes his ensemble of characters with the background of changing times in an Egypt on the verge of true national independence to bring a particular place vividly alive.

What do you hope students will take away from this course?

NB: A sense that African writers participate both in the literary cultures, in their nations and regions, but also in world literature. Something I have emphasized is that these writers are very critical of European colonization, but also do not shrink from challenging their own governments, and those in power in the postcolonial situation; this is particularly true of Soyinka and Gurnah. The writer is not a cheerleader for a given political configuration but an independent voice of conscience who can assume a long-term ethical perspective. There is no set of traits that define an African novel, but we see in this course several different visions which will give the student a picture of the building blocks of contemporary African literature.

How to Make Your Own Podcast at Home: Tips from Adjunct Instructor Dan Bobkoff

November 23, 2022 by Mormei Zanke

Have you ever wanted to make your own podcast? It can seem intimidating, but with the right tools, you could make your own audio project from home! We asked PALA instructor Dan Bobkoff for his expert advice on how beginners can get started. Bobkoff is an experienced podcast producer, having worked with Axios and Business Insider on developing shows. His audio work has also appeared on Marketplace, Planet Money, and 99 Percent Invisible. Bobkoff will be teaching the upcoming Introduction to Podcasting and Radio Reporting workshop from December 1st to 3rd.

Read on below for Bobkoff’s tips for how to get started on your next audio project.

1. Find the right gear that works for you

DB: One great thing about podcasting is its low barrier to entry. You don’t need to spend a ton of money to get started. While I’d never recommend this as your primary setup, if you’re just dabbling, you could get decent audio using an iPhone’s Voice Memos app. But most of us want something a bit more professional. You’ll want to start with a good microphone and recorder. If you never plan to leave your studio, you could buy a USB microphone that plugs directly into your computer. Most sound decent to good. You can improve the sound quality immensely by recording in a room with carpeting, low ceilings, and sound deadening panels on the walls.

If you plan to record out in the field, you’ll want a microphone and recorder. Cardioid microphones will serve you well in most situations. If you find yourself recording often in noisy places (like trying to interview someone in a convention hall), you’ll want to consider a shotgun microphone, which is better at isolating sounds. They’re also good for recording sound that’s far away.

You’ll also need a digital recorder. Thankfully they’ve come down in price in recent years. Look for a recorder with XLR inputs and smooth knob for adjusting recording levels.

Once you’ve recorded your podcast, you’ll need to edit it. I recommend trying Hindenburg editing software. It’ll do most of what you need, works well on older computers, and is cheaper than alternatives. It’s also fairly easy to learn, but the skills will transfer if you eventually move to a more sophisticated program, such as Pro Tools. If you have access to Adobe Creative Cloud, you could also use Adobe Audition.

2. Find your subject

DB: It’s a cliche, but it’s true. Podcasting is perhaps the most intimate medium. Listeners hear shows as voices in their ears, and that can lead to an unmatched connection. That’s why the best podcasts make you feel something. You’ll want to find stories and topics that include emotion and reflection. Find great characters, and “great talkers.” Some people are a joy to listen to; others have trouble communicating in an understandable, conversational way. Take that into account as you book guests. And as you think about what your podcast is about, imagine yourself telling a friend about the story over dinner. How do you sum it up? If your friend’s face lights up after a sentence or two, you’re on the right track.

What doesn’t work well in audio? I’d try to avoid anything complicated involving lots of numbers. Listeners will have a hard time following.

3. Conduct Interviews and gather tape

DB: Most great shows are heavily edited. Many will have dozens of hours of tape for one produced hour. Even interview-style shows typically record longer than what you hear in the finished product.

That said, you’ll want to keep your reporting focused. I recommend pre-interviewing your guests before you do the formal interview. A pre-interview is an informal conversation to get a better sense of the story and to determine if your guest is a “good talker”. You’re taking notes, and trying to find the most interesting aspects of their story. You’re also listening to see if they’ll be clear and engrossing on tape. A pre-interview is a great time to get the basic facts down. But you do not want your guest to have an emotional moment until the real interview. I try to sense where a guest might have emotion, but I won’t push it until there’s a microphone. The worst thing is when a guest says something powerful and it’s not on tape.

Once you get into the formal interview, try to get your interviewee to reflect and tell you how something felt, rather than just what happened.

Because this is audio, you’ll want to avoid talking over your guest. It’s better to nod silently.

And you can do more than just interview someone. Try to capture some “action tape.” If you can hear something happening in the audio, that’s great. Make me feel like I’m in a place with you.

4. Edit

DB: You’ll likely have a lot of material, so it’s time to edit. First you have to decide if you’re going to narrate your podcast or produce it as an interview. If you narrate, you have more control. Narration is great for giving the facts and your sound bites can provide the emotion. In my editing software, I’ll pull a bunch of potential sound bites. And in another window, I’ll start taking notes and writing a bare bones script. For longer pieces, it’s important to outline and keep it focused. You may also want to transcribe your interviews if they’re long. It’ll help you find great material quickly, but you always want to edit using the audio, not the text. Sometimes an edit looks great on the page, but won’t work in the sound.

Interested in learning more? Sign up for the full intensive workshop with Dan Bobkoff, Introduction to Podcasting and Radio Reporting on December 1st to 3rd.

Media Localization: An Interview with Translation Instructor Ana Salotti

October 17, 2022 by Mormei Zanke

Media is everywhere but may not be as accessible as you think. Media localization aims to change that, through the modalities of subtitling and closed captioning. The NYU SPS 6-week hands-on course, Media Localization for Translators: Subtitling And Closed Captioning, teaches students to become skilled translators and interpreters. Students will walk away with an understanding of how to produce industry level closed captioning and subtitles. We talked to the course’s instructor Ana Salotti about what students can expect, and why the field of media localization is important. Salotti is a English and Spanish translator with over 16 years of experience in the industry. She holds a master’s degree in Translation and Interpreting from the University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia. Read on below for our interview!

What can students expect from the Media Localization for Translators course?

AS: This is a six-week, fast-paced, interactive course, where students will learn the basics of subtitling and closed captioning. They’ll learn some of the theory behind it, such as what subtitles and closed captions are exactly, what the guidelines for creating them are and why those guidelines are important to follow. They will also get a lot of practice. Each week they’ll have a hands-on assignment where they’ll get to apply what they learned during class by creating their own subtitled material, such as a movie or episode clip, or any other type of audiovisual content. They’ll be picking their own video clips from their favorite shows or movies, creating their own subtitles and translating them into their target languages. We will also have a forum where they’ll get to reflect on the weekly topic and engage in lively discussions with their peers and instructor.

How would you define media localization?

AS: I love this question, because I get to use one of the translators’ most frequent answers and clichés: It depends on the context. At some point in their careers, all translators have been or will be asked what the meaning of a word is, and most of them will answer, “It depends on the context. Show me the whole sentence or paragraph. Tell me more.”

The same happens in my answer to your question. Media localization is the term used in and by the entertainment industry, language service industry, and film production and distribution industry to cover a wide range of activities. These activities mainly include subtitling, dubbing, voice-over, video game translation, footage and video adaptation, and theater and script translation. In all media localization activities, there is a transformation of the original audiovisual content. This transformation can be linguistic to a different language and/or visual containing visual changes to the video. The goal in this transformation is to reach to a wider audience which speaks a different language and/or is located in a different region to the ones intended by the original content. The expectation is that this newly transformed media will feel as natural, genuine or “local” as possible to the new audience. That is why the term “localization” is used.

Now if you ask what media localization is among translators or academics who are studying this translation field, they’ll give you more or less the same definition, but will also tell you that they refer to it as “audiovisual translation”. So it’s media localization or audiovisual translation depending on who you’re talking to.

Why are subtitles and closed captioning important?

AS: I think subtitles and closed captions are extremely important for many reasons. They’re an accessibility tool. They make content more accessible not only to linguistic minorities within a country, but also to deaf and hard-of-hearing communities or people with other types of disabilities who need some extra support to understand what is going on the screen. They also democratize visual content because it can now reach a wider audience all around the world.

Subtitling and closed captioning help language learners acquire their new language faster when they watch content with subtitles on. It has been shown that, when people watch content with subtitles, they’re required to engage in a much higher cognitive activity than if they were watching it without subtitles. For this reason, subtitles can help children with learning disabilities, as well as older people with mentally deteriorating conditions.

Lastly, subtitles allow you to watch content even when there’s a lot of background noise around you, like in an airport, plane or at work.

What inspired you to have a career in this field?

AS: Subtitling picked me, rather me picking it as a field of specialization. During my last year of college, I started working in a boutique translation agency specialized in audiovisual translation back in my home country, Argentina. A good friend of mine and colleague was working there, but moved to another country, so her position opened up. She recommended me, and so I started. My task there was to translate TV scripts, and much later subtitles. That was a long time ago. We would work with VHS, transcribing the scripts into our computers while watching and listening to the broadcasted soap opera episodes that were played on an old TV set. Then we would start translating them. It’s crazy to think about how I started and compare it to the way we work with streamed media now.

What do you expect to find most rewarding about teaching this course?

AS: What I find the most rewarding about teaching this course is when a student submits an assignment and says that they spent hours doing it but enjoyed every minute of it. I believe in doing what you love. So, when students learn in my course, but they also have fun and enjoy the activities, the learning becomes much more engrained in your brain and your engagement with what you’re learning skyrockets. That rewards me.

Media Localization for Translators: Subtitling and Closed Captioning starts October 25. Register here.

Student Spotlight: How Allison Geller Created Her Short Film Home at Night

October 11, 2022 by Mormei Zanke

Maybe you’ve always wanted to try your hand at screenwriting, but you didn’t know where to start. This was the case for Allison Geller, a professional writer and editor by day, who was also passionate about films and storytelling. In 2020, Geller took the NYU SPS PALA course, Writing and Directing the Short Film, taught by Rob Feld. In this course she started writing the first drafts of her short film, Home at Night. She’s since finished directing and producing the film, which has gone on to screen at the Boston Film Festival and will be screening at the New York Shorts International Film Festival on October 27^th. We had the chance to talk to Geller about the process of making the film, and what’s next for her career!

When did your interest in screenwriting and directing begin? Was it something you always wanted to do?

AG: Actually, no! I’ve always been a writer, but my interest in screenwriting didn’t come until recent years. I studied poetry writing at the University of Virginia and have written quite a bit of non-fiction and fiction, and I’m also a copywriter by day, so words are just a big part of my everyday life. I started to feel there were certain stories I wanted to tell that would be better expressed in film. I could see the scenes, hear the dialogue. So I started reading about screenwriting and developing a few ideas.

In terms of directing, I realized it was a good combination of both my creative and organizational skills. Being a director is really about leading a team in order to get this mammoth project over the finish line—having the vision but also being able to execute it.

How did Rob Feld’s course, Writing and Directing the Short Film, inform your career today?

AG: I took Rob’s class virtually with a coworker sort of on a whim in the summer of 2020. It was a really fun and absorbing distraction from the rest of the dreary world at that time, watching movies, reading scripts, talking about how every line needs to drive the story or character development forward in some way. It was also a good introduction to the other aspects of film that were totally foreign to me, like basic shot types and how to think through shot progression in a sequence.

I wrote the first drafts of Home at Night in that class and I decided I wanted to actually make it. I don’t think I would have been motivated to do so if not for that class.

What did you find most valuable about Feld’s course?

AG: I found it most valuable to read and workshop other classmates’ scripts. I think a short film is not unlike a short story in that it can be a little bit more experimental and not as, let’s say, commercial as a feature film or novel. It doesn’t have to follow all the strict conventions of structure and plot. At the same time, it needs to hang together and make a kind of sense, even if that’s just in the mood or theme. So reading classmates’ scripts and discussing what worked and what didn’t and why, as well as suggestions for improvement, was really helpful. It’s always harder to identify those things about your own writing, but I think you get a little better at that over time, as well as better at asking the right questions when you get a critique.

It was also really valuable to have to write a director’s statement as it forced me to think through not only the themes I was exploring, but also the visual language, lighting, color, sound design—all of which pretty much carried through to the finished piece.

Where did the inspiration come for your recent short film “Home at Night?”

AG: I had the idea for the end of the film first. It occurred to me during one of many solitary walks home at night in my neighborhood in Astoria. As a woman, you always feel a little bit on guard in those moments. I thought, Wouldn’t it be interesting if…? (I won’t fill in the blank as that would give away the end of the film!) Then I worked backwards in terms of what kind of character this “would” happen to. That opened up a whole lot of other thematic preoccupations of mine: the power imbalance that exists between men and women, the isolation I see in society despite us being more technologically connected. It was also my way of parsing a lot of mediocre-to-bad experiences I had with online dating in New York City, and that I often talked about with friends here and elsewhere.

What do you hope audiences take away from this film?

AG: I hope it’s thought-provoking. Whether they like or hate it, if someone watches it and then talks about it with their friends after—what they think it means, their feelings about the protagonist, how they interpret the ending—I consider that a win.

Do you have any advice for aspiring filmmakers?

AG: My advice is to try to find people who are more experienced than you to help you, and then to find a way to just go for it. There’s always going to be a very good reason why you can’t do it: you don’t have any money, you don’t know anyone in the industry, et cetera. But you have to slowly build out your network and set funds aside for it, get a little help here and a little help there, and just make it any way you can. It doesn’t have to be today—it took me way longer than I’d expected or hoped to make Home at Night—but you have to make a plan and keep chipping away at it. It will be stressful and the end result won’t be perfect, but you will learn so much from the process and feel so satisfied to have actually done it!

What’s next for you? Tell us about any projects you’re looking forward to.

AG: I’m finishing up a feature-length screenplay in a different tone, but on a similar theme. It’s sort of a modern-day rom-com except it’s about a career-driven female protagonist who finally gets drawn into a relationship after a lot of casual flings only to be deeply disappointed by the guy. Which sounds depressing, but actually has a “happy ever after” ending in that she realizes that putting her feelings on the line was actually worthwhile, and that she wants to live her life like that from now on.

I’m also kicking around an idea for another short, so we’ll see. It’s taken a long time to recover from the first one, but now that I have, it’s hard not to think about making something new.

Get your tickets to Home at Night, which will be screening in person at the New York Shorts International Film Festival on October 27^th at 8pm at Cinema Village. Follow @homeatnightfilm on Instagram for updates and additional screenings.

Creating a Culture of Meaningful Allyship: An Interview with Anti-Racist Instructor Leonard Cortana

October 6, 2022 by Mormei Zanke

In 2021, Leonard Cortana partnered with SPS PALA to create a series of racial literacy and anti-racist workshops. The goal was to start a conversation on race and bring various perspectives together within the NYU community. How can individuals effectively promote and achieve anti-racism in their own lives? These workshops focus on how to create a culture of meaningful allyship, and to identify possible biases each of us might encounter in this work. This series will start on November 2 and includes: Racial and Social Justice Offline and Online, Digital Identities: From Social Networks to Deepfakes, The Battle Against Online Misinformation.

Cortana is currently a Ph.D. Candidate at the Cinema Studies Department at NYU Tisch School of the Arts and a Fellow at the Berkman Klein Center, Harvard Law School. He was also recently selected to participate, as a UN fellow, in the 12th edition of the OHCHR Fellowship programme for People of African Descent. He is researching the racial justice narratives of assassinated anti-racist and feminist activists, and how those narratives may vary in different parts of the world.

This workshop series offers a space for reflection, which can be difficult to come by in our social media-laden world. “[We] needed a space to actually just come together, learn new concepts and new vocabulary,” Cortana said. He explained that while many of us may see resources on social networks about allyship, he stressed that we need to take that awareness one step further beyond hashtag activism.

“These [ideas] are not something that can come up without having the moment to reflect on your own identity and experience and without having a chance to be with a group and to exchange different experiences. That’s why we decided to design these workshops.”

How can you become a better ally? This endeavour first needs to come with the understanding that allyship is a lifelong process. You cannot simply become an ally overnight—to be an ally is a continuous role, which requires patience.

Cortana explained that he starts the workshop with personal reflection. “The first thing that we are going to do is to understand where we are and where we stand. Reflect on your identities, reflect on your own experiences. Part of being an ally in that sense is to understand first, how much you want to put in that work [and] how much you are able.” He added, “I think it’s important to maybe keep to one fight or to one specific cause that is close to your heart, close to your experience, close to your surroundings.”

Decolonizing the mind also requires an awareness of the kinds of stories we tell. Each individual has their own unique experience, derived from the environment they were raised in, the media they consume, or the community they surround themselves with. Cortana thinks that storytellers have a critical responsibility when it comes to anti-racist activism. Stories influence how we perceive the world and each other. “Understand that we’ve been living in a world that needs to [use] stereotypes to be able to follow stories,” Cortana said. “If you need to create your own storytelling, you also need to understand how much those stereotypes and those inputs have influenced your way of thinking.”

Cortana also emphasizes that we should be wary of what scholars call “spectacular activism,” when performative measures outweigh an authentic cause. Sometimes individuals may want to be perceived as a good person, ally, or activist more than they are genuinely supporting anti-racist efforts. Cortana says we must resist the temptation that we must do something big to be an activist.

“It’s all the small steps,” Cortana said. “You don’t need to rise as an [activist]. You just need to find your way and to exist in a circle, to exist in a space that is inclusive and that is going to give you a space to be able to align.”

Introducing the Certificate in Vocology: An Interview with Aaron Johnson

September 22, 2022 by Mormei Zanke

Are you interested in voice production and training? The Certificate in Vocology might be calling your name. Vocology is highly multidisciplinary and spans multiple professions that study, train and care for vocalists. Our Certificate in Vocology provides foundational knowledge for anyone engaged in voice habilitation, including singing voice pedagogues, speech-language pathologists, voice and speech trainers, choral directors, and laryngologists.

We talked to NYU SPS instructor Aaron Johnson, about what students can expect from this certificate. Johnson is a researcher and speech–language pathologist who specializes in voice habilitation and rehabilitation. He will be teaching Fundamentals of Vocology this fall, starting October 11.

Read on below to dive deeper into vocology and get to know Aaron Johnson.

What is vocology?

AJ: The broadest definition of ‘vocology’ is ‘the study of the voice’. The word vocology has only been around a few decades and was formally introduced by Dr. Ingo Titze to refer to the science and practice of voice habilitation (training). This broad field encompasses many different professionals who train, care for, and study the voice, such as singing and acting voice teachers, speech-language pathologists, laryngologists, voice researchers, choral directors, and others. An important aspect of vocology is that it requires a multidisciplinary approach. Recently, the Pan American Vocology Association (PAVA) published standards by which an individual can become a PAVA-Recognized Vocologist. To earn this distinction requires both knowledge and experience across many different domains of vocology.

What can students expect from the certificate in vocology?

AJ: The certificate in vocology program consists of five courses providing a broad overview of vocology including the fundamentals of voice production, theory and application of voice habilitation methods, understanding voice disorders and their care, and how to study, measure, and research the voice. One goal of the program is for students to be prepared for the PAVA-Recognized Vocologist test by giving them not just knowledge, but also skills and resources for continued learning. I don’t view this course as teaching students everything about the voice. Instead, I hope to give students a strong foundation to enable lifelong learning and a thirst for continued exploration about the voice.

What do you expect to find most rewarding about teaching in this certificate program?

AJ: I am excited about developing and teaching in this program because it is exactly the kind of opportunity I would have liked early on my career. Like many people today who call themselves a ‘vocologist’, my professional path was very winding. I began as a singer, then singing voice teacher, then found my way to speech-language pathology and eventually voice research. A transformative experience in my own training was studying with Dr. Ingo Titze at the 8-week long intensive Summer Vocology Institute at the National Center for Voice and Speech. I am excited this new certificate program at NYU makes vocology knowledge and training accessible to students across the globe through a hybrid format of synchronous and asynchronous online content and meetings.

Who would benefit from the vocology certificate program?

AJ: Anyone who is interested in learning more about the voice would benefit from this program. In particular, I think singing voice teachers and acting trainers who want to understand the anatomy, physiology, and science of the voice; speech-language pathologists who want to work with professional voice users; and even vocal performers themselves would greatly benefit from having a better understanding of how their instrument (the voice) works. A lot of performers don’t have a solid foundation in the mechanics of voice production because so much of their training is focused on the aesthetics of performance – plus it’s hard to see what is going on inside the body that is producing that beautiful sound!

#nyuspspalace

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this: