Our Team
CES Director
Laura Shackelford
Professor, English
Interests: Narrative theory, Digital literary practices, Literary Media Studies, Feminist Science Studies, Science Fiction, Contemporary Novel, Systems theory and Bioinformatic Sciences.
Advisory Board
Margaret Bailey
Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Kate Gleason School of Engineering
Karen (Ren) VanMeenen
Senior Lecturer, English
Interests: Cultural Studies, Media Studies, Media Literacy, Visual Literature, Graphic novels, documentary photography, socially aware fine art photography, video installation, Photojournalism and the aesthetics of atrocity
Amy Adrion
Assistant Professor, School of Animation, RIT
Amy Adrion is a director and writer whose work has screened at the Sundance, SXSW, and Tribeca Film Festivals, been broadcast on STARZ, PBS and MTV, and won numerous awards. Research interests: Film production.
Ammina Kothari
Professor, Director of Harrington School of Communication, University of Rhode Island
Interests: Global communication; health, gender, technology and religion; journalism, media studies, women’s and gender studies, computer-assisted journalism.
Research Collaboration
Amy Adrion
Assistant Professor, School of Animation, RIT
Amy Adrion is a director and writer whose work has screened at the Sundance, SXSW, and Tribeca Film Festivals, been broadcast on STARZ, PBS and MTV, and won numerous awards. Research interests: Film production.
Sharon Morgan Beckford Foster
Associate Professor, Dept of Africana and American Studies
Interests: African American Literature, Postcolonial Literatures, Canadian Literature, Literary and Cultural Theory, African Diaspora Studies, Digital Humanities,Transnational Studies, Women’s and Gender Studies
Helen Atawube Yitah
Professor, Dept of English and Dean, School of Languages, University of Ghana, Accra
Interests: African literature, Women's oral and written literature, children's literature
Rashida Burch-Washington
Manager, Operations & Producer & Educator at Rochester Community TV
Interests: Rashida manages radio station WXIR, but teaching youth is her favorite responsibility at RCTV. While she loves the work she does with the community through RCTV, Rashida’s favorite job is being a wife and mother of two.
Guest Storytellers
DeAnn De Leon
Producer / Director at Rochester Community TV
Interests: Filmmaking, Storytelling Editing, Documentary Film, Journalism, Screenwriting
Sonja Livingston
Author; Associate Professor, Creative Writing, Virginia Commonwealth University
Interests: Memoir, Personal Essays, Personal Geographies, Lyric Essays, Brief Nonfiction, Unsung Voices, Writing about Class, Gender, Roots, Race & Religion. Hobbies: nature walks, eating potato-based foods, hanging out with cats.
Christine Green
Freelance Writer/Teaching Artist
christinejgreenwrites@gmail.com
Interests: The primary focus of Christine’s freelance work is to highlight the outstanding literary scene in the Rochester area. Other areas of interest include Latinx and Chicanx arts and culture, teen writing classes, and lyrical and speculative creative nonfiction. Outside of work Christine like to garden, watch lots of TV, and nap whenever humanly possible.