Cost of Free Shipping: How Warehouse Proliferation is Affecting the Inland Empire (2022)

Documentary on the environmental impact of the growing number of warehouses (Amazon, Target, Walmart, etc.) in the Inland Empire region of Los Angeles county. Speaking with residents and activists in the region, the documentary shows how the increase in warehouses, trucks, and traffic is increasing pollution and adversely effecting the working class and communities of color in the region. Final project in “Contemporary US Media” course, S2022.

Directed by Mariana Duran & Produced and edited by Adrian Ramos

Video Projects (2021)

Video works as final class projects for Contemporary US Media course, S2021 by 3 students:

Anna Horne’s Covidcoaster: A Multiplicity of Voices is a visual poem of the filmmaker’s physical movements set to her writings during the 2020-21 lockdown.

Elaine Yang’s Take 5 is an auto ethnography of the filmmaker’s search for her medium through the medium of video documentary.

Gigi Hume’s Jane Fonda’s America is a historical look at the politics of the Hollywood celebrity as a study of changes in American society over the past few decades.

Insulindependent (2021)

Designed by Elli Quam as the final project in Contemporary US Media course, S2021. Insulindependent provides useful resources and advice for Type 1 Diabetics preparing for college. The information includes advice from professionals, shared experiences, videos to provide a resource to show your roommate and friends emergency procedures, and more.

Feel Something (2020)

Digital animation based on Sabrina Stone’s own experience and ethnographic interviews with her peers, “Feel Something” probes the psychological and emotional toll of the 2020 lockdown from the perspective of young college women.

Made as final project for F2020 Digital Ethnography at Pitzer College.

7C Media Initiative (2020)

Produced as the class’ final project in Contemporary US Media course, S2020 which was the semester of the lockdown.

From the front page of the website: “The coronavirus lockdown has pushed people physically further from each other than ever before. At the same time, social media and the internet have helped bring the world together and allowed people to share their experience. The 7CMI website brings together personal stories as well as analysis of the various aspects of the virus, the pandemic, and the official response. Through blogs, podcasts, and videos, we are highlighting facts over fear, history over fiction, human costs over economic gain, and documenting the way the pandemic has effected us as individuals and communities.”

Dialect in Refuge (2019)

"Dialect in Refuge" is a project which aims at documenting and archiving the endangered Musaler dialect of the Armenians of Anjar, Lebanon. The project is designed by Narod Seroujian (Anthropology) and Cynthia Nahhas (Media Communications Studies) at the American University of Beirut. The website contains oral history, historical documentation, and visual ethnographies of the Musaler dialect of Anjar and was the final course project for the class “Digital Ethnography” in Spring 2019. The project discusses successfully the tension between the safeguarding of a local dialect in the face of a larger project of unifying Armenian culture and standardizing the Armenian language.

Kids These Days: Human Capital and the Making of Millennials (2019)

A multi-media probe into the lives of young Lebanese millennials by Hadi Afif who completed this site as his final project for Introduction to Digital Media class in Fall 2018. Informed by Malcom Harris's book by the same title, Hadi's photographs and audio interviews give a deep sense of the challenges, hopes and contradictions of his peers. Hadi presented his site to mySpring 2019  Digital Ethnography and Filmmaking class as an exemplary approach to the presentation of social issues ethnography, digital data gathering, and critical analysis. 

4chan, Anonymity, and the Internet Alt-Right (2016)

Final term paper for my course, Introduction to Human Communication & Culture, at NYU in Fall 2016. Ted's paper is a lucid explanation of the technological and political effects of anonymity and transparency in our online lives; in many ways prescient of the wold that has developed since he wrote this paper. Ted, subsequently presented and spoke to my other Communication classes in the following semesters. And I present his paper to my students henceforth as an example of a successful term paper that brings together theory, history, and digital research methodologies successfully.

Chinatown in the Aftermath (2008)

Youth Produced Media

Juniors & Seniors at Pace University High School