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Publications in VIVO

Coombs Esmail, Eric David

Assistant Professor

Positions

Research Areas research areas

Research

research overview

  • As an artist with a strong theoretical foundation, I use media to work with communities and histories that manifest issues of diaspora, sovereignty, indigeneity, spirituality, landscape, labor, and the politics of human migration. As a cinematographer and camera operator, I produce creative work in documentary media. My scholarly research includes documentary philosophy and critical media pedagogy.

keywords

  • Documentary, Critical Pedagogy

Publications

selected publications

Teaching

courses taught

  • CMDP 1400 - Introduction to Critical Media Practices
    Primary Instructor - Spring 2024 / Fall 2024
    Prepares students for critical practices in contemporary media cultures in a global context. Explores the diversity of media practices, including narrative and non-narrative forms, emphasizing aesthetics and visual studies. In lectures and recitations students will explore video, sound, the internet and other multi-media platforms of expression.
  • CMDP 2500 - Media Practices I
    Primary Instructor - Spring 2018 / Summer 2018 / Fall 2018 / Spring 2019 / Summer 2019 / Summer 2020
    Working in design groups, students will explore the expressive potential of media through the production of short projects, discussions, readings, formal analysis, and critique. Provide a basic introduction to media practices as an extension of "visual thinking" and through approaches to storytelling, and hybrid media forms.
  • CMDP 3350 - Modes of Documentary Media History
    Primary Instructor - Summer 2021 / Summer 2022
    Introduces students to the variety of practices by examining their emergence, evolution and cultural impact in the global sphere. Students discover the major themes and genres in documentary work from photography, cinema, audio, hypermedia and the public debates they have engendered. Through lectures, screenings and research, develop critical perspectives on the international and transcultural dimensions of documentary media history.
  • CMDP 3600 - Media Practices II
    Primary Instructor - Fall 2018 / Spring 2019
    Focus on developing an understanding of the principles, forms and aesthetics of media production. Working in design groups on small-scale media preproduction and production exercises, screenings and critiques, students learn creative solutions to problems in realizing expressive media projects. Formerly CMDP 2600.
  • CMDP 3800 - Documentary Media Poetics
    Primary Instructor - Fall 2020 / Fall 2022
    This course serves as the gateway to the Documentary Media concentration. Investigates documentary cinema and media practices through class discussions, research papers, hands on exercises and screenings. Cross-references documentary photography and moving-image documentary in the production of short digital projects. Explores the distinctive contributions of digital technologies to documentary image making.
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Background

International Activities