MDOCS Faculty
MDOCS draws from Skidmore's faculty and staff along with documentary practitioners to deliver courses in documentary traditions, theory and methods. Fall 2020 Faculty are listed below...
Ian Berry has organized more than 90 museum exhibitions, including interdisciplinary collaborations
on subjects from the Hudson River to Shaker furniture, and monographic exhibitions
with artists such as Terry Adkins, Nicole Eisenman, Nancy Grossman, Jim Hodges, and
more. Berry received his M.A. from the Center for Curatorial Studies at Bard College
and is the author and editor of many volumes devoted to contemporary art practice.
(AHDS 324: The Artist Interview)
Jordana Dym is Professor of History with research and teaching interests including Latin America,
the history of cartography, book history and public history. She joined the Skidmore
faculty in 2000 after undergraduate studies in History that took her to Russia and
France, a stint in the Foreign Service that expanded her horizons to Central America
and North Africa, and graduate studies at New York University. She teaches a Latin
American survey, regional courses on Central America, the Caribbean and Mexico, and
topics courses on the history of travel and travel writing, war and peace, maps, and
publics. Engaging with written, visual and aural sources, her classes encourage students
to present findings in papers, newspaper article, sound stories, websites and exhibits.
She supervises International Affairs majors, offers a first-year seminar on maps in
the world, and enjoys sharing her love of travel with students on campus and on travel
programs in France, Mexico, Cuba, Guatemala and Puerto Rico. She directs the Latin
American Studies minor program, and was the inaugural director of the John B. Moore
Documentary Studies Collaborative (MDOCS) (2014-2018), developing the DocLab, Skidmore-Saratoga
Memory Project and Storytellers' Institute. (HI 251D: Oral History)
William S. Lewis is interested in the particular ways in which recorded sound and the moving image
may represent reality and the way in which these representations can serve justice
or its opposite. (PHDS 217: Film Truth)
Angus McCullough grew up in Brooklyn, NY, and studied philosophy and architecture at Wesleyan University.
His post-collegiate years were spent at a handful of firms in New York City, most
notably MVVA, Landscape Architects, where he contributed to the designs of public
spaces and university landscapes across the US. His first self-directed architecture
project led him to Vermont and to a wider range of methodologies outside a traditional
architectural framework. Each subsequent project has broadened the conceptual landscape
he explores, along with the methods used. The structures of time, object consciousness,
and dreaming are among his main topics of inquiry, and are expressed in physical,
immaterial, and sonic forms. His work has been shown in the United States and in Europe
at venues including The Bronx Museum of the Arts, Bennington Museum, AA|LA, BUOY,
The Lust Gallery, 2C, and Border Patrol. He has been an artist in residence at the
Vermont Studio Center, VCCA, BoxoHOUSE, ACRE and SomoS. He currently lives and works
in Troy, NY. (DS 351C: Creative Research/Multimedia Expression)
Liv McKee is a performing artist based in Troy and a core organizer of Albany's CapCity Slam. She is passionate about the ways art and somatic healing can improve our lives— the body as both a site of trauma, change, and our greatest joys. Her poetry has brought her to final stages at the National Poetry Slam, the Feminine Empowerment Movement Slam, and the Women of the World Poetry Slam where she was ranked 6th Woman Poet in the World. She has been commissioned for poetry and dance projects by the Experimental Media & Performing Art Center, Skidmore College Dance Department, "Take Back the Night", and Outspoken Poetry Festival. Her work is published or forthcoming in/on A Whore's Manifesto, Write About Now!, and Winter Tangerine, and she has self-published two chapbooks. She also works at the Art Center of the Capital Region as a dance instructor for adults with developmental disabilities. (DS 119B: Spoken Word)
Ron Taylor is a filmmaker and photographer who has worked in the commercial film and documentary
industry with many different production houses, including the Maysles in New York
City. A graduate of and former teaching assistant at Syracuse University's Newhouse
TV and film program, Ron's work includes commercial films and short films appearing
in various festivals and gallery shows. Galleries and festivals in New York include
Cheim & Read, Sikkema Jenkins & Co., CRG Gallery, Upstate Independents, Lake Placid
Film Festival and Tribecca Film Festival. For a number of years he taught digital
filmmaking in the Skidmore Summer Art Program and is currently with Media Services.
(DS 119A: 16mm Filmmaking)
Adam Tinklecreates, teaches and writes about music, sound, media and performance. At the center
of Adam's work are strategies for artistic engagement, interactivity and pedagogy
that draw on experimental music. In 2010, he co-founded the Universal Language Orchestra,
a group of elementary-aged novice musicians that composed, improvised and built their
own instruments. He subsequently created several similarly path-breaking arts education
programs across San Diego County, where his collaborations with his students and his
audience-participatory works were shown at the Birch Aquarium, Museum of Contemporary
Art San Diego, San Diego Museum of Art, Old Globe Theatre and Institute of Perception.
See full bio. (DS 210: Intro to Audio Doc; AS 251C: Pandemic Bardo)
Emily Vallee is a visual artist and photographic educator. Her work explores and challenges the separation and convergence between humankind and the natural word. Emily’s most recent exhibitions include Uncovered at the Arts Center Gallery (Saratoga Springs, NY), Dust Collective & Cold Season at Aviary Gallery (Boston, MA), and The Telephone Booth Exhibit, Anderson Ranch Arts Center (Snowmass, CO). In 2017 she was shortlisted for the Royal Photographic Society’s International Photographic Exhibition in London, England. Emily has been featured in various publications such as Phases Magazine, Mubridge’s Horse, Booooom and Don’t Take Pictures. Emily released her most recent body of work Years With Wings at the Boston Art Book Fair in 2019, an ongoing project influenced by the publication of the 2019 Audubon Study: Survival By Degrees. She received her MFA in Photography from the Massachusetts College of Art and Design and her BFA in Studio Art from the University of Vermont. (DS 119B: Explorations in Doc Photo)
Nicole Van Slyke is a practiced Media/Digital Arts, Documentary Production and Educational professional.
She has experience working in the film industry, behind the camera, in art studios
and academic environments. Currently, she is a Producer/Director/Editor for WMHT-PBS
and has worked on several 60 Minute documentaries and web series on relevant current topics. She is a storyteller at
heart and is passionate about giving voice to the untold story. (DS 251D: Documentary
Film Editing)
