Portrait and Biography
Fall 2016 Doc Dates
Series: Mondays 7 p.m.
September 19, 2016, Wilson Chapel
Erika Schielke, Podcast Portraits of Environmental Fieldwork in the Adirondacks
Moose data collection - E.Schielke
Science can help explain the world around us and develop solutions to our most daunting problems. Documentary work often profiles leading scientists and important topics to bring that explanation to the general public. During this Doc Date, biologist and Skidmore faculty member Erika Schielke offers a portrait of the fieldwork that goes into scientific research in selections from a podcast series-in-progress, Science Shorts, on regional environmental topics. Similar to NPR storytellers, whose features combine narration, interviews with experts, and natural sound, Schielke draws on research from her course, "Ecology of the Adirondacks," an outgrowth of her work on regional environmental challenges to connect to scientists working on moose life, snake populations and the impact of road salt on local water sources.
Erika interviewing Conservation Canines - photo cred. Conservation Canines
Biologist Erika Schielke has a passion for communicating science to the general public. As an aquatic ecologist
who engaged in impromptu lakeside conversations about field research, she developed
an interest in public outreach that led to an American Academy for the Advancement
of Science Mass Media Fellowship in 2009, where she spent a summer as a science reporter
at KUNC in Greeley, Colorado, covering topics from genetic testing to wildlife conservation.
Schielke received her A.B. in molecular biology from Princeton University and her
Ph.D. in ecology and evolutionary biology from Yale University. She is currently an
Instructor in the Biology Department at Skidmore College, where she primarily teaches
"Introductory Biology" labs and a non-majors course on the ecology of the Adirondack
Park. In 2009, as an American Academy for the Advancement of Science mass media fellow,
she spent a summer as a science reporter at KUNC in Greeley, Colorado, covering topics
from genetic testing to wildlife conservation. From 2009 to 2010 she produced the
Adirondack Science Report at WGFR, a monthly radio feature highlighting regional science stories.
Presentation moderated by Lucas Willard, WAMC
Learn more about Schielke's work in the MDOCS newsletter's Faculty Spotlight.
October 17, 2016, Emerson Auditorium
Daesha Devón Harris, Through a native lens: Portraiture, social documentary and narrative in Saratoga
Daesha Devón Harris, a Saratoga Springs native and documentary photographer, creates powerful multimedia
pieces that speak to social issues in a creative and compelling way. The photos depict
subjects not as victims, instead showing them in a light of determination that illuminates
Harris's relentless optimism. Harris discusses her practice, which includes individual
and collective portraits of African-American and other often-unrecognized communities
in Saratoga Springs, and use of archival and historical research and images.
Harris's earliest mentor was her great uncle Joseph Daniels, a self-taught artist
and accomplished painter from whom she received painting instruction as a young child.
She holds a B.F.A. in studio art from the College of Saint Rose, where she studied
under the late Karene Faul, an iconic artist and educator. Harris earned her M.F.A.
in visual art from the State University of New York at at Buffalo and has won several
New York State artist grants. She is an award-winning artist who has been featured
in numerous exhibitions across New York State as well in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania,
Louisville, Colorado, and beyond. She plays an active role in her community as a youth
advocate and cultural history preservationist. Her MFA show, and yet must be ... my Promise Land, and 2011 show at the National Museum of Dance, I've Got a Home: Inside a Community of Color, draw attention to African-American youths and affected by gentrification. (Text
adapted from the Underground Railroad History project.)
Presentation moderated by photographer Robert ParkeHarrison of the Department of Art.
See more from Harris's portfolio at daeshadevonharris.com.
November 14, 2016, Emerson Auditorium
Adam Hall, Offset (film): A life blurred and re-envisioned
Join filmmaker Adam Hall for a special screening of his feature documentary film, Offset: Seeing Beauty Through a Brain Injury (2015), a portrait of a photographer who reimagined his practice. Weaving life story and observation, Hall will discuss biography and portraiture in documentary filmmaking in a Q&A following the film.
Synopsis
After a catastrophic brain injury, renowned fashion photographer Brian Nice is confined
to his childhood home. But when his health insurance no longer covers physical therapy
sessions, Nice embarks on a cross-country road trip that tests his physical and emotional
limits. Taking his camera with him, he photographs the American landscape, capturing
the way he now sees the world.
Director Adam Hall will be at this event for a Q&A after the screening.
Presentation moderated by Nicky Tavares, Mellon Fellow, MDOCS and Visualization Forum
Hall and Nice
Watch the trailer here and learn more about the film at offsetfilm.tumblr.com.
