From left to right: UMW students Stephen McClanahan, Rob Willcox and Katie Reif adjust lighting and camera equipment. With their mentor, Assistant Professor of Communication and Digital Studies J.D. Swerzenski, the trio conducted interviews, scouted locations, got familiar with equipment and the editing process, and honed other skills. The five-week filmmaking session was part of UMW’s Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences Summer Institute. Photo by Suzanne Carr Rossi.[/caption]
University of Mary Washington senior Stephen McClanahan spent five weeks this summer practicing filmmaking. A psychology major, he saw the session as the next step in carving out the career he’s hoping to build.
“It’s an incredible opportunity to have access to this technology the university offers while also getting hands-on experience with filming and editing footage,” said Rob Willcox, an anthropology and theatre major who also took part in the video project.
Led by Assistant Professor of Communication and Digital Studies J.D. Swerzenski, the summer filmmaking course – packed with interviews, location scouting, lighting set-up, editing and more – was part of UMW’s Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences Summer Institute (AHSSSI). The collection of immersive hands-on learning experiences, designed to give students real-world expertise they can add to their résumés, also included psychology, environmental sociology and 3-D design work, all done side-by-side with faculty mentors.
“Lots of universities offer research opportunities to students, only to have them end up doing menial work. That isn’t what happened this summer,” Tobias Conner, a senior psychology major who plans to pursue a Ph.D., said of AHSSSI, for which students receive free room and board, as well as a paycheck. “We were doing real research every step of the way, from researching our primary sources in week one, to building the study, running participants, and assessing data by the end.” Read more.Summer Humanities Institute Preps Students for Life After Mary Wash
June 24, 2024 by
[caption id="attachment_239694" align="alignright" width="300"] From left to right: UMW students Stephen McClanahan, Rob Willcox and Katie Reif adjust lighting and camera equipment. With their mentor, Assistant Professor of Communication and Digital Studies J.D. Swerzenski, the trio conducted interviews, scouted locations, got familiar with equipment and the editing process, and honed other skills. The five-week filmmaking session was part of UMW’s Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences Summer Institute. Photo by Suzanne Carr Rossi.[/caption]
University of Mary Washington senior Stephen McClanahan spent five weeks this summer practicing filmmaking. A psychology major, he saw the session as the next step in carving out the career he’s hoping to build.
“It’s an incredible opportunity to have access to this technology the university offers while also getting hands-on experience with filming and editing footage,” said Rob Willcox, an anthropology and theatre major who also took part in the video project.
Led by Assistant Professor of Communication and Digital Studies J.D. Swerzenski, the summer filmmaking course – packed with interviews, location scouting, lighting set-up, editing and more – was part of UMW’s Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences Summer Institute (AHSSSI). The collection of immersive hands-on learning experiences, designed to give students real-world expertise they can add to their résumés, also included psychology, environmental sociology and 3-D design work, all done side-by-side with faculty mentors.
“Lots of universities offer research opportunities to students, only to have them end up doing menial work. That isn’t what happened this summer,” Tobias Conner, a senior psychology major who plans to pursue a Ph.D., said of AHSSSI, for which students receive free room and board, as well as a paycheck. “We were doing real research every step of the way, from researching our primary sources in week one, to building the study, running participants, and assessing data by the end.” Read more.
From left to right: UMW students Stephen McClanahan, Rob Willcox and Katie Reif adjust lighting and camera equipment. With their mentor, Assistant Professor of Communication and Digital Studies J.D. Swerzenski, the trio conducted interviews, scouted locations, got familiar with equipment and the editing process, and honed other skills. The five-week filmmaking session was part of UMW’s Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences Summer Institute. Photo by Suzanne Carr Rossi.[/caption]
University of Mary Washington senior Stephen McClanahan spent five weeks this summer practicing filmmaking. A psychology major, he saw the session as the next step in carving out the career he’s hoping to build.
“It’s an incredible opportunity to have access to this technology the university offers while also getting hands-on experience with filming and editing footage,” said Rob Willcox, an anthropology and theatre major who also took part in the video project.
Led by Assistant Professor of Communication and Digital Studies J.D. Swerzenski, the summer filmmaking course – packed with interviews, location scouting, lighting set-up, editing and more – was part of UMW’s Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences Summer Institute (AHSSSI). The collection of immersive hands-on learning experiences, designed to give students real-world expertise they can add to their résumés, also included psychology, environmental sociology and 3-D design work, all done side-by-side with faculty mentors.
“Lots of universities offer research opportunities to students, only to have them end up doing menial work. That isn’t what happened this summer,” Tobias Conner, a senior psychology major who plans to pursue a Ph.D., said of AHSSSI, for which students receive free room and board, as well as a paycheck. “We were doing real research every step of the way, from researching our primary sources in week one, to building the study, running participants, and assessing data by the end.” Read more.Swerzenski Shares Photoshop Expertise on ‘With Good Reason’
September 28, 2023 by
Assistant Professor of Communication and Digital Studies James Swerzenski
Assistant Professor of Communications and Digital Studies JD Swerzenski spoke to With Good Reason radio for an episode titled “Seeing Isn’t Believing.” Photoshop recently unveiled a new function that integrates generative AI, a cutting-edge technology that can produce images from text. JD Swerzenski says we’ve reached a point where photo manipulation has never been so easy. Listen to the show.
Swerzenski Comments on Image Manipulation in ‘Elle’
June 8, 2023 by
Assistant Professor of Communication and Digital Studies James Swerzenski
Assistant Professor of Communication and Digital Studies James Swerzenski spoke to Elle magazine for an article titled “When Did Everyone’s Skin Get So Damn Smooth?” Swerzenski said that while the early 2000s were instrumental in shaping how we perceive our skin—largely because of the rise of technology like Photoshop, which was used by photographers to perfect the images people saw in mass media—it’s important to recognize such phenomena in context. “I think often these conversations can get an ‘okay, Boomer’ tone,” he said. “There are so many incidents throughout history of people in dark rooms, messing with photos and changing and altering them.” Read more.
When Did Everyone’s Skin Get So Damn Smooth? (Elle)
June 1, 2023 by
