Summer 2021
After six years, Malcolm Turvey has completed his term as the director of Film and Media Studies. We wish Malcolm the best as he begins an 18-month sabbatical and we look forward to the day he returns to teaching FMS courses.
We are thrilled to announce that Tasha Oren will be the new Film and Media Studies Director. Tasha Oren's research area is film, television and popular culture. She is the author of Demon in the Box: Jews, Arabs, Politics and Culture (Rutgers), the forthcoming Eating Television (Routledge), and is co-editor of several books including The Handbook of Contemporary Feminism (Routledge), Global Currents: Media and Technology Now (Rutgers University Press), East Main Street: Asian American Popular Culture (New York University Press), Global Asian American Cultures (New York University Press) and Global Television Formats – Understanding Television Across Borders, which won the Best Edited Collection prize from the Society for Cinema and Media Studies.
Oren has published articles on film, television, Asian American Studies, screenwriting, Neurodiversity and food media; she sits on the editorial boards of several journals and is a book review editor for Signs: The Journal of Women in Culture and Society. She is the Tufts representative for GCWS, The Consortium for Graduate Studies in Gender, Culture, Women and Sexuality.
Tasha can be reached at tasha.oren@tufts.edu -- or during her office hours.
We are excited to announce that Khary Saeed Jones will be returning from his recent leave to resume his role as the Director of Undergraduate Studies.
Khary Saeed Jones engages film projects that explore the tensions between fiction, memory, and everyday life. His films and collaborations have screened at Sundance, SXSW, MoMA, Camden (ME), Full Frame, ICA Boston, and many other festivals and venues. As a writer-director, his work includes the short films Hug, Three and a Half Thoughts, Chrysalis, and the forthcoming feature-length films Gumbo and Night Fight. Jones has also served on the editorial teams behind the documentary features: Where the Pavement Ends (PBS WORLD Channel/America ReFramed, 2020), Black Memorabilia (PBS/Independent Lens, 2019), Lorraine Hansberry: Sighted Eyes/Feeling Heart (PBS/American Masters, 2018), He Named Me Malala (Fox Searchlight, 2015), Sembene! (Kino Lorber, 2015), and The World According to Dick Cheney (Showtime, 2013).
Born and raised in Camden, New Jersey, Jones is the recipient of awards, grants, and fellowships from AFI Dallas, the Mass Cultural Council, the LEF Foundation, and the Sundance Institute. He studied at Columbia University (MA, MFA) and Morehouse College (BA), and he is currently a Professor of the Practice in Drama and Film at Tufts University. At Tufts, Jones teaches storytelling for the screen, advanced filmmaking, and advises students developing both scripted and documentary shorts from inception to edit. He is also the FMS Director of Undergraduate Studies. He was recently named the 2021-22 Harvard Film Study Center/LEF Foundation Fellow.
As the Director of Undergraduate Studies, Khary will work with undergraduate students to help them navigate their FMS experience. Khary welcomes all inquires via email at khary.jones@tufts.edu -- or during his DUS office hours.