Q & A with Miranda Banks, 2019 Visiting Artist and Scholar

On Friday, February 8th, The School and Visual Art and Design and the Film and Media Studies Program will host Dr. Miranda Banks for both a Lecture on Equity in Media Arts Education in MM214 at 3pm - 5pm and host a Workshop of her game, Room at the Top in MM 329 10am - 12pm.

 In advance of her lecture, Dr. Banks kindly answered our questions regarding her work with EDIT Media (Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion in Teaching Media) and diversity issues in media production education in general. 

Why did you help to develop EDIT Media? 

In 2017, three different colleagues suggested I speak with Jen Proctor, associate professor of Journalism and Media at University of Michigan-Dearborn. When one person tells you to talk with someone, maybe you do it. But when three tell you--it makes you curious. Both of us were using research to design creative solutions to some of the problems facing film school education. She has just begun the EDIT Media (Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion in Teaching Media) website and I had created the game Room at the Top. I was excited to jump in and support the EDIT Media initiative and connect not just Jen, but dozens of film production faculty across the country who were eager to make transformative change in the classrooms, at their institutions, and in the field of media education. I'm honored to be a part of such a committed community of media makers and media scholars. 

What are primary issues and concerns around teaching diversity in the media production classroom? 

 A vital concern for many of us teaching in media production programs is not just about the number of jobs facing our students when they enter the industry, but also who has access to these most coveted core industry jobs. Though we as faculty cannot change the culture of the media industries our students wish to enter, we have the power to change production cultures in our classrooms and give our students the tools to bring this change into their future industries. Students need to learn the skills to become expert collaborators.

EDIT Media: The Edit Ten Best Practices for Inclusive Teaching in Media Production.