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Faculty | Assistant Professor

Martina Karels

Contact Information
Education

Ph.D. University of Edinburgh
MSc (research) University of Edinburgh
MA Brooklyn College
BA St. Francis College

I am a cultural sociologist interested in how the past is communicated across time and space. Over the years I have explored these themes in multiple research projects, which generally fall into the overlapping categories of public memory, digital media culture, performance and qualitative research methods.

My work on public memory centers on remembrance in everyday life, particularly when done in public spaces and media. In my doctoral research I focused on the performance of public remembrance of 9/11, and since then I have looked at memory work in prison museums in Iraqi Kurdistan and women-led theatre activism in Argentina.

I dedicate much time to a collaborative project I have been involved with since 2015. Clayoquot Lives is a digital archive created by my colleagues Dr. Niamh Moore, Dr. Nikki Dunne, Dr. Mary Hanlon and myself. It holds oral history interviews recorded by Dr. Moore, images and other materials related to the 1993 Peace Camp in Clayoquot Sound, Canada. Our article 'Towards an Inventive Ethics of Careful Risk: Unsettling Research Through DIY Academic Archiving' is published in Australian Feminist Studies, and we are currently writing a book on DIY Academic Archiving (under contract with Palgrave Macmillan) and its companion website.

At SFC, I teach courses concerned with the relationship between media, society, and culture. We think critically about how media -- digital media, pop culture, creative media industries, news media, etc. -- impacts us, and we investigate the challenges and opportunities of a media-saturated and digitized world.

Related Faculty

Senior Lecturer / Director of the Television Studio

David Gewirtz

Communication Arts
[email protected]

Office: 718.489.5327

Adjunct Professor

Kathryn Grant

Communication Arts
[email protected]

Office: 718.489.5227

Assistant Professor

Brian C. Gregory

Communication Arts
[email protected]

Office: 718.489.5435

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