This panel, discussing undergraduate research opportunities at Pitt, includes undergraduate researchers and a representative from the Office of Undergraduate Research. The students will share their experiences designing digital media projects in a range of programs, including SURA, CREATE, Archival Scholars, Field Studies, and Honors College and Asian Studies Center Fellowships. They will respond to your questions about how to find, apply, and productively use funding opportunities available on campus for digital media work—and how to showcase the results of extended projects to professionalize and build resumes.
Interested? Join us by clicking the link and registering for this panel!
Laura Nelson (they/them/theirs) is the Assistant Director of the Office of Undergraduate Research, Scholarship, & Creative Activity (OUR) in the Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences, where they work with the Undergraduate Mentors to support students through every step of the research experience. Outside of the OUR they are a part-time instructor for English Composition and First Year Programs. Their research and teaching interests include trans studies, comics and sequential art, 19th-century English literature, and medical humanities. Please contact them at LSN9@pitt.eduto start a conversation about your research interests, connecting with faculty mentors, crafting a research proposal, and/or to learn about getting involved with LGBTQIA+ initiatives around campus.
Ben Ascuitto (he/him/his) is a second-year student studying Film & Business in the Honors Degree Program. His main passions growing up in New Jersey were always taking photos and watching movies, so he thought: why not combine the two? At Pitt, these dual interests have taken the form of Business Manager and a Showrunner at UPTV, Tertiary Content Producer for Pitt Tonight, and pursuing research with the Creative Arts Fellowship. Currently, Ben is making a documentary film on understanding how New York City will come back from the COVID-19 pandemic and what steps are currently in place to restore the city fully. He hopes to pursue a career in the film and entertainment industry as an assistant camera, camera operator, and hopefully one day, a director of photography.
Esther Lui (she/hers) is a graduating senior at the University of Pittsburgh, where she studies Public & Professional Writing and Chinese. She minors also in Korean and is pursuing a certificate in Asian Studies. In her current research, she uses text mining methods to trace the roots of contemporary tianxia-ism, a Chinese theory for universal world order, to the liberal discussions of the late 1980s. Esther is also the current Research and Design Fellow at Libraries Without Borders, a non-profit organization dedicated to equal access to information and education. Looking forward, this fall Esther will be attending an MBA program in International Human Resources Development, through which she seeks to apply her interests in writing, design thinking, and people-oriented service.
Anthony Pascarella (he/him/his) is a senior in the Digital Narrative & Interactive Design program also minoring in Creative Writing. He's been researching UX and accessibility design with Dr. Stephen Quigley this semester to help improve the Pitt Fuego application. Anthony is also the art director and an editor of The Pitt Pulse creative science magazine. His interests include graphic design (and traditional pencil-and-paper art), web design, writing, and photography.
Livia Rappaport (she/her/hers) is a junior Film & Media Studies major. She has conducted research in trauma in children's horror film, as well as race in horror film. Currently, she is a part of the Horror Studies Working Group, and she runs the YouTube channel "Pitt After Dark," which publishes short horror films from Pitt students.
Emily Rothermel (she/her/hers) is a junior at the University of Pittsburgh studying Nonfiction Writing. She specializes in journalism and essay writing, and is interested in writing about environmental topics, food and culture, and the body. Emily is the assistant editor and podcast producer at Sampsonia Way, the in-house magazine for City of Asylum, a community that provides sanctuary for endangered literary writers and protects and celebrates creative free expression. Emily is currently in mid-production of a narrative podcast that weaves together nine interviews with exiled writers, exploring their writing process and what memories mean amid the experience of exile.
Philippa Zang (they/them/theirs) is an abolitionist, queer archivist, writer, and aspiring Pittsburgh historian. They were born and raised in Pittsburgh. During their 2020 Brackenridge research fellowship they used ArcGIS Story Maps to create an online visual essay called The Geography of Freedom, which dealt with the spatial aspects of histories of race and capitalism in and beyond Pittsburgh. They have also done research in GSWS through the LGBT Archival Education Fellowship, where they used digital skills to map LGBT history in Pittsburgh, and as a Peterson Scholar where they are working in digital archives at the Pittsburgh Queer History Project. Zang is currently doing a Digital Atlas Internship class where they are conducting historic research and generating digital maps that explore racial geographies formed by migration during and after the Civil War.
Interested? Join us by clicking the link and registering for this panel!
Digital Media Professions Week is a five-day series of remote synchronous events for students, alumni, and faculty interested in digital media and its changing professional landscape. Explore more resources at the asynchronous Digital Media Fair.
Digital Media Professions Week is sponsored by Year of Engagement, Office of the Associate Dean for Undergraduate Studies, Department of English, Film & Media Studies, the Digital Narrative & Interactive Design (DNID) Program, the English Composition Program, the Public & Professional Writing (PPW) Program, English Digital Media Lab, and the Gender, Sexuality, and Women's Studies (GSWS) Program.