Brianne Barry—Project Coordinator: Brianne Barry is a New York City reporter and filmmaker. She is a camerawoman and assignment editor for NY1 News. She graduated from the City University of New York Graduate School of Journalism where she received her MA in Urban Reporting. She works in multiple mediums including print, interactive and broadcast formats. One of her short films Self Portrait: A Story of Acceptance was featured in the Long Island International Film Festival 2014. She has served as project coordinator of the Old Westbury Oral History Project since September 2011. Her responsibilities include producing several of the oral history interviews, the introduction video and president’s message, editing all the video pieces included in the project, and managing and curating the project’s web content. She graduated from State University of New York College at Old Westbury with a BA in American Studies.
Amanda Frisken—Co-Director: Amanda Frisken is an Associate Professor and Chair of American Studies at the State University of New York, College at Old Westbury, where she teaches a broad range of courses in American history, society and culture. Her book, Victoria Woodhull’s Sexual Revolution: Political Theater and the Popular Press in Nineteenth Century America, was published by the University of Pennsylvania Press in 2004. She is at work on a new book project, tentatively titled Sensationalism and Modern Culture, which concerns controversies surrounding the rise of commercial media in American culture. An article, entitled “‘A Song Without Words:’ Anti-Lynching Imagery in the 1890s African-American Press,” based on a chapter of that book, was recently published in the Journal of African American History.
Karl Grossman—Interviewer: Professor of Journalism, he has specialized in investigative reporting for more than 45 years, a subject he teaches at SUNY College at Old Westbury. He is the author of six books. He is host of the nationally-aired television program Enviro Close-Up. He is chief investigative reporter for WVVH-TV. He has written and hosted numerous TV documentaries. He is active in doing investigative reporting on the Internet for, among other websites, The Huffington Post and CounterPunch. Grossman’s pieces have appeared in publications including The New York Times, USA Today, The Boston Globe, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Christian Science Monitor, Newsday, The Baltimore Sun, Cleveland Plain Dealer, Extra!, The Nation, The Progressive, The Miami Herald, The Ecologist, Earth Island Journal, E The Environmental Magazine and The Crisis. Honors he has received for his journalism include the George Polk, James Aronson, Generoso Pope and John Peter Zenger Awards.
Carol Quirke-Co-Director: Associate Professor of American Studies Carol Quirke, is a U.S. historian interested in the intersections of culture and politics. She teaches a range of courses: on women’s history, social movements, the university, post-war America, Hollywood and the Great Depression, narrative and history, media studies, and visual culture. She is the author of Eyes on Labor: News Photography and America’s Working Class (Oxford, 2012), and has written essays and reviews for American Quarterly, New Labor Forum, and Reviews in American History. She is currently working on a book about Dorothea Lange’s photographic career. A former community organizer, she implemented a multi-ethnic, multi-lingual, multi-generational oral history project, “All the Bricks Look Alike,” while directing the Welcome Project, a non-profit organization which sought to address racism in a Boston-area public housing development.
Samara Smith—Creative Producer: Samara Smith, a documentary media practitioner and educator, creates site-specific mobile media projects in and about public space. “Chain Reaction,” her locative game exploring urban environments, was exhibited at the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles. “Anyplace, Brooklyn,” her audio walking tour about urban space and development, was featured at the Conflux Festival. Samara has over 13 years of documentary film experience with credits on many award-winning films, including Rick Burns’ PBS series “New York: A Documentary Film,” and Judith Helfand’s HBO documentary “Blue Vinyl.” Samara is an Assistant Professor at SUNY College at Old Westbury and holds an MFA in Integrated Media Arts from Hunter College.
