ATLANTA—The College of the Arts has announced Jennifer Barker will lead the School of Film, Media & Theatre as its new director, effective July 1. Barker assumes the leadership position from the current director, Ethan Tussey, who will transition to the College of the Arts as associate dean.
“I’m incredibly excited to begin this new chapter as director of the School of Film, Media & Theatre,” Barker said. “Film has shaped so much of who I am, and it’s a privilege to be in a position to support the next generation of filmmakers and media scholars as they tell their stories.”
“Dr. Barker is a highly respected scholar and mentor in her field and has the overwhelming support of her peers as she takes the helm of the School of Film, Media & Theatre,” said Dean Chester Phillips. “I look forward to working with her and the college leadership as we continue to advance the arts at Georgia State University.”
A founding faculty member of the school, Barker is an associate professor in film and media studies, specializing in moving image aesthetics, cinema and the senses, film phenomenology and theories of spectatorship.
Barker is the author of “The Tactile Eye: Touch and the Cinematic Experience” (University of California Press), which was a finalist for the Kraszna-Krausz prize for Best Book on Moving Image Studies for 2009. She has twice been a research fellow with the Cinepoetics Center for Advanced Film Studies at Freïe Universität in Berlin. Her research essays have appeared in journals including Somatechnics, Discourse, Film-Philosophy, Studia Phaenomenologica, New Review of Film & Television Studies, Paragraph and Cinema Journal. She has contributed to anthologies on the iPhone, synesthesia and moving images, gesture and performance, and filmmaker Chantal Akerman. Forthcoming work includes book chapters on cinematography, environment and social media.
Barker served as the school’s graduate director for several years and has represented the school in the GSU Faculty Senate. She received her M.A. and Ph.D. in Cinema and Media Studies from the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television.