Please join us for a Closing Lunch and Awards Ceremony at the Gander Ballroom, 102 W. Fourth Street, Bethlehem at 12:30pm on Sunday, April 22.
The Mellon Digital Humanities Initiative Community Digital Media Awards will be granted to individuals and organizations whose work in the Lehigh Valley bridges the University and community through a process that uses media, art, or technology to address the roots of problems and advances holistic solutions towards a more just and creative world.
We are pleased to announce the recipients of the 2018 MDHI Community Media Awards:
Ashley Omoma will be graduating from Lehigh University in Spring of 2018 with a BA in Africana Studies and Journalism and she will be one of the first graduates from the innovative and collaborative minor in Documentary Storymaking. She has received two Mellon Digital Humanities Initiative Undergraduate research grants; on the Interrelations Between Media and Site of Memory in Ghana and the Making of Sketchlehem, a documentary short about Lehigh University’s complex relationship to its home community in South Bethlehem.
HYPE Youth Media is an award-winning media education initiative at Muhlenberg College directed by Jenna Azar, Dr. Lora Taub-Pervizpour and Tony Dalton. HYPE Youth Media supports community-based media making opportunities for Allentown teens and Muhlenberg students as they investigate, research, and produce documentary films about pressing social justice issues in our community.
Julia Maserjian has worked for over a decade to digitally curate resources related to the history of the Lehigh Valley and to produce documentary videos and oral histories for the project she manages, Beyond Steel: An Archive of Lehigh Valley Industry and Culture. She has played a role in developing the Lehigh Valley Association of Independent College’s Documentary Storymaking minor and the American Studies Graduate Certificate in Documentary Film. Both the minor and certificate emphasize community stories and the filmmaker’s obligation to engage in a moral and ethical practice.
Saide Saddiq-Cisse, is founder and host of the hit community engagement talk show Couch Conversations. Saide comes from a long line of scholars and spiritual leaders that have transformed communities and empowered people spiritually across the world. Through matching his 6 years of experience in entrepreneurship and digital media/marketing with creativity and his passion for people, Saide sought out to innovatively offer his own contribution to the betterment of the world. Saide now enjoys playing Djembe and bringing people together to have conversations that build trust between cultures and lead to progressive action.”
Join us at the Closing lunch reception to honor these fantastic individuals!
The buffet lunch, with vegetarian options, is included in your Conference registration fee. Make sure to register for the Conference and RSVP to the Closing lunch so that we can plan food accordingly.