https://www.portiaecobbabridgedacademicpromotioncv.com

pcobb@uwm.edu

FORMAL EDUCATION

1991. M.A. Film Production, San Francisco State University, CA

1987. B.A. Communications, Mills College, Oakland, CA

Academic Positions UW-Milwaukee

Faculty Teaching Fellow, Lubar Center for Entrepreneurship. 2020/22
Affiliated Associate Faculty: Department of African and African Diaspora Studies. 2016

Graduate Film Faculty. 1997- Present
Associate Professor, Department of Film, Video, Animation & New Genres. 1996- Present

Assistant Professor, Film & Video. 1992-96.

Director of Community Media Project. Appointed August, 1992

Academic Leadership

Co-Chair. FVANG Faculty Diversity Search. 2022

Chair. Scholarship Committee Film, Video, Animation & New Genres. UWM. 2018-present

Faculty Co-Chair UWM-African American Faculty & Staff Council. 2018-16

Chair. FVANG Faculty Search Committee. 2015

Honors/ Awards/Fellowships/Recognitions

Student Undergraduate Research Fellowship award (SURF), 2018-present

UW-Milwaukee-Lubar Entrepreneurship Center Teaching Fellowship, 2021-22

Pace Setter Award, Milwaukee Short Film Festival, 2021

UWM Faculty Distinguished Public Service Award, Voices of Gun Violence Archive, 2021

IDEAS Grant awardee for Global Studies_397 Black Lives Matter Comparative Study team taught course, 2022

Mary K. Nohl Artist Finalist/ Awardee, 2020

Ideas Challenge Fellow, Lubar School of Business, Entrepreneurship Center. 2018

Teaching & Instruction

Global Studies 391, UWinteriM, UK Black Lives Matter, a global comparative Study, faulty led. January 2023

Global Studies 391, Virtual Module. Black Lives Matter, global comparative study. Spring & Fall 2022

Film 150 Multicultural America, Service and Learning, Cultures and Communities Certificate GER Course.
Film 301/319 Conversations with Filmmakers and Critics: Radical Black Film. 2008-2021

Film 328: Radical Cinemas & Radical Black Cinemas of the African Diaspora

Film 362: Community Documentary
Film 430: Ethnographic Video
Film 510: Senior II (Thesis)
Film 297: Study Abroad (Senegal, West Africa documentary field school) 2001. Film 712: Graduate Film Studio/Seminar

Film 720/722: Graduate Media Arts Workshop

Film 799: Independent Graduate Study

Course development

Global Studies 391, Black Lives Matter. Britain, “Study Abroad Winterim.” January 2023

Global Studies 391, Black Lives Matter. Britain, Spring & Fall, 2022
Film 203/369_ Ethnographic Video: experimental approaches to documenting and marking history, memory & identity with a final public presentation.
Film 362_ Documenting Community.

Film 301/319_Various topics: Radical Black Films, Radical Film, Futurist Cinemas, Japanese Cinemas.

Cinemas of the Black Diaspora, a 6-week cross disciplinary summer pilot program, 2007. co-taught with Donte McFadden, Ph.D

Cross-disciplinary Field School abroad. Dakar, Senegal, West Africa. Co-taught with faculty from Dept of Anthropology. June 2001

Graduate MFA-Film Committees

2022-24
*Luciana Decker Orozco (advisee) 2020-22

*Lucio Tant-Salvador Arellano (advisee) Samantha Drake
Gillian Waldo
Gregory Thomas

2018-20
Zachary Epcar

2016-18
Ada McMahon

Vanessa Andrade Reuter

Michelle Trujillo 2014-16

Renata Carvalho Barreto

Sangsun Choi 2012-14

June Junhyuck 2011-13

*Catron Booker (advisee) Laimir Fano

2010-12

Roy Alvarez

*Michael Walsh (1st semester) 2008-10

Emir Cakaroz Lisa Danker Joe Sacco

Interdisciplinary MFA Committees

Peck School Of the Arts. Visual Art & Photography. Barbara Miner (2023)

Nicholas Umbs (2022) College of Letters & Science. Poetry.

Franklin Cline (2019)

Ph.D Dissertation Committees

College of Letters & Science, Department of African & African Diaspora Studies

College of Letters & Science, Department of English, Poetry. Alessandra Simmons Rollfs ( 2020)

University of Colorado-Boulder. Department of Critical Media Practices. Renata Carvalho Barreto, candidate (2020-)

Conferences & Symposia (selected)

One Water Summit, Milwaukee, WI September, 2022

Co-presenter with Dr. Scott Alves Barton: Int’l Gullah Geechee & African Diaspora Conference (IGGAD), Coastal Carolina University, South Carolina. March 2019

Colloquia Visiting Artist & Presenter. Art Department, University of Wisconsin- Madison. March 2019

Copanelist. Voices of Gun Violence Archive.. National Communication Association, Baltimore, MD. November, 2019

Co-presenter with Dr. Scott Alves Barton: “The Politics of Integrating Values, Food & Farming: Food & Memory” AFHVS/ASFS Annual Conference, Madison, WI June 2018

Presenter: “Story Movements” Center for Media & Social Impact, School of Communications, American University. Fall 2016

Presenter. Symposia. The Fire Every Time: Reframing Black Power Across the 20th Century and Beyond. “Framing Black Power in Contemporary Film.” Symposia. Avery Research Institute, College of Charleston. Charleston, SC October 2012

Co-Presenter. Daughters of the Dust: We Carry These Memories Inside We. “Who I Know I Am: African American Women Filmmakers in the Classroom” -with filmmakers Zeinabu Irene Davis and Juanita Anderson. Symposia. Avery Research Institute, College of Charleston. Charleston, SC 2011

Presenter, Carolina TESOL and College of Charleston, (Uses of Media in the Classroom), June 2008

Keynote Speaker, University of South Carolina, and Annual Adrenee Glover Freeman Memorial lecture, Columbia, S.C., October 2006

Panelist/Consultant, Youth Media development with Independent Film Channel, New York City, Topics Education and the National Council of Teachers of English, August 2004

Conference Delegations

U.S. Water Alliance: One Water Summit, Arts & Culture Delegate. Milwaukee, WI. 2022

South Carolina Educational Television (SC-ETV) INPUT Conference, International Delegate, Budapest, Hungary. 2010

Lectures, Artists Talks, Workshops, Presentations, Salons

Artist Talk, Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design, Spring 2022

Presenter, Social Good Morning, Lubar Entrepreneurship Center, UW-Milaukeee, Spring 2021

“Sustaining Community Activism & Engagement.” Lubar Entrepreneurship Center. Pop-Up Workshop, 2021. Artists Now Lecture Series. UWM. Peck School of the Arts, 2020

Presenter, Faculty College Professional and Instructional Development, University of Wisconsin System, July 2019

Artist Talk, UW-Madison Art, Visiting Artist Colloquium, March 2018

Milwaukee Artist Resource Network (MARN) Salon (facilitator of round-table with visiting artist and 3-walls curator, Jeffrey Hayes), 2018

Artist Talk & documentary workshop, Temple University Film & Media Arts Visiting Artist Series, Scribe Video Center. November 2016

Presenter, Story Movements symposia, Center for Media & Social Impact, American University, Washington, DC August, 2016

Lecture on Gullah Geechee Field Research. Stanford University Field School @ Avery Research Center. Professors Paulla Ebron, Claudia Engel Summer. 2008- 2010

Creative development Video (Selected)

“Seeking” Video for installation. 3.07, 2022. https://vimeo.com/699930766
“13 Observations” Video for installation. 6:32, 2019. https://vimeo.com/362721178

“Remembrance” Short form documentary. 6:12, 2019. https://vimeo.com/345245788

“Along Toogoodoo” Short form experimental documentary. 11:21, 2019 https://vimeo.com/420015606

“Rooted: Lizzie’s Legacy” 4:00 Document of performance at Lynden Sculpture Garden, 2018

“Performing Grace: Explorations of Mercy, Forgiveness & Forced Forgetting” 17:57 video triptych for single channel or multiple screens, 2017. Vimeo: https://vimeo.com/183750595

“Arianne’s Artist Way” 12:00, documentary portrait of Arianne King-Comer a celebrated artist, known as the Indigo Lady in Charleston, SC, 2016. https://vimeo.com/177488425

“Sweetgrass” 4:40 Interview with Ferne Caulker-Bronson, Choreographer &Founder of Ko-thi African Dance Company, Milwaukee-on location at Jekyll Island, Georgia, 2013. Vimeo: https://vimeo.com/141868206

Interdisciplinary Research & Collaboration

  • Watermarks, Green Tech Station. Development of conceptual site-specific honorary vessels, an installation honoring water, with sculptor and UWM Associate professor, Glenn Williams. August, 2022

  • “Voices of Gun Violence archive” Principal Investigator with Drs. Leslie Harris, Erin M.Parcell, School of Communication, Michelle Trujillo, Associate Lecturer, FVANG, with Community Activist, Debra Gillispie. www.uwm.edu/gunviolenceproject. 2018

  • Migrations of Gesture, a trans-disciplinary Video collaboration with Dancer-Maria Soledad Gillespie and interdisciplinary artist, Nirmal Raja. Union Art Gallery, January 25-March 15, 2021

  • Lynden Sculpture Garden collaboration with Glenn A. Williams, Artist, Sculptor and UWM-School of the Arts Faculty: Bottle Tree fabrication & Installation on Site, and design of an African Rite of Passage Mask for “Seeking” plein-air performance. 2020-23

  • Rooted: The Storied Land & Lizzie’s Supper on site at the Lynden Sculpture Garden Collaborative curated period specific Emancipation Garden, Community Dinner, and Performance work inspired by family history and memory. Documented by Maeve Jackson(videographer). 2017-18

  • Documentary project. Study of Private Adoption & Families with School of Social Welfare faculty investigators, Drs. Joan Blakey & Nancy Rolock. 2016-17

  • The Sweet Grass Project: A Celebration of Survival. Dance with projected Digital Video, photographic and video montage, with South Carolina field recordings. Collaboration with Ferne Caulker-Bronson, dancer and choreographer. Performed at University of Wisconsin Milwaukee’s Spring Dances. October, 2013

    Work-in-Development (2022-23)

    Milwaukee Public Housing Documentary. Milwaukee Public Housing removal and resettlements (Documentary short in development).

    “Seeking” Collaborative plein-air performance joining Sierra Leone’s spiritual “Sande” ritual with South Carolina, rite-of-passage tradition, Lynden Sculpture Garden, Brown Deer, WI (date to be determined).

    Exhibitions: Museums & Galleries

    ‘Performing Grace” Then as Now, Woodland Pattern 50th Anniversary Retrospective Group Exhibition at Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design. Oct- December, 2022

    Two digital photographs, commemorative plaque & video installation. Wisconsin Triennial, Ain’t I a Woman group exhibition, Madison Museum of Contemporary Art, 2022

    “Migrations of Gesture,” Interdisciplinary video and still life Installation with Maria Gillespie and Nirmal Raja. Union Art Gallery, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee,

2021
”Self-Ease” digital photographic self-portrait series. This is America, group exhibition 5-Points Art Gallery, Milwaukee, WI. August 2022
”Mothers & Sons.” Digital color photographic series. Group Exhibition, Waterfront City Gallery, Charleston, SC. 2019

“Remembrance” Short documentary video. This is America group exhibition, 5- Points Art Gallery, Milwaukee, WI July 2019
“13 Observations,” video. DWNTWN, group exhibition, Wisconsin Museum of Art @ The St. Kate Hotel. Milwaukee, WI 2018

Milwaukee Artists Resource Network Mentor/Mentee Exhibition, VAR Gallery, Milwaukee. 2016

Screenings

”Seeking”. Collected Voices Film Festival Festival, Chicago. October 2022 “Along Toogoodoo” UWM-Milwaukee Underground Film Festival (M.U.F.F.)

Spring 2022

“No Justice, No Peace!” Young, Black, ImMEDIAte. (1992):
Film The Police! Counter-surveillance and Community Organizing (“Rage, Reparation, Abolition) Virtual screening and event series. New York University. Fall 2020 (October 24)

“Unwriting of Disaster” Virtual Flaherty NYC Seminar 66-year Retrospective with Memesis Documentary Festival. July 31, 2020. The Power of Protest: Poetry & Film, student curated film screening from the archive in support of Black Lives Matter. Visual Studies Workshop/Afterimage. Aug 12-18, 2020

“Along Toogoodoo”. A Cinema, Woodland Pattern, Milwaukee, WI. May 2019 “Performing Grace” PhillyCam Public Access TV, Philadelphia, PA. 25th

Anniversary, Leeway Foundation, April 2018

Poetry Readings

  • Woodland Pattern Book Center, 29th Annual Poetry Marathon, January 29, 2023.

  • Southeast Wisconsin Festival of Books, UW-Waukesha, November 5, 2022

  • Poetry in the Park, Juneau Park, Milwaukee, WI. Sponsored by Woodland

    Pattern Poetry and Booksellers, Reading with poets Lane Hall, and Duriel E. Harris. July 12, 2022

  • Ukweli: Searching for Healing Truth contributors on A Gathering Place, hosted by Marilyn Hemingway on Steamyard.com podcast, Georgetown, South Carolina, April 2022

  • Woodland Pattern Virtual Poetry Marathon, Milwaukee, WI. January. 2021 & 22

  • This is Milwaukee, virtual zoom gathering & conversations about citizenship. Summer 2019

  • Woodland Pattern Live Poetry Marathon, Milwaukee, WI. January 2012- 2019

  • Poets Read Some Stuff @ Var Gallery, Milwaukee, WI. September 2018 Publications

    Contributor. Poetry. Ukweli: Searching for Healing Truth, a collection of essays and poems that speak to how violence and injustices has affected African Americans. Ed. Herb Frazier & Horace Mungin. Evening Post Books, Charleston, SC (fall 2021)

    Contributor. Essay. “The Lynden Sculpture Garden’s Call & Response Program, To Whom It May Concern: To Wonder, Encounter and Emplace through the Radical Black Imagination” with Rina Little. 2021

    Contributor. “Wide Eyed” Unbound poetry & photography collaboration with photographer Jon Horvath and Kevin Miyazaki. 2021

    Contributor. Poem. “Through This Door” poetry anthology, editors Margaret (Peggy) Rozga and Angela Trudell Vasquez. 2020

    Contributor & Voice actor for Sculpture Milwaukee 2020: Thomas J. Price (Within the Folds). 2020

    Co-editor and contributor “Where I Want to Live: Poems for Fair & Affordable Housing” a collection of poems commemorating the 50th Anniversary of Milwaukee’s activists who marched for 200 consecutive nights to achieve fair housing in our city. 2018

    Contributor to Voices from the Robert Flaherty Film Seminar: Flaherty Stories, an online archive project, edited by Scott MacDonald and Patricia R. Zimmerman. 2017

    Writer. Introduction for Truths and Absurdities, a collection of fiction and non- fiction by poet and social commentator, Horace Mungin. 2014

    Contributor, Avery Messenger Newsletter, Avery Research Center, College of Charleston- Spring 2012 edition “Bottle-Trees: The Blessed Memorial.” Extended article also appears in Living Roots Magazine.

Artist Residencies

“Call & Response Artist-in-Residence” Lynden Sculpture Garden, River Hills, WI. 2017-present.

50th Anniversary Freedom Ride Sojourn, Video & Photography Artist Residency. Arts@Large, Milwaukee, WI. Summer 2014

Center for The Documentary, College of Charleston, South Carolina. 2008-10

Bemis Art Center, Artist in Residence, Omaha, NE. 2003
Headlands Center for the Arts, Bridge Artist-Residency, Sausalito, Ca. 2001

Studio for Creative Inquiry, Artist Residency & Research Fellow. Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA. 1997-1998

Curating & Programming

Suzanne Lacy, Visiting Artist. Artist Now Series. (virtual visit) UW-Milwaukee. Spring 2021

Boots Riley, Visiting Filmmaker, virtual classroom visit, Fall 2020 Billy Woodberry, Visiting Filmmaker, March 2020
Edgar Endress, Interdisciplinary Artist, 2016

Gloria Rolando, Visiting Filmmaker, 2014
Zeinabu Irene Davis, Visiting Filmmaker, 2013
Eren McGinnis Visiting Filmmaker, 2012
Charles Burnett & Kevin Everson with Iverson White. Visiting Filmmakers, Spring 2009

Service to The Field

  • Mentor. Milwaukee Artists Network Resource, 2021

  • BFA Thesis Committee Advisor. Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design. 2020 &

    2021

  • Moderator. Emerging Women in Film panel. No Studios Milwaukee, 2018

  • Moderator. Black Lens, Milwaukee Film Festival “In Conversation with actress DeWanda Wise” at University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Student Union Ball Room. 2018

  • Consultant. Film Curriculum Program reviewer. Cathy Hughes School of Communications. Howard University. 2017

  • Consultant Youth Mentor. Milwaukee International Film Festival “My Milwaukee” Youth Film Pilot. 2008/7

Film Juries

Juror, Milwaukee Underground Film Festival (MUFF), April 2022 Juror, Napal-America International Film Festival, July 2021 & 22 Juror, Black Star Film Festival, Philadelphia, PA, 2021
Juror, Black Lens-Milwaukee Film Festival, 2019

Juror, Kentucky Women’s Foundation Arts Competition. 2020, 2012 & 2010 Juror, Leeway Transformation Arts Awards, Philadelphia, PA. 2015

Juror, Charleston International Film Festival. 2012
Juror, South Carolina ETV-INPUT Conference Selections. 2009, 2012 Juror, South Carolina International Film Festival, May 2008

Advisory Board of Directors

Board of Directors, Woodland Pattern Book Center, Milwaukee. 2021-present Advisory Board, Digital Humanities Lab, Golda Meir Library, UW- Milwaukee. 2021

South Carolina Humanities Council, Columbia, South Carolina. 2012-15

Wisconsin Humanities Council. 1996-2001.

Community Service

Consultant, Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design,

Participant. Milwaukee Water Commons, Water School, with Alice’s Garden in Milwaukee. June, ’2017.

Volunteer, Causes for Change International, Milagros, Ecuador. July 2006.