Continuing Studies - Current and Past Term Courses

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Continuing Education Overview

Certificate in Documentary Arts

Workshops and Institutes

Doc U Arts

Courses Offered for the Upcoming Term

Current and Past Term Courses – Fall 2009 Courses

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Courses Offered for the Current Term

Free Information Session | All Levels
April Walton

Prospective and existing students welcome! Come and ask questions about courses at CDS, meet instructors, and learn about the Certificate in Documentary Studies.

Wednesday, September 9, 6:30–8:00 p.m.
Center for Documentary Studies, 1317 West Pettigrew Street, Durham, North Carolina 27705

Please register on-line for this free session

For additional information, contact Continuing Education at the Center of Documentary Studies by calling 919-660-3663 or emailing cdscourses@duke.edu.

FALL 2009
GENERAL INFORMATION | Course Levels and Lab Fees

Documentary Studies courses are marked “All Levels,” “Beginning,” “Intermediate,” or “Advanced” to assist students in determining the most appropriate course in which to enroll. The specific designations are defined as follows:

1. All Levels: This course is open to all skill levels.

2. Beginning: No experience needed to take a course with this designation.

3. Intermediate: This level assumes students have taken the Intro class in the subject and are able to work independently with software, within the darkroom, etc.

4. Advanced: This level assumes students have taken the Intro and Intermediate courses to acquire a comfort level working independently with the medium.

Students are expected to supply their own equipment and paper, unless stated otherwise. A CDS lab fee of $85 is included in the cost of courses where indicated; this fee covers the use of darkroom and editing facilities for the duration of the course. Students who are enrolled in other courses and who wish to use these facilities must pay the $85 lab fee and complete registration/orientation with the CDS Photography and Digital Arts Associate in order to use the labs. Students need only pay ONE lab fee per term. Certificate students working on their final projects may pay the lab fee and use the lab(s) if they have enrolled in the Final Project Seminar within the calendar year.

If you are uncertain which level is most appropriate for you, or have questions regarding course lab fees, please contact Continuing Education at the Center of Documentary Studies by calling 919-660-3663 or emailing cdscourses@duke.edu.

Courses are filled on a first-come, first-served basis, and space is limited.

REQUIRED COURSES

Introductory Seminar in Documentary Studies | Beginning
Joy Salyers

This required course is designed for students in the Certificate in Documentary Studies program or those who plan to enroll. Photography, video, oral history, writing, ethnography, and community partnerships–documentary studies is interdisciplinary and multifaceted in nature, encompassing many genres and numerous means of interacting with the world and its peoples. We emphasize not only methodologies but also philosophies and ethics of fieldwork in different settings. Students will explore examples of fieldwork and, at the final meeting, will present preliminary projects of their own.

Section 1:
Thursdays, September 10–October 29
6–8:30 p.m. (20 hours)
Materials fee: $10 (exact amount due at first class)
Course fee: $245
Course ID: ST101FA09A

Section 2:
Saturdays, September 26–November 21 (No class Saturday, November 14)
11 a.m.–1:30 p.m. (20 hours)
Materials fee: $10 (exact amount due at first class)
Course fee: $245
Course ID: ST101FA09B

Final Project Seminar in Documentary Studies | Advanced
Randolph Benson

The seminar will consist of group discussions about each student’s project and progress toward completion, along with guided planning on taking projects to their intended audiences.

Participants who successfully complete their project during this course will be awarded the Certificate in Documentary Arts.

Certificate students who have met all other requirements and who have done substantial work toward their intended final projects may request admission to the course. Prior to approval, CDS will be in contact with students to discuss their projects. On Friday, December 11, students will share their work with an audience. For more information or for permission to register, send an email to cdscourses@duke.edu.

Mondays, November 2–December 7
6:30–8:30 p.m. (14 hours)
Certificate in Documentary Arts graduation presentations, Friday, December 11
Materials fee: $10 (exact amount due at first class)
Course fee: $245
Course ID: ST525FA09

ADVANCED PROJECTS SEMINARS IN AUDIO, PHOTOGRAPHY, AND VIDEO

The Advanced Audio, Photography, and Video Projects courses provide documentary artists with the opportunity to work with award-winning professionals in small group settings. Each term, CDS invites three established artists to teach the Advanced Projects Seminars, which are designed for individuals who are working on projects and are seeking creative guidance. This is an opportunity for students in the certificate program to refine their work before applying for the Final Seminar. Participants are required to share excerpts from their works-in-progress, and the courses are designed around the specific needs of participants. Different artists will teach the seminars each term, giving students the opportunity to hear multiple perspectives on their work. Students may take the course for credit more than once. This is also an ideal course for students who have completed the Certificate in Documentary Arts and are looking for professional advice to move forward in their careers, including information on finding resources (grants, fellowships, artist residencies) to support their work.

It is strongly recommended that current certificate students take a seminar in their chosen concentration. It will soon become a requirement for all new certificate students.

Audio Projects Seminar | Advanced
John Blythe

Mondays, September 14–October 12
6:30–9 p.m. (12 hours)
Materials fee: $10 (exact amount due at first class)
Course fee: $315
Course ID: AU301FA09

Photography Projects Seminar | Advanced
G. Douglas Vuncannon

Saturdays, September 12–October 17
1–3 p.m. (12 hours)
Materials fee: $10 (exact amount due at first class)
Course Fee: $315
Course ID: PH300FA09

Video Projects Seminar | Advanced
Jim Haverkamp

Mondays, October 12–November 16
6:30–8:30 p.m. (12 hours)
Materials fee: $10 (exact amount due at first class)
Course fee: $315
Class ID: VI300FA09

SPECIAL TOPICS

Documentary Portraiture: A View from Two Sides | All Levels
Abigail Blosser

How would you describe your experience of creating someone’s portrait? How would the subject describe his or her experience with you?

This class will be a theoretical and practical exploration of portraiture from both the subject’s and the photographer’s perspectives. Through examination of your individual practice as a photographer, you will learn to merge documentary approaches with the aesthetic choices involved in making portraits. A photographer’s intentions, relationships between photographer and subjects, sensitivity to surroundings, and an awareness of expressive possibilities will be explored in class. We will also address practical aspects of portraiture, such as working with different types of cameras and lighting. Students will develop their own artistic voices through shooting assignments, as well as by engaging in weekly discussions, examining portraits, and reviewing works-in-progress.

Mondays, September 14–October 19
6:30–8:30 p.m. (16 hours)
Materials fee: $10 (exact amount due at first class)
Course fee: $255
Class ID: PH133FA09

NEW • Using Photography to Construct Meaning: Learning How to “See” Credible, Still Photographs | All Levels
Meg Daniels

This workshop introduces principles and techniques of visual storytelling as well as looks at how photographers impact viewers through a single image (or multiple frames) by stimulating change, influencing emotions, and educating them in ways that words alone cannot do.

Upon completion of the workshop, participants will have a better understanding of visual storytelling through still photographic images and will leave with a personal sense of style and aesthetics. Through class/personal shooting exercises and objectives, and in classroom conversations, we will pursue the art of storytelling with our cameras.

Saturday–Sunday, September 26–September 27
9 a.m.–5 p.m. Saturday, 1–5 p.m. Sunday (11 hours)
Course fee: $235
Course ID: PH143FA09

NEW • Print Design for Photographers | All Levels
Bonnie Campbell

This short course is for photographers and others who want to learn how to present a body of work in book or magazine form.

Students will learn how to make photo book layouts using Adobe InDesign. The course will cover the basics of book page design and the basics of InDesign. Participants will learn how to import their photographs into the InDesign page layout program, and how to use InDesign's typesetting tools to create eight to sixteen page layouts.

Participants must bring their own (8 to 20) photo scans— preferably 300 dpi tiff or jpeg files—and be familiar with the Mac platform.

Saturday–Sunday, October 3–4 (10 hours)
Saturday, 10 a.m–5 p.m. (One- hour lunch break. Please bring your own lunch.)
Sunday, 1–5 p.m.
Course fee: $125
Course ID: PH139FA09

Legal Issues for Photography | All Levels
Daniel Ellison

This course will provide an introduction to copyright issues specifically of concern to photographers. Who owns the rights to your photographs? Who owns the rights to archival and other old photographs? The class will also discuss "rights of publicity" and "rights of privacy." A variety of release forms and other contracts will be reviewed. Students will be expected to bring in samples of their own photographs for discussion of their work and their work process.

Saturday, October 24
1–3 p.m. (2 hours)
Cost of Materials: $10 (exact amount due at class)
Course fee: $75
Course ID: PH130FA09

NEW • Offset Printing for Photographers | All Levels
Bonnie Campbell

Learn the basics of four-color offset printing.

This workshop provides an overview of the four-color offset lithography printing process from pre-press production to binding. Participants will learn the stages of book printing by examining printing plates and press sheets, as well as learn how to check and color-correct printers’ proofs.

Saturday, November 7
10 a.m.–5 p.m. (One-hour break. Please bring your own lunch.)
Course fee: $125
Course ID: PH142FA09

Know Your Basic Documentary Photographic Tools—Exposure: Aperture and Shutter Speed | Beginning
MJ Sharp

The basics! The building blocks of a good exposure are the same whether you're shooting with a digital or a film camera. Photographers use aperture and shutter speed to capture an image, but how they employ those tools can mean the difference between an "average" rendering of their subject matter and an evocative and telling image of it. Automatic cameras take all the guesswork,and all the creativity,out of a photographer’s hands. This class will give it back. (Recommendation: Students should take this course prior to taking the Digital Photography class.)

Wednesdays, September 9–October 7
6–8 p.m. (10 hours)
Course fee: $150
Course ID: PH136FA09

Digital Photography | Intermediate
Christopher Sims

This class will focus less on the basics of picture-taking in general (see the Basics course for that) and more on issues specific to digital photography: capture formats, histograms, color profiles, color spaces, and digital printing.

Tuesdays, September 29–November 3
6–8 p.m. (12 hours)
Course fee: $235
Course ID: PH228FA09

Documentary Photography as Fine Art | Intermediate
Doug Vuncannon

Where do documentary photography and “fine art” converge? And how does one come to terms with the statement, “Every photograph is a self-portrait”? Going beyond the realm of composition and craft, class presentations will focus on iconic photographers who have developed original approaches to documentary work. Class discussions will strive to identify elements of still photography that have the power to transcend the simple recording of images. Students will develop their own photographic vision through weekly assignments and have the opportunity to share their work during classroom critiques. In individually scheduled meetings, students will have the opportunity to meet with the instructor to discuss their course portfolios.

Tuesdays, October 27–December 8
6:30–9 p.m. (17.5 hours)
Materials fee: $10 (exact amount due at first class)
Course Fee: $250
Course ID: PH128FA09

VIDEO

Introduction to Documentary Video Editing | Beginning
Jim Haverkamp

How do you craft footage into a story–better yet, your story? We’ll analyze documentaries to learn basic editing conventions and study the effects of stylistic choices. Through weekly homework assignments, students will learn to use Final Cut Pro and share their work in class. Students will edit supplied footage to create their own take on the “same” story, burn a sample DVD, and output their edited work onto mini-DV tape.

Please note: Students must bring a camcorder to class on two specified dates, as well as bring a USB-2 or FireWire hard drive to every class. No experience is necessary but basic computer skills are required. Students should expect a lot of homework between classes.

Wednesdays, September 9–October 28
7–9 p.m. (16 hours)
Materials fee: $10 (exact amount due at first class)
Course fee: $250
Course ID: VI106FA09

Introduction to Video Field Production | Beginning
Simone Keith

This course will teach students the basic skills necessary to gather footage and help them negotiate technical problems in the field without compromising quality. Learn how to plan and organize a project, choose the best location for a shoot, work with available light, select the right microphone for the right situation, set proper audio levels, and “shoot in sequence.” We will also discuss proper framing and composition techniques and the advantages of hand-held vs. tripod shots.

Equipment note: Students may use any video camera available to them. However, cameras with an external microphone jack, a headphone jack, and the capacity for manual control of exposure and white balance will be ideal for this course. Video camera tripods (not photography ones) are also recommended. Please contact instructor with any questions about equipment.

Wednesdays, September 30–November 18
6:30–9 p.m. (20 hours)
Materials fee: $10 (exact amount due at first class)
Course fee: $265 (lab fee of $85 is included in tuition and is valid for the duration of the class)
Course ID: VI120FA09

Directing Your Documentary | Intermediate
Randolph Benson

Making documentary films is more than pointing a camera at a subject, recording an event, or conveying interesting information. Your film will be a historical document that not only tells the story of your subject but that reflects you as an artist. Directing a film means making difficult choices, from initial story concept to first screening. These choices, similar to those made by narrative fiction filmmakers, involve the range of available tools and techniques. Use this course to prepare for the choices you will make about how best to design your production, develop your aesthetic, and capture your story on film. Through selected film clips, readings, in-class production instruction, and weekly assignments, you will gain an understanding of the art of directing a documentary film while developing the skills you’ll need to fulfill your vision. By the end of the term, you will be expected to complete a “mini-documentary” of approximately two to three minutes in length, combining all of the methods and techniques learned in the course. You will need access to a video camera and a tripod.

Date: Wednesdays, September 9–October 28
7–9 p.m. (16 hours)
Materials fee: $10 (exact amount due at first class)
Course fee: $250
Course ID: VI110FA09

Documentary Video Editing with Final Cut Pro | Intermediate
Simone Keith

Learn and discuss video editing techniques using the advanced features in Final Cut Pro. Find out what makes a smooth cut, understand the proper use of effects and transitions, and explore sound mixing while editing your next documentary project. Basic Final Cut Pro skills are required, and access to a portable FireWire hard drive is desirable.

Required Text: In the Blink of an Eye by Walter Murch. Recommended Text: Final Cut Pro HD for Dummies.

Mondays, October 19–December 7
6:30–9 p.m. (20 hours)
Materials fee: $10 (exact amount due at first class)
Course fee: $265 (lab fee of $85 is included in tuition and is valid for the duration of the class)
Course ID: VI201FA09

NEW • Pre-Production for the Documentary Film | Advanced
Elizabeth Haviland James

Good documentary films almost always have a solid foundation in research and pre-production. This class is recommended as preparation for the Final Project Seminar in Documentary Studies for film/video students. Participants should have a project idea in mind and be prepared to commit to developing it in depth. We will focus on research, proposal and treatment writing, budgeting, fundraising, scheduling, “casting,” as well as the other elements that make up the pre-production phase in professional documentary film. Through class discussions, constructive feedback, in class “pitch” sessions and presentations, and homework assignments, participants will prepare their projects for successful production, and approval for the final project seminar.

Thursdays, September 17–November 5
7–9 p.m. (16 hours)
Materials fee: $10 (exact amount due at first class)
Course fee: $250
Course ID: VI306FA09

NEW • Seven by One | Advanced
Jim Haverkamp

Ready for a challenge? Ready for seven of them? This class is a productive-intensive course that asks students to produce a finished one-minute video documentary every week. Some assignments will be focused exercises designed to flex specfic creative muscles; other projects will be more open-ended. The goal of the class is to help students work quickly and instinctually. Class time will be devoted to screenings and discussions; you’ll do all production and editing outside of the class. This course will require a solid understanding of shooting and editing, plus the ability to work intensively for eight hours.

Thursdays, October 1–November 19
7–9 p.m. (16 hours)
Course fee: $250
Course ID: VI307FA09

WORKSHOPS AND INSTITUTES

All are invited to visit Durham to attend one of the intensive workshops and institutes offered by the Center for Documentary Studies (CDS) at Duke. While students are responsible for their own accommodations during these events, CDS offers assistance to connect students with housing opportunities in the area. Those enrolled in summer institutes will receive email updates beginning in March, identifying housing options, meal provisions (this varies from event to event; all will receive a list of nearby eateries) and additional important information. Check www.CDSCourses.org for further updates.

Specific questions regarding courses, registration, and payments should be directed to Continuing Education at the Center of Documentary Studies by emailing cdscourses@duke.edu.

WORKSHOPS

NEW • Documentary as Self-Knowledge / Documentary as Community-Knowledge | All Levels
Michelle Lanier

How can the act of documentary work become a mirror for a community to gaze into and know, more deeply, who they/we are? How can documentary work become a canvas on which a community may paint their/our collective truths, conflicts, shared knowledge? How can documentary work become an invitation todocumentarians to engage their own "hidden journeys," and to consider their motives for doing the work in such a way as to be useful, even healing?

We will explore these questions via discussion and writing exercises. We will also have the opportunity for "reading" excerpts of audio, text, video/film, as well as photographs. Students will leave with take-away resources, writing samples, and perhaps, membership in a growing collective of people who are committed to the deeper connections to be found in doing documentary work.

Please note: Much of the concept for this workshop emerges out of the ongoing vision explored in the course Bringing Your Soul to the Work. Additional inspiration comes from the instructor's work along the Gullah coast, among other homelands.

Saturday, September 12
10 a.m.–4 p.m. (Please bring a lunch.)
(5 hours)
Course fee: $135
Course ID: ST170FA09

NEW • Using Photography to Construct Meaning: Learning How to “See” Credible, Still Photographs | All Levels
Meg Daniels

This workshop introduces principles and techniques of visual storytelling as well as looks at how photographers impact viewers through a single image (or multiple frames) by stimulating change, influencing emotions, and educating them in ways that words alone cannot do.

Upon completion of the workshop, participants will have a better understanding of visual storytelling through still photographic images and will leave with a personal sense of style and aesthetics. Through class/personal shooting exercises and objectives, and in classroom conversations, we will pursue the art of storytelling with our cameras.

Saturday–Sunday, September 26–September 27
9 a.m.–5 p.m. Saturday, 1–5 p.m. Sunday (11 hours)
Course fee: $235
Course ID: PH143FA09

NEW • Print Design for Photographers | All Levels
Bonnie Campbell

This short course is for photographers and others who want to learn how to present a body of work in book or magazine form.

Students will learn how to make photo book layouts using Adobe InDesign. The course will cover the basics of book page design and the basics of InDesign. Participants will learn how to import their photographs into the InDesign page layout program, and how to use InDesign's typesetting tools to create eight to sixteen page layouts.

Participants must bring their own (8 to 20) photo scans— preferably 300 dpi tiff or jpeg files—and be familiar with the Mac platform.

Saturday–Sunday, October 3–4 (10 hours)
Saturday, 10 a.m–5 p.m. (One- hour lunch break. Please bring your own lunch.)
Sunday, 1–5 p.m.
Course fee: $125
Course ID: PH139FA09

Doing Your Doc: Diverse Visions, Regional Voices, October 23–25, 2009 (Registration handled by the National Association of Latino Independent Producers)

Legal Issues for Photography | All Levels
Daniel Ellison

This course will provide an introduction to copyright issues specifically of concern to photographers. Who owns the rights to your photographs? Who owns the rights to archival and other old photographs? The class will also discuss "rights of publicity" and "rights of privacy." A variety of release forms and other contracts will be reviewed. Students will be expected to bring in samples of their own photographs for discussion of their work and their work process.

Saturday, October 24
1–3 p.m. (2 hours)
Cost of Materials: $10 (exact amount due at class)
Course fee: $75
Course ID: PH130FA09

NEW • Offset Printing for Photographers | All Levels
Bonnie Campbell

Learn the basics of four-color offset printing.

This workshop provides an overview of the four-color offset lithography printing process from pre-press production to binding. Participants will learn the stages of book printing by examining printing plates and press sheets, as well as learn how to check and color-correct printers’ proofs.

Saturday, November 7
10 a.m.–5 p.m. (One-hour break. Please bring your own lunch.)
Course fee: $125
Course ID: PH142FA09

NEW • Documentary Project Management | All Levels
Georgann Eubanks and Donna Campbell

Creating a full-length documentary is an enormous undertaking. This course is designed to help students anticipate all the steps in the process. In this one-day seminar, we'll consider a video documentary project from concept, proposal development, and project management to planning for marketing/distribution and ongoing communications with the participants. The instructors will help you think about the key questions you are trying to answer with your documentary, as well as provide ideas about potential audiences and how to find financial support. We'll talk about all the –basics—identifying interview subjects; taking still photos; and planning for B-roll, narration, graphics, and music. We'll discuss legal aspects of licensing music and obtaining release forms for interview subjects, and review what's involved in broadcast agreements and the paperwork required for DVD duplication of your work. We'll also address budgeting and "scope creep." You'll have a chance to ask all those questions you've been wondering about. Students receive an extensive checklist to help them anticipate and manage the steps in theirprojects. Instructors will share examples from their own work—successes and failures—to highlight the demands and delights of production.

Saturday, November 14
9 a.m.–3 p.m. (5 hours)
Materials fee: $5 (exact amount due at first class)
Course fee: $125
Course ID: ST173FA09

Audio Postcards | All Levels
Jennifer Deer

The NPR Web site describes audio postcards this way: “This is sound that is not just ambience. It’s the audio equivalent of that four-color photo. It should really make listeners feel they were there.”
The audio postcard is a short format, but a meaty one. Though and elegant layering of voices and sounds, the postcard allows audio documentary to do what it does best: place the listener smack in the middle of the sights, sounds, smells, and moods of a place or an event. The principals of the postcard can be applied to all your audio projects, and will come in handy in other mediums as well.
This workshop is open to all experience levels and is a good entry point for those just beginning their exploration into audio as a medium, as well as for those wishing to hone their audio skills. This workshop will be three-quarters classroom listening and discussion and one-quarter fieldwork. If you own recording equipment, bring it. Students will work in groups.

Saturday, November 21
10 a.m.–5 p.m. (6 hours)
One-hour break, please bring a bag lunch.
Course fee: $135
Course ID: AU100FA09

INSTITUTES

NEW • Listen Up! Audio for Educators | All Levels
Johanna (Jones) Franzel, Shea Shackelford, Tennessee Watson

Whether you're a school teacher, a youth media activist, or someone who has recently stumbled on the possibilities of sound, join us for a comprehensive weekend of audio for educators. Participants will gain practical skills for working with audio in different contexts and take home tools that use sound to foster youth leadership, learning, and inspiration. From choosing and using a recorder to sharing the audio with the wider world, experienced facilitators will guide participants in creating a catalogue of resources and an active network of supportive peers.

Thursday to Sunday, July 30–August 2
Thursday 5-9 p.m.; Friday 9 a.m.–5 p.m.; Saturday 9 a.m.-5 p.m. (plus evening events); Sunday, 9 a.m.–12:30 p.m. (18 hours)
Course fee: $450
Course ID: AU555SU09

NEW • Doc U Arts: Words and Images | All Levels
Various Instructors

Singular Vision / Community Goals + Relationships / Self-reflection + Collaboration / Artistic Freedom + Public Impact

An intensive weekend institute that includes lectures, discussions, and small group portfolio review sessions. This year’s Doc U Arts will feature narrative nonfiction writing and investigate the interplay between words and images in the creation of documentary work. Please visit www.CDSCourses.org for updated details about guest lecturers.

See the CDS Porch post about Doc U Arts

Please note: Registration for Doc U Arts includes all events (Thursday–Sunday).

Thursday to Sunday, October 8–11

Institute check-in:
Thursday, October 8, 5:30–6:30 p.m.

Institute events and sessions:
Thursday, October 8, 7–9 p.m.;
Friday–Saturday, 9 a.m.–4 p.m.;
Sunday, 9 a.m.–3 p.m.
(17 hours)

Course fee: $375
Course ID: ST545FA09

Portraits and Dreams: Literacy Through Photography Basic Workshop | All Levels
Katie Hyde and Elena Rue

Discover the program created by photographer and teacher Wendy Ewald that encourages students to explore their world through photography. This workshop instructs teachers in how to use photography and writing as a tool for increasing students’ critical thinking, self-expression, and personal involvement in school. By linking picture making, writing, and critical thinking, this workshop will help teachers make connections across curricula. Teachers will use photography to investigate self-portraiture and dreams, learn about LTP’s collaboration with Durham schools, and plan a project to implement in their own classrooms. Please contact the LTP staff directly with any questions about the course content at ltpworkshops@duke.edu.

Please note: Participants will be provided with cameras for use during the workshop.

Friday–Saturday, November 6–7
9 a.m.–4 p.m. (12 hours, with one-hour lunch break each day)
Course fee: $285
Course ID: PH505FA09

If you are a professional interested in taking this class for CEUs, please contact Continuing Education at the Center of Documentary Studies by emailing cdscourses@duke.edu.

NEW • The Audio Listening Institute | Intermediate–Advanced
John Biewen and Special Guests

Presented by the Center for Documentary Studies (CDS) at Duke University in partnership with the Third Coast International Audio Festival (TCF)
Durham, North Carolina (at CDS)

In the spirit of the International Features Conference, which has convened producers from across Europe and beyond for nearly forty years, this November the CDS/TCF Audio Listening Institute will gather a community of radiomakers for a weekend of intense listening and critical discussions about a wide range of audio documentaries.

Over the course of two and a half days, the Listening Institute will focus closely on fifteen(ish) pre-selected radio works produced by attendees. Participants will listen together and then break into smaller groups for moderated, constructive discussions about the programs. These conversations will concentrate on crucial elements of audio production and on developing deeper language and criteria for contemplating and shaping radio stories.

In addition to listening sessions and discussions, the Institute will also include a workshop per day covering essentials in radio production, from advanced recording and mixing techniques to tips on how to approach a complex, multi-layered story. And each day will end with a carefully curated plenary session, presenting memorable radio pieces from around the world.

The Listening Institute will be led by CDS audio director John Biewen and TCF staff members Johanna Zorn, Julie Shapiro, and Delaney Hall, who will be on-hand to guide the listening sessions and discussions. Special guests will include “mixing wiz” Robin Wise and acclaimed novelist Allan Gurganus.

Attendance is limited to fifty (50) producers, and registrations will be accepted on a first-come, first-served basis. All attendees are invited and encouraged to submit work (at no additional cost) for consideration for listening sessions, but are also welcome to attend without doing so.

Thursday–Sunday, November 12–15
Thursday, November 12, 6–8:30 p.m.
Friday and Saturday, November 13 & 14, 9 a.m.–6 p.m.
Sunday, November 15, 9 a.m.–1 p.m.
Course fee: Register by September 1, $325; after September 1, $375.
Course Number: AU536FA09

Register for this institute using our new on-line registration system

Read more about submitting work for Institute listening sessions

Questions about registration? Send email to cdscourses@duke.edu.

Questions about submitting work for listening session consideration?

INSTRUCTORS

Randolph Benson
Randolph Benson is a graduate of Wake Forest University and of the North Carolina School of the Arts School of Filmmaking. His film Man and Dog has appeared in eighteen film festivals in seven countries and has garnered numerous awards, most notably a Gold Medal in the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ Student Academy Awards. His work has been features on the Bravo Network, the Independent Film Channel (Split Screen), WTTW-Chicago, UNC-TV (NC Visions) and Telewizja Polska S.A.-Poland. He also received an Eastman Kodak Excellence in Filmmaking Award at the Cannes Film Festival.

John Biewen
John Biewen is audio program director at the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University. Besides teaching Summer Audio Institutes and undergraduate courses, he produces documentaries and features for NPR, PRI, American Public Media, and other public radio audiences. Biewen has been making radio since 1983. He reported and made special projects for Minnesota Public Radio, did a stint covering the Rocky Mountain West for NPR, and spent eight years producing documentaries for American RadioWorks. His work has won many honors, including two Robert F. Kennedy Awards, the Scripps Howard National Journalism Award, and the Third Coast International Audio Festival’s Public Service Award.

Abigail Blosser
Abigail Blosser is a practicing artist and photographer. Her art has been exhibited in galleries and museums throughout the United States, including the Kennedy Museum of Art, the Reese Museum, and at Duke University. She earned her M.F.A. in photography from Ohio University and has taught photography to students of all ages. Her commercial photographic work can be viewed on her Web site: abigailblosserphotography.com.

John Blythe
John Blythe is a Chapel Hill–based independent audio producer and digital archivist. His radio career has included stints as a producer/director at North Carolina Public Radio (WUNC) and as a producer/reporter in New York (WFUV), where his work won a Golden Reel award, a regional Edward R. Murrow Award, and a Public Radio News Directors Incoporated award. His reports also have aired on NPR’s Justice Talking and on several British radio networks. Blythe has also worked as a newspaper reporter, Web editor, and magazine researcher.

Bonnie Campbell
Bonnie Campbell is a Durham graphic designer and ceramics artist. She has designed books, posters, magazines, brochures, and other publications for more than fifteen years. Her design work has received numerous awards from the Association of American University Presses, as well as awards from PICA (Printing Industry of the Carolinas); the Washington, D.C., Book Publishers Association; and the Hawaii Book Publishers Association. Currently the art director at CDS, she has also worked at the University of North Carolina Press and Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill.

Meg Daniels
Meg Daniels grew up in upstate New York, where she received her B.F.A. from the Rochester Institute of Technology in 1997 and her M.S. in Adult and Community College Education from North Carolina State University. She has been a staff photographer for two large newspapers, the Winston-Salem Journal in North Carolina, and the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, in Rochester, New York. Daniels currently works as a full-time professional freelancer specializing in non-traditional stock photography, portraiture, and documentary photography.

Jennifer Deer
Jennifer Deer is a writer, performer, audio producer, and graduate student living in Durham. Her work for radio has been aired on such nationally syndicated programs as NPR’s All Things Considered, Day to Day, and Weekend America. She co-curates podcasts for presentation on the audio documentary Web site www.BigShed.org.

Dawn K. Dreyer
Dawn K. Dreyer is a community-based, mixed-media conceptual artist and activist. Dreyer’s creative work is grounded in her radical faith and her passion for social justice. She is currently in production on the animated documentary Bipolar Girl Rules the World and Other Stories. In 2007–2008, Dreyer spent nine months as an artist-in-residence at Pendle Hill in Wallingford, Pennsylvania. From 2000 to 2007, she worked at the Center for Documentary Studies, first coordinating public programs, then as Learning Outreach Director. She was the board president for the Southern Documentary Fund from 2002 to 2007. Dreyer currently serves on the boards of the Beautiful Project and the Princeville Outreach Project.

Daniel Ellison
Daniel Ellison is an attorney who has worked with artists and nonprofit arts organizations for more than twenty years. He is a past president and executive director of the N.C. Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts and former chair of the N.C. State Bar Association’s Arts Law Committee.

Georgann Eubanks and Donna Campbell
Georgann Eubanks and Donna Campbell are the managing partners of Minnow Media, LLC, a full-service multimedia production company based in Carrboro. Eubanks has written profiles and promotional materials for the last twenty-five years and once hosted a local radio program for three years. Early in her career, Campbell founded Lake Norman Magazine near Charlotte, became Knight Ridder's first female publisher, and then moved into documentary production for public television, for which she has won numerous awards. Between them, Eubanks and Campbell have interviewed a range of "famous" subjects including Michael Jordan, William Styron, Mother Theresa, Maya Angelou, Ruth and Billy Graham, and Walter Cronkite, but their favorite subjects are usually the result of serendipity—the folks they often meet in their travels throughout rural North Carolina. For more information, visit www.minnowmedia.net.

Johanna (Jones) Franzel
Johanna (Jones) Franzel is the director of Generation PRX , a project of the Public Radio Exchange to support, connect, and distribute youth radio. Before PRX, she taught documentary arts at the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University (where she co-founded the Youth Noise Network radio group); taught in Costa Rica, Cuba, and New York; and worked as a guide in the Grand Canyon. Franzel trained at the Salt Institute for Documentary Studies and holds a Masters in Arts in Education from the Harvard Graduate School of Education. For fun, she teaches radio with Blunt Radio's Incarcerated Youth Project near her home in Maine.

Jim Haverkamp
Jim Haverkamp is an award-winning filmmaker and editor based in Durham. His credits include the documentaries Armor of God and Monster Road, both collaborations with Brett Ingram. His other documentary and fiction films have screened in festivals across the country, and he was awarded a Filmmaking Fellowship from the North Carolina Arts Council in 2000. He is a former organizer of the Flicker Film Festival in Chapel Hill.

Katie Hyde
Katie Hyde has been involved with the Literacy Through Photography (LTP) program at CDS since she studied with Wendy Ewald in 1998. She currently directs the LTP program and travels nationally and internationally to teach LTP workshops at major museums, schools, and community organizations. She has a doctorate in sociology from North Carolina State University and teaches visual sociology at the Center for Documentary Studies.

Elisabeth Haviland James
Elisabeth Haviland James is the creative talent behind Thornapple Films, which she founded in 2003 as an independent media company specializing in documentary and recently expanded to include narrative and experimental filmmaking. In 2009, Thornapple Films relocated from New York City to West Main Street in Durham, North Carolina. James, an award-winning producer and director, is committed to telling worthwhile and meaningful stories. Her recent work includes pre-production for a narrative feature in the Central African Republic and the production of two large-budget feature documentaries directed by George Butler, The Lord God Bird and The Good Fight. To learn more, visit www.thornapplefilms.com.

Simone Keith
Simone Keith started her career as a news editor and videotape operator back in 1991 at Channel 69 News in Allentown, Pennsylvania. After shooting too many football games and other stories under adverse weather conditions, she accepted an invitation to spend a year in Ecuador and help train a team of young nationals in various aspects of production at an independent television station. Upon her return to the United States, Keith went to work for North Carolina's statewide public television station, UNC-TV, where she shot and edited news stories for the daily show North Carolina Now and was assigned to work on several award-winning documentaries. It was this exposure to documentaries that led her to produce her first independent feature, Heavier Than Air, a short about Brazilian aviator Santos-Dumont and his claim to be the first in flight.

Michelle Lanier
As the Curator of Cultural History for North Carolina’s Division of State Historic Sites and Properties, Michelle Lanier uses her background as an oral historian and folklorist to connect communities with the state's rich cultural resources. Since 2000, she has examined the ethical issues around doing public history and documentary work as an instructorat the Center for Documentary Studies. Lanier's “spirit-centered” ethnographic research on contemporary Gullah burial traditions, completed through UNC–Chapel Hill's Curriculum in Folklore, paved the way for her to become one of North Carolina’s liaisons to the Gullah/Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor.

Barbara Lau
For ten years Barbara Lau directed the Community Documentary Projects program at the Center for Documentary Studies , and she has more than twenty years of professional experience working as a folklorist, oral historian, teacher, curator, radio producer, and arts consultant. In March 2009, she began work at the Duke Human Rights Center on a project inspired by the life and legacy of activist, poet, lawyer, and Episcopal priest Pauli Murray. Lau’s past activities include co-directing Face Up: Telling Stories of Community Life, a documentary public art project and curating traveling exhibits about Durham’s Civil Rights Heritage and Historic Black Wall Street as well as the collaborative exhibitions From Cambodia to Greensboro: Tracing the Journeys of New North Carolinians for the Greensboro Historical Museum and From Cambodia to Carolina: Tracing the Journeys of New Southerners for the Levine Museum of the New South in Charlotte, North Carolina.

John Manuel
John Manuel is author of a memoir, The Canocist (Jefferson Press, 2006), and a natural history primer and guidebook, The Natural Traveler Along North Carolina’s Coast (John Blair, 2003). He is an award-winning journalist who has published articles and essays in state and national magazines, including Audubon, Canoe & Kayak, and Environmental Health Perspectives. He is a former instructor with the Duke Young Writer’s Camp. To see more about his writing, visit www.jsmanuel.com.

Lynn McKnight
Lynn McKnight worked in the field of print journalism for twenty years, first as a newspaper reporter and later as features editor, news editor, editorial writer, and book reviewer. She has edited the work of many writers, both fiction and nonfiction. A graduate of Duke University (B.A., public policy studies), she has a master’s degree in southern studies from the University of Mississippi. Her thesis project, “Lessons in Freedom: Race, Education, and Progress in a Mississippi Delta Community Since 1965,” written from original oral history interviews, won the Glover Moore Prize from the Mississippi Historical Society. At the university’s Center for the Study of Southern Culture, she helped found and served as managing editor of Reckon: The Magazine of Southern Culture. Before joining the staff of the Center for Documentary Studies in 1998, she taught undergraduate classes in photojournalism, reporting, and feature writing at the University of Mississippi. She is an Associate Director at CDS.

Elena Rue
Elena Rue has worked with the Literacy Through Photography’s program at CDS for three years. Before joining LTP, she worked as a documentary photographer for five years and was a Center for Documentary Studies’ Lewis Hine Documentary Fellow in Ethiopia. She is now a graduate student at the University of North Carolina–Chapel Hill.

Joy M. G. Salyers
Joy M. G. Salyers is a folklorist, writer, and anti-racism educator. She consults with individuals and groups on a variety of topics—her specialties include using oral history, experiential learning, and creativity to bridge community divisions, develop identity, and combat prejudice. She is trained to use stories and writing to connect and to heal. Her personal fieldwork includes documenting personal life histories, writing poetry from family stories, and collaborating with members of a modern performance community.

Shea Shackelford
Shea Shackelford is an independent producer based in Washington, D.C., where he produces for nationally syndicated public radio shows, co-curates the Big Shed audio documentary podcast, and coordinates a radio program at the Latin American Youth Center's Art + Media House. After spending ten years as a professional do-gooder, he succumbed to a love of audio, abandoned his job, and for the last few years has enjoyed the ecstasy and anxiety of a freelance audio career.

MJ Sharp
MJ Sharp has been a documentary photographer and photojournalist for much of the last two decades, working primarily in North Carolina and her native Tennessee. In recent years she began photographing almost exclusively with large-format bellows cameras and has been exploring night landscapes as well as long-exposure renderings of domestic scenes. She earned her M.F.A. from UNC–Chapel Hill in 2007, and her work was recently included in Jill Waterman's book Night and Low-Light Photography. In addition to her fine art work, she teaches both basic and special topics in photography at the Center for Documentary Studies and as an occasional visiting lecturer in the art department at UNC–Chapel Hill. Samples of her work can be seen on-line at www.mjsharp.com.

Christopher Sims
Christopher Sims is a photographer and the Web designer at the Center for Documentary Studies. He has an undergraduate degree from Duke, a master’s degree in visual communication from UNC–Chapel Hill, and an M.F.A. in Studio Art from the Maryland Institute College of Art. He is represented by Ann Stewart Fine Art in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, and Civilian Art Projects in Washington, D.C. He has recently exhibited work at the Houston Center for Photography; the Halsey Institute of Contemporary Art in Charleston, South Carolina; and the Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.

G. Douglas Vuncannon
G. Douglas Vuncannon is a visual artist and composer who works as a freelance photographer and writer. His short documentary films have screened at numerous film festivals in the United States and Canada. A recipient of the Durham Art’s Council Emerging Artist Grant, Vuncannon is currently a regular contributor to the Independent Weekly. Recently, he has collaborated with the Little Green Pig Theatrical Concern, producing Super 8 films that were used in the critically acclaimed productions The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant and Europe Central.

Tennessee Jane Watson
Tennessee Jane Watson lives in Washington, D.C. where she teaches radio and multimedia production to teens at the Latin American Youth Center's Art + Media House. Watson spent four years at the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University producing documentaries and coordinating Youth Noise Network, a radio project for teens in Durham, North Carolina. She's worked on several noteworthy projects, including a documentary exhibition called "Farmworkers Feed Us All" with photographer Earl Dotter, and an installation called "Portrait of Silvia Elena" with the New York artist SWOON about the femicides in Juarez, Mexico.

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Former movie critic Todd Lothery reviews his experiences as a student in the CDS Continuing Studies program [view video clip]

Banner photograph: Graduating CDS Continuing Education students, spring 2009 (from left): Lisa Marie Albert, Jennifer Carpenter, Jamara Knight, Margaret Morales, Jean Parker, Marcia Sutherland, Anne Weber. Composite photograph by Christopher Sims.