MIT Graduate Program in Comparative Media Studies

Studying Media and Making Media

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Prof. Elyse Graham, CMS ’13, shows how remote education should be done

Screen capture of Elyse Graham presenting in a Mozart costume
Graham (pen-name E.J. White) recently published A Unified Theory of Cats on the Internet with Stanford University Press.

The lead-in to fall 2020 has been incredibly challenging for instructors, coming off a whiplash switch to remote education in the spring followed by the ambiguity of life during COVID. That meant the summer asked an enormous amount of faculty and technologists at MIT and elsewhere, trying to prepare materials.

That also threw open the windows to experimentation, as instructors asked themselves how in the world they were going to engage their students. CMS alum Elyse Graham, ’13, took that to mean she should amp up her Digital Intelligence Arts & Engineering 101 course at Stony Brook University — using everything from costumes to promo trailers.

Not all of it is public, so reach out to her via Stony Brook to see if she’ll share some links to the originals.

About Andrew Whitacre

Andrew directs the communications efforts for CMS/W and its research groups. A native of Washington, D.C., he holds a degree in communication from Wake Forest University, with a minor in humanities, as well as an M.F.A. in creative writing from Emerson College.

His work includes drawing up and executing strategic communications plans, with projects including website design, social media management and training, press outreach, product launches, fundraising campaign support, and event promotions.