Administrative Team
Constance Penley
Co-Director
( 8 0 5 ) 8 9 3 - 7 3 9 6
penley at filmandmedia.ucsb.edu
Professor Penley's major areas of research interest are film history and theory, feminist theory, cultural studies, contemporary art, and science and technology studies. She is a founding editor of Camera Obscura: Feminism, Media, Cultural Studies. Her most recent work includes NASA/TREK: Popular Science and Sex in America and The Visible Woman: Imaging Technologies, Science and Gender (ed. with Treichler and Cartwright). Her collaborative art projects include "MELROSE SPACE: Primetime Art by the GALA Committee" and "Biospheria: An Environmental Opera," on which she was co-librettist.
Cathy Boggs
Associate Director
cboggs at cftnm.ucsb.edu
Cathy Boggs (Ph.D. Communication, UCSB) was previously Research Communications Coordinator for UCSB’s Center for Information Technology and Society (CITS), where she organized the 2006 Santa Barbara Forum on Digital Transitions. In addition to teaching appointments in UCSB’s Department of Communication and UCLA’s Anderson Graduate School of Business, her prior experience includes five years in Washington, DC as a communications policy analyst, conference organizer and public relations consultant. She has also consulted on workplace communication issues for a variety of non-profit, for-profit, and government organizations. Her main non-professional claim to fame is as a 5-game champion on the TV game show Jeopardy! in 1989.
Melvin L. Oliver
Dean of Social Sciences
( 8 0 5 ) 8 9 3 - 8 3 5 4
moliver at ltsc.ucsb.edu
Melvin Oliver was named Dean of the Division of Social Sciences at UCSB in 2004. He is also Professor of Sociology. Professor Oliver brings to bear over 25 years of experience in both philanthropy and higher education. Prior to coming to UC Santa Barbara he was Vice President of the Asset Building and Community Development Program at the Ford Foundation. This program helped to build human, social, economic, environmental, and interpersonal assets among poor and disadvantaged individuals and communities throughout the world. From 1978 to 1996 he was a member of the faculty at UCLA. A popular and effective instructor, he has won numerous awards for teaching. In 1994, he was named the California Professor of the Year and won the Harriet and Charles Luckman Distinguished Teaching award from the UCLA Alumni Association.
Dr. Oliver earned his B.A. (1972) at William Penn College and his M.A. and Ph.D. in sociology at Washington University. Oliver is an expert on racial and urban inequality and poverty, and has authored (with Thomas M. Shapiro) Black Wealth/White Wealth: A New Perspective on Racial Inequality, which received the Distinguished Scholarly Publication Award from the American Sociological Association, the C. Wright Mills Award from the Society for the Study of Social Problems, and the award for the outstanding book on the subject of human rights from the Gustavus Myers Center. In addition, he has co-edited other books and special journal issues, and is the author of over 50 scholarly publications.
Julie Robinson
Graduate Research Assistant
jrobinson at bren.ucsb.edu
Julie Robinson is a Ph.D. student at the Bren School of Environmental Science & Management at UC Santa Barbara, California and a graduate student researcher for the CFTNM. For her dissertation research, Julie is evaluating student’s perceptions of sustainability concepts for the DigitalOcean: Sampling the Sea project.
Prior to entering graduate school, Julie worked as a marine ecologist, science documentary producer and technical diver. She has traveled around the world to film in locations from Indonesia to New Caledonia, working on television projects for Jean-Michel Cousteau, PBS, National Geographic, the Discovery Channel and the United Nations Programme on the Environment (UNEP). Her short film on white sharks for the Liquid Planet Series was recognized with a CINE Golden Eagle Award.
One of the projects she’s most recently been involved with as a co-writer and green press-run project manager, Jean-Michel Cousteau’s America’s Underwater Treasures, was the recipient of the 2008 Benjamin Franklin Award for “Best First Book - Nonfiction,” and the 2008 Independent Publishers Book Award “Gold Medal” in the Environment/Ecology/Nature category.
Ronald E. Rice
Co-Director
( 8 0 5 ) 8 9 3 - 8 6 9 6
rrice at cftnm.ucsb.edu
Ronald Rice (Ph.D., Stanford) is the Arthur N. Rupe Chair in Social Effects of Mass Communication in the Department of Communication. He has co-authored or co-edited Media Ownership (2008); The Internet and Heal Care (2006); Social Consequences of Internet Use (2002), The Internet and Health Communication (2001); Accessing and Browsing Information and Communication (2001); Public Communication Campaigns (3 editions); Research Methods and the New Media (1988); Managing Organizational Innovation (1987); and The New Media: Communication, Research and Technology (1984). More information is available at Dr. Rice's website.
David Marshall
Dean of Humanities and Fine Arts
( 8 0 5 ) 8 9 3 - 4 3 2 7
dmarshall at ltsc.ucsb.edu
David Marshall was named Dean of Humanities and Fine Arts in 1998. He is also Professor of English and Comparative Literature. Marshall received a bachelor's degree in 1975 from Cornell University and his Ph.D. in Comparative Literature from Johns Hopkins University in 1979. He served on the faculty at Yale University for 18 years as a professor of English and Comparative Literature, Chair of the Department of English, Director of The Literature Major, and Director of the Whitney Humanities Center, among other administrative positions. His honors include a Guggenheim Fellowship and Yale's Morse Fellowship. Marshall taught at Northwestern University in 1997-1998.
Marshall's academic work focuses on 18th-century fiction and aesthetics. His numerous publications address moral philosophy, theories of art, the history of ideas, and drama, as well as English, French, and German literature of the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries. His latest book, forthcoming from Johns Hopkins University Press, is about the problem of art and aesthetic experience in the 18th century.
Nicole Klanfer
Assistant Dean of Development,
Humanities and Fine Arts
( 8 0 5 ) 8 9 3 - 7 6 8 0
nicole.klanfer at ia.ucsb.edu
As Assistant Dean of Development for the past seven years, Nicole oversees the major gift development program for the Division of Humanities and Fine Arts, including 22 departments and programs, at UCSB. Nicole also plays a senior leadership role in managing the Division of Humanities and Fine Arts and Arts & Lectures professional development team. Nicole has been in professional development work for fourteen years, with six years at United Way.
Natalie Fawcett
Administrative Assistant
( 8 0 5 ) 8 9 3 - 4 6 3 7
fawcett at cftnm.ucsb.edu
Natalie Fawcett is a Ph.D. student in Religious Studies at UCSB. Her focus is on civil religion (power, politics and the role of religion). She received her M.A. from San Francisco State University in Ethnic Studies and her B.S. in Political Science from the University of Utah. She has previous work experience in company operations and event planning/management and is excited to work on the Center's programs.
Ryan P. Fuller
Graduate Research Assistant
ryanpfuller at umail.ucsb.edu
Ryan Fuller is a Ph.D. student in Organizational Communication at UCSB. His focus is on media intervention in conflict and negotiations. He received his MBA from San Francisco State University in 2008 and his B.A. in Communication from UC Davis in 2005. His current research focuses on media coverage of the 2007-2008 Hollywood writers' strike.
Ethan Tussey
Graduate Research Assistant
ethantussey at gmail.com
Ethan Tussey is a Ph.D. student in Film and Media Studies. He received his BA in Media Arts from the University of Arizona in 2005 and his MA in Cinema and Media Studies from UCLA in 2007. He has done sports video work for ESPN and UCLA Athletics.
