University Project: Wednesday, February 8 1:00 PM - 2:30 PM Session I: Developing the Next Generation of Entertainment, Media & Technology Thinkers and Visionaries – Science vs. Commerce vs. Theory Allen Sabinson, Dean of Antoinette Westphal College of Media, Arts & Design. Drexel University Carol Wilder, Associate Dean & Chair, Media Studies & Film, The New School Paul Levinson, Ph.D., Professor and Chair of the communication and Media Studies Department, FORDHAM UNIVERSITY Scott B. Barnett, Assoc. Director of Academic Computing, Sarah Lawrence College Grant McCracken, Member, Branding Cultures Laboratory, M.I.T Shubhro Sen, Ph.D, former professor, Northwestern, founder and Executive Director, Global Outsourcing Leadership Institute Moderator, Anna Marie Piersimoni, Director, Internet Communications, Director, Media & Technology, American Film Institute Carol Wilder, Chair of the Department of Media Studies and Film and Associate Dean of The New School: (Ph.D., Rhetoric and Communication, Kent State University) is a former Communication Studies Professor and Chair, San Francisco State University; author of numerous articles and book chapters on communication theory, political communication and the media, and the rhetoric of the Vietnam/American war; and recipient of National Communication Association Book Award for Rigor & Imagination: Essays from the Legacy of Gregory Bateson. Allen Sabinson has just been appointed the Dean of Drexel University’s Westphal College of Media Arts and Design (CoMAD). CoMAD offers degrees in Film & Video, Screenwriting & Playwriting, TV Management, Digital Media, Music Industry Management, Arts Administration and such design arts as Graphic Design, Photography, Fashion, Design and Merchandising, Interior Design and Architecture. Since January 2005, Sabinson had been the Director of the Rudman Institute for Entertainment Industry Studies. In a show business career spanning three decades, Allen Sabinson has been President of Production at Miramax Film, and has held senior positions at A&E, TNT, ABC, ICM, NBC and Showtime. During Sabinson's tenure as senior vice president of programming, A&E received more Emmy nominations than any basic cable network for two consecutive years. A&E won Emmy awards for the best mini-series for Horatio Hornblower and best non-fiction series for Biography. He commissioned such films as Dash and Lilly, a biography of Dashiell Hammett, directed by Oscar winner Kathy Bates and starring Sam Shepard and Judy Davis, that received eight Emmy nominations; and The Crossing that won the Peabody Award. He also initiated the network's first drama series, Sidney Lumet's 100 Centre Street, and Rex Stout's Nero Wolfe. While at A&E, Sabinson commissioned numerous documentary specials including Nickel and Dimed based on Barbara Ehrenreich's best seller, Michael Apted's Married in America and documentary adaptations of the Nazi Officer's Wife and Karen Armstrong's The History of God. Concert specials were done with Billy Joel, Sting, Willie Nelson, Neil Diamond and Elton John. While at TNT, he was responsible for the production of Gettysburg, which was released theatrically and sold more than one million copies in VHS & DVD releases. He also commissioned the Emmy-award winning mini-series The Old Testament. At ABC, Sabinson brought The Hallmark Hall of Fame franchise to the network with such films as My Name Is Bill W, and he was responsible for the mini-series Separate but Equal that won the Emmy for best mini-series. He also helped create the Stephen King franchise on ABC with the production of It and he commissioned the Peabody-award winning Small Sacrifices. As head of original programming at Showtime, Sabinson brought championship boxing to the pay cable network as well as It's Garry Shandling's Show. During the course of working on thousands of hours of film and television, Sabinson has cast such stars as Tommy Lee Jones, Hugh Grant, Robert Duvall, Matt Damon, John Malkovich, Ed Harris, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Jamie Lee Curtis, Diane Keaton, Catherine Zeta Jones, Sharon Stone and Mira Sorvino. He has worked with such creative luminaries as David Mamet, Stephen Sondheim, Wendy Wasserstein, Neil Simon, Ronald Harwood, John Frankenheimer, Sir Peter Hall, and Nic Roeg. Anna Marie Piersimoni, Associate Director, New Media Ventures, American Film Institute: Anna Marie Piersimoni holds a dual role as Director, Internet Communications and Director, Media & Technology for the American Film Institute. She is responsible for all web production and internet-based electronic publishing of the AFI and contributes to development and management of key digital media programs and business, such as the k-12 Screen Education program and Digital Content Lab. Previously, as associate director, New Media Ventures and Director of Enhanced TV for the AFI, she developed the acclaimed AFI Enhanced TV Workshop, a unique hands-on R&D training environment for television professionals in the production of new convergent media, now known as the AFI Digital Content Lab. Formally a producer of broadcast on-air promotions for network, cable, and public television, she worked for ABC Entertainment, KCET Los Angeles, and E! Entertainment Television, among others. Prior to that, she worked in the cable industry as a manager of local programming and affiliate marketing, as an executive administrator for several arts, film and video organizations, and has taught video art history and criticism. Ms.Piersimoni holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from The Hartford Art School, University of Hartford. Grant McCracken, Member, Branding Cultures Laboratory, M.I.T.: Grant McCracken holds a Ph.D. from the University of Chicago in cultural anthropology. He has been the director of the Institute of Contemporary Culture, a senior lecturer at the Harvard Business School, a visiting scholar at the University of Cambridge and he is now attached to the branding cultures laboratory at M.I.T. He is the author of several books including Culture and Consumption and The Long Internview. He has consulted widely in the corporate world, including the Coca-Cola Company, IKEA, Chrysler, Kraft, Kodak, and Kimberly Clark. He is a member of the IBM ThinkPad marketing advisory counsel. His work has been covered in The New York Times and the Oprah Winfrey Show. This spring, Indiana University Press will publish a new book: Culture and Consumption II: Markets, meaning and brand management. This will be followed by three books in the next 12 months: Plenitude, Transformation, and Flock and Flow. Paul Levinson, Ph.D., Professor and Chair of the communication and Media Studies Department, FORDHAM UNIVERSITY: Media critic and educator, Paul Levinson has been interviewed more than 500 times on radio and television in the United States, Canada, England, Italy and Australia including "CBS Evening News with Dan Rather", "The O'Reilly Factor", "Scarborough Country", "Jesse Ventura's America", "The Big Story with John Gibson", ABC's "World News Now", "Daybreak", "Your World with Neil Cavuto", CNN, Fox News, MSNBC, CNBC, the History Channel, "Today in New York", "Good Day New York", WNBC-TV, WCBS-TV, WB-11, "Inside Edition", AP Radio, CBS Radio Network News, Bloomberg Radio, CNN Radio, NPR's "Talk of the Nation", "Morning Edition", "The Diane Rehm Show", "On the Media", "The Connection", "Public Interest (The Kojo Nnamdi Show)", "Odyssey", "Tech Nation", "New York and Company", and many local NPR affiliates and local radio and tv, and the BBC's "NewsNight" and "Thinking Allowed" and he has been quoted frequently in the New York Times, USA Today, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Wall Street Journal, Smithsonian Magazine and U.S. News and World Report. Paul Levinson writes science fiction, sf/mystery and popular and scholarly non-fiction. The Silk Code won the Locus award for Best First Novel of 1999. His novel The Consciousness Plague won the 2003 Mary Shelley Award for outstanding Fictional Work. He has published more than 25 science fiction stories, some of which are now available on fictionwise.com. His novella "Loose Ends" was a 1998 Hugo Award finalist, a finalist for the 1998 Sturgeon Award, and a finalist for the 1997 Nebula Award. The radioplay of his novelette "The Chronology Protection Case" was nominated for an Edgar Award for Best Mystery Play of 2002. Digital McLuhan won the 2000 Lewis Mumford Award for Outstanding Scholarship. His work has been translated into eleven languages. Scott B. Barnett, Associate Director of Academic Computing at Sarah Lawrence College, Bronxville, NY, holds Masters of Arts in Educational Media from Fairfield University and a Masters of Science in Computer Information Systems from Quinnipiac University. He is the Chair of the 2006 Broadcast Education Association Student Interactive Media competition of the BEA Festival of Media Arts, being held in April at the BEA/NAB convention in Las Vegas. Scott has led web communication teams on development projects for IBM, Citibank and Philips, as well as coordinated as Executive Producer of student teams on interactive projects for the United States Marines Parris Island Museum and several minor league baseball teams. He has been a board member of the Connecticut Public Television Advisory Board and several municipal Cable Advisory boards. A former professor of communications teaching courses on digital multimedia production, digital editing and production and interactive design, Scott is an independent producer who provides consulting and development of video and web communications for education, business and industry. He has presented annually at BEA on the topics of interactive multimedia, digital compression and student project management and taught at the Digital Media Workshops in Rockport, ME. He earned his undergraduate degree in Television & Radio Production from Syracuse University.