I am currently a doctoral student in the School of Education at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. My research interests lie in the intersection of literacy and the media culture in which adolescents are immersed in beyond the classroom setting. Prior to returning to school I was a middle school Language Arts teacher; however, prior to teaching I worked in Hollywood, CA on such shows as The Nanny, Dragon Tales, and Family Guy.  My most recent work was a documentary entitled The Town Before Brown, which documents segregation in the south prior to 1954.  I am interested in video remix as a potential avenue by which to take control of and alter meanings that are promoted by corporate media conglomerates.

I normally use i-Movie 6 HD, but have been recently learning Final Cut Pro.

Originally the remix video developed out of brainstorming sessions with my colleague Jason Mendez.  We wanted to take a critical look at the continued prevalence of racism in our society, particularly as it is condoned both explicitly and implicitly by the mass media.

As I searched for examples via You Tube, it was a bit shocking to find so many recent occurrences.  This led me to connect the prevalence of race issues with the current presidential election where Obama's racial background has been at play, even though allegedly it is not.

As far as the theme of "words", I am very interested in the use of words and how words have power.  I am also interested in the power and "naturalness" of ideology and how such ideologies are so entrenched in our society.  Hence the racist "slip-ups" in the footage of the shows and celebrities. In using the footage coupled with the Obama speech, I wished to create a detournement questioning the continued media condoned use of racist language.

Ultimately, I felt that this video, in keeping with my research, was a way to draw attention to the fact that education is not just a formal institution, but is a part of our everyday life and as such can either perpetuate the current status quo or change it.