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(PDU_Logo) Project Development Unit - About Us What Are We? The Project Development Unit is a group of scholars, practitioners, and activists in the field of visual media and education. It is located at Teachers College, Columbia University, within the Film & Education Research Academy (FERA), which is in turn a part of the Center for Educational Outreach and Innovation. PDU is a committee-style group that plans, organizes, and supervises the conduct of research, publishing, teaching, service, and outreach activities. Founded by John Broughton and Elizabeth Kuriakose in 2006, this product-oriented unit of FERA posits as its primary mission to foster original research on the relations between education and visual media, be it photography, graphic novels, digital media, youth video, etc. – all of which are arguably derived from, related to, or influenced by the cinematic tradition. In addition, PDU aims to pursue a policy of public pedagogy, organizing a wide range of highly accessible panels and workshops with the express purpose of providing information and guidance to educators who wish to develop media-related programs or employ specific visual media in their own educational contexts. PDU also aims to serve the broader educational community of the five boroughs by providing a consulting service to teachers, schools, and school systems. Activism PDU has an activist orientation: all research is designed to contribute to ongoing processes of positive social change, including concerns with progressive social movements, community development, and diversity issues, as well as remediating media-deprivation (e.g., in conditions of poverty) and working against excessive censorship. PDU takes seriously the need to establish, foster, and enhance channels of intersubjective communication between adolescents and adults in and around educative activities, whether they be in schools, 2 or 4 year colleges, after-school programs, camps, museums, or independent instructional settings. Media can work as catalysts for insightful, critical thought and practice around moral, and political issues. Brought into reasoned relation to sound pedagogy, the study and production of visual culture can build, shape, and support social responsibility, discovering new ways to implement responsible policy initiatives. Earlier notions of leadership and citizenship thereby can be updated in terms of contemporary modes and genres of multimedia literacy and enlightened popular culture, enhancing and reforming the less activist traditions inherent in the canonical culture of conventional school curricula. International Scope Finally, although we are firmly centered in NYC, we have members from 10 different national origins, and we maintain a strong international interest that includes issues of globalization, diaspora, diversity, immigration, racism, militarism, and global ecology in visual media and education, as well as our more immediate concerns with local communities.Who are we?
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