CAMRA

ABOUT

CAMRA (Collective for Advancing Multimodal Research Arts) fosters interdisciplinary collaborations amongst scholars, sensory ethnographers, artists and educators within and beyond the University of Pennsylvania to explore, practice, evaluate and teach about multimedia research and representation.

We ask questions about the affordances, challenges, and possibilities of multimodal scholarship in teaching, learning, mediamaking, and knowledge production. Our aim is to support media-based research and pedagogies, with an explicit focus on: (1) providing practical guidelines for evaluation of multimodal research; (2) utilizing participatory, digital, and ethnographic methodologies; (3) creating digital and physical spaces for multimodal work to be showcased; (4) critically examining how technology is changing the processes of teaching and learning.
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SSMF Timeline

  • 2013

    First Annual Screening Scholarship Media Festival (inaugural year).

  • 2014

    Second Annual Screening Scholarship Media Festival.

  • 2015

    Third Annual Screening Scholarship Media Festival. Theme: Performing the Digital. March 27–28.

  • 2016

    Fourth Annual Screening Scholarship Media Festival. Theme: Race, Media and Social Justice. April 1–2.

  • 2017

    Fifth Annual Screening Scholarship Media Festival. Theme: On the Psyche and Boundaries of the Political. March 17–18.

  • 2018

    Sixth Annual Screening Scholarship Media Festival.

  • 2019

    Seventh Annual Screening Scholarship Media Festival. Theme: On Rendering Matters of Present Concern. March 29–31. Directed by Juan Castrillón. First CAMRA alumni panel held.

  • 2020

    Planned as the Eighth Annual Screening Scholarship Media Festival. Theme: Rupture and Repair. Postponed due to COVID-19.

  • 2021

    Ninth Annual Screening Scholarship Media Festival. Theme: Rupture and Repair (held in virtual/hybrid form). April 16–18.

  • 2022

    Tenth Annual Screening Scholarship Media Festival. Theme: Pause. March 25–26.

  • 2023

    Eleventh Annual Screening Scholarship Media Festival. Theme: Works in Progress. March 31–April 2.

  • 2024

    Twelfth Annual Screening Scholarship Media Festival. Theme: Practices of Resurrection and Necromancy. April 19–20.

  • 2025

    Thirteenth Annual Screening Scholarship Media Festival. April 11 (Fragmented Return) and April 23 (Blues Blood).

  • 2026

    Fourteenth Annual Screening Scholarship Media Festival. Theme: Portals. March 27–28. Directed by Azsaneé Truss (Gilbert Seldes Multimodal Postdoctoral Fellow).

About the Screening Scholarship Media Festival

The Screening Scholarship Media Festival (SSMF) provides a creative, collaborative space to engage with diverse multimedia projects. We explore the affordances and challenges of multimodal representational strategies in research, and we interrogate their social implications. SSMF is a hybrid between a traditional academic conference and a film/media festival. We strive to bridge the gap between art and science by bringing together scholars, artists, educators, and activists.