Gilda L. Sheppard, Ph.D.
"As a filmmaker and sociologist, I work to uncover power relations reflected in discourses of race, gender, class, sexuality and notions of empire to stimulate critical and creative thinking, a sense of agency and a revolution in consciousness."
Gilda L. Sheppard, Ph.D.
Dr. Sheppard earned a B.A. in Sociology/Psychology at Mercy College in Detroit, M.S.W. at the University of Washington, and a Ph.D. in Sociology/Cultural Studies from The Union Graduate School in Cincinnati.
Dr. Sheppard's interdisciplinary teaching philosophy reflects her activist approach to media literacy. She uses media as a tool for literacy, social action, interdisciplinary scholarship, intervention, creative and critical thinking.
She has produced video ethnographies on learning communities and has received several awards and fellowships for her work in media. Her latest film, Yard People: An Intergenerational Love Story , made in conjunction with
Dr. Hardiman. This documentary has received awards at the 2001 Berlin International Black Cinema Art and Film Festival and the 2001 Silver Image Film Festival in Chicago. She is a board member of Alliance for a Media Literate America (AMLA), and a member of the International Documentary Association and the American Sociological Association.
Among her awards is a two-year teaching and research fellowship at Cape Coast University in Ghana, West Africa, where she was a member of the Sociology Department and produced a video documentary on Ghanaian Women's Leadership titled The Secret of the Approach of Dawn. In addition, she has received the PEW, NEH, Rockefeller and Niagara Council of the Arts grants for the production of documentaries covering a range of subject areas, particularly intergenerational and cross-cultural themes in African-American communities. She is presently working on a film on Harriet Tubman and one on urban youth living on the street in Ghana, West Africa and in the USA.
She also produces independent works. "As an independent filmmaker I work with image, text and sound, to uncover power relations reflected in discourses of race, gender, class, sexuality and notions of empire. This interrogation is used to stimulate critical and creative thinking, a sense of agency and a revolution in consciousness."
As a member of the faculty at Evergreen-Tacoma, Dr. Sheppard is fond of giving testimony to the learning that she receives from both her colleagues and adult student learners. She extends this collaborative practice of teaching and learning in her international speaking engagements; her work with youth in her multimedia literacy courses designed for the urban youth organization "Renew" in Ghana, West Africa that she assist in sustaining, and in her work with youth and community groups in Washington State.
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