FAQs

Q: Who can take the VHS Archives class?
A: Any student enrolled in a graduate course of study at CUNY.

Q: Where can I find the 12 videos featured in the class
A: In the Video Library of this site or on the previous iteration of the course, an Omeka site from Spring 2019.

Q: What is PIMA?
A: "The graduate program in performance and interactive media arts (PIMA) is a Brooklyn College MFA degree that will help you to develop into a performance artist with a reputation for innovation and creative success. Our program will give you the tools to conceive and execute collaborative, multidisciplinary theatrical pieces." See more here.

Q: What is Screen Studies?
A: "The purpose of the M.A. in Screen Studies Program is to provide students with a comprehensive education in cinema history, theory, criticism and aesthetics, and to encourage the scholarly exploration of cinema as a form of art and a means of social communication. But you will also be prepared to engage with the rapidly changing media landscape through an understanding of its broadest aesthetic and cultural implications." See more here.

Q: Where is the class held?
A: The Barry R. Feirstein Graduate School of Cinema, Brooklyn College: 25 Washington Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11205. Feirstein is in Steiner Studios at the Navy Shipyard. See more here. 

Q: What is Scalar, the authoring tool of this site?
A: "Scalar is a free, open source authoring and publishing platform that’s designed to make it easy for authors to write long-form, born-digital scholarship online. Scalar enables users to assemble media from multiple sources and juxtapose them with their own writing in a variety of ways, with minimal technical expertise required." See more here.

Q: Where can I learn more about the VHS Archives Working Group of which this class is a part?
A: "Sponsored by the Center for the Humanities at the CUNY Grad Center, The VHS Archives Working Group brings together scholars, students, librarians, archivists, technologists and community members interested in discussing questions, concerns and best practices about the use, preservation, digitization, and research of VHS collections currently held by organizations, scholars, artists, and activists. Each month a member of the working group will present their archive and the questions, difficulties, surprises, losses and bounty it holds. The group will use each test case as a fertile opportunity to better frame their own video archives, and the broader questions raised by holdings of media nearing format-obsolescence." See more here.

Q: Who can I contact to learn more about the course or its projects or websites?
A: Feel free to email professors Alexandra Juhasz and Jennifer McCoy about the class or Brooklyn College Open Educational Resources Developer and Librarian, Emily Fairey, about any of its websites.

Q: Where can I learn more about the 2018 version of the course?
A: Three Student projects are available on this site. There are two articles written about the class in Readings and also available online: one by Juhasz and McCoy, "Re-energizing VHS Collections, Expanding Knowledge: A Conversation about VHS Archives,"  KULA, Journal for the Knowledge, Creation, Dissemination, and Preservation Studies and the other by Juhasz, VHS Archives, Committed Media Praxis and Queer Cinema, draft.

Q: Where can I learn more about community partners for the course?
A: You can learn more about Visual AIDS and VOCAL NY online.