In the summer of 1971, Deirdre was about to take a job teaching English alongside a friend before she enrolled in a summer seminar course that was about to taught on behalf of Antioch College, at the Tishman Auditorium at The New School.  I sat with Deirdre in the newly constructed University Center as she told me this, recalling her first encounter with the seminar and giving me details about the classes, as well as the instructors who were involved.  Through some of trips to the Kellen Archives, I was able to inquire about some of the names I had come across whilst researching.  For the most part, I discovered correspondence that listed staff who had participated, or who were going to participate in the anticipated programs at the time.  

As Deirdre said, it was at first known as The Center for Understanding Media, run by John Culkin.  She described Culkin as a charismatic man who, due to sociality, was able to invite guest lecturers to speak the seminar.  Individuals, like Susan Sontag, who are known for significant contributions to their fields in media.  Deirdre continued to enumerate more of these significant individuals, their accomplishments, and reminiscence about how fascinating it was to be ensconced in such ingenuity.  It was interesting to gain a firsthand account of the people whom Deirdre had worked with.  

         The seminar she attended was in the summer of '71, just as the Center for Understanding Media was beginning.  The first actual class was given in the fall of 1973, which Deirdre was enrolled as a student.  She described the summer seminar that took place in 1971 as a 'think tank' in the interview she gave with Carmen Hendershott back in September of 2012.  When I spoke with her, she was able to enumerate some of the individuals whom she had come into contact with, individuals who had mostly been recruited by John Culkin himself.  Individuals who were at the top of their practice, or were in the midst of creating theories and practices that would become essential not only to media studies education, but to their respective professional communities.  Tony Schwartz, an associate of Marshall McLuhan, was someone from whom Deirdre learned sound editing techniques. Schwartz suffered from agoraphobia, so he taught in his studio located in his apartment in Hell's Kitchen.  Deirdre was doing editing of audio tape, and still has a piece featuring her grandmother which she worked on at the time. Gerald O'Grady, a professor from the University of Buffalo, and whose name I found amongst the archival material had his class keep dream journals throughout the course to see the effects of media consumption on the subconscious.  

Deirdre also mentioned D. Marie Grieco, a professor of Library Science who was an advocate for non-print media, something rather unusual, given Grieco's educational background.  Deirdre studied 'Media, Material, Meanings' with Grieco and offered me photocopies of some of the materials for that class.    

And In addition to Deirdre's personal photocopies, I also discovered some of the proposals regarding the MA program.  It looked as though there was quite a bit of deliberation as far as who would teach what course, and who could be brought on as working faculty after the seminar had completed.  Which is below. 

To reiterate, the heart of my project was drawn from Deirdre's personal experiences at The New School.  Accounts which I constructed from my informal sit-down with her, in addition to the snippets I used from the archives' recording.  In order to contextualize what was important for the soul of this project, I used Deirdre's account as a framework for the other materials that I included.  By choosing this trajectory and this material, I felt that it gave the it a human flavor that makes the history of the Media Studies department and its beginnings more interesting.  Much of what I discussed here had to do with the conversation I shared with Deirdre at the University Center earlier in the semester.