Mark Andrejevic: Mark Andrejevic received his Ph.D. from the University of Colorado at Boulder and is currently a Research Fellow at the University of Queensland’s Centre for Critical and Cultural Studies. Mark studies television and new media from the perspective of critical theory and cultural studies. His recent work focuses on surveillance and monitoring in the digital economy. He has written numerous articles and book chapters on topics including interactive media, surveillance, digital art, and reality TV.
Fritz Attaway: Fritz Attaway is an Executive Vice President and Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) Special Policy Advisor. Reporting to Chairman and CEO, Bob Pisano, Attaway provides legal advice and direction for all federal public policy activities of the association. Attaway also participates in the management of worldwide public policy interests for the association and its member companies. Attaway joined MPAA in 1976 after serving as Attorney-Advisor in the Cable Television Bureau of the Federal Communications Commission where he was involved in numerous rulemaking proceedings concerning cable television and pay TV. He was promoted to Vice President of Congressional Affairs in 1978, was named Senior Vice President in 1986, and Washington General Counsel was added to his title in 1993. In 2005 his title became Special Policy Advisor. He has held the post of Executive Vice President since 2000.
Ray Beckerman: Ray Beckerman graduated with honors from St. John’s University School of Law and is a commercial litigation attorney practicing in New York City at Ray Beckerman, P.C. His practice includes many topics particularly relevant to our discussion forum–copyright, Internet, trademark, libel, slander, privacy, publicity, and software. In addition, Mr. Beckerman has represented individuals targeted by both the recording industry and the motion picture industry for alleged copyright infringement. He is the author of the popular copyright law blog “Recording Industry vs. The People”.
Henry Jenkins: Henry Jenkins is the Provost’s Professor of Communication, Journalism, and Cinematic Arts at the University of Southern California. Previous to that Prof. Jenkins was the Director of the MIT Comparative Media Studies Program and the Peter de Florez Professor of Humanities. He has authored numerous books on media and popular culture including Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide, Fans, Bloggers and Gamers: Exploring Participatory Culture, and Textual Poachers: Television Fans and Participatory Culture. Prof. Jenkins has also written for Technology Review, Computer Games, Salon, and The Huffington Post.
Robert Jensen: Robert Jensen is a professor in the School of Journalism and director of the Senior Fellows Honors Program of the College of Communication at the University of Texas at Austin. He joined the UT faculty in 1992 after completing his Ph.D. in media ethics and law in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Minnesota. Prior to his academic career, he worked as a professional journalist for a decade. At UT, Jensen teaches courses in media law, ethics, and politics. In his research, Jensen draws on a variety of critical approaches to media and power. Much of his work has focused on pornography and the radical feminist critique of sexuality and men’s violence, and he also has addressed questions of race through a critique of white privilege and institutionalized racism. Jensen is the author of Getting Off: Pornography and the End of Masculinity and was a consultant to the filmmakers of the 2008 documentary “The Price of Pleasure: Pornography, Sexuality, and Relationships,” in which he also is interviewed.
Jennifer Ketcham: Jennifer Ketcham is former award winning pornstar who, upon shooting Sex Rehab with Dr. Drew and Sober House in spring and summer of 2009 respectively, quit the adult business to pursue a healthier lifestyle. She’s since appeared on Oprah, Tyra, The View, 20/20, ET and Extra to discuss sex addiction. Ketcham is represented by the Susan Golomb Literary agency, currently writing a memoir, and has documented the changes in her life on her blog http://www.BecomingJennie.com, which was featured on Last Call with Carson Daly. She returns to school this fall after an eight year hiatus in pornography, is pursuing a degree in Psychology, and writes regularly for Huffington Post.
Jessica Litman: Jessica Litman is the John F. Nickoll Professor of Law in the University of Michigan Law School. Prof. Litman is also the author of Digital Copyright and is a renowned expert in copyright law. She has taught at Wayne State University in Detroit, NYU Law School, and American University Washington College of Law. Prof. Litman is also a past trustee of the Copyright Society of the USA, a past chair of the American Association of Law Schools Section on Intellectual Property, a current member of the Intellectual Property and Internet Committee of the ACLU, and a current member of the Advisory Council of the Future of Music Coalition.
Richard Masur: Richard Masur was President of the Screen Actors Guild from 1995 to 1999. He started working as a professional actor and theater technician on Broadway in 1973. His motion picture and television credits include All in the Family, Law & Order, L.A.Law, Murphy Brown, Matlock, One Day At a Time, Risky Business, M*A*S*H*, Hawaii Five-O, and The Thing.
Chris McConnell: Chris McConnell is a doctoral student in the Department of Radio-Television-Film at the University of Texas at Austin. Chris has done work on a variety of digital media topics including Twitter, Etsy, Web 2.0 and labor, and blogging. He is currently a research assistant for the UT Austin/Portugal Digital Media Program. Chris will be lecturing to us this semester on alt media.
Charles Nesson: Charles Nesson is the William F. Weld Professor of Law at Harvard Law School. Prof. Nesson is also the founder and co-director of the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University. He has participated in several cases before the U.S. Supreme Court and heads up the team of Harvard law students defending Joel Tenenbaum against the RIAA in a high profile peer-to-peer file sharing case.
Matthew Oppenheim: Matthew Oppenheim earned his J.D. at Cornell Law School in 1993. Mr. Oppenheim served as the senior Vice President for Business and Legal Affairs for the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) for seven years before leaving in 2004 to join the firm Jenner & Block LLP. He co-chaired the firm’s Entertainment and New Media Practice and represented primarily movie studios and record companies. Mr. Oppenheim handled the landmark Supreme Court case, MGM v. Grokster, in which the Supreme Court decided 9-0 in favor of the movie studios and record companies reversing two lower court decisions which had insulated peer to peer networks from potential copyright liability. In 2006 he founded The Oppenheim Group, LLP which specializes in Internet, entertainment, and intellectual property law.
Matthew Payne: Matt Payne earned his Ph.D. in Media Studies at the University of Texas at Austin in 2011. His research focuses on the social impacts of communication technologies, video games, and teaching film/video production. He holds a Master’s degree in Media Studies from the University of Texas, a Masters of Fine Arts in Film Production from Boston University, and a Bachelor’s degree in Philosophy from Berry College in Rome, Georgia. Matthew moonlights as a film and video technician, and has worked in numerous capacities on award-winning shorts and two feature-length films. Matt has chapters in the edited collections: Playing the Past: History and Nostalgia in Video Games, Handbook of Research on Effective Electronic Gaming in Education, War Isn’t Hell, It’s Entertainment: Essays on Visual Media and the Representation of Conflict.
Greig de Peuter: Greig de Peuter received his Ph.D. from Simon Fraser University’s School of Communication and is currently an Assistant Professor at Wilfrid Laurier University. His research interests include the political economy of communication, labor organizations in the media and culture industries, alternative economies, and the political economy of video games. Greig and his co-author Nick Dyer-Witheford wrote Games of Empire: Global Capitalism and Video Games. Greig also co-authored Digital Play: The Interaction of Technology, Culture, and Marketing with Nick Dyer-Witheford and Stephen Kline.
Debbie Rosenbaum: Debbie Rosenbaum completed a dual law and business degree (JD/MBA) at Harvard Law School and Harvard Business School. Ms. Rosenbaum’s focus is on the intersection of law, business, and policy in the technology sector. She was also a high profile member of the team of Harvard Law School students who, under the guidance of Professor Charles Nesson, have mounted a legal defense on behalf of Joel Tenenbaum. Tenenbaum is being sued by the recording industry for alleged copyright infringement over peer-to-peer networks. Ms. Rosenbaum also created the website JoelFightsBack.com which chronicles the efforts of Joel’s defense team.
Homero Sanchez: Homero Sanchez is a Sound Designer at Sony Online Entertainment in Austin, Texas. He is currently supporting the recently released MMOG, DC Universe Online for PC and Playstation 3. In his 7 year career as a game developer, other notable titles he has worked on include The Sims 3, Dragon Age: Origins, Magic the Gathering: Tactics, Pitfall: The Big Adventure, Dreamworks’ Over the Hedge and Shark Tale. Homero graduated from UT Austin in 2003 with a bachelor’s degree in Radio-Television-Film.
Andrew Shapter: Andrew Shapter graduated from Texas State University in 1992 and is an American filmmaker, writer and photographer. His critically acclaimed 2006 documentary film “Before the Music Dies” (featuring Dave Matthews, Eric Clapton, Erykah Badu, Elvis Costello, Bonnie Raitt, Questlove and many other prominent musicians) premiered at SXSW in 2006 and has been a hit with music fans worldwide. Mr. Shapter is also a regular contributor to the Huffington Post where he writes about music and film.
Tiziana Terranova: Tiziana Terranova is currently an associate professor in the Sociology of Communications at the Dipartimento di Studi Americani, Culturali e Linguistici, Università degli Studi di Napoli ‘L’Orientale’. Previous to that she taught the sociology of media and culture in the Department of Sociology at the University of Essex. Her research interests lie in the area of the culture, science, technology and political economy of new media. She authored Network Culture: Politics for the Information Age in 2004.
