Name: Rachel Somerstein
Academic Rank: Assistant Professor
Department: Digital Media & Journalism
Expertise Keywords: 9/11, anniversary journalism, Berlin Wall, collective memory, Media Studies, photography, photojournalism, Public memory, visual culture
Available For: interviews, essays, speaking
Expertise: I research visual culture and collective memory, focusing on how the mass media amends, edits, and circulates photographs and television programming about the past. I take a longitudinal approach to this work, looking through electronic and print archives to see how the mass media's version of a given history has changed over time. Recent peer-reviewed publications include a piece about Israeli and Palestinian film (Visual Studies) and the mass media's commemoration of 9/11 (Journalism). For my dissertation, I looked at how NBC Nightly News commemorated the opening of the Berlin Wall from 1990 through 2009. I also have more than a decade of experience writing about visual art. My work on photography and art and politics has appeared in publications including ARTnews, Afterimage: The Journal of Media Arts and Cultural Criticism, Guernica: A Magazine of Art & Politics, n+1, and Wired.
Contact Information
Office Phone: 845-257-3089
E-mail Address: somerstr@newpaltz.edu
Personal Web Site: http://rachelsomerstein.com
Education
| Colleges/ Universities Attended |
Dates Attended |
Degree Conferred |
Year Conferred |
Major Subject |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cornell University | B.A. | 2004 | English, History | |
| Syracuse University | Ph.D. | 2014 | Mass Communications | |
| New York University | M.F.A. | 2009 | Creative Writing |
Publications
Somerstein, R. 2015. "Newspapers Commemorate 11 September: A cross-cultural investigation." Journalism, 16(3), 359-375.
Somerstein, R. 2014. "On liminality and loss: A decade of Israeli and Palestinian Film." Visual Studies, 29(1), 94-98.
