Stephanie Sapienza

Stephanie serves as a senior member of MITH's research and development team for several projects and initiatives with a targeted focus on archival, digital curation, research data, digital library, and digital stewardship activities. She has been the Principal Investigator on two subsequent NEH-sponsored grant projects about the history of educational and public radio, Unlocking the Airwaves and Broadcasting Audiovisual Data. The former project is a virtual reunification project reuniting two geographically 'split' collections; the latter connects four separate radio collections using linked data infrastructures and workflows.  Stephanie’s research revolves around using digital humanities methods alongside archival standards to reframe and contextualize historic media collections through the lens of their original production, reception, and networked distribution. She is also an affiliate faculty member of UMD's Cinema and Media Studies (CMS) department, where she teaches a course on digital storytelling using archives. As MITH’s former Project Manager, she is also interested in the stewardship of digital humanities projects and research data, including streamlining project management, documentation, and sustainability processes. She has a bachelor’s degree in Film Studies and English from the University of Kansas, and a master’s degree in Moving Image Archive Studies from UCLA. In the past, Stephanie was the Project Manager for the American Archive of Public Broadcasting at the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, where she managed strategic operational planning for metadata and digitization initiatives. Before moving to DC in 2010, she was the Project Director on a Getty-funded grant for Los Angeles Filmforum entitled Alternative Projections: Experimental Film in LA 1945 -1980, a historical survey and preservation project resulting in over 35 new oral histories, an academic symposium, a media-rich website and database and a 16+screening exhibition series. The project was part of the Getty’s Pacific Standard Time initiative showcasing postwar art in Los Angeles. She also served as Managing Director of iotaCenter, a small nonprofit film archive of experimental film and abstract animation. Before graduate school, Stephanie worked for six years as a researcher and producer on documentaries and television shows, and specialized in finding and licensing archival footage and photos for use in productions.