The PacDocs team filming The Cooper: Crafting the Soul of the Cask.
PaceDocs Focus: The Craft of Barrel Making
Pace University’s award-winning documentary film team, PaceDocs, premiered The Cooper: Crafting the Soul of the Cask on May 2, 2024, at the Jacob Burns Film Center in Pleasantville.
For the first time, PaceDocs premiered its documentary in both English and Spanish. The English version premiered at the Jacob Burns Film Center, while the Spanish version debuted in Montilla and Cordoba, Spain.
The documentary was co-produced by Dyson College Professors Maria Luskay, EdD, and Lou Guarneri, MA, and Pace University’s documentary film team. The PaceDocs team collaborated with José Buendía Picó, a well-known Spanish musician and composer, to provide the music to an audiovisual story. Picó has won 14 composition awards.
The Cooper is an exploration of the art of cask making, also known as cooperage. Its rich history can be traced back to ancient civilizations, with evidence of wooden containers used for storing and transporting liquids found in archaeological sites dating as far back as 2690 BCE in Egypt.
The documentary was filmed in the Andalusia region of Spain over the course of several weeks. The documentary is the focus of the popular class, Producing the Documentary, which is part of Dyson College’s highly regarded film program that requires students complete a full-length environmentally themed documentary within 14 weeks. Students learn teamwork, problem-solving, research, and organization, along with technical skills such as lighting, sound, camera work, interviewing, and other real-life lessons necessary to complete a film.
Watch The Cooper: Crafting the Soul of the Cask documentary on YouTube.
Dyson College Video Wins Award
Dyson College’s anthem video, Go Further, was recognized by the Telly Awards as the Silver Winner for an educational institution promotional video. It was produced by The Cutting Board, with Jeffrey Johnson as director, and Julia Main as producer. Dyson College’s Angela Nally ’99, ’06, assistant dean for communications, Antonia Gentile ’98, ’07, assistant director of marketing and communications, and Amanda Delfino ’23, communications manager, were producers.
Katerina Pappas ’26 working on her podcast.
Students with the Gift of Gab
Students actively contribute to the digital landscape by creating podcasts engaging and relevant to contemporary issues. Emilie Zaslow, PhD, chair and professor, Communication and Media Studies, worked with students on creating these popular podcasts. Through these projects, they develop their skills in content creation and connect with audiences in innovative ways. Three student podcasts on Spotify are:
- The Ladder Podcast Conversations by Katerina Pappas ‘26
- Digital Rite of Passage: The First Social Media Kids by Julia Kennedy ‘24
- We Knew You Were Gay (explicit content) by Michael Ryterski ‘26
Corinna Sager’s Razing Liberty Square
Adjunct Professor Corinna Sager, MA, Media, Communications, and Visual Arts, produced a groundbreaking documentary about how climate gentrification is affecting a historically Black public housing project in Miami, Florida. The feature-length documentary Razing Liberty Square premiered on PBS on January 29, 2024.
Women in Sports Student Panel: Jillian Joe ’23, College of Health Professions (Senior, Women’s Soccer), Sydney Reyes ’24 (Senior, Swimming), Jenny Gordon ’24 (Senior, Softball), and Alyssa Smart ’27 (Freshman, Softball).
Booth Review
Associate Professor Michelle Pulaski Behling, PhD, and Booth Review interns Joseph Cunningham ’23 ’25, Melissa Louis, ’24 Alexis Riviello ’25, and Drew Zebarth ’23 engaged in a faculty-student research project centered on social justice issues facing women in sports, such as pay inequality, gender discrimination, lack of media representation, and fewer participation opportunities for women in sports. The group received a mini grant from the Social Justice Week Committee to conduct a student-athlete panel, “Social Justice for Women in Sports,” during the fourth annual Social Justice Week. The interns created the presentation, recruited student-athlete panelists, and moderated the discussion.
📚 Dyson Authors
Recent books by faculty and alumni
Where There Was Fire
John Manuel Arias ’13, English and Latin American Studies
This novel is about three generations of a Costa Rican family wrestling with a deadly secret.
The Hero of Fern Gully and Other Jamaican Short Stories
Glen Laman ’73, Biology (co-author)
A collection of 15 Jamaican short stories providing insights into the everyday pursuits of ordinary Jamaicans as they struggle to make a way in the world.
Item Response Theory for Creativity Measurement
Nils Myszkowski, PhD, Psychology
This book offers a description of how to apply a psychometric framework (called item response theory) to creativity measurement.
Managing Gender Inequity in Academia: A Guide for Faculty and Administrators in Public Affairs Programs
Gina Scutelnicu-Todoran, PhD, Public Administration
An evidence-based guide to faculty, higher education administrators, and graduate and doctoral students on various career paths in academia which also discusses the persistence of gender and racial inequities in higher education and provides recommendations for overcoming them.
Meet Skulle
Paulette Smart-Mackey ’88, Chemistry
A book for elementary and middle school grade children that helps them explore their natural curiosity for the science of the human body.
Jawbreaker
Christina (Birchini) Wyman ’02, Communications
A middle-grade novel about toxic sibling rivalry, socioeconomic disparity, and dental drama.
