Dr. Adah completed his Ph.D. at the Graduate Drama Centre at the University of Toronto in 2007 with a dissertation on body and identity in Indigenous cinemas from Australia, Canada, USA, and New Zealand.  His teaching and research interests include comparative post-colonial cinemas, theatre, and literatures.  He has taught at the college level in Nigeria, South Africa, Papua New Guinea, and Canada.  An accomplished actor/director for the stage, he has also published several articles on postcolonial cinemas and theatre.  Dr. Adah teaches Film History, Film Theory and Criticism, Film Appreciation and courses focusing on directors, topics and genres.

Professor Nelson is a filmmaker, video artist and animator, whose work has been presented at festivals and galleries in Asia, Europe, North America and Australia.  Professor Nelson has screened at venues such as the Walker Art Center, the D.C. National Museum for Women in the Arts, the European Media Arts Festival, the Queensland Gallery of Modern Art, and the Croatian Film Association Cinema.  Her work has received several awards, including the Kodak Vision Award for Best Cinematography, Ann Arbor Film Festival’s Griot Editorial Best Editing Award, and the Moondance Calypso Award.  Professor Nelson was a Fulbright Scholar to Iceland in 2005, and was awarded a 2007 Bush Artist Fellowship.  Recently Professor Nelson was named the 2008 YWCA Woman of the Year in Education.  Her creative focus is on personal and cultural narrative told through documentary and experimental practice.  Professor Nelson teaches classes in 16mm film and digital production.

Professor Rea is a film and stage producer/director. He worked for over a decade as an actor and director with San Francisco’s Theatre Rhubarb, a company dedicated to staging rarely seen and risk-taking theatre works. His own production company, Density Over Duration, has produced 8 stage works, 8 short films and a recent feature. His short film, Straightboy Lessons, was awarded national finalist for Best Documentary in Planet Out’s Short Movie Award Competition (2000). Ray’s writing has been produced at EXIT Stage Left, EXIT Mainstage, BUILD and the Theatre Rhino in San Francisco. Grants include awards from the Massachusetts Council on the Arts, The Vermont Council on the Arts, The Film Arts Foundation (Personal Works), and the Serpent Source Foundation.

Jennifer is the Account Manager for the Film Studies department. She earned a BS in Business Administration at MSUM in 1991, and in December of 2008 she will graduate once again with a BS in Nursing and a Spanish minor.

Michael Stromenger is an award winning filmmaker who has written and directed several short films and one feature.  His latest short film, CUT, recently premiered at the Fargo Film Festival and has just started out onto the festival circuit.  He graduated from MSUM with a degree in Film Production and also has a degree in Music from the University of North Dakota.  In the past, Michael has worked as a professional video editor and a professional stage actor, appearing in numerous regional theatre productions over the years.  Michael's film work is primarily narrative based.  In addition to his A/V duties in the Film Department, Michael teaches Understanding Movies.