Dr. Pablo Correa is the Program Director and Assistant Professor of the Digital Media and Communication program at the University of Saint Joseph in West Hartford, Connecticut. Previously, Correa was a visiting professor in the Civic Communication and Media department at Willamette University in Salem, Oregon. Correa specializes in digital media and documentary film with a special focus on the interests of minorities, especially Blacks and Hispanics in America. His work highlights racial relations, stories of tension, as well as stories of perseverance and success.

As a graduate student at Florida State University, Correa received the Bronze Award in the 2015 Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival (college documentary category) out of more than 350 documentaries. His documentary highlighted the civil rights movement in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. His film on the civil rights movement in Tallahassee, Florida, was screened during the 2017 Southern Margins Film Festival at Clemson University.

Currently, Correa works on projects commemorating Emmett Till and documenting the racial reconciliation movement in the Mississippi Delta. He has filmed a series of short videos for the Emmett Till Interpretive Center and served as the photographer for the Emmett Till Memory Project, an app now available in Android and Apple app stores.

Correa is currently working on the Fannie Lou Hamer’s America team as assistant videographer for the film, web designer, and co-instructor for the Young Filmmaker’s Workshop which instructs and empowers Mississippi delta high school students to tell their own stories through digital media.

Correa is from Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and hopes to teach and inspire others through documentary film.

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Education

Ph.D., Communication Theory, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL. (December 2018)

Dissertation title: "Spectacle Lynching and the NAACP's Push for Anti-Lynch Legislation: A Reception Study of the Claude Neal Lynching."

Dissertation advisor: Davis Houck, Ph.D.

M.A. Media/Communication Studies, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL. (August 2014)

Thesis passed with distinction.

B.A. Spanish, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL. (August 2012)

Professional Teaching Experience

08.2020 - Present

Program Director/Assistant Professor, Digital Media and Communication, University of Saint Joseph, West Hartford, Connecticut. Teaching load: 4/4 with course release for program director.

01.2019 - 05.2020

Visiting Assistant Professor, Civic Communication and Media, Willamette University, Salem, Oregon. Teaching load: 3/3.

Lead Instructor, College of Communication, Florida State University, Tallahassee, Florida. Teaching load: 2/2.

2014 - 2018

Graduate Teaching Assistant, College of Communication, Florida State University. Teaching load: 2/2. 

2012 - 2014

Courses Taught as Lead Professor

  • Foundations of Design (FIAR120)

  • Graphic Arts and Digital Design (FIAR123)

  • Contemporary Human Communication (COMM225)

  • Introduction to Mass Media (COMM103)

  • Social Media in Contemporary Society (COMM113)

  • Visual Storytelling I (COMM305)

  • Civic Media: Techniques (CCM245)

  • Visual Communication and Persuasion (CCM360)

  • Rhetorical Theory (CCM221)

  • Visual Rhetoric of Documentary Film (CCM360)

  • Media Techniques (RTV3001)

  • Single-Cam Video Production (RTV3531)

  • Visual Rhetoric of Documentary in the mid-20th Century (COM3930)

Professional Media & Video Experience

2016 - Present

Digital Media Developer, Fliplearning.com. Developed digital media videos, short animations, presentations, and online resources for an online textbook encouraging the “flipped” classroom environment.

2020 - 2021

Videography/Editing, Emmett Till Interpretive Center - Multifaceted grant funded project. Edited short videos using provided footage, archival footage, combined with new footage to highlight the contributions of Jerome Little to the Emmett Till Memorial Commission. Videos are used for a campaign to create a National Park location at the memorial site. Visit tillnationalpark.org. Additionally collected oral histories of local Mississippi civil rights trailblazers for collection at University of Mississippi and created 10 videos to accompany memorial sites on the Emmett Till Memory App.

Summer 2021

Film Instructor, Sunflower County Film Academy, Fannie Lou Hamer’s Find Your Voice. Lead instructor for the Find Your Voice Youth Filmmaker’s summer workshop in Sumner, MS. Through a collaboration with the Emmett Till Interpretive Center and Fannie Lou Hamer’s Find Your Voice, 21 high school students from the Mississippi Delta attended this two week, intensive filmmaking workshop.

2017 - 2019

Film Instructor, Assistant Camera, Drone Pilot, Fannie Lou Hamer’s Find Your Voice. Lead instructor for the Find Your Voice Youth Filmmaker’s summer workshop in the Mississippi Delta (Workshop held in Summer 2018). Assistant Camera/Drone Pilot for the Fannie Lou Hamer’s America feature-length documentary film. Fannie Lou Hamer’s America awarded the Better Angels/Lavine Fellowship, a new element of the Library of Congress Lavine/Ken Burns Prize for Film.

2018, Dec.

Set Design, Set Construction, and Production Grip for documentary project Charlotte Mansfield: WWII Military Photographer (Director, Writer, Producer, Brian Graves, Ph.D.) Premiered at GI Film Festival (San Diego), Showing on PBS channels nationwide.

2018, Jul.

Videography – Filmed interview for Dr. Davis Houck and Jerry Mitchell of the Clarion Ledger. Footage used in “Emmett Till expert: Lawyers in case pushed ‘justifiable homicide’ defense.” Published August 24, 2018.

2018, Mar.-Apr.

Videography –Recorded video interviews for the #AmLatino series for LETNetwork (Latin Entertainment Network) on Roku.

Videography – FSU library archives and Keith Beauchamp. Filmed interviews with surviving members of Emmett Till’s family, including Willie Wright and Thelma Edwards (Moses Wright’s children) and Wilma Wright Edwards (Moses Wright’s grandchild).

2018, Feb.

2018, Feb.

Media Production, Videography and Editing – Produced, filmed, and edited videos for Dr. Adrienne Stephenson of the Scholarships & Awards office at FSU for the Graduate Student Experience: Digital Narratives Project. Shot original footage, as well as utilized existing footage to edit short videos. (Example)

2017, Jul.-Aug.

Producer, Videographer, Editor – Emmett Till Interpretive Center and Emmett Till Memorial Commission in conjunction with Belinda Stewart Architects and financed through the Institute of Museum and Library Services, produced and edited three videos documenting racial reconciliation in Sumner, Mississippi.

2016, Oct.-Nov.

Assistant Camera – Assistant Camera for Director/Producer Brian Graves during Local History event to commemorate the Battle of the Negro Fort in Franklin County, Florida.

2016, Jun.-Jul.

Editor –Edit archival and historical clips together for event honoring Aquilina Howell by The National Association for the Preservation of African-American History & Culture, Inc.

2016, Feb.

Photographer –Emmett Till Memory App documenting 51 sites instrumental to the legacy of Emmett Till. Photographs were published via the Field Trip App in 2016, in the Emmett Till Memory Project App and site in 2019, and in print in Tell, Dave. Remembering Emmett Till (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, May 2019).

2015

Feature Editor –Seminole Sports Productions (enrolled in RTV4682). Edited features were broadcasted on the Seminole Sports Magazine program on the Florida Channel and on FSU YouTube. “Gotta Kick It Up,” “Florida State’s Softball Team Enlists in ‘The Program’ for Their Second Year of Boot Camp Training,” and “Women’s Basketball Season Tip Off Event.”

2013

Production Crew –Seminole Sports Volunteer: Camera assistant, shading, audio assistant, grip for filming of football, volleyball, and basketball games at FSU.

2013

ESPN Film Crew –Assisted ESPN film crews as grip during the filming of FSU football games.

Honors, Awards, and Prizes

Outstanding Teaching Assistant Award 2017-2018 Nominee (2018).

McKnight Doctoral Dissertation Fellow (2017-2018).

James T. Wills Scholarship in Communication, Florida State University (2014, 2015, 2017)

Outstanding Doctoral Teaching Assistant Award, College of Communication (2017).

Outstanding Teaching Assistant Award 2016-2017 Nominee (2017).

Mississippi Heritage Trust, Heritage Award for Education, Emmett Till Memory Project (2016).

Dr. Matthew A. Grindy Award (2016).

Bronze Award, Fort Lauderdale Film Festival College Documentary (2015)

Full Frame Fellow for the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival (2015)

Best Sound “Softball Bootcamp” Feature, Seminole Sports Magazine (2015)

Outstanding Research Assistant Award, Florida State University (2015)

Dean’s List, Florida State University (2009, 2010, 2012)

Research and Original Creative Work

Refereed Journal Articles

Graves, B. & Correa, P. (2015). Articulating cultural belonging at the border of the Heritage Corridor: Public communication and the preservation of North Florida’s Gullah / Geechee Culture. Florida Communication Journal, 43(1), 1-8.

Digital Humanities / Online Publications

The Emmett Till Memory Project. (2016/2019). The Emmett Till Memory Project is a collaboration among University of Kansas, Penn State University, and Florida State University to commemorate 51 locations in Mississippi as they intersect with the kidnap, murder and memory of Emmett Till. The project was contracted initially with Google and later transferred to Niantic Labs as part of its digital Field Trip app.  I was the principal photographer for the project. It is now available in the app store on Android and Apple devices. (Project Contributors: Pablo Correa, Davis Houck, Chris Spielvogel, Dave Tell).

Find Your Voice / Fannie Lou Hamer’s America. (2019 - ). A Multimodal project including a K-12 curriculum, a virtual driving tour, a feature-length documentary film, and a Young Film Maker’s Workshop.  Served as Assistant Cameraman, photographer for virtual tour, web design, and Co-Instructor of the Young Filmmaker’s Workshop. The workshop was funded through a Kellogg Foundation grant, this program provided a five-week filmmaker’s workshop to 17 students from the Mississippi Delta. Designed as a way for students to investigate and produce their own content. The goal of the program was to give students an opportunity, the skills, and a platform to document their stories. Student work premiered at Crossroads Film Festival in Mississippi and Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah. (Project contributors: Keith Beauchamp, Pablo Correa, Maegan Parker Brooks, Joy Davenport, R.J. Fitzpatrick, Davis Houck, Monica Land).

Presentations

Invited Public Presentations (Not Conferences)

  • Correa, P. (February 27, 2020). “Emmett Till, Fannie Lou Hamer, Civil Rights and Preserving History.” Invited Presenter at Fort Vancouver Regional Libraries, Vancouver, Washington.

  • Correa, P. (April 16, 2019). Mile of Choice program hosted by Restorative Justice Club, Invited Presenter to speak to a combined group of Mile of Choice at-risk students and incarcerated individuals enrolled the Oregon State Prison’s Black Cultural Club on my personal journey and the importance of continuing education. Held at Willamette University, Salem, Oregon.

  • Correa, P. (November 5, 2019). Digital Storytelling Workshop. Invited to present by Lambda Pi Eta honor society. Willamette University, Salem, Oregon.

  • Correa, P. (March 20, 2019). Digital Storytelling Workshop. Invited to present by Lambda Pi Eta honor society. Willamette University, Salem, Oregon.

Invited Keynote and Plenary Presentations at Conferences

Refereed Presentations at Conferences

  • Brooks, M., Correa, P., Davenport, J., & Rolph, S. (September 2018). “Mississippi Goddam”: Enriching Narratives of Movement Activism and (Re)Writing Narratives of Resistance. Panel at Race & Pedagogy Conference, University of Puget Sound, Tacoma, WA. (National)

  • Correa, P. (February 2018). The Lynching of Claude Neal: Howard Kester, Walter White and the 1935 Anti-Lynching Campaign. Research presented at McKnight Mid-Year Research and Writing Conference. Tampa, Florida. (Regional)

  • Correa, P. (presented 2016). Barrick Gold, Pueblo Viejo, and the Dominican Republic: Local and global tension examined. Paper presented at National Communication Association (NCA) Annual Conference, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. (National)

  • Correa, P. (presented 2016). Documentary film and the politics of the past: A comparative analysis of Beauchamp, Nelson, and Hampton's Emmett Till. Presented at National Communication Association (NCA) Annual Conference, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. (National)

  • Graves, B. & Correa, P. (presented 2015). Articulating cultural belonging at the border of the Heritage Corridor: Public communication and the preservation of North Florida’s Gullah / Geechee Culture. Presentation at the Popular Culture Association in the South and the American Culture Association in the South (PCASACAS) Annual Conference, Wilmington, North Carolina. (Regional)

Contracts and Grants

Correa, P. McKnight Doctoral Fellowship Grant. Florida Education Fund, $12,000 for the 2017-2018 school year to fund dissertation research, travel, and video equipment.

Land, Monica, P.I. Consultants: Keith Beauchamp, Maegan Parker Brooks, Pablo Correa, Joy Davenport, Davis Houck. Documentary film, Fannie Lou Hamer’s America and K-12 school curriculum, “Finding Your Voice, Kellogg Foundation, $272,000, awarded January 2018.

Weems, Patrick, P.I. and Pablo Correa (Consultant). Institute of Museum and Library Services Grant, $15,000 for four-week summer workshop for Tallahatchie Youth. Served as consultant to teach youth and produced three documentary films.