Stephanie Sapienza

Stephanie develops, coordinates and implements digital research projects which foster collaborations between MITH and other library, archival, or cultural heritage organizations. This includes working directly with UMD Libraries on special projects, as well as with other UMD departments and outside institutions on developing new projects and partnerships.

Stephanie’s research revolves around the intersections between digital humanities, libraries, and audiovisual archives: how archival audiovisual media objects function as primary historical documents, and what kind of digital resources and user interfaces facilitate the means for exploring that media in the context of its original production and reception. 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.