This Is Who We Are

This Is Who We Are is a series featuring Columbia School of the Arts’ professors, covering careers, pedagogy, and art-making. 

Started in Fall 2020 by alumna Amanda Breen '21, 2021-2022 interviews were conducted by student Willam Hutton, and 2022-2023 interviews are conducted by student Carlos Barragán.

“Between coronavirus and politics, so much is frightening about the world right now that it almost feels like escapism to lose myself in the pages of a 100-year-old novel.”

Associate Professor Susan Bernofsky, Writing, Director of Literary Translation (LTAC)

Associate Professor Bogdan Apetri '06 shares his thoughts about the intersection of life experience and filmmaking, the art of cas

We talk with Associate Professor Wendy Walters about the interplay between poetry and nonfiction, the art of concealing knee-deep

Professor Lance Weiler shares his thoughts about the potential and challenges of generative AI, the importance of interdisciplinar

We talk with Professor Brian Kulick about theatre as a gamble, perseverance, and why the director should be the most patient perso

We talk with Professor James Schamus about the film industry as a dream factory in need of regulations, how we’re constantly creat

We talk with Assistant Professor Chloé Cooper Jones about writing as a safe space, the tension within the self, and how writers ca

We talk with Associate Professor of Visual Arts and Director of Sound Art Miya Masaoka about the tension between tradition and inn

We talk with Professor Jaquira Díaz about using the first person plural, writing about your own community, and why you should be w

Here, we talk with Professor Leslie Jamison about empathy on the page, why she sees herself as a bowerbird writer, and how teachin

Here, we talk with Assistant Professor of Visual Arts David Antonio Cruz about the artist’s greater responsibility, why the univer

Here, we talk with Professor Shane McCrae about why true poets are always abandoning themselves, how he starts writing poems, and

Here, we talk with Film and Media Studies Professor of Professional Practice Richard Peña about finding black holes in film histor