Amy AidmanSenior Lecturer Emeritus, Film and Media

I have taught courses on Children and Media, History of American Television and an Introduction to Media Studies, a team taught course which is foundational for Media Studies students. I began teaching in Emory's Department of Film and Media since 2010 and in 2014-2015 served as Interim Chair. My areas of expertise include children, families and media, critical media literacy, and the history of U.S. television.I started at Emory in 2008, initially as a Senior Research Fellow at the Emory Center on Myth and Ritual in American Life (MARIAL) where I conducted research on media, myth, and ritual in families with teens.

Before coming to Atlanta, I was Associate Dean for Research at the University of Illinois' College of Media, and taught at the Institute of Communications Research (ICR), where I also served as ICR Interim Director and Head of the program in Media Studies and taught at the Graduate School of Library and Information Science.

During the early 2000's I was the Research Director for the Center for Media Education in Washington D.C., dealing with children's media policy issues.I also worked with the ERIC Clearinghouse on Elementary and Early Childhood Education and the National Parent Information Network, managing their AskERIC project, one of the first online question answering services, and oversaw the creation of a statewide electronic information service for parents and families in Illinois. In 1996-97, I was a Visiting Lecturer at the University of Haifa's Department of Communication.

I am co-author of Media and the Make-Believe Worlds of Children: When Harry Potter Meets Pokemon in Disneyland, an international study of children's fantasies and their relationship to media.I also write about children's media content and issues. Currently I am working on a research-based script about families and media, which will be used to raise awareness about the role of new and old media in family life.

Before starting my doctoral studies I was a video and film producer in the U.S. and Israel and continue to be interested in media-making and story telling.

Education

• PhD, Communications, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, 1993
• MA, Telecommunication Arts, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor,
• One Year Overseas Program, Hebrew University, Jerusalem, Israel,
• BS, Journalism and Mass Communication, University of Florida,