Dear UFVA Members,
Welcome to 2025! As we continue to navigate this era of transition, we embrace the new year with fresh ideas and an innovative vision for the UFVA. This year promises to be transformative, beginning with the UFVA Virtual Conference on January 15, 2025. UFVA Conference Vice President Chrissy Guest has curated a fantastic exhibition of scholarly presentations. Please mark your calendar and register for this deeply enriching event. Conference registration is now open, and we hope you will attend!
We will continue into the spring with our UFVA Speaker Series, hosted by our various caucus groups. These sessions aim to amplify our caucus groups as resources for networking and community-building while creating change and innovative solutions to our ever-evolving field. Both the virtual conference and the speaker series, along with the publication of the Journal of Film and Video, will lead up to a historic milestone—the first UFVA national conference hosted at a Historically Black College or University (HBCU), Prairie View A&M University, July 22-26, 2025. The year ahead promises exciting, inspiring, and affirming programs and opportunities for our members.
Los Angeles…
While we celebrate these accomplishments, we must also acknowledge the hardship facing the city that serves as the mecca of our industry. Los Angeles is enduring the most devastating wildfires in its recorded history. Many of our colleagues and friends have lost their homes, communities, and personal connections that define wholeness. Over the coming months, UFVA will rally to support our friends and colleagues in the LA area in any way we can. We welcome ideas and suggestions for ways we can help those in need. Feel free to email me directly or any member of our board so we can execute a plan of action and support for our brothers and sisters on the West Coast.
The HBCUxUFVA Initiative
Stepping into my role as UFVA President required me to transition from chairing the HBCUxUFVA Initiative, a promising effort to introduce more HBCUs and MSIs to our organization’s invaluable resources. I am thrilled to announce that Ms. Roxana Walker-Canton of the University of Maryland Eastern Shore will be the new chair. As we move toward our 79th Annual National Conference this summer, the HBCUxUFVA Initiative will highlight the importance of outreach and inclusion in our field.
I am excited to share a special message from Prof. Walker-Canton herself, introducing her vision for the initiative:
Dear UFVA Colleagues,
Happy New Year! I hope you all had a restful break, spent quality time with family and friends, and got in some well-deserved self-care before the new semester begins. I spent my break with family, playing lots of pickleball and line dancing—two of my favorite ways to stay healthy and tap into that youthful, carefree spirit that makes being young so memorable. I’m especially excited to be line dancing at a Black trail ride in 2025! For those unfamiliar, Black trail rides are cultural events in rural Southern communities that celebrate the history and traditions of Black cowboys and formerly enslaved Black people. These gatherings may span a couple of days and feature large-scale horseback riding, food, music, dancing, and a strong emphasis on family and community. For me, though, it’s the line dancing that has me hooked! (Take a minute to check out some on TikTok or YouTube.) There’s something about the energy in African American line dancing that makes me believe if we come together as one, we can move mountains.
It’s with great pleasure that I introduce myself as the new Chair of the HBCUxUFVA – Bridging the Gap Initiative, a new initiative established by our dynamic and progressive president, Dr. Terésa Dowell-Vest. I’m Roxana (Roxy) Walker-Canton, Associate Professor of Digital Media Studies in the Department of English and Modern Languages at the University of Maryland Eastern Shore, one of Maryland’s Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs). This initiative aims to create meaningful opportunities for HBCU faculty to engage with UFVA in ways we’ve never seen since the organization’s founding in 1947. The goal is to make UFVA a place where colleagues from HBCUs are eager to connect, share their scholarly and creative work, form collaborations, amplify voices that have historically been underrepresented, and strengthen tenure and promotion portfolios, ultimately helping to build the media professoriate at HBCUs.
As we start the year, we reflect on new beginnings and transformative actions. Across the country, many of us will face a fresh set of challenges with the change in presidential administrations. The incoming administration has already made concerning decisions about public education and taken steps to undermine national diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives—efforts that have been built over generations of civil rights work. While the HBCUxUFVA initiative is long overdue, it couldn’t come at a more crucial time. This year’s annual conference will open a space for progressive energy and resistance to the current push to dismantle DEI efforts. It will mark the first time in UFVA’s 78-year history that the conference is held at an HBCU! I’m thrilled to serve as Chair of the HBCUxUFVA initiative as we gather at Prairie View A&M University in Prairie View, TX, for this historic moment—particularly as we stand against ongoing efforts to erode civil rights gains.
I’m excited to build on the important
work Terésa began with virtual roundtable discussions that brought together HBCU faculty, UFVA members, industry professionals, scholars, and producers to address critical issues in pedagogy, agency, access, empowerment, and more. Please keep an eye out for upcoming events and opportunities to collaborate with HBCU faculty and students in creating new beginnings and transformative actions. Come on this trail ride with me, and as the young folks say, let’s stand on business and make this year one to remember!
Here’s to a powerful semester ahead, and let’s make this year’s conference the highest in attendance and participation yet!
Take care,
Roxy
Thank you, Roxy, for your willingness to serve and for introducing PICKLEBALL to the UFVA this summer! We’re READY!!
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If you have any questions about membership renewal or the Virtual Conference, please do not hesitate to contact Pamela Ueno at home@ufva.org. Your active involvement and continued support have been pivotal to UFVA’s success, and we sincerely appreciate all you have contributed to this vibrant community.
Wishing you a fantastic start to 2025 and a productive spring semester!
Warm regards,
President, University Film and Video Association