To be held on Friday, November 14th @12-1:30PM at the CEE lounge (located in Penn museum room 436), this workshop will be a space where we discuss the role of those documenting the lives of others in maintaining the dignity, personhood, and voices of those they cast their lens upon. This workshop seeks to promote an ethic of respectful, collaborative witnessing when documenting the lives of others, rather than a passive (and extractive) practice of capturing stories without regard for the people who live them. 

Some of the questions that will arise are: 

What it is to be the caretaker of the narratives of other persons?

What strategies are there to curating the transmission of stories while retaining the personhood of those in front of the lens?

How can we push academic ethnographic, photographic, and filmic practices to evolve into new, more respectful frameworks? 

In this workshop, each facilitator will present ~20 minutes on their own work and process, with the rest of the time open to a discussion about methodology and your own personal projects (which you are strongly encouraged to bring along)!

Aisha Mershani (they/them) was born in Las Vegas, Nevada to an American Jewish mother and a Moroccan Muslim father. Mershani holds a Bachelor’s degree in Sociology and Anthropology from the University of Redlands in California, and a Master’s and a Ph.D. degree from the UNESCO program in Peace, Development Studies, and Conflict Transformation at the Universitat Jaume I in Castelló de la Plana, Spain. From 2003-2022 Mershani focused on the Occupied Palestinian Territories. Aisha has photographed military checkpoints, popular demonstrations, house demolitions, destroyed villages, and the daily lives of Palestinians living under the violence of the Israeli occupation. Mershani’s photographs have been in multiple publications, as well as many internet news sites over the years to further the awareness of the ongoing situation on the ground in Palestine. Aisha is also one of the artists in the reference book, “Encyclopedia of Arab American Artists”.  Aisha Mershani is currently an Assistant Professor of Interdisciplinary Studies at Gettysburg College and combines their scholarly work with their media activism.

Katy Lena Ndiaye is a producer and filmmaker. She began her studies in modern literature
in Paris before moving to journalism in Brussels where she graduated from Ihecs.
As a filmmaker, Katy Lena’s works have been screened at international festivals (IDFA, FIFa,FIPA, FESPACO, JCC, Cinéma du Réel, IFFR, Sheffield, Hot-Doc...) and recognized for the distinctiveness of her approach. Her work focuses on contemporary Africa and its relationship to history and memory. In 2024, she was awarded from Chicken & Egg Pictures in the United States, a foundation that supports and mentors women and gender-expansive filmmakers, marking a significant milestone in the development of her career as both a director and producer. In 2013, Katy Léna Ndiaye founded IndigoMood Films, a Senegal-based production company conceived as a space for reflection and exploration on cinematic practice, that supports mostly first and second features. For over a decade, the company has been collaborating with artists and filmmakers. Rosine Mbakam (Cameroon), Alassane Diago and Mbaye Diop (Senegal), Joël Karekezi (Rwanda), Moïse Togo (Mali), Samira Hmouda (Morocco)... directors from diverse routes, with singular grammars, bringing together new
narratives. Over the years, Katy Lena Ndiaye has built up a catalog of titles selected or awarded at prestigious international festivals. Alongside her career in cinema, Katy Lena has worked for television, collaborating on over a hundred docs and TV interviews.