University of Toledo to honor classmate Charlene Gilbert

The University of Toledo chapter of the Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi will hold its initiation ceremony for new members Sunday, April 25. In addition to the undergraduate and graduate students who will be inducted into the honor society, the Class of 1987’s Charlene Gilbert, director of the Catharine S. Eberly Center for Women and professor of women’s and gender studies will be inducted.

Charlene is a tenured full professor in Women's and Gender Studies and Theater and Film. For the past 16 years Gilbert has been an independent documentary filmaker, teacher and scholar. She is national producer for public television and her current projects include an experimental media project on Henrietta Lacks, the HeLa Cells and Bioethics. Her current research interests are focused on Race, Gender and the Media in US national elections, Cyber Communities and Constructions of Gender and Transgender Identities in Popular Media.

As an independent documentary filmmaker, Charlene Gilbert has produced two award-winning feature documentaries and several short non-ficiton films. Her first feature documentary film, Homecoming Sometimes I am Haunted by Memories of Red Dirt and Clay, (click here for more on this film) premiered nationally on PBS and won several national awards include the NBPC (1999) and Paul Robeson (2000) Awards for Best Documentary. Ms. Gilbert also co-authord, with Quinn Eli, a companion book to the file entitled Homecoming: The Story of African American Farmers published by Beacon Press. Her documentary, Children Will Listen, (click here for more on this documentary) which followed children from DC public schools engaged in a year long theater arts project, premiered at the 2004 AFI Silverdocs Documentary Festival and had its national primtime PBS broadcast premiere in the fall of 2004. Her films and videos have been screened in numerous international and national festivals including: The Women in the Director's Chair Festival, the Chicago International Television Festival, FESPACO, the Athens International Film and Video Festival and the Philadelphia Festival of World Cinema.

In addition, Gilbert has presented papers, lectures and participated in roundtable discussions at the American Studies Association, the Society of Cinema Studies, The National Women's Studies Conference, the University Film and Video Association and numerous of other conferences throughout the U.S. Gilbert is also a sought after lecturer who has been invited to give talks at Duke University, Columbia University, Clemson University, SUNY Buffalo, Purdue University and The University of Milwaukee. Gilbert is also the receipient of several awards and fellowships including the Rockefeller Media Fellowship, Harvard University's Bunting Fellowship, and the Kellogg National Leadership Fellowship award.

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