Elizabeth Ellsworth is Professor of Media Studies at the New School. Her research and teaching focus on the design of mediated learning environments; media, theories of becoming, and social change; and documentary media forms. Her scholarship addresses how media design creates possibilities for people to construct, share, and assess diverse ways of knowing. In Ellsworth’s recent role as Associate Provost for Curriculum and Learning, her work focused on cross-divisional and university-wide programs, with particular emphasis on new pathways and opportunities to both broaden and strengthen the academic experience through innovative ways of learning.


She is author of Places of Learning: Media, Architecture, Pedagogy (Routledge) and Teaching Positions: Difference, Pedagogy and the Power of Address (Teachers College Press). She translates results of her research and writing into media forms, exhibitions, and projects. Since 2000, Elizabeth has co-designed web-based media and content for a number of interdisciplinary online learning environments, including ExtremeMediaStudies.org. She is co-founder, with Jamie Kruse, of a nonprofit media arts collaboration Smudge Studio. Elizabeth earned her PhD in Communication Arts from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Programming