Dean Stephen Jones of the Brigham Young University College of Fine Arts and Communications has appointed Amy Petersen Jensen as chair of the Department of Theatre and Media Arts, effective immediately.
She replaces Rodger Sorensen, who was recently named an associate dean of the college.
Jensen is an associate professor in the department, and she also coordinates the undergraduate Theatre and Media Education Program as well as the Media Education Master’s Degree Program.
In addition to teaching and research, Jensen has directed the Theatre and Media Arts Department’s “Hands on a Camera” service-learning project, where BYU theatre and media education students work with in-service public school educators to train young people in media literacy and production skills.
A former public school teacher, Jensen earned a doctorate from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in theatre history, theory and criticism with a special emphasis in youth culture and media studies.
Recent book publications include “Theatre in a Media Culture: Production, Performance and Perception Since 1970” (McFarland & Company, 2007) and “(Re) imagining Literacies for Content-area Classrooms” (Teachers College Press, 2010), which she wrote and co-edited with colleagues from BYU.
She is the first vice-president of the National Association for Media Literacy Education, co-editor of the Journal of Media Literacy Education and serves on the editorial board for the Youth Theatre Journal. In 2009, Jensen received the Brigham Young University Young Scholar Award.
For more information, contact Amy Petersen Jensen at (801) 422-1886, apj@email.byu.edu.
