Amizade Faculty Instructors

Name: Jennifer Saffron

Faculty Biography: Jennifer Saffron is an instructor in English and Film Studies at the University of Pittsburgh, and also teaches photographic practicum and history at the Art Institute of Pittsburgh.  She is the founding director of the University of Pittsburgh's PITT ARTS program, and is a former assistant dean and assistant to the Provost at that same institution.

Jen teaches courses such as the Photography of War, Conflict and Protest; Photography and its Social and Political Context; Individual in Society; and Race and Class in American Photography.  She has also taught photography and video service-learning courses in Northern Ireland, Jamaica, and the Navajo Nation.

Jen earned her MFA in photography from Bard College, and has studied and exhibited in Prague.  She has most recently exhibited at Silver Eye Center for Photography and SPACE gallery, having produced community-based photography, ethnography, and social documentary for 20 years.   Recent projects include curating an exhibition of photography for SPACE Gallery, entitled CONFLICT, and creating a short documentary video about youth dragon boating.

In addition to teaching, Jen initiated and directed a multi-year research project regarding young adult arts audiences as the University of Pittsburgh's director of PITT ARTS.  The research resulted in a significant increase in college-age audiences at Pittsburgh arts venues.  She co-authored a monograph about this research, entitled A Study of Young Adult Arts Participation (2003).   Jen is an arts activist in the non-profit community, serving on boards of directors for Bricolage Theater Company, the New Hazlett Theater and Pittsburgh Filmmakers.