Cobb, Portia

pcobb@uwm.eduMitchell Hall, b73a; KSE studio 475

• Current LEC Teaching Fellow
• LEC Staff
• LEC Teaching Fellows

Portia Cobb is an Associate Professor, in the Department of Film, Video, Animation and New Genres, at University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and LEC Teaching Fellow.

Her creative portfolio is a fusion of poetic documentary, field recordings & digital photography. Research themes explore histories of place, forced forgetting and fractured black genealogy.

She is one of the principal investigators for the UWM lead Milwaukee Voices of Gun Violence Archive. Additionally, Portia is a recipient of the 2021 University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Faculty Distinguished Public Service Award - along with two other UWM professors who are team members for the Voices of Gun Violence archive in Milwaukee. Learn more about the Gun Violence Archive here.

Fun Fact:

Portia is an avid urban farmer and member of Alice’s Urban Garden and Farm-and a former Reggae on vinyl D.J.

LEC Teaching Fellows Information:

Portia Cobb is a video artist and producer of short experimental documentaries whose videos and installations have been exhibited nationally and internationally. Her work often investigates the politics of place and identity. Portia currently teaches both introductory upper level production and cross-disciplinary topical elective offerings in the department ranging from Radical Cinemas; Radical Black Film; Experimental Ethnography and a capstone course in film (Multicultural America). Additionally, Portia is a principal researcher, leading the creative team for the UWM Gun Violence Archive with Department of Communication professors Leslie Harris, Erin M. Parcell with Debra Gilispie (founder of Mothers against Gun Violence).

Read more about the Gun Violence Archive here, and learn more about Portia's artistic works here.

Courses

FILM 150 - Multicultural America

FILM 301 - Conversations with Filmmakers and Critics

FILM 319 - Film Genres:Radical Black Cinema

FILM 900 - Graduate Studio