Research Interests
media literacy; media production; the politics of K-12 public education; social and economic justice; educational equity
Education
- Ed.D. (2014), Language, Literacy, & Culture, University of Massachusetts Amherst.
- M.F.A. (2003), Photography, University of Hartford.
- B.A. (1992), Literature, Bard College.
Biosketch
Kate Way is a documentary filmmaker, photographer, and critical educator. Her research interests include media literacy and production, the politics of K-12 public education, social and economic justice, and educational equity. As a high school English teacher for twenty years, Kate specialized in working with students to use media arts to better understand contemporary social issues and to affect social change. Kate holds a M.F.A. in Photography and a doctorate in Language, Literacy, and Culture. She was most recently a Lecturer in the College of Education at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where she taught graduate courses in media studies and learning technologies. Kate’s major documentary work includes “G is for Gun,” a film that explores the highly controversial topic of K-12 schools arming teachers – currently in educational distribution through Bullfrog Films, it was nationally broadcast on the WORLD Channel in 2018 and was chosen to headline the Meet the Press Festival in Washington, D.C.. Kate’s documentary “Stop Time” (2022) tells the story of a father, husband and worker who took sanctuary in a Massachusetts church for over three years in defiance of a deportation order – it is being distributed by New Day Films. Kate is currently directing “97,” a feature documentary in post-production that explores the wave of conservative books bans sweeping the country – the film follows a group of teenagers in South Carolina who fight back when 97 titles are pulled from their school libraries. In addition to her documentary films, Kate’s still photography has been exhibited, collected, and published – most recently in a 2015 solo exhibit at A.P.E. gallery in Northampton, MA, and published in the New York Times and Mother Jones magazine in 2018.