I am a scholar, filmmaker, and sound ethnographer interested in the relationships between place, travel, and sensory heritage. My short films have screened at FLEX Fest, Big Muddy, and the Margaret Mead Film & Video Festival. I have produced sound ethnographies of New York City and South Dakota’s Black Hills and have written articles for Contemporary Music Review, Ethnoscripts, and Mediapolis. I have a Master’s in Philosophy and a Master’s in Film, both from the University of Amsterdam. I earned my PhD with distinction from the Department of Media, Culture, and Communication at New York University in 2015. I co-directed the Collaborative Studio at UnionDocs Center for Documentary Art in 2017 and was a Fejos Fellow in Ethnographic Film with the Wenner-Gren Foundation in 2018.

I currently teach film courses for Rutgers Arts Online and at the Rutgers Filmmaking Center in New Brunswick, NJ. I also regularly teach in the School of Media Studies at The New School in New York City. I am (very slowly) writing a science-fiction novel about stone tape theory in South Dakota and completing Sounding Western, a film and community-engagement project about Lakota aural sovereignty. When I’m not teaching, I advocate for inclusive public education in Princeton, New Jersey. I also dream of directing a sci-fi western, and (one day!) hiking the Continental Divide. I recently completed my DJ training at WPRB in Princeton and hope to be on air very soon!!

CONTACT: jenheuson [at] gmail.com or jen.heuson [at] rutgers.edu or jheuson [at] newschool.edu