Bill Shewbridge is Professor of the Practice in the University of Maryland, Baltimore County’s Department of Media and Communication, teaching courses in intercultural media, television production and digital storytelling. He is Executive Producer and founding Director of the UMBC New Media Studio where he focuses on advancing media literacy and exploring new technologies for learning.
At UMBC, Bill spearheads the Digital Storytelling initiative (stories.umbc.edu), which promotes the integration of digital literacy throughout the curriculum. He has led several university community-based collaborative projects including the “Charlestown Digital Story Project” and has published articles and chapters on storytelling as a pedagogical method.
Other ongoing interdisciplinary projects include “Baltimore Traces,” (baltimoretraces.org) a collaborative teaching innovation that brings together UMBC classes from a variety of disciplines to create media focused on Baltimore residents and neighborhoods and the “Mill Stories” project (millstories.org) which preserves the intangible legacy of Baltimore’s Sparrows Point Steel Mill through recorded interviews and documentary films collected on the project website. The “Mill Stories” documentary won a 2017 Telly Award and was shown at over 25 international festivals, conferences and community screenings.
As a producer, Bill has worked with a number of external clients, including USDA Forest Service, National Geographic Learning, Maryland Traditions, the National Endowment for the Humanities and the National Endowment for the Arts.
Bill has also worked extensively in partnership with Maryland Traditions, the state’s folklife program for more than ten years. Documentary films created with Maryland Traditions are showcased on the website mdfolklife.org. These films have screened internationally at conferences and festivals.
In 2008 the New Media Studio received the New Media Consortium’s (NMC) Center of Excellence Award in recognition of UMBC’s digital story work. Bill serves on the NMC’s “Horizon Report” advisory board and on the executive committee of the Ethnografilm Paris festival.
Originally from Frederick County, Maryland, Bill holds a B.A. in History from UMBC, an M.S. in Instructional Design from Towson University, a Certificate in Environmental Studies from the Johns Hopkins University and a Doctorate of Communication Design (D.C.D.) from the University of Baltimore.
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