Dotty Hamilton, Ph.D.
Dean, School of Visual and Communication Arts
Phone: 816-501-3646
email: dotty.hamilton@avila.edu

Dotty Hamilton is Dean of the School of Visual and Communication Arts and the Chair of the Communication Department.  She teaches classes in film history and oversees the Senior Seminar Portfolio and student internships.  Hamilton is a Visiting Professor at the University of Pecs in Hungary where she has taught week long seminars in independent film and documentary film history since 2002.  She has served as the Vice President of Programming for the Kansas International Film Festival since 2003.  www.kansasfilm.com

Her research interests and conference presentations center around the history and practices of the Motion Picture Production Association in rating movies.  Hamilton is on the Board of the International Visitors Council of Kansas City (www.kcivc.org) and active in the University's global initiative on campus.

Philosophy of Teaching: I believe students need a combination of ideas and skills to prepare themselves for the future.  Our program is set up to give students lots of opportunities to learn and practice their skills with real clients and to challenge them to think about the role of media in everyday life.  We have a fun and active program, but the students work very hard. My goal is to make sure that students can get good jobs in their field when they leave Avila.

Recent activities:

• Taught at University of Pecs in Hungary for the entire fall 2009 semester t as Visiting Professor, teaching American film history and documentary film history and theory. See her blog about the trip Land of Paprika
• Chosen to participate in a 5 week Fullbright-Haynes summer trip to Morocco in 2008 to study Moroccan history, culture and film.
• Name as one of the Judges to the Kansas Film Commission's Free State State Traveling Picture Show in 2009. www.ksfilmoffice.com/FSTPS
• Named to a National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship at University of Central Florida in June 2001.
• "The Talk,"a short documentary was shown at Kansas City Filmmaker Jubilee in April 2002.