Marsha Kinder
Professor of Cinema, Comparative Literature and Spanish
Director, The Labyrinth Project
USC School of Cinematic Arts
USC College of Letters, Arts and Sciences
The power of database structures is dramatically altering narrative possibilities, and for more than a decade Marsha Kinder has been a leading force in determining the direction these new modes of expression are taking.
As founding director of The Labyrinth Project at the USC Annenberg Center for Communication, Kinder has overseen the development of DVD-ROMs, interactive installations and Websites that have taken materials traditionally expressed in films and books and transformed them into award-winning database documentaries.
"We are inventing a new kind of interactive storytelling," Kinder says. "One that is formally experimental, intellectually challenging and emotionally compelling."
In addition to heading The Labyrinth Project, Kinder is a professor in the Division of Critical Studies in the USC School of Cinematic Arts, where she has been teaching since 1980. A prolific film scholar whose works on Spanish cinema ("Blood Cinema and Refiguring Spain") and children's media ("Playing with Power" and "Kids' Media Culture") have been particularly influential, Kinder is the author of more than 100 published essays and 10 books. In recognition of her innovative interdisciplinary research, she was named a University Professor in 2001.