Material Detail

Professor Haratonik was interviewed via Skype by Laureano Ralon on February 11th, 2012 as part of the Figure/Ground Communication scholarly interview series: http://www.figureground.ca/interviews/

Peter Haratonik is Media Studies Chair and Associate Professor at The New School for General Studies, where he specializes in Media education, media and children, social effects of technology, media and urban issues. He began his career as an educator with the New York City Board of Education where he taught Social Studies and served as a media coordinator. As a student and eventual colleague of media theorist Neal Postman, he has continually addressed the issue of the need to understand media in relation to education in its broadest terms. He created one of the earliest programs in video production for middle school-students and wrote curricular materials on media education. He has lectured and consulted at a number of universities both in the United States and in Ireland, Turkey, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and China. Having served as department chair at three major universities, Haratonik’s expertise and interests are broad. He seeks to explore the relationships among academic research, media practice, and media management. He has also conducted extensive research on the life and work of social theorist, critic, and philosopher Lewis Mumford.