Savannah
Diploma, National Film and Television Institute; Diploma, Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design; M.A., London College of Printing; Pg.Certificate, Surry Institute of Art and Design; Ph.D., University for the Creative Arts, University of Brighton.
Charles daCosta is an animation history professor at SCAD. Previously he taught animation at the University of Westminster, media and cultural studies at the Kingston University and University College of the Creative Arts, and animation studies at Morley College and the London Center of Samford University, Birmingham, Ala. He also served as new media manager at the University of Reading in England and was a project manager for the European Commission's MEDIA initiative. In addition, daCosta has worked as a freelance photographer for COMPIX, the Commonwealth Institute's picture library; as a cameraman and photographer for a UNESCO expedition in the South Pole; and on several educational animation projects in Europe, Africa and South America. He has written, presented and participated in several conferences and led animation workshops Ghana, Nigeria and the UK.
Selected papers, publications and presentations:
- "Framing Invisibility: selective positioning of blacks in the Aardman Studio's work," San Francisco Calif., March 2008 and Bournemouth UK, July 2008
- "Current developments in popular animation: the British situation," Black History Month at Morley College, London, October 2005
- "Black portrayal in animation: A brief history," Black History Month at Morley College, London, October 2005
- "Making past perfect sense in clay: Britishness / Englishness in the works of Aardman Studios," Cartoons: The International Journal of Animation, Fall 2006
- "Oh dem negative images: How animation has been used to reinforce negative racist stereotypes," in BFM (Black Filmmaking Magazine), March 2004, Vol. 6, No. 23
Awards:
- UNESCO Special Envoy, Year of the Ocean, 1998
- Best Animation Film 1990, "The Human Reproductive System," National Film and Television Institute, Accra, Ghana
Memberships:
• Society for Animation Studies
• Society for Cinema and Media Studies
• American Popular Culture Association
Classes:
• Survey of Animation
• Media Theory and Animation
• Animation Studio 1 and 2