SVAD - School of Visual Arts & Design

Dr. Natalie Underberg is Associate Professor of Digital Media and Folklore in the UCF School of Visual Arts and Design (SVAD). She received her B.A. in Anthropology from U.C. Berkeley, and her M.A. and Ph.D in Folklore from Indiana University. Her research examines the use of digital media to preserve and disseminate folklore and cultural heritage, with a focus on ethnographic storytelling and collaborative methods of employing new media. She has established a reputation as a leader in the application of digital media to ethnographic studies, focusing on the digital adaptation of cultural materials and the social impact of new technologies, with the goal of responsibly integrating technology into cultural representations. Since coming to UCF, Dr. Underberg has had a central role in building two programs that provide the infrastructure for carrying out the community-oriented work on which her research is based. From 2003-2007 she was Program Coordinator for the UCF Cultural Heritage Alliance. In 2007, she founded and became Director of the Digital Ethnography Lab (www.digitalethnography.dm.ucf.edu), with the late anthropologist Dr. Elayne Zorn who was Associate Director. The Lab has the mission of working with artists and communities to develop innovative ways for sharing cultural stories and experiences using digital media. Most recently she is working with SVAD colleagues to develop a model for Collaborative Interactive Media Design (CIMD) based on the principles of Digital Ethnography, Visual Language, and Human-Computer Interaction.

With a focus on Latin American and African-American folklore and cultural heritage in Florida and Latin America, she has directed or co-directed 5 projects that involve a combination of ethnographic and archive research, collaborative work with folk artists and communities, and digital media representations of cultural stories and experiences. These projects include: the East Mims Oral History Website (2004-2005); Folkvine (2004-2007, Project Director Year III); Turkey Maiden Educational Computer Game (2005-2007); and Puerto Ricans in Central Florida 1940s-1980s: A History text panel and digital story exhibition (2008-2009). Her most current project is PeruDigital (2007-present), a trilingual Website about Peruvian folklore and cultural heritage (www.perudigital.org). Dr. Underberg’s research and projects have received international, national, and regional attention: the PeruDigital project was featured in a special issue of Anthropology News on multimedia and multisensory ethnography; the Folkvine project received the 2007 Dorothy Howard Award, Second Place, for leadership and excellence in Folklore & Education (co-recipient); the East Mims, Turkey Maiden, and Folkvine projects have been featured in the national resource guide Folk Arts in Education; and Dr. Underberg has been interviewed frequently about her specific research as well as the more general topics of folklore, Latin American traditional culture, and oral history in such venues as EFE (the leading international Spanish language news agency), El Nuevo Día (Puerto Rican newspaper), the Orlando Sentinel, St. Petersburg Times, and WMFE Arts Connection.

Dr. Underberg’s publications include articles in top-tier international journals including the Journal of American Folklore and Folklore, as well as articles in Visual Anthropology Review; International Digital Media Arts Journal; CENTRO: the Journal of the Puerto Rican Studies Association; Journal of Cultural Research in Arts Education; and Western Folklore. She is currently co-authoring a book on Digital Ethnography under contract with the University of Texas Press. Her research on folklore-oriented Website and computer game development are among the first to be published in folklore journals. She has been PI or co-PI on research and teaching grants totaling nearly $140,000. These include 2 Florida Humanities Council and 2 Florida Department of State Division of Cultural Affairs grants and being selected for the competitive National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Institute “Andean Worlds.” Her research has been presented at 14 national and international conferences, including the Bilan du Film Ethnographique seminar in Paris, France and the Digital Humanities Conference in Oulu, Finland (co-author).

Dr. Underberg has also made important contributions to curriculum development at UCF and to her profession in general. The courses she has developed and taught address the central role of story in new media content production, the societal implications of digital media, and contribute to the University’s five goals by providing an international, multicultural focus and seeking to increase diversity. Students she has mentored have won awards including best in category co-winner for the Arts and Humanities at the UCF Graduate Research Forum (faculty mentor) and UCF College of Arts and Humanities Innovative Thesis Award (M.F.A. committee member). At the regional level, Dr. Underberg has served as president of the Florida Folklore Society (2003-2005), during which time she organized two regional conferences. She has both designed and presented at educational programs on Florida folklife, oral history, and humanities in such diverse venues as the Florida Center for Teachers seminar Los Latinos: A View from Florida, and has given 15 talks on Hispanic folklore and cultural heritage preservation. At the national level, she has served as a Library of Congress Veterans History Project workshop facilitator (2002-2005), during which time she trained more than 100 members of the public in oral history methods; section co-convener of the Folk Narrative section of the American Folklore Society (2007-2009); and conference co-organizer of the 2010 Society for Amazonian and Andean Studies conference. She is a member of Phi Beta Kappa (inducted 1996).