Chair of the Department of Communication & Performing Arts
Associate Professor of Communication
Marek Dojs is an award-winning filmmaker, educator, and scholar whose work spans documentary film, media production, storytelling, communication and media studies, history, and memory studies. His scholarship is grounded in the Catholic intellectual tradition, particularly its emphasis on truth, human dignity, and the formative power of culture and communication. He is currently a PhD candidate (ABD) in Holocaust & Genocide Studies at Gratz College.
His research focuses on inherited memory, archival photography, and digital media in the post-witness era. He is especially interested in narrative construction, visual ethics, and the transmission of historical trauma across generations. His creative and scholarly work is shaped by an ongoing engagement with questions of identity, history, and responsibility in mediated cultural environments.
As an educator, Dojs is committed to integrating media production and storytelling with critical thinking, working across the intellectual and creative dimensions of communication studies. His teaching emphasizes creative practice, media literacy, and ethical storytelling, with a focus on forming students as thoughtful and capable communicators who can engage contemporary culture with both technical skill and moral imagination.
His work is also informed by the writings of St. John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI on social communication and media culture, particularly their articulation of communication as a responsibility oriented toward the pursuit and presentation of truth and the dignity of the human person. Across teaching, research, and service, he seeks to cultivate a scholarly and creative practice attentive to the ethical demands of representation and the possibilities of meaningful cultural engagement.
M.F.A. in Documentary Film, University of North Texas
B.A. in History and Communication, University of St. Thomas
Selected Published Work:
The Vanishing Point: Tracing Shadows in Prussian Blue. Documentary, 20 min. 2023.
An exploration of memory, identity, and photography – delving into the shadows of Auschwitz through four photographs.
Crossing the Bridge: Finding Mutual Language in Siberia. Documentary, 47min. 2021.
Two Native American students encounter indigenous cultures throughout Siberia, leading to a deeper understanding and appreciation of their own cultures.
Return to Stołowicze. Documentary, 9 min. 2008.
In February 1940 Irena was deported from her village, Stołowicze, Poland. 70 years later, her grandson feels called to journey to the small village now in Belarus.