Meet Niklas Vollmer, a CLD affiliate!
Niklas has been involved with the Center for Leadership in Disability (CLD) since piloting the Inclusive Digital Expression and Literacy (IDEAL; http://disability.publichealth.gsu.edu/ideal/) Program in 2013. He now co-directs IDEAL with Dr. Andy Roach, Associate Director of CLD. He also creates experimental documentaries and teaches filmmaking in the newly formed School of Film, Media & Theater (FMT; http://fmt.gsu.edu/) at Georgia State University (GSU).
Until conversations began with the CLD focused on breaking institutional barriers at GSU regarding students’ intellectual disabilities, Professor Vollmer always perceived his classrooms to be inclusive. As an artist-filmmaker with no formal training tied to disability and inclusion, he “greatly appreciate[s] what my savvy and committed colleagues [at] the CLD have taught me and how they support IDEAL”.
Prof. Vollmer has always employed the camera to amplify stories from the periphery as well as for experimental means in his research and teaching; thus, “working with the CLD to best serve the emerging artist/media-maker students in the IDEAL Program is a natural extension of these impulses”. In future work and partnering with the CLD, he would like to engage in more research-specific initiatives tied to the CLD and IDEAL Program, including participatory research that engages the IDEAL students as researchers and pushes and enhances disciplinary boundaries for all involved.
Thank you, Niklas, for all you do for the CLD!