Research Interests
media literacy; media production; the politics of K-12 public education; social and economic justice; educational equity
Education
- Ed.D. (2014), Language, Literacy, & Culture, University of Massachusetts Amherst.
- M.F.A. (2003), Photography, University of Hartford.
- B.A. (1992), Literature, Bard College.
Biosketch
Kate Way is a longtime critical educator, photographer, and documentary filmmaker. She holds a M.F.A. in Photography and an Ed.D. with a focus on critical media literacy and the politics of K-12 Education. Before coming to UMass Lowell, Kate taught graduate students in Education at UMass Amherst and UMass Dartmouth. In her prior 20-year career as a high school English teacher, Kate specialized in working with students to use media arts to better understand contemporary social issues and affect social change. Kate’s major documentary film work includes "BANNED TOGETHER" (2024), a newly completed feature film about the recent wave of book bans in the United States. The film follows three student activists in South Carolina who fight back when 97 books are pulled from their school library shelves. "G is for Gun" (2018) – about the arming of teachers in U.S. public schools – premiered nationally on PBS WORLD in 2018 and was chosen to headline the Meet the Press Festival in Washington, D.C. the same year. "Stop Time" (2022) – a documentary film about an undocumented immigrant who took sanctuary during the Trump administration – is currently in distribution with New Day Films. Kate’s still photography has been exhibited and collected widely, and has been published in the New York Times, Mother Jones magazine, ZEKE, and many other online platforms.