Eastern Mediterranean University Faculty of Communication and Media Studies’ former academic staff member Dr. Wilbert Skip Norman lost his struggle against cancer in Washington DC on Wednesday, 18 March 2015.
Skip Norman graduated from Berlin Film Academy in 1969. In 1976, he obtained an undergraduate degree on German Language from Ohio State University and a postgraduate degree on Cinema in 1979. Norman received his PhD degree from the same university in 1984 and worked at Radio, Television, and Film Department of the University of Southern Mississippi, Ohio University Fine Arts Academy and Howard University between 1984 and 1995. He also worked as a visiting scholar at Marion Technical College, the New University of Lisbon and the German Film and Television Academy. Skip Norman started to work at Eastern Mediterranean University Faculty of Communication and Media Studies Journalism Department in 1996.
During his service in EMU from 1996 to 2010, Skip Norman delivered lectures on an array of subjects such as photography, culture and communication, research methods, visual literacy, anthropological research methods, news photography, film theory, scenario and film analysis. Norman also supervised a number of master’s and PhD theses. He delivered presentations in conferences and has academic publications in numerous journals a few of which are Visual Anthropology Journal of Cyprus Studies, The Zora Neale Hurston Forum and Point of View: A Film Journal.
Skip Norman was at the same time a photography artist and transferred the “Etnographic Vision” exhibitions which started in the USA in 1995 to Northern Cyprus in 1998. 5th, 6th and 7th of these exhibitions took place in Famagusta and Nicosia.
Among his photography exhibitions were “Berlin-Maybachufer: A Visual Ethnography” which took place in Istanbul in October 2004, “Kaleburnu Archaeological Excavation” in October 2008, “The Juniper Tree” in May 2008, and “Kemal Deveci: The Collector of Memories” in May 2009.
Having worked on numerous film projects, Skip Norman worked with Dan Frodsham and Allan Langdale’s documentary entitled “The Stones of Famagusta: The Story of A Forgotten City” and produced a documentary focusing on the team working behind the cameras on Turkish Cypriot film director Derviş Zaim’s famous movie “Shadows and Faces”.
Following his funeral in the USA, a commemoration ceremony will be taking place at Eastern Mediterranean University Faculty of Communication and Media Studies. EMU Faculty of Communication and Media Studies Faculty Board has also decided to name the faculty’s photography studio as “Wilbert Skip Norman Photography Studio”.
