Jacqueline L. Olive Joins Duke and UNC as 2026–28 Lehman Brady Visiting Professor

Award-winning filmmaker, immersive media producer, and educator Jacqueline L. Olive has begun her two-year appointment as the 2026–28 Lehman Brady Joint Visiting Associate Professor of American Studies and Documentary Studies at the Duke Center for Documentary Studies (CDS) and the Department of American Studies at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. Olive will make her first visit to Duke and UNC this week as she begins work on a new public engagement initiative documenting the foundational role of Black musical traditions in North Carolina within Americana genres.

“When making my first film, Always in Season, I moved from California to North Carolina to be closer to the story unfolding in Bladenboro,” says Jacqueline L. Olive. “North Carolina has profoundly shaped me, and I am eager for the opportunity to contribute to it in return.”

Olive’s work explores African American life and the cultural landscapes of the American South through documentary film and immersive storytelling. North Carolina has been central to that work. Her documentary Always in Season, which follows a mother’s search for justice after the 2014 death of her son in Bladenboro, North Carolina, received the Sundance Special Jury Prize for Moral Urgency and aired on Independent Lens (PBS). During the film’s production, Olive relocated to North Carolina for several years, an experience that deepened her connection to the state and shaped her approach to community-engaged documentary practice. 

Her other projects include the Peabody Award-winning virtual reality experience Always in Season Island, the Emmy-nominated series Lincoln’s Dilemma (Apple TV+); and The Color of Cola, a feature documentary directed with Stanley Nelson and slated for release in 2027. Olive is currently developing African Americana, a feature documentary inspired by Marlon Riggs’ Black Is… Black Ain’t. The film examines Black American identity through the experiences of Black musicians reclaiming country, bluegrass, and folk music as part of a broader Black musical tradition that has fundamentally shaped the American sound.

“The joint appointment across Duke and UNC-Chapel Hill — along with CDS — offers a uniquely generative framework, bringing together strengths in documentary practice, American Studies, African American Studies, music history, and ethnography,” says Olive.

During the first year of the professorship in 2026-27, Olive will make a series of visits to Duke, UNC-Chapel Hill, and communities across North Carolina to build relationships with faculty, students, and community partners while developing a new public engagement initiative, Roots & Reclamation: Black Musical Traditions and Americana in North Carolina. The initiative will combine documentary research, oral history, community engagement, and public programming to explore the state’s rich Black musical traditions and their continuing influence on American culture. Planned activities include a participatory oral history project, community screenings, public conversations, performances, and an interdisciplinary symposium.

“The goal of Roots & Reclamation is to create a sustained, public-facing platform that connects university communities with regional histories and lived experience,” says Olive. “This project model takes the form of public humanities research in which film, community engagement, and knowledge production evolve in tandem.”

In the 2027-28 academic year, Olive will be in residence to advance her public engagement project, conduct research, teach courses at Duke and UNC-Chapel Hill, and engage in public presentations and community-based programming. Her teaching will draw on documentary practice, American Studies, oral history, and collaborative storytelling, providing students opportunities to participate in community-engaged research and documentary production.

“My teaching is grounded in interdisciplinary, project-based learning that brings theory and production into conversation.”

Olive has previously taught courses at the University of California, Santa Cruz’s Social Documentation MFA Program in production, fieldwork, ethics, and documentary research methods. She has also served as a guest lecturer at Yale University, American University, Wake Forest University, and other institutions, and has held fellowships with the Sundance Institute and Harvard University’s Shorenstein Center.

“My teaching is grounded in interdisciplinary, project-based learning that brings theory and production into conversation,” Olive says. “I encourage students to approach documentary with curiosity and care as a way of learning from and creating knowledge together with the people and communities they engage.”

Olive also plans to engage students in discussions about emerging technologies and documentary practice, including the opportunities and ethical challenges presented by AI, immersive media, and other evolving storytelling forms.

The Lehman Brady Visiting Joint Chair Professorship is supported by two Duke endowment funds, one established by the Lyndhurst Foundation and the other by the bequest of Lehman Brady. The previous holder of the professorship was artist and filmmaker Elizabeth M. Webb.

The Lehman Brady Visiting Joint Chair Professorship is coordinated by the Duke Center for Documentary Studies with the Department of American Studies at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. The professorship brings distinguished documentary artists, scholars, and practitioners to both campuses for teaching, research, and public engagement.