Meet our staff
Learn more about the staff involved in the continued success of the Center for Documentary Research and Practice.
Joshua Malitsky
Director
Joshua Malitsky is the director of the CDRP, an associate professor at The Media School, and adjunct faculty in the Russian and East European Institute, the Department of Slavic and East European Languages and Cultures, and the Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies.
He works on a range of topics related to documentary and other nonfiction media genres, focusing on films made as part of revolutionary political movements in East Europe (USSR and Yugoslavia) and Latin America (Cuba). He has published several articles on documentary history and theory including topics such as nonfiction film and nation-building, the relationship between documentary and science, the conceptual intersections between both documentary studies and science studies and between documentary studies and linguistic anthropology, and the sports documentary.
He teaches courses on contemporary and historical issues in documentary, ethnographic film, 1920s Soviet cinema and art, media theory, media authorship, film and propaganda, Marxism and cinema, and sports media.
Barbara Truesdell
Assistant director
Barbara Truesdell administers the CDRP’s projects, events, and grants. She manages the center’s Oral History Archive and has provided consultations and training workshops on oral history best practices since 1992.
Truesdell also serves as the program administrator of the Arnolt Center for Investigative Journalism and teaches a summer evening class on oral history methodology in the Department of Information and Library Science in the School of Informatics, Computing, and Engineering.
She was one of the original stakeholders in IU’s Media Digitization and Preservation Initiative and one of the founding members of the IU Bicentennial Oral History Project. She has been a member of the IU Bloomington Human Subjects Committee since 2008.
She has a doctorate of folklore and American studies from IU.
Khurram Nawaz Sheikh
Graduate assistant
Khurram Sheikh is a PhD candidate at the Media School whose research explores the intersections of Migration and Cinema within the field of postcolonial studies, diaspora cinema, and film festival studies. He focuses on diaspora artists and filmmakers through an institutional lens, particularly film festivals and collectives, to examine contemporary film practices. His work investigates how migrant experiences through films are shaped by identity, nationhood, regionalization, and transnational movements. Professionally, Khurram has worked as the Co-Director of In Light Film Festival 2024. He has taught the Film Festivals course (Fall 2023) and has been a fellow of Decolonizing Muslim Women in Media (2022-2023), and Film Talents (2017-2018).
Daisy Stricler
Undergraduate Assistant
Daisy Stricler is currently pursuing a B.F.A. in Cinematic Arts at Indiana University Bloomington, concentrating on documentary filmmaking and biopics. She is passionate about uncovering and sharing underrepresented stories and bringing awareness to diverse perspectives, ensuring that voices often overlooked are heard. Her work focuses on interpersonal narratives, as she strives to make a meaningful impact through documentary cinema.