Emily Drummer, Visiting Assistant Professor of Film, received three prestigious awards—a MacDowell Fellowship, LEF Foundation grant, and a NYSCA Support for Artist Award—for her feature-length documentary film In the Keeping, which explores the human pursuit of an ideal image in the ever-changing, unwieldy body of a fish.

Centered on the life cycle of koi fish, an ornamental variety of the common carp, Emily’s film explores global trade, environmental history, and the commodification of nonhuman life. Using the fish as a vantage point, it exposes the hidden infrastructures that shape commodified animals, revealing a dynamic landscape where humans and the natural world are inextricably bound. Vassar’s Research Committee is also proudly supporting this project.