Laura Asherman

Laura Asherman, Director of Ethics and the Arts, is a documentarian, stop-motion animator, and sculptor. After growing up in Cambridge, Massachusetts, she moved to Georgia to attend Emory (BA ‘12), where she began observing and documenting Southern stories. She is interested in the manifestation of intergenerational trauma, environmental racism, and artists who use their work for social justice. Her recent films use humor as a lens to explore climate change, personifying animals to examine the Anthropocene.  

Asherman earned an MFA in Experimental and Documentary Arts from Duke University in 2023, where she participated in a yearlong fellowship at Duke’s Kenan Institute for Ethics. In 2022, she co-directed Crisis of Substance, a Southeast Emmy-winning PBS documentary about the opioid epidemic in Georgia. Through her production company, Forage Films, Asherman directed and shot documentaries aired on PBS, VICE, and HBO and content for brands such as Red Lobster, Parents Magazine, and Colgate. Her independent films have played at RiverRun, Maryland, Sidewalk, Atlanta Jewish, and Cucalorus film festivals, among others. Between 2018 and 2020, Asherman served as a Kiva fellow and created videos in Cambodia, Thailand, Laos, Uganda, Rwanda, Kenya, and Guatemala. 

As Director of Ethics and the Arts, Asherman aims to help build relationships between Emory students and Atlanta’s vibrant arts and activist communities. She hopes to bring the conversation about ethical documentation practices to the forefront by fostering these connections. Finally, Asherman intends to harness the power of the Emory community to support local artists.