Santos, John Phillip

Originally from San Antonio, Texas, John Phillip Santos is a producer, journalist and author whose work examines intersecting concerns of media, culture, and identity. He was a program officer in the Media, Arts, and Culture unit of the Ford Foundation, where he managed a $40 million portfolio of grants supporting new media productions [radio, TV and film] and the development of public interest channels and networks around the world. Prior to joining the Foundation, he produced over forty broadcast documentaries on culture, religion, politics and spirituality for CBS News. He is the author of the family memoir Places left unfinished at the time of creation, which was nominated for the National Book Award in 1999.

From the description of John Phillip Santos papers, 1974-2008. (University of Texas at San Antonio). WorldCat record id: 428982615

Originally from San Antonio, Texas, John Phillip Santos is a producer, journalist and author whose work examines intersecting concerns of media, culture, and identity. For six years, he was a program officer in the Media, Arts, and Culture unit of the Ford Foundation, where he managed a $40 million portfolio of grants supporting new media productions [radio, TV and film] and the development of public interest channels and networks around the world. Prior to joining the Foundation, he was an executive producer and director of new program development for Thirteen/WNET in New York City, and was also producer of over forty broadcast documentaries on culture, religion, politics and spirituality for CBS News. These programs were produced in sixteen countries and deal with such subjects as liberation theology, Islamic fundamentalism, the AIDS epidemic, new religious movements, and eco-theology. Numerous programs for CBS and PBS were nominated for documentary Emmys.

Santos was elected as a Rhodes Scholar in 1979 and holds degrees in English Literature and Language from Oxford University, and Philosophy and Literature from the University of Notre Dame. He has worked extensively as a journalist, doing arts and culture reviews and features for the San Antonio Express-News, along with opinion pieces for a wide variety of newspapers and publications such as the New York Times and the Los Angeles Times. Santos’ family memoir, Places Left Unfinished at the Time of Creation, published by Viking/Penguin in 1999, was nominated for the National Book Award.

In the fall of 2002, Santos was a Berlin Prize Fellow at the American Academy in Berlin where he began work on his next book, The Farthest Home is in an Empire of Fire, two manuscripts of poems, and on the development of Teletopia Labs, a workshop for documentary performances exploring the interface between cultural identity and digital media. He lived in New York City for twenty years, returning to San Antonio in May 2005.

Source: John Phillip Santos Archive: Appraisal, June 15, 2005, John R. Payne (Director, Payne Associates).

From the guide to the John Phillip Santos Papers MS 203., 1974-2008, (University of Texas at San Antonio Libraries Special Collections)