Marlena Grzaslewicz, assistant professor of media arts, sciences and studies, is an Emmy-award winning sound editor who has collaborated with documentarian Ken Burns for more than 20 years. Recently, Grzaslewicz worked as a dialogue editor on Burns' "The Roosevelts: An Intimate Story," airing on PBS.

On a recent trip to Poland I found myself in Krakow's Nowa Huta neighborhood. Today it is essentially a suburb of Krakow, but once upon a time it was touted as the perfect communist society, a satellite Soviet utopia where everyone was employed by Vladimir Lenin Steelworks and lived in large block-style apartment buildings that were lined…