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Profile

I'm an adjunct professor who has worked with media in various ways since the 1980s, including as a freelance writer, a newspaper reporter and correspondent, and as a media relations executive in Washington, D.C. The common threads: managing and communicating information to target audiences, and working with diverse women and men, frequently experts, with important stories to tell through media in its evolving forms.

Early on, I interned in the Washington, D.C. press office of U.S. Senator Edward M. Kennedy--an important learning experience. I later worked in the communications division of a large trade association, and subsequently became a founding member of Powell Tate, a bipartisan public affairs firm. After eight years of professional life, I studied media in graduate school, went on to teach, and then lived and worked abroad for 10 years, during which time I also proposed and introduced film retrospectives at the Danish Film Institute.

A very early interest in American history, politics and culture was sparked by visits to the public monuments and architecture of Washington, D.C. and, I believe, 1960s broadcasts of television shows commemorating the 100th anniversary of the end of the Civil War. My interest in politics was furthered by turning from comic books to The New York Times during the 1976 presidential election cycle. My interest in history was joined to mass media with childhood visits to the Edison Laboratories in West Orange, N.J. and its Black Maria film studio, as well as public television broadcasts of silent films and movie serials.

Aspects of mass media of particular interest to me include, among other things, the production and consumption of the earliest forms of broadcast media and film, the transition from silent to sound movies, politics and sports as content in early movies and sound recordings, and the independent films of John Cassavetes.

Specialization

Introduction to Communication and Media; Theorizing Communication and Media

Office Hours

Fall

Friday

9:30 am - 11:00 am

Adjunct office, Morehead 205