a department of the College of Liberal Arts at the University of Minnesota,
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- Murphy Hall Happenings
- News for Alumni
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- Awards and Kudos
- Publications and Research
- Upcoming Events & Important Dates
Assistant Professor Donald Brazeal has been named to the newly-formed editorial advisory board of Minnesota magazine, the alumni publication of the University of Minnesota Alumni Assocation. Minnesota is published six times a year and is mailed to 50,000 alumni association members, with stories about University research, noteworthy alumni, outstanding students, Gopher sports, the issues that affect the U, and alumni association news.
SJMC instructor Gayle Golden is the author of the cover story in the August issue of Minnesota Medicine magazine. Golden’s piece focused on the link between oral disease and general health. The article is available online at http://www.mmaonline.net/publications/MNMed2005/August/Golden.html.
SJMC instructor Ken Stone was moderator for the first St. Paul mayoral debate between incumbent Randy Kelly and challengers Chris Coleman and Elizabeth Dickinson. The August 22nd event was broadcast on MPR and also by SPNN television.
Photographs from Associate Professor Dona Schwartz's ongoing series, "In the Kitchen" are currently on view at the Milwaukee Art Museum, as part of an exhibition titled, " Artists Interrogate: Race and Identity." The second in a series of exhibitions on social issues, the show includes more than eighty objects that explore how race and heritage issues influence politics and individuality in contemporary culture. The exhibition runs through October 9, 2005.
Inventor, artist and former CEO Don Maurer spoke to SJMC instructor Debra Kelley's 3321 Basic Media Graphics sections about computer graphics and Photoshop. Maurer holds an EE degree from SDSU and a Master's in Bioengineering from Iowa State. He worked at CDC for two years on Super Computers, then did R&D at Medtronic for 11 years before he founded Empi, Inc., a highly sucessful medical device sales, marketing and manufacturing company.
Homecoming 2005 will be held on Saturday, September 24, when the U of M Gopher football team takes on Purdue at the Metrodome. The University of Minnesota Alumni Association is hosting several events, including the annual Pancake breakfast before the game. A number of UMAA chapters are sponsoring bus rides into campus for the Homecoming game; details can be found at www.alumni.umn.edu/HomecomingBus2005.html. For a full schedule of Homecoming events, visit the U of M Homecoming website at www.homecoming.umn.edu.
The UMAA will host a dedication of the new Alumni Wall of Honor on Friday, September 23. The Alumni Wall of Honor is a work of public art designed by architect Antoine Predock and sculptor Constance DeJong. The wall contains the names of the more than 1,000 alumni who have received the University's Outstanding Achievement Award since its inception in 1948. The dedication ceremony is open to all alumni and members of the University community. Visit www.alumni.umn.edu/dedication for more information.
The number of donors giving to the University of Minnesota reached a new high in fiscal year 2005, with 92,741 donors making gifts and pledges totaling $180 million. This includes a record 51,145 alumni donors, or 8 percent more alumni giving back to the University than in fiscal year 2004. In fiscal year 2005, more than $325,000 in gifts and pledges was made directly to the SJMC, and the School is so grateful to every single one of these donors. Your generosity makes our School's excellence possible! To make a gift to the SJMC, visit www.sjmc.umn.edu/alumemp/alumemp.html.
Alumni event calendar:
September 23: Scholars Walk and Alumni Wall of Honor Dedication
September 24: Homecoming 2005, UMAA Pancake Breakfast
January 25 or 26: Legislative Briefing
April 3: Senior Send-Off
April 24: Distinguished Teaching Awards
May 23: UMAA 102nd Annual Celebration featuring Supreme Court Associate Justice Sandra Day O'Connor
Professor Jane Kirtley appeared on “MSNBC Live” with Alison Stewart on August 24, 2005. The topic was the First Amendment and ethics issues surrounding the firing of radio talk show host Michael Graham following his remarks equating Islam with terrorism, as well as Pat Robertson's call for the U.S. to assassinate the Venezuelan president.
John Rash, senior vice president and director of broadcast negotiations for Campbell Mithum and adjunct instructor in the SJMC, was quoted in a September 14, 2005 story in the Virginian Pilot about the high attrition rate of new television shows. The story is available online at
http://home.hamptonroads.com/stories/story.cfm?story=92081&ran=192065.
A paper written by Kelly J. Hansen Maher, Fellow at the Silha Center for the Study of Media Ethics and Law at the University of Minnesota, is referenced in a September 19, 2005 story on the "BTK Killer" posted on the Accuracy in Media website. Maher's paper notes that "The BTK killer had long perceived Wichita media as a tool for publicity...[he] frequently demanded media attention, writing, 'How many do I have to kill before I get my name in the paper or some national attention?'" The story citing Maher's paper is available online at http://www.aim.org/media_monitor/4009_0_2_0_C/.
Professor Dona Schwartz was honored for her service as president of the the International Visual Sociology Association at the organization's August meeting in Dublin, Ireland. Professor Schwartz, who is completing her 3-year term as president, was praised for her accomplishments, including the development and implementation of a web site that facilitates the exchange of scholarly materials produced by IVSA members.
Assistant professor Jisu Huh’s summary article, "Media Credibility and Informativeness of Direct-to-Consumer Prescription Drug Advertising" for the Association for Consumer Research has been published on the ACR website. The summary article is based on an article published by Huh in Health Marketing Quarterly and is available online at www.acrwebsite.org/topic.asp?artid=300.
Assistant professor Gary Schwitzer received a grant for $94,913 from the Foundation for Informed Medical Decision Making in Boston for his proposal to evaluate U.S. news coverage of health and medicine. This project will create a web-based systematic audit and feedback mechanism that rates U.S. health/medical news coverage and is the first of its kind. Schwitzer’s collaborators on the project will come from Harvard Medical School, UCLA, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, Duke, and other leading medical schools and centers.
Visiting professor Thom Swiss has a chapter on New Media writing and teaching in the forthcoming book Towards A Theory Of Writing, an edited collection of new essays from internationally recognized scholars in the field of writing and writing practice in existing and new media. Swiss was also at the University of Queensland in Australia on August 9, 2005, to give an invited talk on “New Media Witing and Art: A Writer’s Perspective”. Swiss discussed the possibilities for writing offered by the electronic convergence of words, images, and sound. On August 10, Swiss gave an invited talk at Griffiith University on the Australian Gold Coast on a similar topic.
Professor Jane Kirtley appeared on a panel, "Ethics, Schmethics—What's Going Wrong?" at the Asian American Journalists Association 17th Annual National Convention at the Hyatt Regency in Minneapolis on August 19, 2005.
SJMC instructor Chris Ison gave a presentation called "Making Effective Use of the Internet for Investigations" as part of the Better Watchdog Reporting Workshop at the Asian American Journalists Association conference in Minneapolis on Aug. 17, 2005. Ison also gave a presentation on developing sources and conducting in-depth interviews to the World Press Insititute fellows at Macalaster College on Aug. 4, 2005.
The Minnesota Journalism Center and the American Press Institute will host a one-day business journalism workshop on "The Craft of Business Writing" on September 28, 2005 in the SJMC Conference Center in Murphy Hall. The workshop is free and open to working journalists who want to improve their writing skills in the field of business. For more information or to register, visit www.businessjournalism.org.
The 20th annual Silha Lecture, sponsored by the SJMC’s Silha Center for the Study of Media Ethics and Law, will be held Oct. 24, 2005. This year’s lecture will feature Floyd Abrams, the William J. Brennan Visiting Professor of First Amendment Law at the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism. Abrams has served as counsel or co-counsel in a variety of high profile court cases, including the “Pentagon Papers” case in which he represented The New York Times. Abrams is currently representing New York Times reporter Judith Miller in the Valerie Plame leak investigation. The Silha Lecture is free and open to the public, and no reservations are required. Visit www.silha.umn.edu for more information.
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September 2005