At Texas State University, where I teach journalism and mass communication classes, I try to integrate a practical application of theoretical concepts, encourage creative thought, and stimulate interest in the news: locally, nationally and worldwide. Hopefully, we all have some fun, too.
The classes I'm teaching at Texas State during the 2008 spring semester are: MC 5301 (Mass Media and Society, graduate) and two sections of MC 3383 (Editing).
In early 2007, I began teaching MC 4382L, a course on feature writing offered through the Texas State Offices of Correspondence, Extension & Study Abroad Programs.
During summer 2006, I had the opportunity to work with Canadian First Nations reporters and writers as a Fulbright Senior Specialist. My host institution was Athabasca University in Edmonton, Alberta.
Here I am with Bert Crowfoot, the CEO, founder and publisher of the Aboriginal Multi-Media Society, in Edmonton.
Here I am with Windspeaker editor Debora Steel.
During summer 2005, I had the opportunity to teach print journalism at the University of the West Indies in Kingston, Jamaica, as a Fulbright Senior Specialist.
I hope my students there know how much I will always treasure the time we spent together.
The photo is from the surprise going away party they held for me on our last night together, July 29. They are (from left) Dahlia Cole, Ellis James Laing, Tanesha Mundle, Jessica Reid and Nicola Cunningham.
In 1992, after more than two decades of work in the media, both print and broadcast, I decided to focus my career plans on teaching and research. In May 1998, I received my Ph.D. in communication from the University of Southern Mississippi. My doctoral research, In a Madhouse's Din: Civil Rights Coverage by Mississippi's Daily Press, 1948-1968, was released as a book in March 2002 by Praeger. My most recent publication is "'Empathetic Rejectionism and Interethnic Agenda-Setting: Coverage of Latinos by the Black Press in the American South'" researched and written with Laura Castaņeda from the University of Southern California Annenberg School of Journalism (Journalism Studies, November 2004).
Along with research on civil rights, I am interested in other issues regarding race, gender and stereotyping in the media. A lifelong interest in these topics developed during my childhood as a transplanted yankee in rural Mississippi during the 1960s.
The professional organizations I'm a member of include the Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ), Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC), the International Women's Media Foundation (IWMF) and the American Journalism Historians Association (AJHA).
For more information about my life and work, take a look at my curriculum vitae.
Texas State journalism students Jason Buch (center) and Ashley Richards (right) interview New Orleans resident Liz Gordon.
University of Texas RTF graduate Tao Weilundemo shooting B roll at the base of a broken levy in New Orleans.
Here I am "in jail," reading the publication, Until These Chains Are Broken, a selection of essays I helped put together with a group of incarcerated women at the Hinds County (Mississippi) Detention Center in 1997. I hope to have a project like this off the ground in Texas before long.