Category Archives: Alumni News

FMA aluma has acting debut in The Observers

By Chia-Ching Lin | Published: May 14, 2012

Filmmaker Katya Gorker, FMA ’12, takes a turn in front of the camera in her acting debut in Jacqueline Goss’ The Observers, playing a short run this week at Anthology Film Archives in New York. Gorker and Dani Leventhal, also a filmmaker, play climatologists who go about the solitary and steadfast work of measuring and recording the weather on Mt. Washington in New Hampshire. Based in part on the Nathaniel Hawthorne story The Great Carbuncle, the film features the extreme and varying beauty of the windiest mountain in the world.

Reviews of The Observers have appeared in Time Out New … Read more »

Also posted in Department News, Film & Media Arts | Comments closed

SCT celebrates class of 2012

By jcronin | Published: May 10, 2012

The School of Communications and Theater held its graduation ceremony May 10 in Pearson-McGonigle Hall. Approximately 650 undergraduate students and 24 graduate students graduate this spring.

The ceremony featured Carl Cherkin, RTF ’72, as the alumni speaker and Vanessa Destime, COMM ’12, as the student speaker. … Read more »

Also posted in Featured, School News, Student News | Comments closed

Four more Pulitzer winners added to SCT alumni ranks

By jcronin | Published: May 2, 2012

Four SCT alumni were among the winners of the 2012 Pulitzer Prize awards.

A team from the Philadelphia Inquirer won the Pulitzer for public service for their series “Assault on Learning.” SCT alumni on that team were Kristen Graham, JOUR ’00; Dylan Purcell, JOUR ’00; and Sharon Gekoski-Kimmel, COMM ’73.

Read more here.

 

Also, The Huffington Post won its first-ever Pulitzer for, “Beyond the Battlefield,” by David Wood, JOUR ’70.

Read more here.

 

 

Other SCT Pulitzer winners include:

• John Dotson, JOUR ’58. He was publisher of the Akron Beacon Journal when it won the prize for … Read more »

Also posted in Journalism | Tagged | Comments closed

Owls discuss the ‘Hoo’s Hoo’ of Hollywood at Alumni Weekend

By jcronin | Published: April 24, 2012

Photos by Paul C. Imburgia

As part of a weekend in which thousands of Owls returned to campus, three SCT alumni gathered to discuss how the media plays to America’s obsession with celebrities.

They should know – they’ve all made careers out of it.

Journalism Professor Andrew Mendelson led a conversation with Barry Levine, JOUR ’81, managing editor of the National Enquirer; Lisa Marsh, JOUR ’89, celebrity and fashion journalist and author; and Dyana Williams, RTF ’97, CEO and founder of Influence Entertainment.

“People You Can’t Get Enough Of: Celebrity in the 21st Century” was presented as part of … Read more »

Also posted in Journalism, School News | Tagged | Comments closed

Owls flock to Arden Theatre stage in recent show

By jcronin | Published: April 20, 2012

During the Arden Theatre Company’s recent run of Clybourne Park, the 2nd Street venue could have been renamed “Temple Theaters South.”

The show, which ran from Jan. 26 to March 25, was directed by Assistant Professor Ed Sobel and starred Associate Professor David Ingram; Josh Tower, THEA ’95, and former theater student Maggie Lakis.

Watch the SCT-ers involved in the production talk about performing in Philadelphia and how the Theater Department prepares its students for the professional world.

Video by Ryan Geffert

Clybourne Park footage courtesy of Jorge Cousineau and Arden Theatre Company … Read more »

Also posted in Faculty News, School News, Theater | Tagged | Comments closed

News anchor recounts journey to L.A. at Kirsch Lecture

By jcronin | Published: April 19, 2012

During her return to North Broad Street April 17, Sandra Mitchell, JOUR ’85, recounted her journey to Los Angeles and the anchor desk at KCAL 9.

“It’s not been a quick one, but, boy, has it been a fun and exciting one,” said the featured speaker at the annual Dorothy I. Kirsch Lecture in Shusterman Hall.

A native of Lancaster, Pa., Mitchell always had her eyes set on Los Angeles. But she needed the experience and the knowledge that comes from working in the field in order to get there. Her professional broadcasting journey started at a small cable station … Read more »

Also posted in Journalism, School News | Tagged | Comments closed

Beth Haller, MMC ’95, has book published

By Matthew Lombard | Published: April 11, 2012

A book Towson University Journalism Professor Beth Haller, MMC ’95, Representing Disability in an Ableist World: Essays on Mass Media, was published in August 2010 by The Advocado Press. “Haller’s 20 years of research into disability and mass media inform this one-of-a-kind collection on advertising, news, entertainment television, film and Internet new media. The book is ideal for disability studies students and researchers as well as disability activists.” More information is available at media-disability.net and at Amazon. … Read more »

Also posted in Mass Media & Communication, Publications and Presentations | Comments closed

Rick Popp, MMC ’08, has book published

By Matthew Lombard | Published: March 30, 2012

Richard Popp, MMC ’08, an Assistant Professor of Media Studies at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee, has had a book published by LSU Press. The Holiday Makers: Magazines, Advertising and Mass Tourism in Postwar America explores how advertisers sold tourist travel in popular magazines between the 1930s and 1960s, transforming consumer culture in the process.

Details are at Amazon here.

http://www.amazon.com/The-Holiday-Makers-Magazines-Advertising/dp/0807142840/ … Read more »

Also posted in Mass Media & Communication, Publications and Presentations | Comments closed

FMA alumna wins Ron Howard “Imagin8ion” contests

By jcronin | Published: March 26, 2012

A photograph by a Film and Media Arts alumna has inspired, at least in part, the latest film by Ron Howard.

Brooke Shaden, FMA ’09, was one of eight winners of Howard’s recent Imagin8ion contest. The famed Hollywood director and producer sought pictures on which he would base a short film.

A professional photographer, Shaden had a large portfolio from which to draw. As she scoured her collection, she kept the contest categories in mind, such as goal, time and obstacle, and, since the point was to inspire a film, “I pulled the pictures of mine that were more cinematic.” … Read more »

Posted in Alumni News | Tagged | Comments closed

RTF alumnus to host film at America-Italy Society

By jcronin | Published: March 2, 2012

Len Guercio, RTF ’83, SCT’s film lab coordinator, will present Big Night on March 15 at 6 p.m. the America-Italy Society, located on the 3rd floor of 1420 Walnut Street in Philadelphia. The 1996 film stars Campbell Scott and Stanley Tucci. … Read more »

Posted in Alumni News | Comments closed