Word on the Street - Student Edition 2023

Juanita Anderson's short film: "Sydney G. James: How We See Us" screened at the Freep Film Festival. This revealing portrait of the acclaimed Detroit muralist delves deeply into her art - and her mission of uplifting Black women and Black people in general by emblazoning the walls of the city. Anderson also received the Hometown Talent Award for her film, which goes to the best Michigan-based director of a festival documentary.

Dr. Stine Eckert recently published a study in Journalism as co-lead author: Assmann, K., & Eckert, S.* (2023). Are women journalists in leadership changing work conditions and newsroom culture? Journalism. Online First. https://doi.org/10.1177/14648849231159957 *Both authors contributed equally to this study. She also has a single-authored conference paper and a co-authored conference paper accepted for presentation at ICA 2023 in Toronto at the end of May as well as a lead-authored paper at AEJMC 2023 in Washington, D.C. at the beginning of August, with two of our doctoral candidates as co-authors. The latter is part of the NSF ADVANCE WSU-GEARS project: Gender Equity Advances Retention in STEM.

Amna Husain was promoted to PTF2 in the 2170/3300 teaching pool.

Rosie Jahng received the Tenured Faculty Professional Development Grant.

Baldvin Kari was promoted to PTF2 in the advanced writing pool.

Rahul Mitra was awarded the Career Development Chair. He will also be teaching internationally over the summer in China (June 12 through July 4) at Shanghai Polytechnic University, Shanghai, and Germany (July 24 through August 4) at Hochschule Harz, Wernigerode.

Cleo Moody will be the new advisor for Public Relations and Communication starting in June 2023.

Alicia Nails has been appointed to Gov. Whitmer's Michigan Black Leadership Advisory Council, assigned to the Arts, Culture and Communications Committee.

Shelly Najor will be teaching abroad over the summer in China.

Carrol Parris

Carrol Parris will start as the new Academic Advisor II for MAS/Film in June 2023.

Kim Piper-Aiken is retiring in August after being with Wayne State for 16 years. She is finalizing the 12th and final season of MetroArts Detroit that will begin airing on July 11.

Ron Stevenson was awarded the College Teaching Award.

Elizabeth was awarded the Outstanding Grad Mentor Award.

Fred Vultee was promoted to Professor.

Julia Yezbick received the CFPCA Dean's Creative Grant. One of her short films Seek and You Shall Find with sound recording by Courtney Spivak screened in a program of Michigan-made films at the Independent Film Festival of Ypsilanti.

Kelly Young was awarded the Outstanding Director of Graduate Studies Award.

Fatima Barakji

Fatima Barakji sucessfully defended her doctoral dissertation defense. Her topic was "Improving Disease Management Among People with Type 2 Diabetes through Mobile Persuasion: Development and Test of the Construal Model of Health-Related Communicative Control."

Khairul will be starting his new position in the fall at State University of New York at Oswego in The School of Communication, Media and the Arts as a tenure-track Assistant Professor of Public Relations.

Christine Nyawaga will be starting her new position in the fall as an Assistant Professor at University of Memphis.

Ariel Seay-Howard successfully defended her Ph.D. dissertation and will be starting her new position in the fall as an Assistant Professor of communication, race and rhetoric at North Carolina State University. She also has an article being published in the Rhetoric Society Quarterly titled Memorializing with and for the Undercommons: Black Study and Unsettling Grounds. She co-authored it with her research partners Dr. Diane Keeling and Dr. Beth O'Shea.

Lacey Simon

Lacey Simon sucessfully defended her doctoral dissertation defense. Her topic was "How Patients with Terminal Cancer Communicatively Coordinate and Manage the Meaning of Health and and Healthcare with their Providers."

Marina Johnson

Marina Johnson, a PR student and intern at the Detroit Free Press, published an article that was placed on the front page. You can see more of her work at freep.com/staff/11075033002/marina-johnson/.

Ivy Grace Eifert

Ivy Grace Eifert was selected to join Phi Beta Kappa, the nation's oldest academic honor society. It is highly selective, celebrating and advocating excellence in the liberal arts and sciences.

The three student films from COM 1600 ("Dear Anne," directed by Ben Garza, "Reaching Out," directed by Vincent Renard, and "Overwhelmingly Overwhelmed," directed by Linda Miller) that played in the New Voices program in Ann Arbor were also accepted to the Real Fresh program for the FREEP festival. "Dear Anne" and "Reaching Out" also screened in a program of Michigan-made films on April 19 at the Independent Film Festival of Ypsilanti.

CGSA officers 2023-24

President: Nina Kelly. Vice President: Kevin Hardges. Secretary: Fatooma Saad. Treasurer: Meagan Winkelseth. International Student Rep: Fariba Pajooh. Colloquia Director: Madelaine Coffman. Masters Student Rep: Darcell Brown. Inclusivity Officer: Kirby Phillips. GEOC Liaison: Ryan Corso-Gonzales.