Rose Ann smiling next to the commemorative free library placed on McKinley’s third floor to mark her retirement from SOC.

The Center for Media & Social Impact, together with partner Generation180, produced a sold-out Climate Comedy Cohort live comedy show, "The Most Urgent Town Hall That Has Ever Happened," in New York's Caveat comedy club on November 4. A research project associated with the show will be released in 2024. 

The Center for Media & Social Impact produced its first two public shows for the Yes, And...Laughter Lab (the intersection of comedy and social justice) in Los Angeles (October 24) and New York City (October 26). YALL will expand as the nation's first comedy and human rights festival in April 2024 (YALLfest), with a focus on bringing together the entertainment industry, comedy professionals, human rights organizations and communicators, and foundations. (Fun fact: Invited former AU students showed up!) 

The Center for Media & Social Impact released a new report and documentary filmmaker guidebook as part of DOC NYC, the largest nonfiction film festival in the United States. A product of ongoing research at CMSI's Documentary Power Research Institute, the report is titled Negotiating Social Impact Rights in Documentary Film: A Best Practices Guide.

Prof. Caty Borum was the featured author on the book podcast, Fall for the Book, talking about The Revolution Will Be Hilarious: Comedy for Social Change and Civic Power.

Prof. Caty Borum participated as an invited panelist at New York University's Brademas Center event, “Lessons and Challenges for Civility from Civil Society.” The three panelists will contribute invited chapters for an NYU Press book on the same topic (Caty's contribution focuses on comedy and dissent in a global context).

Newly minted SOC PhD Dr. Chelsea Horne was elected to the Internet Society—DC (ISOC-DC) Chapter Council (Board of Directors) and was subsequently appointed as Co-Convener (Vice-President). Aram Sinnreich previously held this position.

Kurt Braddock was invited (and has accepted) to join the Editorial Board of the journal Behavioral Sciences of Terrorism and Political Aggression, the flagship journal of the only academic organization explicitly dedicated to studying terrorism, the Society for Terrorism Research.

A chapter by Kurt titled "De-Weaponizing Narratives that Promote Extremism and Terrorism" was accepted to appear in a volume published by the European Institute for Counter-Terrorism and Conflict Prevention. The book is titled EICTP Vienna Papers on Transnational Terrorism: Trend Uncertainties in Transnational Terrorism, and will be published in 2024.

In partnership with colleagues from the City University of London, the University of Leicester, and Sheffield Hallam University, Kurt has also published an article entitled, "Countering Reactionary Co-Radicalization: Using Multi-Representational Ads" in Critical Terrorism Studies. The article examines how marketing narratives can be used to humanize previously demonized outgroups to facilitate peace between outgroups.

Filippo Trevisan, together his with his co-author Ariadne Vromen (Australian National University), presented a paper titled “Technology and Agency in Political Campaigns: The Case of Datafied Storytelling” at the Australian Political Science Association’s annual conference at the University of Sydney.

Joe Campbell was interviewed by the Washington correspondent for Denmark’s Jyllands-Posten newspaper for a retrospective article about the Hunter Biden “laptop from hell.”

Joe over the Thanksgiving weekend received a delivery of author’s copies of the updated edition of his book, Lost in a Gallup: Polling Failure in U.S. Presidential Elections, which is due out in February. The updated edition is a soft cover that includes a new chapter about the 2020 polling failure, an updated introduction, and revised conclusion. The book’s endnotes section runs to 92 pages.

Bill Gentile's "Why We Fight" Complex Problems class hosted Paul Joyal, a consultant and intelligence specialist with years of experience in the former Soviet Union and now Russia. A frequent critic of Russian leadership under Vladimir Putin, Joyal survived a 2007 apparent attempt on his life that landed him in hospital with a bullet wound to the gut.

At Gentile's class, Joyal spoke with students about Russian cyber attacks against the United States.

Paul Joyal at his home in Adelphi, MD (photo: Kevin Wolf/AP)

Venezuelan journalist and grantee of the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting, Ricardo Barbar, addressed students in Bill Gentile’s Photojournalism and Social Documentaryclass. A specialist in health care issues in his South American country, Barbar spoke with the students in Spanish, and was assisted by a translator, Claudia Weinmann.

Guest speakers like Barbar are just one of the benefits provided by AU’s collaboration with the Pulitzer Center’s Campus Consortium. That collaboration also offers the AU/Pulitzer Center International Reporting Fellowships to students who win a competition conducted each spring.

Next year, 2024, the university celebrates its 10th anniversary of collaboration with the Center's Consortium. More on that later.

To review Barbar’s work, click here.

To see AU’s fellowship winners, click here.

UCLA Television & Film Archives asked screenwriting adjunct professor John Weiskopf to donate his one-hour documentary on Elder Abuse entitled "Ready or Not, Here I Come" which he produced, directed and shot. The film has interviews with Congressman Claude Pepper, Pulitzer Prize winner Dr. Robert Butler, and six in-depth cases of elder abuse. It was Weiskopf's MFA thesis at UCLA and became a primetime special on Ted Turner's WTBS, and then national PBS through the CPB. Additionally, UCLA Archives wanted Weiskopf’s guest appearances tape from Oprah Winfrey, Sun-Up San Diego, and KFMB-TV news.

Leena Jayaswal's and frequent collaborator artist Monica Jahan Bose's film, "Rising Up to Climate Change: Storytelling with Saris" will be screened as part of the 2023 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP28) in Dubai, UAE on December 2nd. 

Aram Sinnreich had an article in Rolling Stone about using a commercial data broker to spy on foot traffic to Mar-a-Lago. It’s a preview of my forthcoming book The Secret Life of Data. 

Aram also did a live 5-minute segment on Scripps TV about Elon Musk’s anti-Semitic comments, and his recent trip to Israel.

Patricia Aufderheide consulted with the new organization Archival Producers Alliance, to develop their statement on use of generative AI in documentary films, which has been published by Hollywood Reporter.

Benjamin Stokes gave the welcome keynote at the NCA Games pre-conference, and a separate talk on research at game centers. The first was titled, “DC: An Influential Games Ecosystem” and the second was “Game Centers – and why the future of games research depends on meaningful inefficiencies.”

Jamie Sisley’s Stay Awake has now entered its social impact campaign after completing its festival and theatrical tours. Written and directed by Sisley, the fiction feature film has screened at over 75 treatment centers around North America over the last three months. The film is currently being added into permanent program curriculum across the country as well. Some major highlights on the social impact tour include: 

Jamie was the keynote speaker with Demi Lovato, Alanis Morissette and Chrissy Metz at the Global Exchange Conference on November 13th. Serving as the largest substance abuse conference in America, Global Exchange brought over 3,000 psychologists, psychiatrists and substance use disorder leaders to Walt Disney World for a five-day symposium where Stay Awake was screened. Jamie’s Q&A was led by Jerry Moe, Founder / National Director of Children’s Programs at the Betty Ford Foundation. 

Jamie was also the keynote speaker at West Virginia’s WVAAPP Professional Develop Summit on October 17th, where Stay Awake was screened to over 400 substance use disorder leaders across the state. Jamie gave a discussion on the need for caregivers to be included in substance abuse disorder treatment budgets in the future. 

Jamie gave a masterclass to about 250 high school film students in Central Virginia on October 14th, where Stay Awake was screened beforehand. The masterclass was sponsored by Light House Studio, which holds workshops and community events to young people throughout Virginia.  

In addition, Stay Awake premiered for sale online this fall. Starring Chrissy Metz, Wyatt Oleff, and Fin Argus, the film is now available on Apple, Google, and Amazon before moving onto subscription platforms next year. The film originally premiered at the Berlin Film Festival, where it received positive reviews from outlets such as The Los Angeles Times, New York Times, NPR, Roger Ebert, and Collider. 

Wendy Melillo has been named the Interim Faculty Director of the AU Honors program. In this role for the Spring 2024 semester, Wendy will evaluate Honors applications, lead meetings for the Faculty Senate’s Honors Advisory Committee and serve as a liaison between faculty and the Honors program. Wendy has served as SOC’s representative on the Honors Advisory Committee. She welcomes ideas from SOC faculty interested in teaching colloquiums, thoughts about how to increase the number of SOC students in Honors and conversations about strengthening SOC’s relationship with the program.

The prestigious Dow Jones News Fund will add American University to its list of partners hosting pre-internship training programs in 2024. Our program will focus on business reporting and will take place next summer.

Discussion for this opportunity started last June and involved Kristi Plahn-Gjersvold, Kati Vera and of course Paul Albergo, who will lead the program. DJNF selected SOC specifically because Paul's name was in the mix; veteran adjunct Paul is the former Bloomberg Industry Group executive editor and a huge supporter of AU SOC Journalism.

All expenses will be covered by the fund: student travel, room and board; honoraria for speakers; reading materials. Paul will share the curriculum in the future. Our bid for this project was in the tens of thousands of dollars, which will be covered by the fund. Congrats to all involved!

Jane Hall was interviewed by the Wall Street Journal about why Ron DeSantis and Gavin Newsom are debating on Fox News Channel with Sean Hannity.