Caty Borum's book, The Revolution Will Be Hilarious: Comedy for Social Change and Civic Power, received a positive review in the highly ranked peer-reviewed International Journal of Communication. The review notes that "This book is an important addition to political comedy, humor, and satire effects research and can serve as a useful tool in classrooms that focus on how to translate humor and entertainment into action, power, and constructive social change."
Upstream, Downriver, directed by Maggie Burnette Stogner, was the second highest performing program on Maryland Public Television for their Bay Week/Earth Day programming. The film, a half-hour documentary about water equity and justice, also had an Earth Day screening at Howard University and was recently selected for the WorldFest-Houston Film Festival. For more information: http://www.upstreamdownriver.org
The “Inspiring Science Curiosity" Student Video Showcase was held virtually this week with Professor Maggie Stogner and Comm 638 students Lily Huffman, Robert Boyd, Kaitlyn Kirkman, Amanda Dowd, Emme Watkins, Sarah King, Lee Green, Grace Yoon Hee Anderson, Charles Connell, and Phillip Bouknight. The students collaborated to create beautiful videos on topics including aquatic macroinvertebrates, amphipods, northern long-eared bats, wildlife on camera traps, and peregrine falcons. Comm 638 is a new Production Practicum in partnership with the Center For Environmental Filmmaking and the National Park Service Science Education.
Brigid Maher was interviewed by WHUR and WAMU separately about the Anacostia Youth Media Festival. The longer story by Elliott Williams (WAMU) will broadcast on May 9. Maher and the Anacostia Youth Media Festival was also featured in the Washington Informer. https://www.washingtoninformer.com/upcoming-festival-to-provide-platform-for-youth-media/.
Maher also received an additional sponsorship grant for the festival from The DC Mayor’s Office of Cable, Television, Music and Motion Picture to cover youth prizes for the Anacostia Youth Media Festival.
Meanwhile Maher screened Experimental Curator at the Carnegie Museum of Art April 20th and will be screening again at Anthology Film Archives on May 11.
Andrew Phelps, director of the AU Game Center, and Steven Dashiell, post-doc at the AU Game Center and AU Dept. of Sociology, delivered a paper at the Tampere Game Studies Spring Seminar entitled "Of Platforms and Incongruities in Virtual Party Worlds: There is Much More to the Party than the House." Hosted by the Center of Excellence in Game Culture Studies, Tampere, Finland.
Andrew Phelps also hosted a delegation from the US Department of State, the International Center for Journalists, and members of the media from the People's Republic of Georgia at the AU Game Center.
The Conversation has published another of John C. Watson’s continuing analyses of the lawsuit filed by Dominion Voting Systems against Fox News for broadcasting bogus claims that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from Donald Trump. The article was published Wednesday beneath the headline “Dominion threw away its shot by not requiring a correction and apology from Fox News.” Borrowing heavily from the Broadway production “Hamilton,” the article examines the legal and ethical implications of the lawsuit’s settlement and the departure of Fox News superstar Tucker Carlson.
Lalini Pedris won this year's AU/Pulitzer Center International Reporting Fellowship. A journalist and avid backpacker, photographer, and wildlife enthusiast, Lalini is graduating from American University's SOC this summer with a master's in international journalism. In her most recent travels abroad, she spent a month backpacking through Mongolia, from the Gobi Desert to the northern taiga, where she had the opportunity to travel and photograph the country. Lalini plans to use the AU/Pulitzer Center fellowship to report on the Rohingya crisis in Bangladesh, and on human-wildlife conflict in the region. The fellowship is funded by Dean Fulwood's office. Lalini was a student in Bill Gentile’s Foreign Correspondence class this spring semester.