Note: This is the last Monday Memo of the spring semester. During the summer break, the Monday Memo is published monthly.

JMC students sing the alma mater after Saturday's graduation ceremony. | Photo by Maya Smith. 

The William Allen White School of Journalism and Mass Communications celebrated doctoral, master’s and bachelor’s degree graduates on Saturday, May 17 at the Lied Center. After the ceremony, graduates and families attended a reception at Stauffer-Flint Hall. View the full list of graduates here. 

JMC students pictured with Richard Konzem (left), Max Utsler (center) and Jeff Bollig (right) after their final presentation last week. | Photo courtesy of Christopher Etheridge.

The inaugural class of Cultivating Sports Audiences Capstone students in the Sports Media & Society concentration presented their final project Thursday to Richard Konzem and Jeff Bollig of the Kansas Sports Hall of Fame. The presentation highlighted opportunities for the Hall of Fame to increase revenue, expand programming, and improve their digital presence.

Lecturer Eric Thomas’s JMC 410 class wrapped up a semester of photography by assembling a slideshow of images that documented campus and community life during the spring semester. The two dozen students in the class completed 11 projects along with weekly images from their daily lives. View the photos here. 

Doctoral student Macy Burkett will give her dissertation defense Wednesday, July 9 from 3-5 p.m. Burkett's defense compares opposing groups of YoUTUbe creators posting purity culture content and the persuasion strategies they employ on their audience. Livestream information is available here. 

If you would like your summer internship or study abroad experience to be featured on the JMC School Instagram, please email Communications Coordinator Evan Riggs at evanriggs@ku.edu.  

Sydney Phillips (left) accepts the Rising Star Award last week. | Photo courtesy of KU Advising.

Advisor Sydney Phillips was named the Rising Star Award Winner by Jayhawk Academic Advising last week. Phillips recently completed her first year as an academic advisor at KU. 

Associate Professor Teri Finneman (right) is pictured with her book, "A Cambridge Companion to US First Ladies," which is on display in the People's House Museum, the new White House Museum in Washington, D.C. Lisa Burns, co-editor of the book, is pictured on the left.  

Associate Professor Teri Finneman discussed The Eudora Times in Pennsylvania during the Keystone News Summit. She then hopped over to the University of Virginia to speak at a first ladies event the next day. The University of Virginia’s Miller Center presented the program, “First Ladies: Their Enduring Impact on American Life,” Friday featuring Finneman, co-editor of "The Cambridge Companion to U.S. First Ladies," Heath Hardage Lee, author of "The Mysterious Mrs. Nixon: The Life and Times of Washington’s Most Private First Lady;" and Michael LaRosa, former press secretary for former First Lady Dr. Jill Biden. The discussion was moderated by Miller Center Professor Barbara Perry, co-chair of the Center’s Presidential Oral History Project and author of "Jacqueline Kennedy: First Lady of the New Frontier." 

Assistant Professor Yunwen Wang is a coauthor on the publication, “Digital labor on TikTok and Douyin platforms: A scoping review,” which appears in the journal, Review of Communication Research (Vol. 13). The review discusses six types of digital labor, i.e., creative, visibility, emotional, platform, relational, and promotional labor. Read the publication here. 

Lecturer Eric Thomas caught up with the University of Kansas class of 2020 graduates who reflected on a graduation wrecked by COVID-19 in an article for the Kansas Reflector. 

First-year doctoral student Hanbo Liu and Assistant Professor Steve Bien-Aimé won the Commission on the Status of Women's Top Open Paper competition for the upcoming AEJMC annual conference. Liu and Bien-Aimé will present their paper in August during the Commission's Top Papers session at the conference.

Assistant Professor Steve Bien-Aimé presented on artificial intelligence research trends for the American Farm Bureau Federation Communications Conference in Kansas City Tuesday, May 6.  

Work at the JMC School: Professor Angie Hendershot is looking for an undergraduate student interested in assisting with research about digital and social media use among early-career first-generation college students. More details and how to apply.

Internship and student jobs

Job opportunities

Austin Garcia is communications & engagement specialist for Viega LLC. 

Natalie Maitland is executive director of Port Townsend Main Street. 

Caroline Zimmerman is the evening breaking news reporter at the Kansas City Star.

William Allen White School of Journalism & Mass Communications
journalism.ku.edu

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