Faculty Research

This summer the mass communication department’s faculty was hard at work completing projects, conducting research and presenting their findings in various city and states across the country. Here’s a brief look at the hard work and long hours they put in during summer break.

•       Professor Alan Hantz presented his paper Public and Private Identities in Women’s Roller Derby. He presented it at the 25^th annual Visual Communication Conference on June 15^th 2011 in Taos, New Mexico. His presentation was focused on how the women who participate in roller derby see themselves on and off the track.

•       Lecturer Anne Slatton led a group composed of 15 UNC Asheville alumni and students  in The 48 Hour Film Project, in which the participants have only 48 hours to write, produce and edit a film. Out of the 23 teams in Asheville, the UNC Asheville group won best film. According to Slatton, UNC Asheville has participated in the competition for four years and has won an award each time.

•       Professor Sonya DiPalma was one of the five public relations professors selected out of 30 applicants for the Plank Center Fellowship. This allowed her to spend two weeks at the American Red Cross national headquarters in Washington, DC. Most of her time with the ARC was spent learning how the nonprofit monitoring social media. The fellowship allows professors in her discipline to keep up with emerging technology in mass communication.

•       Professor DiPalma also teamed up with lecturer and UNC Asheville’s media advisor, Michael Gouge, to co-author Evolving medium: A College Newspaper Works to Adapt to Changing Readership Habits via Print Design, Multimedia Inclusion, and Online Promotion. Gouge has been advising the Blue Banner since 2003. Gouge presented his and DiPalma’s work at the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communications conference in St. Louis on Aug. 10.