COMM faculty to be honored at 2018 Faculty Recognition for Scholarly & Creative Activity

Three faculty from the Department of Communications will be recognized for research excellence at the 2018 Faculty Recognition for Scholarly & Creative Activity. The three faculty are pictured above, from left to right, Dr. Waleed Rashidi,  Dr. Frank Russell and Dr. Chelsea Reynolds.

Dr. Waleed Rashidi

Dr. Waleed Rashidi’s research aims to further position music media as a viable form of mass communication. Since being hired on the tenure-track in 2016 after eight years as a lecturer, Dr. Rashidi’s research credits include a grant from the Music and Entertainment Educators Association (MEIEA) to study millennial uses of cassette tapes, presented and published in conference proceedings. Another research project, on groove etchings on vinyl records, won a top research paper award from the Entertainment Studies Interest Group of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC). He’s also given presentations to the Popular Culture Association (PCA), the International Society of Travel & Tourism Educators (ISTTE) and the Journalism Association of Community Colleges (JACC). His study of punk musicians in higher academia, published as a chapter in 2012’s Punkademics, was recently cited in the book Punk Pedagogies (2017, Routledge).

  

Dr. Frank Russell

Dr. Frank Russell has published three refereed journal articles and presented 12 papers at national and international conferences since 2016. Most of this work derived from his dissertation, Silicon Valley and the New Gatekeepers: An Institutional View of Journalism, Technology, and Social Sharing of News. His work explores how journalists use digital platforms to interact with the public, newsmakers, and other journalists. His research has advanced understanding of how Silicon Valley and platforms such as Google, Apple, Facebook, and Twitter have disrupted journalism and other established social institutions. An article in Digital Journalism concerned how large news organizations use interactive functions of Twitter. An article in Journalism Studies reconsidered an oral history of the digital disruption of news to offer evidence that Silicon Valley entrepreneurs and engineers express concern for journalism, but also assert that any crisis for journalism can be addressed with technocratic solutions.

Dr. Chelsea Reynolds

Dr. Chelsea Reynolds has amassed an impressive scholarly presence in her first year as an assistant professor in the Department of Communications, fresh from her doctoral program at Minnesota. The length and depth of Dr. Reynolds’ expansive CV says it all—two faculty research awards, a top faculty paper, three journal articles, a pair of edited book chapters, five refereed conference presentations, a book review, and over a dozen academic conference panels with three as chair—covering a host of important and very timely topics including online dating, feminism and LGBTQ issues. Dr. Reynolds has made recent presentations in Atlanta, D.C., Prague, Chicago, Montreal, Phoenix and various locations in Southern California. And don't forget, much of the aforementioned was accomplished solely within her first year. Dr. Reynolds has very quickly proven herself as well deserving of this recognition.