{"id":37911,"date":"2024-01-01T06:16:00","date_gmt":"2024-01-01T11:16:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bu.edu\/com\/?post_type=bu-article&p=37911"},"modified":"2024-01-09T17:06:50","modified_gmt":"2024-01-09T22:06:50","slug":"deans-2023-holiday-letter","status":"publish","type":"bu-article","link":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/com\/articles\/deans-2023-holiday-letter\/","title":{"rendered":"Dean’s 2023 Holiday Letter"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Many congratulations to our students, faculty, and staff for a wonderful year \u2013 and huge thanks to all of you for your support of COM!  I\u2019m excited to share a selection of achievements and updates from the past year. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Student Success<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The 43nd annual Redstone Film Festival in March celebrated student work for a near-capacity crowd of families and friends. \u201cArtboy,\u201d about a high schooler grappling with heartbreak, swept nearly all major categories. The film, directed by Eli Cantor, also took the Student Film Showcase top prize at the Independent Film Festival of Boston.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

COM\u2019s Department of Film and Television joined forces with CFA\u2019s School of Theatre to produce \u2013 from concept and script to acting and video editing \u2013 a television sitcom pilot, Art House<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Emma Longo\u2019s<\/a> (\u201924) research on misinformation and native advertising was presented at the annual conference of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication<\/a> in Washington, D.C.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Emma
Emma Longo (COM’24) studied native advertising by fossil fuel companies called greenwashing, which is when an organization spends more time and money on marketing itself as environmentally friendly than on actually minimizing its environmental impact. Photo by Jackie Ricciardi for Boston University<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Seonghoon Eric Park and Rapha\u00ebl Edwards won the inaugural Sony Future Filmmaker Award<\/a> for their documentary, \u201cIn Cod We Trust,\u201d exploring the Gloucester fishing industry\u2019s history and hardships.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

COM advertising students won 28 of the 30 student awards at the 62nd Annual Hatch Awards<\/a>. Nupur Chowdhury (\u201923) took home the prestigious Next Gen Award<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Colbi Edmonds was named the region\u2019s \u201cTop College Journalist\u201d and Bella Ramirez was named \u201cCollege Rising Star\u201d by the New England Newspaper and Press Association<\/a>. An investigation of abuse in BU\u2019s orientation office<\/a>, leading to the office director\u2019s resignation, by Edmonds and Cameron Morsberger, took first place for in-depth reporting. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two projects powered by COM students won national Online Journalism Awards<\/a>: \u201cMega Billions: The Great Lottery Wealth Transfer<\/a>\u201d and \u201cTrafficking, Inc<\/a>.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

COM students received five awards and four honorable mentions at the Student Production Awards sponsored by the Boston\/New England chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. Four awards were for BUTV productions; a fifth was produced by Hothouse Productions, now known as Real World Productions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

COM students won 12 of the 22 awards at the Boston Press Photographer Association\u2019s annual contest for college photographers. Ziyu (Julian) Zhu won Best of Show and three other awards. Taylor Coester won three awards, including first place in the Story category, and Andrew Burke-Stevenson won two awards, including first in Feature.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our students also cheered the half-million dollar upgrades of our television and podcast studios<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alumni Rising<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Julie Kornfield (’87) was named president of Kenyon College.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nine-time Emmy winner Deena Sheldon<\/a> (’84) was inducted into the Sports Broadcasting Hall of Fame, the first female camera operator to be honored by the organization.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the Hatch Awards, advertising led by Mike Sullivan<\/a> (CGS\u201904, COM\u201906) took home Best of Show<\/a> for a Progressive Insurance campaign featuring Dr. Rick, the counselor for people who are becoming too like their parents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Alum
FOX Sports reporter Jenny Taft on the sidelines at the November 25 FIFA World Cup USA-England match. Photo courtesy of FOX Sports
<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Jenny Taft<\/a> (CGS\u201909, COM\u201910), a reporter and host for FOX Sports, covered arguably the world\u2019s biggest sporting event when she worked as a sideline reporter at the FIFA World Cup in Qatar this past summer. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Multimedia journalist Ezgi Toper <\/a>(\u201919) covered one of the deadliest earthquakes in decades for Turkish public broadcaster TRT World after a 7.8-magnitude quake killed more than 47,000. Maui wildfires reunited COM alums Melissa Adan (’14) of ABC News and Sandy Hooper<\/a> (’13) of USA Today, who reported on the tragedy there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rob Turbovsky<\/a> (’08) hit it big as writer and co-executive producer for Hulu\u2019s \u201cOnly Murders in the Building.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Faculty Notes<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Our film and television program was again listed among the best by The Hollywood Reporter and The Wrap, and our public relations program was named to the PR News Education A-List.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Justin Joseph<\/a>, associate professor, won the Becker Family Teacher-of-the-Year Award, COM\u2019s highest honor for its instructors. Maura Smith<\/a>, master lecturer, received the Lyndon Baines Johnson Student Advising Award.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Composite
COM Professors Justin Joseph and Maura Smith.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

COM researchers Chris Wells, Michelle Amazeen, and Arunima Krishna completed a fascinating study into disinformation about planetary warming and public opinion<\/a> with BU\u2019s Institute for Global Sustainability.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

David Abel, professor of the practice in journalism, premiered two compelling documentaries: \u201cInundation District<\/a>\u201d and \u201cIn the Whale<\/a>.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Secret Gate, the latest by Mitch Zuckoff<\/a>, Sumner M. Redstone Professor of Narrative, received stellar reviews.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

COM welcomed John Archibald<\/a>, a Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist for the Birmingham News, as our first writer-in-residence, who gave a lecture to a packed room and met with students through his week on campus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Brian McGrory, journalism department chair, received the 2023 Stephen Hamblett First Amendment Award from the New England First Amendment Coalition<\/a>. Maggie Mulvhill was elected to the coalition\u2019s executive committee.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Michelle Amazeen, associate professor, has a brand-new role: COM\u2019s inaugural associate dean, research. She was named among the top 2% most highly cited scholars, according to a Stanford University study<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PRNEWS named Amy Shanler<\/a> to its People of the Year list, and Monique Kelley<\/a> to the \u201cTop Women in PR 2023.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I can\u2019t wait to see what\u2019s next in 2024!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Best,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mariette DiChristina (COM\u201986), Dean<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Many congratulations to our students, faculty, and staff for a wonderful year \u2013 and huge thanks to all of you…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1654,"featured_media":35121,"template":"","meta":{"bu_prepress_billboard":"","_bu_prepress_primary_term":"","_bu_prepress_primary_term_manual":""},"categories":[1482,1473],"tags":[],"bu-publication":[],"discipline-type":[],"bu_edition":[],"media_type":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-article\/37911"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-article"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/bu-article"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1654"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-article\/37911\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":38091,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-article\/37911\/revisions\/38091"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35121"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37911"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37911"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37911"},{"taxonomy":"bu-publication","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-publication?post=37911"},{"taxonomy":"discipline-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/discipline-type?post=37911"},{"taxonomy":"bu_edition","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu_edition?post=37911"},{"taxonomy":"media_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media_type?post=37911"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}