First Year Cohort
Third Year Cohort
Fourth Year Cohort
All But Dissertation
Beth Boser
boser [at] usc [dot] edu Beth Boser received her B.A. from Gustavus Adolphus College in Minnesota and an M.A. from California State University, Long Beach in May 2008, both in Communication Studies. She is interested in studying the rhetoric of social movements, including the South African apartheid resistance movement, and contemporary political rhetoric, including the campaign rhetoric of Hillary Rodham Clinton. She presented papers in these two areas at the recent NCA and WSCA conferences, respectively. She is also interested in feminist theory. At CSULB she taught undergraduate courses in Interpersonal Communication, Public Speaking, and Small Group Communication.
Garrett Broad
gbroad [at] usc [dot] edu
Garrett Broad is a graduate of Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey, where he majored in Political Science. He also worked as Chief Researcher and Assistant Producer for "The Open Mind" on New York's PBS Channel 13, and served as Festival Manager for the New Jersey Folk Festival. At Annenberg, Garrett is a member of the research team for the Metamorphosis Project, where he is interested in investigating the role of communication in the promotion of healthy communities. Much of his work is concerned with issues of urban environmental sustainability, especially sustainable food systems, community food security and vegetarianism. In the summer of 2009, Garrett helped organize VBQ For Life - a free vegan BBQ and health fair in Inglewood, CA – which was the largest ever all-vegan event in an American community of color.
Jamaica Brown
jamaicab [at] usc [dot] edu
Jamaica is a graduate of Reed College in Portland, Oregon, where she majored in Sociology. Her 2006 undergraduate thesis: "Remember to Eat and Sleep - Online Games, Offline Lives" explored the relationship between online and offline life through a comparison of the Massively Multiplayer Online Games World of Warcraft by Blizzard Entertainment and Clan Lord by Delta Tao Software. In 2004, she attended the Human Technology Interaction Center at Oklahoma University, during which time she studied usability theory, blogging, and other aspects of Computer Mediated Communication. She is currently working as an Executive Assistant at the New Designs Charter School in Los Angeles. As part of her duties she is designing their website and giving professional development lectures on using communications technology in an educational setting. Her research interests include blogging, online activism, massively multiplayer online games, and community formation over/around/through different types of media.
Laurel Felt
felt [at] usc [dot] edu
Laurel Felt graduated magna cum laude from Northwestern University, studying Social Policy, Political Science, and French (B.A. thesis: comparative child care systems and ideologies in the United States, France, and Norway). From Tufts University, Laurel earned a master’s degree in Developmental Psychology with a concentration in Communications and Media Studies (M.A. thesis: functions and developmental implications of instant messaging among adolescent girls, presented at the 2007 National Media Education Convention). Laurel’s work experience includes: internships with the U.S. Senate and the U.S. Mission to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe; four years teaching early childhood education; two years writing/editing curriculum and other educational print materials; and significant partnerships and research engagements with WGBH, Teachers Resisting Unhealthy Children’s Entertainment, and the Chicago International Children’s Film Festival. A filmmaker to boot, Laurel is also the proud co-creator of video eCard website LilyDidIt.com. Laurel is interested in examining, both domestically and internationally, children’s media, children’s relationships with media, and the political economy of media production, in the dual hopes of demystifying children's media effects and influencing/creating better media for children of all ages---the type of media that functions as a mirror, a window, and a pathway to social change. Laurel is also fascinated in popular culture, race and gender portrayals, and emerging digital technologies. She will discuss movies with you any day of the week.
Ryan Gillespie
rgillesp [at] usc [dot] edu
Ryan Gillespie graduated magna cum laude from the Annenberg School for Communication and earned his M.A. from Sacramento State. His thesis (“Playing Mythical Notes in a Material World: Rhetorically Imagining Self-Other Articulations in Two Post-September 11th Songs”) explored the intersection of myth and ideology as well as discursive and nondiscursive articulations and investments in the imagining of an individual and a collective. He has presented papers at regional, national and international communication conferences on themes such as visual discourse, nondiscursive rhetorics, fictional depictions of ethics & religion on television, self-Other ethics, and psychic approaches to communication. Most recently, Ryan has been employed as an adjunct faculty member at two community colleges in the Sacramento area. At Annenberg, Ryan plans on studying nations and citizenship, discursive & nondiscursive rhetorics, and the imagining process as a theoretically informed orientation to scholarship. He also plans on having his plans change.
Martin Hilbert
mhilbert [at] usc [dot] edu
Between 2000 and 2008 Martin enjoyed working at the United Nations Regional Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean, where he created and coordinated the Information Society Programme. This programme has produced almost 100 studies on different aspects of ICT for development, including 11 books and three public databases, two intergovernmentally approved Regional Action Plans, and numerous technical assistance projects on Ministerial, Parliamentary and Presidential levels (http://www.cepal.org/SocInfo). As a result of this intense experience, he realized how much the related discussion could benefit from a more solid theoretical grounding. He joins USC Annenberg in search for analytical frameworks and contributions to this challenge. Martin has studied Business and Public Administration in Germany and at the University of Chile and holds a Doctor degree of Economics and Social Sciences (Dr. rer. pol.) from Friedrich-Alexander University in Erlangen-Nuremberg in Germany (more: http://www.martinhilbert.net).
Adam S. Kahn adamkahn [at] usc [dot] edu
Adam Kahn earned a BS in Computer Science and a BA in History from Stanford University. He then earned an MA in Media Studies from Stanford's Department of Communication, where he studied with Clifford Nass and Fred Turner. As a research assistant in Dr. Nass's Communication between Humans and Interactive Media (CHIMe) Lab, Adam worked on projects involving attitudes towards messages based on screen size in shared media spaces, the detection of personality in text conversations (in collaboration with the University of Edinburgh), and the cognitive effects of media multitasking. Under Dr. Turner's supervision, Adam did archival research exploring the influence of Vannevar Bush, FDR's chief science advisor, on Douglas Engelbart, inventor of the computer mouse. Adam has presented his personality detection research at conferences in Scotland and Stanford, and the work on shared media spaces is in press with Human-Computer Interaction. After graduating, Adam was the lab manager for Lera Boroditsky's Cognation Research Laboratory in Stanford's Department of Psychology, and he then worked in online communications at an environmental non-profit. At USC Annenberg, Adam plans to continue studying the psychology of human-computer interaction and computer-mediated communication, mass media effects, and the cultural history of computers.
Young Ji Kim
youngji [at] usc [dot] edu
Young Ji received her BA from Yonsei University in Seoul, Korea in mass communication. She did her MA studies in Hugh Downs School of Human Communication at Arizona State University. Prior to her graduate study, Young Ji interned in three different organizations, namely, the UNESCO (Korean National Commission), Korea's Chosun daily newspaper company, and TNS Korea, a market research firm. Her current research interests include knowledge sharing in organizational teams and online communities, communication networks, the influence of culture in communication, and online credibility in web 2.0.
Lori Kido Lopez
loril [at] usc [dot] edu
Lori received her B.A. in Media Studies and Asian Studies at Pomona College. During her time at Pomona she wrote two theses -- one on representations of Asian American women in pornography and another on the treatment of Princess Masako by Japanese and American press -- and also served as Student Body President. She received her M.A. from Indiana University in Mass Communication and wrote a thesis on Asian American magazines. As a journalist, she has written for a number of web publications and was a food writer for two Indiana city magazines. Here in LA she volunteers her time as a Board Member and blogger for the Media Action Network for Asian Americans. Her general research interests include race and gender, cultural studies, identity, reality television and popular culture. Some of her current work investigates the construction of Asian American identities and culture through media, and the political dimensions of ethnic cuisine. For more information, visit Lori’s website: lorikidolopez.wordpress.com
Jules Mailland
mailland [at] usc [dot] edu
Jules Mailland graduated from the University of Paris II (Panthéon-Assas) with an LL.B and a M.C.J. There, he focused on international law and comparative constitutional law. He also received an LL.M. from New York University School of Law, where he focused on Internet regulation, and served as a graduate editor of the NYU Journal of International Law and Politics. He was previously a Research Associate at the University of California (Berkeley), Boalt Hall School of Law, and is an alumnus of the Annenberg/Oxford Summer Institute in global media policy. For the past eight years, Jules has been working as a lawyer in the technology and financial industries, in San Francisco, New York, Stockholm and Paris. At Annenberg, Jules intends to concentrate on communication regulation policy, particularly information distribution regulation and its relationship with free speech and the democratic discourse.
William McClainwmcclain [at] usc [dot] edu
William McClain graduated summa cum laude from the University of Kansas with a major in Film Studies and a minor in English Literature. For his honors thesis, he examined the relationship between the Hollywood studios, the Office of War Information’s Bureau of Motion Pictures, and the articulation and conceptualization of domestic film propaganda during World War II. Afterwards, he traveled the world and knew the minds of many men, including the rural Missouri car buyer. Prior to entering USC, he earned his Master’s degree from the University of California, Los Angeles in Cinema and Media Studies. He also served as the META section editor of UCLA’s online journal Mediascape. Currently, he is working on employing inter-disciplinary methods to study web media and the relationship between interface, online groups, and the circulation of aesthetic practices and norms.
Jingbo Meng
jingbome [at] usc [dot] edu
Jingbo Meng graduated from Peking University with double majors in Journalism and Economics in 2006. She has taken the internships in Economics Observer as a financial news reporter, and in Chinese State Council as an industry development analyst. Jingbo will receive her Master Degree in Communication from the Ohio State University in June 2008 (thesis: media multitasking and diffusion of new media technology). Her primary research interest revolves around entertainment education in public health promotion. More specifically, she studies how narrative form of communication plays a role in health knowledge acquisition and attitude/behavioral change at a micro-level. She's also interested in how new media technology changes media use behavior and lifestyle; specifically, she studies the influence of new media technology ownership and adoption on leisure time management and the culture of efficiency at a macro-level. In Annenberg school, she wants to extend her research to international communication such that how information technology shapes and shifts cultures and economics in developing countries. Jingbo's teaching experience involves two undergraduate classes--visual communication and persuasion, and one graduate-level class--Chinese media and politics.
Allison Noyes
anoyes [at] usc [dot] edu
Allison Noyes graduated magna cum laude from Mount Holyoke College with a major in politics, a minor in philosophy, and honors in international relations. Her honors research examined the role that different political ideologies assign to intelligence information in the foreign policy-making process. As a fellow at the Center for the Study of the Presidency, Allison studied public opinion and presidential rhetoric during the Iran-Contra affair, and she worked on both primary and general election campaigns during the 2004 presidential election. In addition to campaign work, her professional experience includes three years of public outreach work at the National Archives where Allison conducted research for an educational publication, contributed to planning efforts for the electronic records transition, and managed an internship program. At the Annenberg School, Allison's research focuses primarily on information and technology in nonprofit and government organizations. She is particularly interested in using a wide range of methods and communication perspectives to study how technology shapes the way that organizations use information and how organizations, in turn, shape the the way that information interacts with technology.
Carolyn Tseng
carolynt [at] usc [dot] edu
Carolyn Tseng graduated from Duke University with a B.A. in political science and received her J.D. from Washington University in St. Louis. Carolyn will receive her M.A. in journalism from University of Missouri-Columbia in May 2008. Her master’s thesis examined the state judicial treatment of personal privacy exemptions and access to government records. She is interested in privacy, freedom of information, and intellectual property issues in the media. Carolyn has interned at the United Nations in Bangkok, Thailand, working on access to justice initiatives and various development projects. She is a member of the North Carolina State Bar and a member of Golden Key and Kappa Tau Alpha National Honor Societies. At Annenberg, she hopes to study the conflict between privacy and disclosure and the impact of new media on intellectual property policies in Asia.
George Villanueva
govillan [at] usc [dot] edu
George Villanueva is currently a Doctoral student at the USC Annenberg School for Communication, where he also is a Research Assistant for Metamorphosis; a project studying the transformations of urban communities within the greater Los Angeles area. He graduated from the University of California at Santa Barbara with a double major in Black Studies and History. George received a MSc in Global Media & Communications from the London School of Economics and Political Science, a MA in Global Communication from the USC Annenberg School for Communication, and has conducted graduate work in Visual and Urban Anthropology at Temple University. He has also worked as a Community Organizer and Field Deputy for current Los Angeles City Council President Eric Garcetti, a Senior Field Representative and Research Coordinator for former CA State Assembly member Jackie Goldberg, and has worked in community program evaluation and planning for different organizations. His primary research interests are in community media, democracy, and the city with a focus on how forms of urban community media mediate democracy and civil society in the age of globalization. Other research interests include communication for social change, phenomenology, visual anthropology, urban studies, and Philippine/ Filipino-American existences. He also works with the Hollywood Community Studio, an outfit delivering community-based research and resources for the social and physical planning of the Hollywood neighborhood. George is a native Angeleno and embraces the chaos of Los Angeles.