First Year Cohort
Third Year Cohort
Fourth Year Cohort
All But Dissertation
Inna Arzumanova
iarzuman [at] usc [dot] edu
Inna Arzumanova received her BA from the University of California San Diego, with a major in Communication and a minor in Literature Writing. As an undergrad Inna carried-out a multi-modal project, which examined the effects of new media on literary distribution. After graduation, she spent a year working at Mediasmith Inc., a San Francisco advertising media agency, where she was a Media Planner. She is currently involved with KQED EdNet’s Digital Storytelling Initiative, assisting the project supervisor with community workshops. In graduate school, Inna is interested in researching the effects of new media on art and artistic communities, with a special focus on evolving literary traditions, aesthetics and communities as well as digital storytelling.
Amanda Beacom
abeacom [at] usc [dot] edu
Amanda Beacom graduated from Stanford University with a bachelor's degree in human biology, and will complete a master's degree in public policy from Johns Hopkins University in May 2007, with a concentration in health policy. Her master's thesis examined news media framing of the international AIDS pandemic prior to U.S. policy changes addressing the issue. Amanda's work experience includes three years coordinating health education programs at the National Kidney Foundation, six years in editorial positions at medical journals, and a recent internship at the USAID Bureau for Global Health. At Annenberg she is interested in studying the relationships between media, public opinion, and the health policy process.
Patrick Belanger
pbelange [at] usc [dot] edu
Patrick's research pivots on rhetoric, discourse and ideology in the contexts of conflict and environment. He studies the impact of strategic discourse on contemporary cultural and political institutions. He holds a BA in English and MA in Communication from Simon Fraser University, Canada.
Melissa Brough
mbrough [at] usc [dot] edu
Melissa Brough received her B.A. in Development Studies and Modern Culture & Media from Brown University. She subsequently worked in documentary film production and for FilmAid International, a non-profit organization that uses film and video to promote health and strengthen communities. As Program Officer she supported video-based, psychosocial and educational programs as well as participatory video projects in refugee camps in East Africa, and youth media projects in the Gulf Coast of the U. S. She has volunteered with local and international community media projects including the Chiapas Media Project in Mexico, whose work she helped bring to the 2001 Sundance Film Festival. Her current research interests include participatory media practices for social change; the potential and pitfalls of user-generated, online platforms for amplifying marginalized voices, community media and social movements; and the visual culture of humanitarianism and development.
Nien Tsu (Nancy) Chen
nientsuc [at] usc [dot] edu
Nancy Chen graduated from the University of Melbourne with an honours degree in Media and Communications. She wrote her honours thesis on the cinematic representation and construction of national identity. Nancy has worked as a news editor for radio and television companies, and is currently a member of the PR team at the Taiwan Centers for Disease Control. At Taiwan CDC, she has been involved in a range of promotional campaigns to raise public awareness on infectious diseases such as HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and avian influenza. Nancy has also completed projects for governmental and non-profit organizations as a licensed translator and interpreter between the English and Chinese languages. At Annenberg, Nancy hopes to explore ways to more effectively utilize communication as a tool of disease prevention and to investigate an approach to risk communication that seeks to inform without causing public panic.
Fan Dong
fandong [at] usc [dot] edu
Fan Dong is a current graduate student of Global Communication at the University of Southern California. She will graduate in May 2007. As a joint Master’s program, she has finished her first year MSc of Global Media and Communication at London School of Economics and Political Science (Dissertation on self identity, diasporas’ changing use of media as their everyday life and memories). She has been studying in the Master’s program of English Journalism at Tsinghua University and had her undergraduate degree in Journalism for Finance and Economics at the Central University of Finance and Economics. She has been a presenter of education, pop culture programs and events planner for NGOs and production corporations in China for three years. She is interested in the relationship between media, globalization and society, cross-cultural communication and the interplay between economy, politics, culture and the media system. Her current focus is how symbolic power embedded in cultural products could penetrate cultural barriers. At Annenberg, she hopes to study the interaction between media, culture, economics, politics and globalization.
Searle Huh
shuh [at] usc [dot] edu
Searle Huh received his B.A. and M.A. in Mass Communication at Yonsei University in Seoul, South Korea. He also graduated Michigan State University with M.A. in Communication. His two theses were about ritualized uses of mobile phone and the relationship between cognitive skills and video game play. For the last four years, he participated in several academic and industrial projects like Video game and flow, a Network management consulting, and socio-cultural impact of the future. He has several national certificates related to computer/network technologies and social research; electronic commerce administrator, social survey analyst, convention planner, information processing manager. Before starting his graduate study, he acted and directed several plays and musicals. His current academic interests include 'activity' of media use, impact of mobility on media use, media interfaces, and various independent variables in video game play (i.e. gender, cognitive skills, and reality of the game graphic). He wants to focus on the elaboration of video game plays and uses, the influences of media interface on its use, and socio-cultural aspects of new media at USC Annenberg School.
Zhan Li
zhanli [at] usc [dot] edu
Zhan Li holds a B.A. in Social & Political Sciences and a M.Phil. in Social Anthropology from Cambridge University (Trinity) as well as a S.M. in Comparative Media Studies from MIT. He has been particularly interested in how notions of societal, institutional and personal transformation through new media technologies are useful for organizational communication and strategy. Previous thesis topics have included the World Bank's promotion of Knowledge Management and Economics in the 1990s, and the U.S. Army video game America's Army during the run-up to the 2003 Iraq War. Most recently working as a global media investment banking analyst for HSBC in New York City (with a special focus on India and China), Zhan has also been employed as a researcher at Sony (Los Angeles), the Microsoft Games-To-Teach lab at MIT (Cambridge, MA), the London Business School's Future Media Program and UBS Warburg (London). At Annenberg, Zhan is developing skills in scenario planning and is researching the future of that field.
Yujung Nam
yujungna [at] usc [dot] edu
Yujung is an Annenberg fellow at USC communication doctoral program. Building on her previous training in media studies and performance studies particularly in the context of new communication technologies and global diaspora she continues her study of the impact of the transformation of media environment on communication and culture. Current projects include; building a sustainable community through online journalism and exploring media portrayal of Black and Latino relationship in the wake of surge in Los Angeles gang violence. She is also part of a research project that takes a mobile social networking approach to a cancer survivorship intervention for young adults from the low-income, non-English speaking populations. As a research assistant at USC Institute for Network Culture, Yujung is also investigating new metrics for analyzing and assessing virtual interactions, community building and identity negotiation in new media culture in conjunction with concepts of philanthropy, social and political activism and civic engagement. In her recent study of visual representation of user-produced avatar and its interactions in Second Life, she examined active negotiation of the meaning of gender and racial identity through identity performance. She also investigates how online players in Whyville approach issues of reproductive health in their virtual interactions and community activities. Before joining the graduate program, she worked as a knowledge management software programmer at Samsung SDS.
Nina O'Brien
nobrien [at] usc [dot] edu
Nina O’Brien graduated from Syracuse University with a Bachelors in Communications and Textual Studies, and received her Masters Degree in Media Ecology from New York University’s Department of Culture and Communication. She is a member of the Phi Beta Kappa and Golden Key National honor societies. Nina’s current research focuses on the impact of new entertainment and information technologies in the Caribbean and Latin America, and their implications for local development, sustainability, political engagement and international diplomacy. Before beginning graduate work at USC’s Annenberg School, Nina worked in independent film production, as a full-time substitute instructor in the Department of Media Culture at the CUNY College of Staten Island, and as an adjunct professor in the Department of Communication Arts at Marymount Manhattan College, both in New York.
Katherine Ognyanova
ognyanova [at] usc [dot] edu
Katherine Ognyanova received her B.Sc. in Computer Science from the University of Sofia. Her M.A. degree from the same university is in Virtual Culture. Katherine has worked for more than six years in the media. She was a writer and editor for Economedia publishing group (part of the German media group Verlagsgruppe Handelsblatt). Her responsibilities as a journalist at Capital Weekly included observing trends in emerging technologies, online business and society. She was also in charge of covering telecommunication regulation and Internet governance. Katherine has a year of experience as a reporter at BNT (Bulgarian National Television). She enjoys working as a teaching assistant. Her current areas of research include new media and social aspects of Internet technology. She is also interested in the use of digital tools for enhancement of public participation.
Michael Park
parkmk [at] usc [dot] edu
Michael Park graduated from the University of Southern California's Annenberg School of Communication and the School of Cinema-Television, double-majoring in Communication and Cinema-Television. During his time at USC, Michael was a member of the Lamda Pi Eta Communication Honor Society, and served as a White House Intern under President Bill Clinton. Michael received his J.D. from the University of California, Hastings School of Law. After law school, Michael worked as a trainee in motion pictures at the William Morris Agency, the world's oldest and largest entertainment agency. Michael is interested in the study of media as a form of pedagogy: how images educate the viewer on wide ranging issues such as race, sexuality, culture and politics. His particular research focus include an analysis of the political economy of culture and the formulas and conventions of production. At Annenberg, Michael hopes to focus on the Media, Culture, and Communication track.
Scott Sanders
sandersw [at] usc [dot] edu
Scott Sanders graduated cum laude from the University of Arkansas in Communication, and this May he will receive his M.A. in Interpersonal Communication from Purdue University. He taught English at Tsinghua University in Beijing, China during the summer of 2006 and plans to return this summer to teach and conduct research. His master’s thesis, based upon research conducted in Beijing, explores how young, urban Chinese use mobile phones for self-expression both as a communication medium and as a physical possession. While at USC Annenberg, Scott plans to study communication technologies in developing nations and their role in interpersonal relationships.
Courtney Schultz
cmschult [at] usc [dot] edu
Courtney Schultz graduated with a B.A. in Human Biology from Stanford University with a concentration in environmental and health policy. In March 2007, Courtney earned her M.A. from Stanford's Department of Communication in Media Studies. As a research assistant in the Communication between Human and Interactive Media Lab, she worked on a number of studies dealing with communication technology. The topics included mobile phones, Human Robot Interaction, Human Computer Interaction, and ownership of digital media. Currently, she is actively involved in the Annenberg Program on Online Communities and is also researching in the areas of Organizational Communication, communication technology, and Health Communication.
Susana Smith Bautista
susanesm [at] usc [dot] edu
Susana received her Masters degree in Art History/ Museum Studies, and her Bachelors degree in Government from Pomona College. She is a member of the Phi Kappa Phi national honorary society. Susana has almost twenty years experience in the art world in Los Angeles, New York, and Europe working with museums, commercial galleries and non-profit art spaces, curating exhibitions, and writing art criticism and articles. She was Executive Director of the Mexican Cultural Institute of Los Angeles, Editorial Director of www.LatinArt.com, and Associate with the Daniel Saxon Gallery. Born in Pasadena, California, Susana also served the city as Arts and Culture Commissioner for six years, and is fluent in Spanish and Modern Greek. At USC, Susana is researching the role of museums in the digital age, how new technologies are affecting traditional museum practices, and the global interplay between museums and governmental bodies. She is a part of the research team working with USC Professor Anne Balsamo on a MacArthur Foundation grant, Inspiring the Technological Imagination: Museums and Libraries in the Digital Age. Her goals include contributing to research and policies that would better enable museums worldwide to understand and adapt to the digital age.
Laurance Strait
strait [at] usc [dot] edu
L. Paul Strait graduated from Catholic University with a BA in Philosophy. He is a member of the Phi Sigma Tau honor society and the Triple Nine Society. After graduating, Paul worked for a year at Market and Communications Research, Inc., conducting content analyses and survey research for the biotech firm Monsanto. Paul received an MA in Communication from George Mason University in May 2006 (Thesis: "Intercollegiate Policy Debate As Communicative Action: Can Modernity Be Salvaged?"). He is interested in the works of Jurgen Habermas and, in particular, the relationship between public discourse and the functioning of democracy. At Annenberg, he hopes to study rhetoric in the public sphere as well as the rhetoric of religious ecumenical movements.
Diana Winkelman
winkelma [at] usc [dot] edu
Diana is a doctoral student of rhetoric and political communication at USC's Annenberg School for Communication. Her research interests are contemporary and historical American public address, global controversy in international discourse concerning the environment and human rights, and ecotourism debates that stimulate the discursive negotiation of economic, political, and environmental policies worldwide. Diana holds a B.A. from Baylor University with a double major in Political Science and Speech Communication and an M.A. from Baylor University in Communication with an emphasis in political rhetoric. Her M.A. thesis explored the works of radical 19th century abolitionist Henry Highland Garnet as a figure who rhetorically influenced future American civil rights leaders and black nationalists. You can read it here. She has also served as Editorial Assistant for Rhetoric & Public Affairs, an interdisciplinary journal devoted to the history, theory, and criticism of public discourse.
Li (Leo) Xiong
lixiong [at] usc [dot] edu
Li "Leo" Xiong graduated with a B.A. in English from Beijing Foreign Studies University, China. He received an MS in Cultural Studies from the University of Edinburgh, Scotland on a scholarship awarded by the British Council. Currently he is pursuing a PhD in Communications at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and will be on leave to join Annenberg in Fall 2007. Leo's professional experience includes working as a manager of international non-profit arts exchange programs between China and Europe, freelance writing on video games and popular music for major Chinese entertainment media, and producing TV documentaries for Chinese national television. He has also co-authored several articles on video games. Leo is interested in the social consequence of new communication technologies, specifically in their application to creating new forms and platforms of entertainment and social interaction. Focusing on mobile phones and video games, Leo hopes to both study the social effects of these platforms and venture some entrepreneurial work at Annenberg.