First Year Cohort
Second Year Cohort
Third Year Cohort
All But Dissertation
Carmen Gonzalez
cagonzal [at] usc [dot] edu
Carmen Gonzalez completed her undergraduate work at USC with a B.A. in Print Journalism and Chicano Studies, and a minor in Spanish. Upon graduation she interned for two Los Angeles-based magazines and then worked for the USC Metamorphosis Project as project specialist. Carmen has been working with the project for many years and has been involved in systematic social observation, community focus groups and television/newspaper content analyses. Her current research interests include the role of ethnic media in promoting political participation and how immigrants incorporate new communication technologies into their daily lives. Carmen also works with SCOPE, a community organizing group in South Los Angeles, and will be exploring the roles that community-based organizations play in fostering civic engagement and intergroup relations. Her most recent paper, “The Sleeping Giant Awakens: Latino Political Mobilization via Communication Networks”, will be presented at the 2007 National Communication Association annual convention.
Amy Granados
agranado [at] usc [dot] edu
In May 2005, Amy received a B.A. in Communication and Psychology from USC and immediately began work as a project manager at Annenberg overseeing content studies designed to assess gender portrayals in children’s media. As a doctoral student, her primary research interests include media content, effects, and production. More specifically, Amy’s work focuses on gender imbalance and sexualized portrayals across media and how these depictions relate to issues of labor and production as well as psychological and emotional effects for viewers.
Jennifer Lee Heckman
jheckman[at] usc [dot] edu
Jennifer has studied communication throughout her scholarly career earning a B.A. from the University of San Diego as well as a M.A. from the Annenberg Communication Management Program. Upon graduating from USC, Jennifer worked in the human relations field focusing on management development and employee/labor relations. She is interested in organizational communication, negotiation and how theory and practice intertwine.
Richard Hodkinson
Maura Klosterman
maura.klosterman [at] usc [dot] edu
Maura Klosterman received her B.A. in Rhetoric from the University of California at Berkeley with an emphasis in Narrative and Image. Her first job out of college was as a lexicographer and she has since held positions with the Culver City Unified School District, The University of California, The French National Ministry of Education, American Apparel and American Public Media. She believes that human actions begin with what people have the capacity to conceive as possible and that these conceptions are derived from the representations of human life available to an individual's imagination. She is very excited to be a part of Annenberg's Ph.D. program in Communication, where she hopes to continue delving into questions related to public imagination with a specific focus on user-interface design and music editing software.
Richard Lawrence
Richard Lawrence's primary areas of interest are the intersection of Christianity and popular culture as well as African-American rhetorical criticism. Richard holds a BA in mass communication from California State University, Dominguez Hills and a master's degree in communication management from USC. Prior to entering the program, Richard worked as a technical writer in the automotive industry. A Southern California native, Richard, also known as the Scooting Scholar, loves to spend his spare time "urban exploring" throughout greater Los Angeles and writes a personal blog about his exploits.
Nicole (Nikki) Usher
nusher [at] usc [dot] edu
Nikki Usher's work focuses on two distinct areas: cultural/critical studies of journalism and gay and lesbian studies. Her work on journalism focuses on the transition of old media technology (namely print and broadcast) to new media technology. She looks at this from an organizational and a cultural perspective. Nikki is interested in news practices, media self-critique, occupational identity, public discourse and online journalism. Her work on gay and lesbian studies examines public deliberation and media representation of homosexuality. A former journalist, Nikki has written for a number of newspapers across the nation. Nikki graduated from Harvard University magna cum laude with a B.A. in History.