Director's Note

I hope everyone is enjoying the start of summer.

We wrapped up the 2024-2025 year by celebrating the successful promotion of six SJMC faculty members. Brian Ekdale and Tom Oates were promoted to Full Professor. Joanna Krajewski, Lillian Martell, Charles Munro, and Kevin Ripka were promoted to Associate Professor of Instruction. Congratulations to all newly promoted faculty!

SJMC students participated in graduate and undergraduate commencement ceremonies as they capped off their time at Iowa. We inducted several undergraduate students into the Kappa Tau Alpha honor society.

2025 Kappa Tau Alpha inductees

Doctoral student Jenny Xu received her Ph.D. and will be starting as a tenure-track assistant professor at Purdue University Northwest.

Congratulations to all SJMC grads! We look forward to seeing what you do next.

We are preparing for the 2025 Iowa Summer Journalism Workshops for high school students. The camp will be held from July 13 to 17 and will feature nine workshops, including several new offerings. The camp is a great opportunity for high school students to explore journalism and media production and to get a taste of college life on the University of Iowa campus. Registration is open until June 24, 2025. If you’re interested in supporting the program, learn more about sponsorship opportunities here.

This will be our last e-newsletter of the 2024-2025 year. You’ll be hearing from us again in the fall. In the meantime, stay up to date by following us on social media and look for a print newsletter in your mailbox this summer. If necessary, please update your mailing address and other contact information so we can keep in touch.

If you have a story to share, please send it to sjmc@uiowa.edu.

Melissa Tully, Director

Faculty News

Steve Bloom received the 2025 AEJMC-Knudson Latin America Prize for The Brazil Chronicles.

Brian Ekdale co-authored “They’re trying to influence me to gain the more acceptable viewpoint”: The algorithmic imaginaries of politically activated social media users in New Media & Society with Raven Maragh-Lloyd (PhD Comm Studies 2018), Ryan Stoldt (PhD SJMC 2021), Javie Ssozi (current SJMC PhD Student), Katy Biddle (PhD SJMC 2024), and Tim Havens (Professor Comm Studies).

Sang Jung Kim received an Arts and Humanities Initiative (AHI) grant from the office of the Vice President of Research at the University of Iowa.

Jen Sterling, Ty Rushing, and Erin Jordan volunteered at this year's CLAS graduation ceremony.

SJMC graduation volunteers Jen Sterling, Ty Rushing and Erin Jordan

Melissa Tully received a 2025 Mental Health Champion Award at the University of Iowa.

Graduate Student News

Congratulations to Lei Chen and Tessa Adams on successfully defending their dissertations and to Anjelica Ortiz on successfully defending her thesis!

Congratulations to Queenie Zhou, Sabena Abdul Raheem, Abubakar Ibrahim, Sarah Witmer, and Sazzad Hossain on successfully passing their comprehensive exams.

Undergraduate Student News

Adam Kempenaar’s Nonfiction Narrative Podcasting class produced A Campus in Conflict, a four-part series about student activism at the University of Iowa in 1970.

Jami Martin-Trainor and Colin Votzmeyer placed 7th in 2024-2025 Hearst Journalism Awards Explanatory reporting – Individual/Team Competition for Investing in Women’s Sports: Understanding the Pay Disparity in Iowa Athletics. The University of Iowa placed third overall in Intercollegiate Writing.

DITV won more than 20 awards at this year’s Iowa Broadcast News Association Convention including Best Sportscast Student TV, Best Newscast and Overall Excellence Student TV.

DITV at the 2024-2025 IBNA Convention

Alice Cruse received a Fulbright English Teaching Assistantship Award to Taiwan for 2025-26.

Matt McGowan received a 2024 Mark of Excellence Award in Sports Writing from the Society of Professional Journalists for his piece Big Ten conference expansion brings challenges and opportunities alike.