School of Communication

DEAN O'KEEFE'S FALL 2009 STATE OF THE SCHOOL MESSAGE

Barbara O'Keefe Each fall I provide our community with an update on the state of the School.  It provides an overview of the past year’s student and faculty achievements as well as reports on current events that are shaping the School.  So far, 2009 has been especially eventful, and we can already see that 2010 will be another exciting and successful year.

Theatre and Performance Studies

Last year was a phenomenal year for our Theatre and Performance Studies programs.  Several faculty were involved in mounting the extraordinarily successful Steppenwolf Theater production of August:  Osage County.  Director Anna Shapiro won a Tony Award, and designer Todd Rosenthal won both a Tony and an Olivier Award (Rosenthal also earned tenure and promotion to associate professor).  Costumer Ana Kuzmanic was recognized with several awards as well.  Mary Zimmerman and Dan Ostling enjoyed another triumph at the Metropolitan Opera as they mounted a wonderful production of La Sonnambula

Our performing arts programs (Theatre, Dance, Music Theatre, and Performance Studies) are supported by our Theatre and Interpretation Center (TIC).  The new TIC Artistic Director, Henry Godinez, has planned an exciting season for 2009-10.

  • The season begins with a new production of Arsenic and Old Lace, directed by Tony Award winner and emeritus professor Frank Galati and starring acting faculty members Cindy Gold and Mary Poole.  Emeritus professor Virgil Johnson returned to design extraordinary costumes for this production, and alumnus Dennis Zacek (artistic director of Victory Gardens Theater) also makes an appearance in the show.
  • The second show of the season will be Leonard Bernstein’s Mass, with new lyrics for our production by Stephen Schwartz (Wicked, Pippin).  This seldom-produced show (it requires an unusually large cast) is being directed by Dominic Missimi and will run November 12-15.
  • In the winter quarter, we debut our “Masters in the Making” mini-season, with three innovative works directed by students graduating from the MFA Directing Program:  The American Pilot, Tommy, and The Handmaid’s Tale.
  • In spring quarter, playwright Laura Schellhardt will direct her new play Air Guitar High and David Bell will direct A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
  • And we expect both Danceworks and WAA-MU to be especially exciting this year.

Our faculty will be presenting extraordinary work off campus as well. Rebecca Gilman’s adaptation of The Heart is a Lonely Hunter opened this fall in New York.  Mary Zimmerman will direct her third play at the Metropolitan Opera this spring, Rossini’s Armida.  Dan Ostling will join her to design the sets.  Also next spring Patrick Johnson takes his one-man show, Sweet Tea to downtown Chicago with About Face Theater.  Henry Godinez will direct The Sins of Sor Juana at the Goodman and it will be playing in June and July 2010.  And in 2010 dance faculty member Billy Siegenfeld will celebrate the 20th anniversary of his company, the Jump Rhythm Jazz Project.  Dominic Missimi retired—during spring 2010 we will be celebrating his many achievements with some special events.

Our American Music Theatre Project continues to create excitement and wonderful opportunities for our students.  Last summer our 2009 project, Girls versus Boys, brought excitement and full houses to our Theatre and Interpretation Center, and the project will move downtown next spring as part of the House Theatre’s 2010 season.

Radio-Television-Film (RTF) and Communication Studies

The RTF and Communication Studies departments partnered to created a new major, “Media Industries and Technologies,” that was designed for Northwestern’s new campus in Doha, Qatar. In August 2009 we admitted our second class of freshmen to this program.  A number of our Evanston-based faculty have agreed to teach at the Doha campus:  Susan Dun, Mimi White, Jim Schwoch, Paul Leonardi, Rodda Leage, Brian Cagle, Ann Woodworth, and Hamid Naficy.  So far the project seems to be going very well, and the NU-Q students are giving high marks to the new program.

RTF has led the creation of an interdepartmental program in Writing for Screen and Stage, which has been an important force for integration and expanded opportunities for students.  Last year saw the establishment of “Short Film Collaborations” in which screenplays written by our MFA writers were produced in partnership with teams of undergraduate RTF students.  This year we were able to hold open auditions for actors, and over 150 student actors auditioned for roles in the short films. This in turn has created new opportunities for the actors to study acting on the screen as well as to develop a reel showing their work. 

Communication Studies faculty are also involved in many exciting collaborations.  Paul Arntson and Kathleen Galvin are working with Northwestern’s Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center to help develop better programs for counseling patients and their families when they are confronted with a cancer diagnosis.  Paul Leonardi has organized a new group, “Social Interaction and Organizing at Northwestern (SION),” that brings faculty together for research on organizations and networks.  Noshir Contractor is part of a multi-university collaboration on the science of networks that has received several million dollars of new funding to conduct research on the role of internet technologies in science and engineering communities.  Contractor is organizing a conference on this topic for Spring 2010 that will be funded by our new Lambert Family endowment, which is used to bring together experts working on a topic at the frontiers of communication research.

The Communication Studies faculty are also reaching important milestones.  David Zarefsky retired and is now an emeritus professor.  Assistant Professor Darren Gergle was awarded the highly sought after National Science Foundation Career Award, which is given each year to a very select group of junior faculty who have shown special promise.

Communication Science and Disorders

The Roxelyn and Richard Pepper Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders celebrated three promotions last year.  Amy Booth earned tenure and promotion to associate professor, and James Booth and Beverly Wright earned promotion to full professor.  A new faculty member, Pam Souza, was hired as an associate professor with tenure.  Souza is a specialist in design and evaluation of hearing aids.

The CSD faculty were especially successful in securing external funding last year.  Across the school, external awards rose 26% to over $8 million dollars.  Much of this increase was attributable to the efforts of our CSD faculty.  Their new grants included a multi-year award from the National Institutes of Health to support the education of doctoral students in CSD.

Cindy Thompson was given a two-year award of over $100,000 by SoC and Northwestern to plan and organize a new initiative on recovery from strokes.  She will be working with faculty from across Northwestern and from several other universities to plan a research center at Northwestern to support advances in the science of recovery and rehabilitation.

Across the School of Communication

Our most important new initiative, creation of the Office of External Programs, Internships, and Career Services (EPICS), is moving forward very well.  Under the guidance of EPICS Director Kate Neal, every part of the program is expanding and helping our students prepare for life after Northwestern.

  • Our new career services operation includes training the SoC advising staff to provide students with information about career opportunities and internships, organizing career fairs and information sessions, and assisting with company visits to campus.  In addition, last spring and again this fall the EPICS office offered a practicum on breaking into the entertainment industries, taught by Laverne McKinnon of Shibui Entertainment.
  • Last year the EPICS office brought professionals from all the communication arts and sciences to campus to meet with students and talk with them about careers.  These visitors included artistic directors, marketing directors, actors, filmmakers, media executives, consultants, entrepreneurs, and speech therapists.   Included among these were founding members of Lookingglass Theatre and Catherine Gottfred, former president of ASHA and founder of Leap Learning Systems.
  • The EPICS office also launched networking sites for alumni on LinkedIn and Facebook, organized the annual International Media Seminar in Paris, and worked with the NUEA on programming for students and alumni.
  • The Internship Program continues to grow and offers students the opportunity to work in such exciting venues as Comedy Central, Showtime, Second Stage and Steppenwolf Theaters, and Thruline Entertainment.

We are just beginning our new initiatives for the 2009-2010 academic year.  We will be evaluating and revising the entire undergraduate curriculum and we are designing new graduate and undergraduate programs.  This is a very exciting time for SoC, as the outstanding new faculty we have attracted begin working together to rethink our program and implement their new ideas.  I look forward to next year’s report, when I expect to share the results of this year’s new initiatives with you.

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DEAN O'KEEFE'S FALL 2009 STATE OF THE SCHOOL MESSAGE

Barbara O'Keefe Each fall I provide our community with an update on the state of the School.  It provides an overview of the past year’s student and faculty achievements as well as reports on current events that are shaping the School.  So far, 2009 has been especially eventful, and we can already see that 2010 will be another exciting and successful year.

Theatre and Performance Studies

Last year was a phenomenal year for our Theatre and Performance Studies programs.  Several faculty were involved in mounting the extraordinarily successful Steppenwolf Theater production of August:  Osage County.  Director Anna Shapiro won a Tony Award, and designer Todd Rosenthal won both a Tony and an Olivier Award (Rosenthal also earned tenure and promotion to associate professor).  Costumer Ana Kuzmanic was recognized with several awards as well.  Mary Zimmerman and Dan Ostling enjoyed another triumph at the Metropolitan Opera as they mounted a wonderful production of La Sonnambula

Our performing arts programs (Theatre, Dance, Music Theatre, and Performance Studies) are supported by our Theatre and Interpretation Center (TIC).  The new TIC Artistic Director, Henry Godinez, has planned an exciting season for 2009-10.

Our faculty will be presenting extraordinary work off campus as well. Rebecca Gilman’s adaptation of The Heart is a Lonely Hunter opened this fall in New York.  Mary Zimmerman will direct her third play at the Metropolitan Opera this spring, Rossini’s Armida.  Dan Ostling will join her to design the sets.  Also next spring Patrick Johnson takes his one-man show, Sweet Tea to downtown Chicago with About Face Theater.  Henry Godinez will direct The Sins of Sor Juana at the Goodman and it will be playing in June and July 2010.  And in 2010 dance faculty member Billy Siegenfeld will celebrate the 20th anniversary of his company, the Jump Rhythm Jazz Project.  Dominic Missimi retired—during spring 2010 we will be celebrating his many achievements with some special events.

Our American Music Theatre Project continues to create excitement and wonderful opportunities for our students.  Last summer our 2009 project, Girls versus Boys, brought excitement and full houses to our Theatre and Interpretation Center, and the project will move downtown next spring as part of the House Theatre’s 2010 season.

Radio-Television-Film (RTF) and Communication Studies

The RTF and Communication Studies departments partnered to created a new major, “Media Industries and Technologies,” that was designed for Northwestern’s new campus in Doha, Qatar. In August 2009 we admitted our second class of freshmen to this program.  A number of our Evanston-based faculty have agreed to teach at the Doha campus:  Susan Dun, Mimi White, Jim Schwoch, Paul Leonardi, Rodda Leage, Brian Cagle, Ann Woodworth, and Hamid Naficy.  So far the project seems to be going very well, and the NU-Q students are giving high marks to the new program.

RTF has led the creation of an interdepartmental program in Writing for Screen and Stage, which has been an important force for integration and expanded opportunities for students.  Last year saw the establishment of “Short Film Collaborations” in which screenplays written by our MFA writers were produced in partnership with teams of undergraduate RTF students.  This year we were able to hold open auditions for actors, and over 150 student actors auditioned for roles in the short films. This in turn has created new opportunities for the actors to study acting on the screen as well as to develop a reel showing their work. 

Communication Studies faculty are also involved in many exciting collaborations.  Paul Arntson and Kathleen Galvin are working with Northwestern’s Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center to help develop better programs for counseling patients and their families when they are confronted with a cancer diagnosis.  Paul Leonardi has organized a new group, “Social Interaction and Organizing at Northwestern (SION),” that brings faculty together for research on organizations and networks.  Noshir Contractor is part of a multi-university collaboration on the science of networks that has received several million dollars of new funding to conduct research on the role of internet technologies in science and engineering communities.  Contractor is organizing a conference on this topic for Spring 2010 that will be funded by our new Lambert Family endowment, which is used to bring together experts working on a topic at the frontiers of communication research.

The Communication Studies faculty are also reaching important milestones.  David Zarefsky retired and is now an emeritus professor.  Assistant Professor Darren Gergle was awarded the highly sought after National Science Foundation Career Award, which is given each year to a very select group of junior faculty who have shown special promise.

Communication Science and Disorders

The Roxelyn and Richard Pepper Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders celebrated three promotions last year.  Amy Booth earned tenure and promotion to associate professor, and James Booth and Beverly Wright earned promotion to full professor.  A new faculty member, Pam Souza, was hired as an associate professor with tenure.  Souza is a specialist in design and evaluation of hearing aids.

The CSD faculty were especially successful in securing external funding last year.  Across the school, external awards rose 26% to over $8 million dollars.  Much of this increase was attributable to the efforts of our CSD faculty.  Their new grants included a multi-year award from the National Institutes of Health to support the education of doctoral students in CSD.

Cindy Thompson was given a two-year award of over $100,000 by SoC and Northwestern to plan and organize a new initiative on recovery from strokes.  She will be working with faculty from across Northwestern and from several other universities to plan a research center at Northwestern to support advances in the science of recovery and rehabilitation.

Across the School of Communication

Our most important new initiative, creation of the Office of External Programs, Internships, and Career Services (EPICS), is moving forward very well.  Under the guidance of EPICS Director Kate Neal, every part of the program is expanding and helping our students prepare for life after Northwestern.

We are just beginning our new initiatives for the 2009-2010 academic year.  We will be evaluating and revising the entire undergraduate curriculum and we are designing new graduate and undergraduate programs.  This is a very exciting time for SoC, as the outstanding new faculty we have attracted begin working together to rethink our program and implement their new ideas.  I look forward to next year’s report, when I expect to share the results of this year’s new initiatives with you.