The NMCC blog will be joining everyone on summer vacation until September. We wish everyone a safe and relaxing summer, and look forward to seeing new and returning students in the fall for another great year!

If you missed our announcement about next year’s transition of NMCC leadership, be sure to catch up as we say farewell to the founding director Kate Mondloch, and hello to incoming director Colin Koopman. And please give a warm welcome to next year’s NMCC GE Laura Strait! Thank you to everyone’s participation in making this year such a success, it has been a pleasure working with Kate, and Colin through the transition, and getting to know past, present, and future students!

Don’t forget to stop by our table at the annual Graduate Student Resource Fair during orientation week in September!

Congratulations again to all of our 2017 graduates!

NMCC Founding Director Kate Mondloch is stepping down after four years of leading the NMCC. Under Kate’s direction, the program has enrolled over forty MA and PhD students from a wide range of degree programs, from Comparative Literature to Conflict Resolution. The NMCC now lists ninety affiliated staff and faculty from across campus and boasts a vibrant social media presence, making NMCC a widely-recognized hub for all things “new media” at UO. “I’m honored to have overseen the NMCC from proposal-on-paper to thriving transdisciplinary program,” says Kate. “It’s a great feeling to know that we’ve helped so many grads enhance their new media credentials and secure top positions– tenure-track jobs at the Universities of Maryland and Georgia, postdoc fellowships at Penn and Lafayette, research positions at IBM and Microsoft, and the list goes on.” Kate notes that special thanks are due to Doug Blandy and Carol Stabile, who served as the architects behind the certificate proposal and tirelessly shepherded it through the approval process, as well as the advisory committee members and the staff in the Digital Scholarship Center. Deans Scott Pratt and Christoph Lindner were instrumental in securing a permanent home for the certificate in the Graduate School, where the NMCC will transition to new leadership.

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Colin Koopman is an Associate Professor in Philosophy whose current research is focused on new media theory and the politics of data. He is currently writing a book on the history of information-driven conceptions of selfhood in the early twentieth century. Colin has been enthusiastic about NMCC since its inception during his first few years at UO and is looking forward to his new role as Director. As he settles into helping manage the regular operations and strategic vision of the program, Colin is excited about expanding the kinds of opportunities NMCC offers to students. Next academic year he hopes to begin growing the number of events put on for the community, pairing the quarterly NMCC open houses with events geared explicitly at NMCC students.  These events might range from workshops to guest lectures to panel presentations featuring NMCC faculty.

If you have an idea for an event you would like to see, please email Colin at koopman@uoregon.edu and let him know!

We are delighted to announce the talented group of NMCC graduates for the 2016-2017 academic year: Jolene Fisher, Wade Keye, Matthew Pittman, Jeremiah Favara, and Alec Tefertiller, from SOJC. We are very proud of the hard work and perseverance that all have displayed in their academic pursuits during their time with us, and we look forward to celebrating their scholarly and technological accomplishments in the years ahead.

Congratulations class of 2017!

Jolene Fisher, Ph.D. Media Studies

Jolene Fisher is a Summer 2016 NMCC graduate from the School of Journalism and Communication, where she taught and assisted in classes ranging from media history, video and TV news production and reporting, and media communications in developing countries. She played an active role in her professional field at the University of Oregon, writing numerous papers for international, national, and regional conferences; and publishing articles in three key journals and one book focusing on the intersection of communication and culture. She is interested in continuing on this road in the future, turning her academic writing into a book that demonstrats how new media such as games and apps can be a valuable tool in bringing aide and education to developing communities, particularly those of minorities and dealing with illness and extreme poverty.

Wade Keye, M.A. Media Studies

Wade Keye is a Spring 2017 NMCC graduate from the School of Journalism and Communication who’s interests lie in film studies and the phenomenon of death on social media.  Building upon his background in film theory, production, and tech journalism, his research has centered around a humanistic inquiry into the the communicative practices engaged in by living users with the social media profiles of the dead, and questions the possible impact of data collection and algorithmic representation on the boundary between life and death. Wade hopes to pursue doctoral study and a career in media education in the future, while continuing his personal work in film production and fondly remembering his time in the NMCC, which he hopes will one day become a major of its own.

Matthew Pittman, Ph.D. Media Studies

Matthew Pittaman is a Spring 2017 graduate specializing in the social and cultural impact of an increasingly digital world. His dissertation, entitled “Phoneliness,” explores the relationships between mobile social media, personality, and loneliness. He is specifically interested in how new and social media augment or diminish our shared humanity. Matthew looks forward to a position as an Assistant Professor at Rowan University and thanks the NMCC for the variety of course options available. He enjoyed being able to experiment with different classes while knowing he would always be able to find one that fit; John Russel’s seminar on Digital Scholarship made a particular impact.

Jeremiah Favara, Ph.D. Media Studies

Jeremiah Favara is a Summer 2017 NMCC graduate whose research focuses on the intersections of media, technology, nation, and gender in representations of militarization. His dissertation, “An Army of Some: Recruiting for Difference and Diversity in the U.S. Military,” explores military recruitment advertising during the era of the all-volunteer force and proposes that the project of military inclusion was driven by a need to recruit bodies in maintenance of the military institution. He argues that military inclusion in recruiting ads obfuscates class inequalities critical to recruiting, reconfigures ideas about military masculinity, promotes ideologies of colorblindness, and regulates ideas about gender and sexuality, particularly for women in the military. Though his future plans are uncertain, he hopes to continue his work in feminist media studies, utilizing the interdisciplinary avenues he enjoyed during his coursework with the NMCC.

Alec Tefertiller, Ph.D. Media Studies

Alec Tefertiller is a Summer 2017 NMCC graduate specializing in technology, social media, advertising, and social science. His favorite course while participating in the NMCC was a seminar in Digital Scholarship, which opened his eyes to new ways of approaching, collecting, and understanding digital information. His primary research during his time at the University of Oregon focused on the use of social context cues in Facebook advertisements, during which he discovered that the mere presence of social impact in Facebook advertisements affects brand attitudes even if the presence does not exert much influence itself. He also found that a person’s social capital in their Facebook network increased their willingness to share advertisements and positively influenced their purchase intentions. Alec is looking forward to building on this research and his NMCC coursework in his future position as tenure-track Assistant professor of Advertising at Kansas State University