Summer 2020 in This Issue

Home , Agnes Nixon, Ana Gasteyer, Attica Locke, Columbia College Chicago, Craig Bierko, Frank Galati

Northwestern University School of Communication Nonprofit 70 Arts Circle Drive Organization U.S. Postage Evanston, Illinois 60208 P A I D Evanston, Illinois Permit No. 205

Dialogue is published for the alumni of the School of Commun ica tion. Comments and suggestions may be mailed to Dialogue, Northwestern University School of Commu nica tion, Evanston, Illinois 60208, or emailed to dialogue @northwestern.edu. Please email all address changes to BioUpdate @northwestern.edu.

Editors: Kerry Trotter, Kingsley Day

Designers: Henry McGill, Heather Cosgrove

Photo credits: Acey Harper, Kevin Almond, Archive Photos, Justin Barbin, Peter Bosy, David Cooper, Steven Ferdman, Shimon Galiley, Hulton Archive, Chris Jackson, Liz Lauren, Eileen Molony, Northwestern University Archives, Jim Prisching, Jasmin Shah, Sean Su, Kerry Trotter

2 150 years of impact

16 The trailblazers

24 Twenty years of progress

30 Our community On the cover: 35 Faculty focus School of Oratory students on the steps of Annie May 39 Alumni achievements Swift Hall in 1899

42 In memory

43 Communicating gratitude

44 Welcoming the school’s new dean

The music theatre program’s 2020 class performing the original song “How Far” by Emmet Smith (C21) and Ruchir Khazanchi (C21)

When Northwestern announced in March that campuses would be shuttered to stem the tide of COVID-19, no student group was hit harder than graduating seniors, who feared this spelled a premature end to their college experience—Commencement activities included. Although all in-person graduation ceremonies were halted, the University community mobilized with alternative plans. The School of Communication moved its convocation ceremony to an entirely online format, with prerecorded remarks by Dean Barbara O’Keefe, guest speaker April McClain-Delaney (see page 23), and graduating senior Kamila Postolowicz, who introduced her. Additionally, all of the more than 300 seniors were asked to submit photos, memories, and accomplishments, which school staff used to create graduate profiles. Perhaps the most exciting elements were an original song written and performed by music theatre students (pictured) and a video featuring student-submitted photos and humorous and inspiring good wishes from a host of illustrious alumni. These included Mara Brock Akil (J92), Kate Baldwin (C97), Greg Berlanti (C94), Craig Bierko (C86), Stephen Colbert (C86, H11), Stephanie D’Abruzzo (C93), Lydia Diamond (C91), Julia Louis-Dreyfus (C83, H07) and Brad Hall (C80), Marcus Folmar (C96), Ana Gasteyer (C89), Kathryn Hahn (C95), Heather Headley (C97), Adam Kantor (C08), Raymond J. Lee (C04), Nick Lehmann (C16), Harry Lennix (C86), Attica Locke (C95), Stephanie March (C96), Denis O’Hare (C84), Nicole Sullivan (C91), and Kimberly Williams-Paisley (C93), as well as School of Communication alumnus parents Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson. “We’ve reached what I think is a singularity,” said Lennix in his tribute. “Scientists talk about singularity being the point at which something reaches an infinite value, at which point all the rules break down. No more rules. We’re at that time now, and I can think of no better group of people to steward this forward than you Northwestern Wildcat graduates of the School of Communication in 2020.” The Class of 2020 will be invited back to campus next spring to take part in an in-person ceremony.

iii Dialogue summer 2020 Message from the dean

Northwestern University designated the 2019–20 academic year as a celebration of the decision made 150 years ago to admit women as students. In the School of Communication’s long history, many women faculty and alumni have made singular contributions to their chosen fields. We planned to devote this issue of Dialogue to them in tribute to 150 Years of Women at Northwestern. And, of course, as the first woman to lead this school, I looked forward to the opportunity to showcase our history. This issue’s main feature story does just that. However, in March, with the arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic, many of our plans for this year were turned upside down—as was true for much of our world. I know many of you are wondering how we have responded to this crisis as well as the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement, and so this issue also includes my reflections on how disruptive events—both inside and outside the academy—have shaped our school. It is helpful to see current crises in the context of many others we have faced in the past two decades. The essay on page 24 offers that perspective. As I’m sure you are aware, my service as dean of the school concludes on July 31. In the final component of this issue, I am delighted to introduce you to my successor, Professor E. Patrick Johnson, who begins his service as dean on August 1. It has been a great privilege to lead the school during a time when leadership could make a big difference. The sphere of the communication arts and sciences has been changing at an accelerat- ing pace, and it has never been more important to help our faculty see and implement the changes that need to be made. At the same time, the demographics of our faculty when I arrived in 2000—many of whom had been hired in the 1960s—meant that we have had many vacancies in the past two decades, giving us unprecedented opportunities to reshape our departments. But rebuilding and creating new programs would have been impossible without the tremendous partnership we enjoy with our engaged alumni, parents, and friends. Growth and change on the scale we have achieved were also the result of their investments of ideas, energy, and gifts. In the past two decades, we have added 11 endowed professorships, which have been key to attracting extraordinary faculty; we have expanded and reno- vated our facilities to allow us to improve and add programs; and we have been able to expand scholarship support, advising, career services, and cocurricular opportunities for undergraduate and graduate students alike. Of course, the most visible and successful project our alumni, faculty, and students undertook together was CommFest 2018, which achieved its community-building, educational, and fundraising goals in the most spectacular way. I am so grateful to our alumni leaders (David Lefkowitz, Elizabeth Zoia, and Amanda Silverman), our creative team (Don Weiner, Dave Harding, Rac Clark, and the inimitable Stephen Colbert), and the many alumni who returned to Evanston to perform at the event and participate in the weekend’s activities. It laid the foundation for our future success in ways too numerous to even mention here. To all of you—students, faculty, staff, alumni, parents, and friends—I want to express my deepest appreciation for everything you have done for the school, and for me. Just one last time, let me say how much I have loved being your dean.

Barbara J. O’Keefe Dean, School of Communication Start a dialogue: [email protected]

summer 2020 Dialogue 1 150 YEARS OF IMPACT WOMEN ADVANCING THE COMMUNICATION ARTS AND SCIENCES

by Cara Lockwood and Kerry Trotter

In the 1869–70 academic year, Northwestern University matriculated its ﬁrst female students, placing it in the vanguard of universities providing equal educational opportunities for women. The School of Oratory—now the School of Communication—was a key point of entry for women from that time forward. As a result, women faculty and alumnae from the school have a long and distinguished history of discovery, creative achievements, and leadership in the communication arts and sciences. Through their contributions, Northwestern has shaped these ﬁelds profoundly.

2 Dialogue summer 2020 summer 2020 Dialogue 3 The Arts rom the school’s beginning, its “They were deeply involved in creating Ffoundations were unequivo- a culture and an environment for rigor- cally female. In 1881 the brand-new ous intellectual pursuit and creative and School of Oratory’s first two students inspired performance,” says Frank Galati graduated—both women. In fact, it (C65, GC67, GC71), professor emeritus of wasn’t until 1887 that a male student performance studies and a wildly successful graduated. Dean Robert Cumnock, the scholar, playwright, and director who worked school’s founding leader, served as its only under both Krause and Lee. “These women were professor until he hired new faculty in 1889 and 1890, powerfully, hugely, tremendously influential in the shaping of both women. these curricula and the points of view of the pedagogy.” The school initially operated as an elocutionary training Krause (see page 16) was hired by Dean Ralph Dennis ground, laying the foundation for future eminence in rhetoric despite her lack of any formal acting training, “but she codified and public culture. As its performing arts pedagogy program her own methodology,” says professor Cindy Gold, who calls grew, so did its reputation, intensity, and legacy of strong female Galati her mentor. “Her belief was that the study of acting was leadership. In 1914 Susan Burdick Davis, the school’s first inseparable from the study of liberal arts and the humanities, female instructor to hold a master’s degree, joined the faculty and she was an early adopter of the idea that acting training to teach rhetoric, children’s literature, and “normal methods.” should look at the internal life of a character. She was doing Children’s theatre pioneer Winifred Ward was hired in what Stanislavsky was doing, what Freud was writing about, 1918, and theatre legend Alvina Krause joined the faculty in so her work was in the zeitgeist.” 1930. Charlotte Lee was hired in 1945 as the interpretation fac- Unlike Krause, Charlotte Lee arrived at Northwestern with ulty’s first woman with a doctorate. Those three women played ample academic credentials, having written a doctoral disser- a particularly integral part in shaping theatre and interpreta- tation on poetry. “It was historic because it opened the door for tion (now performance studies) into model academic programs. women who were passionate about the life of the mind and Their transformational work and influence shaped the way who were now able to look at the possibility of a full professor- Northwestern and many peer institutions teach the dramatic ship,” Galati says. “She was a great teacher, a great performer, arts to this day. effervescent, loving, and maternal.”

Left (from left), Charlton Heston (C45), Dean Roy Wood, and President Robert Strotz honor Alvina Krause at the 1980 “The Way We Were” gala; center, Cindy Gold teaching an acting class; right, Jessica Thebus (at right) leading a directing class

4 Dialogue summer 2020 “ These women were powerfully, hugely, tremendously inﬂuential in the shaping of these curricula and the points of view of the pedagogy.” —Frank Galati

Winifred Ward (see page 16), a pioneer in the field of Collins continues, “I remember when we were hiring Anna creative dramatics (now known as theatre for young audiences) Shapiro, a colleague said to me, ‘Get used to the fact that she’s and founder of the renowned Evanston Children’s Theatre, likely to be the smartest person in the room, no matter what was a pivotal force in establishing Northwestern’s eminence room she’s in.’ Anna has a brilliant sense of text, of literary anal- in storytelling. “She was a marvelous director and leader,” says ysis, and she knows how to unpack a play. This is not a theatre Rives Collins, professor and chair of the Department of Theatre. program in which people hang their brains at the door. And “There is a direct link between what she did with Evanston Tracy C. Davis is arguably one of the most decorated of our Children’s Theatre and what we do with Imagine U and our faculty, ever. She is widely published and highly regarded storytelling and playwriting programs.” inter nationally as a preeminent historian and scholar in Collins notes that these early leaders set the tone for what the field who has transformed doctoral studies in theatre at would come to define the modern Departments of Theatre and Northwestern.” Currently focused on the emergence of women Performance Studies—a mission to create artists who are intel- as entrepreneurs and performers in the gig economy, Davis’s ligent, scholarly, creative, gritty, and inclusive. Today’s depart- scholarship dovetails with groundbreaking work being done ments are as dynamic as they’ve ever been. in business studies and sociology. “Do we have a sense that in the fullness of time, we may A similar emphasis on interdisciplinarity is being champi- look at this moment and marvel at the women we have now?” oned in the Department of Performance Studies. Renowned for he posits. “The answer is emphatically yes.” producing the likes of Galati, Zimmerman, and Steppenwolf He cites Mary Zimmerman, a former Galati student “whose Theatre’s late artistic director Martha Lavey, the department has work has transformed the field, that hybrid of performance been transformed by D. Soyini Madison (who retired this year; studies and theatre, to tell stories that are extraordinarily visual see page 7) into an ethnographic exploration of performance and poetic, with an aesthetic uniquely her own.” not only as practice but as a means of analyzing social, political, and embodied works—especially pertaining to Black, Latinx, Asian American, Indigenous, queer, and feminist experiences. “I think this department is the crown jewel of performance ethnography,” she says. Continuing Madison’s departmental path are Marcela Fuentes, an expert on performance in activism and protest; Shayna Silverstein, who examines sound and movement in the contemporary Middle East; Cristal Truscott, founder of Progress Theatre, which works toward antiracism engagement; and Bimbola Akinbola, who researches women’s art-making in the African diaspora. “I do credit the work of feminist scholars in theatre and performance studies departments across the country, and Northwestern leads in this respect,” says Davis, the Ethel M. Barber Professor of Performing Arts. “And I credit scholars of color and transgender scholars, who train generation after generation of theatre students to go out to advocate and make work of different kinds and bring about the change.”

summer 2020 Dialogue 5 “ I am seeing women who are leaders, who are visionary, who take no guff. This feels like a current generation of women who are ready to take on the world. And then they come here and ﬁnd faculty who’ll say, ‘We’ll help you do it.’” —Rives Collins

Notable in the quest for change is associate professor Jessica embodied performance; and Laura Schellhardt and Julie Myatt, Thebus, director of the MFA program in directing. “The pro- who teach playwriting in what is without a doubt the best gram is entirely female led and female staffed, and a lot of our undergraduate playwriting program in the country. students, no matter how they identify, are really drawn to the “And no student at the University could say, ‘Boo hoo, I wish program because of our strong female leadership,” says Thebus. Miss Krause were teaching here today,’” Collins continues. Adding that she also makes a point of trying to model how the “We’ve got Cindy Gold, Cristal Truscott, and Sandra Marquez, next generation of women can find a work-life balance, she and the amazing Mary Poole, who is retiring this year after notes that the MFA directing program’s faculty—Shana Cooper, more than 30 years of inspiring students.” Halena Kays, Dassia Posner, and Shapiro—are all mothers. It’s the students, after all, who reap the benefits of their Collins attributes the success of these deeply thoughtful deeply creative and intellectual forebears’ legacy. “I am seeing dramatic pursuits at Northwestern to the faculty’s incredible women who are leaders, who are visionary, who take no guff; range. “We have the likes of Masi Asare, a stunning composer we are not dealing with a generation of women who will take and lyricist and inspirational teacher; Dassia Posner, fluent in kindly to condescension, patronizing attitudes, or harassment Russian, who has direct ties to Russian theatre makers who in any form,” Collins says. “This feels like a current generation knew Stanislavsky; Elizabeth Son, whose scholarship looks of women who are ready to take on the world. And then they at the history of sexual abuse and redress as it plays out in come here and find faculty who’ll say, ‘We’ll help you do it.’”

From left: Student participants in the spring 2019 sitcom sequence; Mary Zimmerman in rehearsal

6 Dialogue summer 2020 EMBRACING “THE OTHER” IN PERFORMANCE STUDIES

“At every turn in culture, the trajectory of performance studies at Northwestern has always been against the grain,” says newly retired professor D. Soyini Madison, an alumna and revolutionary force of nature in the department. The exemplarily radical reputation of Northwestern’s performance studies program can be traced back to Shakespearean scholar Wallace Bacon, who founded the Department of Interpretation in 1955 and essentially reimagined the field. Under Bacon, interpretation’s roots in adapting literary texts—typically the Western European canon—started to look toward “the other”—the other voice, the other point of view, the empathy needed for the other. At the time, says Madison, this was an unexpected, unexplored impulse in “ In performance studies in Greece and Spain, in Brazil, in India, in the field. we’re always looking for South Africa. We hadn’t had that before.” “He broke ground,” she adds. “He what is left out. Not only A respected author in the field, wanted us to look at other texts that were Madison watched students flourish in this not ‘classics.’ He said, ‘I want us to travel what is left out of the new direction as she continued to pur- into other worlds that we do not know, equation, but the cracks sue her work in theory and performance where we are not known.’” in the equation.” methodology. “If people want to study This idea turned on its head what is performance studies,” she says, “they come considered “good” or classic literature and on Black female domestic workers led to Northwestern.” directly influenced Bacon’s successor as to a faculty position at the University It’s now the field’s very nature to department chair, Dwight Conquergood, of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (where research and revere “the other,” which in who took this notion of “the other” even her students included future School of America has long been Black, Indigenous, further—beyond text and into people’s Communication dean E. Patrick Johnson) Latinx, immigrant, LGBTQ, and female lives, a decidedly more ethnographic and, in 2007, back to her alma mater. populations. “In performance studies we’re approach. He collected stories, engaged It was under Madison’s leadership always looking for what is left out,” says in rituals, and enacted practices among in the department—and in honoring her Madison. “Not only what is left out of the such cultures as the Hmong and Chicago’s mentor’s work—that the field took yet equation, but the cracks in the equation.” street gangs. another step toward the study of cultures, The myriad crises of 2020, whether Madison arrived at Northwestern as movements, and ideas well beyond the coronavirus, the overdue reckoning with a Chicago-based theatre artist and single stage. “We were really able to delve into America’s racial injustices, or political mother in 1984—the year the department the theory and practice of performance upheavals, have brought into relief people name was changed to performance studies ethnography,” she says. “And we started and institutions long overlooked. It can’t —and the following year began to study getting students who wanted to do the be overstated that Madison’s vanguard directly under Conquergood. After com- ethnographic work. These were stunning work has played an integral pedagogical pletion of her PhD in 1989, her roots among proposals for work that was not in safe part in radically extending the depart- Chicago’s Black female performance places. I had people doing work with ment’s legacy of making “the other” activists and her ethnographic research Palestinians, the Arab Spring, the riots the focus.

summer 2020 Dialogue 7 The Sciences n the early to mid-20th century, when science and medicine Northwestern’s Department of Speech Re-education was Iwere overwhelmingly dominated by men, the field of com- created in 1928 with only two teachers on its roster, including munication sciences and disorders—particularly what is now Belle Kennedy, known for her exacting standards. As the depart- known as speech-language pathology—had become a reliable ment grew, it boasted such talent as Doris Johnson, the JoAnn G. entry point for women. and Peter F. Dolle Professor Emerita in Learning Disabilities, “There was a teaching component to the practice, so it whose research broke ground in the study of learning disabili- drew a lot of educators, which was a traditionally female field,” ties; Laura Lee, who researched child developmental speech says Bonnie Martin-Harris (GC91), the Alice Gabrielle Twight in the 1960s and ’70s; and in audiology, professor emerita Professor (named for the first woman to receive her PhD from Laura Ann Wilber, who worked to set and perfect standards Northwestern) and the school’s associate dean for academic for hearing assessment and amplification devices. For more affairs. “But that has changed a lot, as now there’s more of a than 20 years, she has served as a US representative to the medical component. It’s much more rigorous.” International Standards Organization. Kate Gottfred (GC73, GC79), a former American Speech- “We are fortunate in this field to have a history of strong Language-Hearing Association president and an advocate for female leadership, especially at Northwestern,” says Pamela children’s access to learning development resources (see page Souza, professor and chair of the Roxelyn and Richard Pepper 20), recalls that even though women flocked to the profession, Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders. “Some the leaders, professors, and heads of special education were of the researchers, teachers, and students from our department still mostly men. To help correct the imbalance, she served on a have led groundbreaking work in science and treatment, as 1980s committee for equality of the sexes in the profession. “We well as how we provide care to our patients.” were fighting the good fight, and we helped women be leaders One influence looming especially large is that of Jerilyn in their professions,” she says. “Now most of the leaders in our Logemann (see page 19), who began teaching at Northwestern industry are women, most of the researchers are women.” in 1978. A leader in the field of dysphagia (swallowing

VALERIE GRUEST SLOWING constantly evolving technology land- WOMEN 2020 graduate, communication scape. My opinions as well as participa- studies and art theory and prac- tion within the academic setting have TO WATCH tice; ﬁrst-year graduate student, always been respected and valued. An media, technology, and society increased sense of empower- These School of HOMETOWN Guatemala ment results from my Communication City, Guatemala involvement in the OTHER ACTIVITIES students are making ATLAS Lab, where ATLAS Lab, swimming the majority of waves on campus— and diving and soon will make lab members self- identify as female. their mark in the I was able to find my Having women passion for research professional world. at the forefront within the School of In their own words, of groundbreaking Communication through a handful of standouts research efforts within course offerings and research share their aspirations, such a respected academic assistantships that lined up with community provides a powerful inspirations, and both my majors. I believe this pro- dynamic. As a result of my experiences challenges. gram has an immense commitment to as a Latinx woman, Olympic athlete preparing students with exceptional (2016 Rio Games), researcher, and artist, research skills and expertise within the I have a heightened focus on creating

8 Dialogue summer 2020 From left: Elizabeth Norton working with a child in her LEARN lab; Bonnie Martin-Harris teaching in her Swallowing Cross-System Collaborative disorders)—often a byproduct of head and neck cancers, neuro- Martin-Harris continues. “And so not only was she building degenerative disorders, and premature birth—Logemann was this clinical science machine, she was also leading the faculty the driving force behind Martin-Harris’s decision to come to and had huge administrative responsibilities. And she built a Northwestern for her doctorate. bridge to our downtown campus, in terms of doing work with “Jeri Logemann was a pioneer,” she says. “She was the first patients in the hospital and doing actual clinical research in woman, first anyone, first person, to begin to critically evaluate the real clinics. She was key in establishing the infrastructure not only speech disorders but also the very important function between our campuses, now instrumental in conducting sharing the same anatomical pathway, and that’s swallowing. patient-oriented research.” She was tough, and she took a lot of hits along the way. She was Martin-Harris herself has transformed the field of dys- invading the turf of surgeons and others, mostly men, but she phagia, having authored and developed the first standardized had to infiltrate so many different disciplines in order to advo- method of videofluoroscopic assessment of swallowing impair- cate for the science and the patients. ment. She has spent her career focusing on patient-centric “When I came to do my PhD here, Jeri was the chair,” approaches and researching the standardization of clinicians’

platforms for a wide LAURA JEANNE FERDINAND share scholarship more broadly, developing range of perspectives Fifth-year PhD candidate, inter disciplinary community-based programming. I am most to bring awareness and theatre and drama eager to continue my work with museums inspire positive change HOMETOWN Roswell, Georgia and in academic publishing. The School of in the world. I have Communication has always impressed me with faith that my past and My dissertation is a recuperative history its commitment to fostering interdisciplinary future experiences of women of color and other women in the scholarship and supporting the artistic practice at Northwestern will American South that examines how women of its students and faculty. One of the features contribute to my future shaped Southern history and culture during that distinguishes the school is its faculty, who success as I strive to the region’s most prolific period of cultural are exceptional mentors and advocates. When become a professional production (the early 20th century). Although I visited Evanston for applicant weekend, one in my field while giving the influence of these women has of the first things I noticed about back and remaining been deeply felt across the South, my department was the strong an active member of they have been mostly over- contingent of women who are the community. I have looked in scholarship. I am amazing scholars, teachers, found a home away from committed to accessible and activists. I inquired home in the School of education and public-facing about life as a woman in the Communication. work. In addition to the program, and the positive responsibilities of a univer- responses factored greatly sity professor, I am excited by in my decision to attend the wonderful opportunities to Northwestern.

summer 2020 Dialogue 9 “The next wave of great scientists is identify and treat patients with neurodegenerative disorders. here, and I’m proud to be a part of it.” Cynthia Thompson is the backbone of our Aphasia Center and has made extraordinary contributions to understanding lan- —Pamela Souza guage recovery after brain damage. I see them all on the ascent in their career stages; they’re amazing.” Northwestern hearing and language scientists are similarly training for conducting exams and interpreting results to guide ascendant. Traditionally the field has been more dominated treatment. She has partnered with North western Memorial by men; audiology took off after World War II when service Hospital on building a remote diagnostic system so that members returned home with noise-induced hearing loss, and students in her Evanston lab can observe, interact with, and audiologists often came from neuroscience or ear-nose-throat consult on patients being treated in Chicago. Martin-Harris’s backgrounds. But Souza recognizes how significantly the disci- hybrid approach to research and clinical work is a hallmark pline has evolved—thanks to leaders like Laura Ann Wilber. of the department. “I consider our audiology and neuroscience faculty among “We have a balance of faculty with clinical and research the best of any university,” says Souza, an expert in aging-related backgrounds, which brings us a nice synergy,” she says. “In cognition and speech perception. “We have Nina Kraus, a tire- early language intervention, Megan Roberts has a strong clini- less researcher of sound’s impact on the brain; Viorica Marian, cal background and is so successful in designing and running a leading researcher of bi- and multilingualism; and Beverly clinical trials. Adriana Weisleder studies early language devel- Wright, an authority on auditory learning, who was awarded the opment in children from diverse linguistic and socioeconomic 1995 Lindsay Award from the Acoustical Society of America, the backgrounds. Elizabeth Norton investigates the neuroscientific second woman to receive the prize since its founding in 1942. underpinnings of language development and early identifi- Each of us has a research lab, and year after year brilliant women cation of learning disorders. On the other end of the research graduate whose work will be transformative. The next wave of lifespan, Angela Roberts combines science and advocacy to great scientists is here, and I’m proud to be a part of it.”

SHARENA SIGMON open ears who are RAHMA ALMAJID Second-year MFA willing to listen Class of 2021 human communication candidate, writing and support sciences major on pre-med track for screen and stage me in any way HOMETOWN Chicago HOMETOWN Chicago that I need to (Englewood, feel supported. I want to be a physician and work South Side) That’s super in developmental pediatrics, a ﬁeld important to heavily discussed in most of my courses. Selecting this program at me. I plan to In addition to my coursework, since fall Northwestern has provided move to Los Angeles 2019 I have been involved in research me with further knowledge in to further my goals in with Adriana Weisleder in the Child my writing, and I’ve gained a new screenwriting and TV writing. I seek Language Lab, where I perspective on who I am as an also to teach screenwriting or help in our studies artist. After I graduate, I can tackle creative writing; I feel I can ven- involving bilingual my professional aspirations with con- ture into new and different children and late viction due to my background in this territories. A guest visited talkers. This work. As a woman, speciﬁcally as a my program and mentioned has also been Black woman, I feel supported by fac- how everywhere he goes, a monumental ulty and close peers in my program. Northwestern alum is there. in fueling my No one can ever fully walk in my This excites me for my future. interests and shoes, but I do know that I have many The sky’s the limit. teaching me

10 Dialogue summer 2020 Media Arts and Communication hen communication studies professor and chair Leslie WDeChurch interviewed at Northwestern in 2016, she knew instantly that the School of Communication operated differently. “I was recruited by Michelle Shumate, wooed by Ellen Wartella, and then hired by Dean Barbara O’Keefe,” DeChurch says. “I came from Georgia Tech, where everyone Leslie DeChurch (center) with members of her ATLAS lab in the line of command was male.” Up until 2000, this was largely the case in both commu- design. Cracking the fields of media and communication wide nication studies and radio/television/film, where the faculty open allowed us to recruit exciting faculty whose scholarship ranks reflected the demographics of the industries they studied. transcended the old paradigms. And what resulted is an inter- While women did excel and hold faculty positions, they were disciplinary group of researchers and artists that is much more the exception, not the norm. Dean Barbara O’Keefe’s arrival in representative of our world.” 2000 signaled a new era of parity—both to build fair represen- Wartella—the Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani Pro- tation and to chart the innovative direction she envisioned for fessor in Communication, director of Northwestern’s Center the school. for Media and Human Development, and the communication “Established programs and curricula, like rhetoric and studies department’s first female chair—saw the dean’s arrival debate, or film production and criticism, were traditionally as an exciting watershed for the department. “We brought in the purview of men,” O’Keefe says. “But we needed to build more people in the area of technology and human-computer a school reflective of the rapidly changing communication interaction,” she says. “We were growing, we had resources, and landscape, one that researched and innovated in emergent it was easy to recruit really great people.” fields such as interaction design, network and organizational They included Shumate and DeChurch as well as Larissa communication, digital media arts and industries, and game Buchholz—each an expert in teams, organizations, and

to think critically and conduct good RASHAYLA MARIE BROWN and aesthetics of relation. I do research research. I received a summer under- Second-year doctoral candidate, in tandem with performance and film graduate research grant to work on my performance studies installations, which I hope to incorpo- own research with the lab, and I hope to HOMETOWN born in Toledo, Ohio rate into my dissertation. My primary pursue a senior thesis next year. I have (and has since moved 24 times) goal is to extend my artistic practice received tremendous support and guid- OTHER ACHIEVEMENTS while pursuing the PhD. Everyone in ance from the communication sciences Department of Education Foreign the department knows my research Language and Area Studies grant to and disorders department, and it has requires time to make work as an artist, study Arabic in Morocco; residency only encouraged me to work harder. I and they’ve given me opportunities with the Embassy of Foreign Artists feel so lucky to have met these brilliant to do both while still enrolled. My in Geneva, Switzerland women and know they will continue to adviser, Joshua Chambers-Letson, has be supportive throughout my time at been an amazing support in I study conceptual Northwestern and beyond. Northwest- making sure my research performance ern has taught me how to face adversity directly feeds into practice- art’s inter- and failure and overcome them. As a based work. Aymar Jean section with first-generation and low-income Muslim Christian and his OTV film, art markets, woman, I always fear not being taken platform have also modern and seriously, but Northwestern has shown provided space for me contemporary me that I have important contributions and dozens of others arts education, to make and that my voice matters in to promote underrepre- Black performance, every situation I face. sented narratives in media.

summer 2020 Dialogue 11 “The more we choose to invest in understanding the evolution of the public sphere and its operation in an era of global networks and media, the more diverse our faculty becomes.” —Dean Barbara O’Keefe

infrastructure, identified by O’Keefe as an area of priority. “The more we choose to invest in understanding the evo- Such pioneering alumni as Emily Gerson Saines, Sherry lution of the public sphere and its operation in an era of global Lansing (see page 19), and Jane Steiner Hoffman (see page 22) networks and media, the more diverse our faculty becomes,” provided invaluable inspiration in this realm. Other areas adds O’Keefe. “It is an exciting by-product of our growth.” of interest that emerged during O’Keefe’s deanship were O’Keefe came to Northwestern in 2000 from the University public culture and its circulation, storytelling, and program- of Michigan, where she was the inaugural head of its Media ming for children. Union, a state-of-the-art lab that applied digital technologies “Public culture is as varied and interdisciplinary a field to the social sciences and humanities. It is no wonder, then, as we have in the school,” O’Keefe says. “It includes Miriam that one of her proudest accomplishments as School of Com- Petty, Lynn Spigel, and Ariel Rogers in radio/television/film, munication dean was dramatically expanding the writing all scholars of performance, new media technologies, and curriculum across media. She realized early that as television history; Janice Radway in communication studies, director and film distribution would become more democratized and of the rhetoric and public culture program; Agnes Horvat, decentralized, with lower barriers to entry, content creators who studies predictive analytics and behavior in online would be in higher demand than ever. communities; and Angela Ray, who brings us the historical “The writing programs have done what we hoped they perspective of debate and the public forum. And in theatre would do and so much more,” she says. “From one tenure-track we have Dassia Posner, a sought-after scholar of the Russian faculty member in writing when I got here, we now have 30 avant-garde, and Tracy C. Davis, a brilliant theatre historian faculty members who are significantly engaged in teaching, and researcher.” promoting, and otherwise supporting the mastery of creating

But women have a hard time WENKE (COCO) HUANG and I am open to working anywhere in the finding mentorship, and for Class of 2022 performance world. Performance studies’ undergraduate women of color it is even studies and art history major, student body is a tiny cohort that bonds harder. Women of color are business institutions minor together like a family. I have developed woefully underrepresented HOMETOWN Beijing, China strong mentorship bonds with my profes- in film, especially behind sors and have also joined some master’s the camera. I have to worry I would love to explore the connection and PhD students in seminar classes. These about starting a family on top between performance art and museums opportunities have really broadened my of that, and I don’t have as or other cultural institutions to potentially Northwestern social circle through know- much time as my male peers open more possibilities for audience and ing so many creative, bold, intelligent, and to get more work done. I’d viewer engagement and challenge the insurgent spirits from a wide gender rather be a public intellectual temporal stability of visual arts. and racial spectrum. These than an academic. I would As an international student, people have definitely given like to submit my disserta- I am also interested in me tons of support and tion film to festivals, work intercultural exchange raised my awareness of on museum installations and and collaboration. I my own sociopolitical publications internationally, would love to test the position, inspiring me and continue to teach on the waters for a bit after to take a firm stance side when it makes sense for graduating before pursu- as a woman of color. I my artistic questions. ing further scholarship, feel like my experience

12 Dialogue summer 2020 ZETA PHI ETA: NORTHWESTERN WOMEN ESTABLISH AN INSTITUTION

Just shy of the turn of the 20th century, Mollie Connor, Lurine Luke Wright, Leila Little, Maude Muller Newell, and Edith Devore held secret meetings in hopes of overturning a discriminatory rule that pre- vented School of Oratory students from belonging to fraternities and sororities. Their plans succeeded, and in 1894 Dean Robert Cumnock gave his formal approval for their new sorority—what is now the oldest professional communication arts and sciences organization of its kind. Its mission was “to provide incentives and Members of Zeta Phi Eta in 1896 opportunities for women students to develop professional competency in com- Boston’s Emerson School of Oratory; as Starkey. In 1975 the organization ﬁrst municative skills.” The founders named it a result of the negotiations, the original welcomed men as members. Zeta Phi Eta. Northwestern name and rituals were Zeta Phi Eta remains active on cam- Despite the air of mystery surround- retained, but the Emerson group became pus and, among other endeavors, annually ing the group’s catchphrase acronym the alpha chapter. helps support an exemplary School of “F.O.E.” (“friends of each; each our friend”), Past members have included Winifred Communication student who plans to Zeta Phi Eta became popular, eventually Ward, Martha Hyer Wallis, and early remain at Northwestern to pursue a mas- incorporating and expanding to include radio’s Clara, Lu ’n’ Em—Isobel Carothers ter’s degree. The group’s motto is “Achieve! other chapters. In 1908 it aligned with Berolzheimer, Helen King, and Louise With Wisdom, Integrity, and Love.”

at Northwestern does AMY PROCHASKA prevention, sex education, and consent work not fit neatly into any Class of 2021 theatre major, gender may be a big part of my immediate future, too. disciplinary path: I have and sexuality studies minor A potent intersection of my passions is inti- been wandering across HOMETOWN Pasadena, California macy choreography and coordination, so I’m multiple fields picking OTHER ACHIEVEMENTS performance and hoping to complete training and apprentice- up threads of interests, activism module, music theatre certificate ship for that integral field after graduation. I and I see Northwestern as feel most supported by faculty and staff when the needle that allows me At Northwestern, I’m learning to use theatre I am not just championed for being a woman to weave them together, as a communicative tool. I believe art has but valued for my skills, perspective, and care. whether the end prod- a unique power for welcoming people into I have learned to take up my space and feel I uct is a delicate piece of tough conversations, and my time here has have earned my opportunities through my embroidery or just a mess! turned this belief into a lifelong hard work and people’s respect for One thing I have learned desire to use art for civic my skills. I feel I am entering here is to have faith in my engagement and cultural the professional sphere as a true calling and embrace progress. I’m hoping to flexible, supportive collabo- the uncertainty, to relent- blend my passion for rator who is ready to think lessly pursue the arts activism with my love for critically, ground my work that moved me instanta- art. I’m also the executive in pragmatic progress, and neously when I first dived director of Northwestern’s innovate past the structures into my college life. Sexual Health and Assault I’m given. Peer Educators, so violence

summer 2020 Dialogue 13 “If you look at our department, we community. Consider Imagine U, our family theatre programming, or the early-intervention researchers and clinicians. The are much more representative than symbiosis we enjoy in this area with our alumni community society or Hollywood itself.” has been richly rewarding—Ellen Seiter is a scholar of children’s —Zayd Dohrn access to television and the internet, and April McClain-Delaney is a leading advocate for children’s interests in shaping media policy and practice.” new artistic work. Ozge Samanci is equally adept at creating While the school’s research and curriculum in communi- graphic novels, art installations, and gaming systems; Debra cation development and children’s media have grown in the Tolchinsky, founding director of our MFA program in documen- last two decades, the change had already begun under the lead- tary media, is a prolific filmmaker; and recent alumni who’ve ership of such luminaries as Kathleen Galvin, a 51-year veteran participated in these programs are wonderfully successful.” of the communication studies department and an expert on About a decade ago, O’Keefe hired Wartella, who has held family communication. Her trailblazing is especially notable fellowships at the American Association for the Advancement given the significant dearth of female representation in the of Science, the International Communication Association, and early years of the department, established in 1942. the Fred Rogers Center. “Ellen’s stature as a social scientist and “Kathleen’s impact is immeasurable,” O’Keefe says. “Her a shaper of public policy for media and children brought an research interests were so forward-thinking and insightful— important new energy to our school,” O’Keefe says. “To under- addressing communication issues in nontraditional families, stand rapidly changing technologies and messaging and their such as transracial adoption in same-sex parenting house- impact on children and families is among the most important holds, or family communication around pediatric cancers and work we do. Her research has influenced educators, media mak- fertility. Her work was the foundation from which we could ers, and legislators. And it’s had a profound impact on our own create our master’s program in health communication and

MORA MATASSI Boczkowski, and Eugenia Mitchelstein intellectual and human terms. I am par- Third-year doctoral candidate, (GC15). I would like to become a ticularly grateful for the attention this media, technology, and society professor at a research university, able community pays to the many invisible HOMETOWN Monte Grande, greater to lecture at both undergraduate and ways that intersectionality shapes Buenos Aires, Argentina graduate levels in the ﬁeld of how different voices are communication studies, heard. Northwestern has My research objectives are concerned as well as to conduct inspired my interest with the intersection between research projects in in intellectual inter- computer-mediated communication computer-mediated disciplinarity, has and digital culture, with an eye on communication given me theoretical reciprocity, temporality, and technology. and digital culture. I and methodological I want to examine the social norms that would also like to be skills for producing shape everyday interactions in mobile a consultant in these research, has provided platforms and how these norms are in topics to work with me with a sense of com- turn shaped by speakers’ emotions and government, think tanks, mitted professionalism, practices. In 2019 I coauthored a paper, the media industry, and inter- and has expanded my imagi- published in New Media & Society, about national organizations. As a woman and nation as to how a scholar in the social how Argentinians at different stages of as an international student from Latin sciences can translate her knowledge for adulthood domesticated WhatsApp. I America, I feel very much supported the use of different communities. wrote it with my faculty mentor, Pablo by faculty members and peers, in both

14 Dialogue summer 2020 From left: Ozge Samanci (at right) with students; Debra Tolchinksy recruit someone like Courtney Scherr, who evaluates messaging reimagine our discourse, technologies, policies, and politics. around patient risk. This level of innovation is what has yielded This is how we evolve and create a better society.” three National Science Foundation CAREER Award winners Zayd Dohrn, professor and chair of radio/television/ among our female communication studies faculty and three film, echoes that mission. “If you look at our department, we female Guggenheim Fellows in radio/television/film. Best- are much more representative than society and Hollywood sellers, award winners, and record breakers are the norm among itself,” he says. “That’s partly because we’re proactive about it our faculty and alumni. Today we have more female students and partly because we have the resources and the desire to be than ever pursuing graduate studies in communication, and inclusive and representative. I am hopeful that with the choices roughly half the undergraduate radio/television/film majors we make, we encourage a greater variety of voices. And as more are women, unheard of even a decade ago. people tell their stories, and as people see themselves and their “This isn’t change for the sake of change,” she continues. stories represented, I think more women will be likely to decide “This has been an intentional shift toward research that will that this is the career for them.”

LAUREN WASHINGTON I feel incredibly supported but the whole class. I think Class of 2022 radio/television/film by my Northwestern every experience is slowly major peers, whether building me up on my HOMETOWN Kansas City, Missouri undergraduate or artistic journey, which OTHER ACHIEVEMENTS selected for graduate students. is such a wonderful a Cannes Film Festival internship For instance, in feeling. For a woman my Writing the in this field, it can be After graduating, I’d really love to travel Dystopian Feature difficult to feel seen the world for a bit or move to a different course with lec- with men overwhelm- country, because as a storyteller I’m turer Kat Falls this ingly taking up space in inspired by people and their stories. past fall quarter, I was the industry, so I’m glad that I want to find my tribe and my way into among a group of undergrad within my school and department the writers’ room for a TV series; I want and a couple of grad students who met I’ve been able to find my voice and not to surround myself with creatives of all once a week, and I’ve never felt more feel invisible. Having the opportunity to mediums and plan to continue creating encouraged, inspired, and seen than study at Northwestern in this program films and web series that I’m passionate while taking this course. It can be very is going to help me greatly with my about—all while managing my creative nerve-racking to share your work, so it’s artistic journey because it’s given me agency, FILO, with my brother Brandon. always great when you can feel com- the access and tools to really go far. I’d love to work at a production comfortable with not only your professor pany and eventually have my own.

summer 2020 Dialogue 15 THE TRAILBLAZERS: ALUMNAE WHO CHANGED THE WORLD The School of Communication’s legacy of female leadership and innovation has shaped the experiences and ambitions of generations of women students. These remarkable alumnae are just a few who have left an indelible mark on Northwestern and the world beyond.

Winifred Ward (C1905), a Northwest- Alvina Krause (C28, GC33), a legend- Agnes Nixon (C44), the queen of the ern theatre professor working in the ary theatre and interpretation professor, soap opera, is best known for creating early 20th century, revolutionized chil- created Northwestern’s acting curricu- television’s All My Children and One dren’s theatre and pioneered the concept lum. One of the most influential teach- Life to Live. Her scripts for daily daytime of family theatre. Ward created what she ers in the school’s history, she focused dramas introduced such social issues as dubbed creative dramatics, a teaching on technique and delved deep into interracial relationships, abortion, drug method that relied on self-expression, the dramatic canon to create a unique addiction, the Vietnam War, domestic literature appreciation, and a complete form of actor training. She taught at the violence, and HIV/AIDS. lack of scripts. Ward felt that rather University for 33 years, influencing hun- In 2010 Nixon received a Lifetime than memorizing lines, children should dreds of great artists, including Charlton Achievement Emmy Award from the develop plays out of their own thoughts Heston (C45), Patricia Neal (C47, H94), National Academy of Television Arts and emotions. and Garry Marshall (J56). and Sciences. The citation declared that Born in Iowa in 1884, Ward was the The youngest of five children, she had “totally changed the tradition- youngest daughter of a lawyer. She spent Krause grew up on the family farm near ally escapist nature of daytime serials many summers in Washington, DC, New Lisbon, Wisconsin. She famously while straining to make the world a where she attended theatre and grew to talked about first finding a copy of better place.” love it. Ward studied at Northwestern Hamlet and instantly falling in love As a student, Nixon originally under Robert Cumnock, the founder with dramatic literature. When she was aspired to be an actress but had second of its School of Oratory. In 1918, after a high school senior, a boy proposed thoughts after observing her peers. earning her PhD in education at the to her; she turned him down, opting “I was at Northwestern at the same University of Chicago, she joined the instead to seek higher education and time as Charlton Heston, Patricia Neal, Northwestern faculty, where she spent a career. After briefly attending the Jeanne Verhagen, and Cloris Leachman. her entire career. She died in 1975. University of Wisconsin, she found Wouldn’t you say that competition her way to Evanston and Northwestern. rather reaffirmed my decision to be a Known as a tough taskmaster, writer?” she joked when she came to Krause encouraged her students to campus in 2015 to receive an Alumni develop their dramatic skills from the Merit Award. inside out and created physical and emo- Nixon also established a playwriting tional exercises to help them understand prize, awarded to Northwestern students acting’s internal techniques. She retired as part of the two-day Agnes Nixon as professor emerita in 1961 but contin- Playwriting Festival, which features ued as a lecturer until 1963. Krause died on-campus readings of new student in 1981. works. She died in 2016.

16 Dialogue summer 2020 Lois Weisberg (C46) left an indelible Ethel M. Barber (GC47) became the Academy Award–winning actress imprint on Chicago’s cultural scene, first woman to earn a doctoral degree Patricia Neal (C47, H94) prided creating the Chicago Blues Festival, the from the School of Speech, writing herself on bringing emotional honesty Chicago Gospel Festival, other citywide “The Analysis for Oral Interpretation to her work. Raised in Kentucky as the festivals, arts programs for teens, and the of the Dramatic Elements in Milton’s daughter of a coal miner, she harbored famous 1999 Cows on Parade. Featuring Paradise Lost” as her dissertation. After dreams of moving to New York to multiple artists’ life-sized fiberglass cows working as an instructional assistant become an actress. But she promised throughout the downtown area, the in the Department of Interpretation, her parents that she’d go to college first exhibit attracted millions of visitors and she went on to teach speech courses at and in 1943 enrolled at Northwestern, an estimated $200 million in revenue for Milwaukee-Downer College and give where she won a campus-wide beauty the city. lecture-recitals around the world. She pageant and was crowned Syllabus As Chicago’s first commissioner founded the North Shore branch of the Queen. That same year she was cast of cultural affairs, a post she held from American Association of University in a production of Twelfth Night. She 1989 until 2011, Weisberg changed Women and launched the AAUW radio studied under Alvina Krause, and her Chicagoans’ view of the arts. In Malcolm program Women at Work, which she ran memoir credits the legendary acting Gladwell’s 1999 New Yorker essay “Six from 1950 to 1962. professor as her “champion.” Degrees of Lois Weisberg,” he called her Known for her lifelong generosity, After moving to New York, Neal a “connector,” someone who can connect Barber was a longtime Northwestern got her big break in Lillian Hellman’s creative innovators and artists. “She’s benefactor. In 1979 she established the play Another Part of the Forest, winning a grandmother, she lives in a big house Ethel M. Barber Visiting Artist Program, a Tony Award. At age 21 she moved to in Chicago, and you’ve never heard of which brought Robert Banner, George Hollywood, where she starred in many her,” he wrote. “Does she run the world?” Cukor, Martha Graham, Garry Marshall, movies, winning a 1964 best actress The essay was reprinted in Gladwell’s the Nikolais Dance Theatre, and Ying Oscar for Hud and a 1969 nomination book The Tipping Point. Ruocheng to campus. She also sponsored for The Subject Was Roses. For The Home- Named the Chicago Tribune’s 1999 the gala program for the dedication of coming: A Christmas Story, she won a Chicagoan of the Year and Governing the new Theatre and Interpretation 1972 Golden Globe for best TV actress. magazine’s 2001 Public Official of the Center in 1980. She was credited with Her numerous other accolades included Year, Weisberg was the recipient of the raising much of the money for its largest BAFTA Awards, New York Film Critics Alumnae of Northwestern University’s theater space, the Festival Theater, which Circle Awards, and in 2005 a star on 2003 Alumnae Award and a Northwest- in 1984 was renamed the Ethel M. Barber the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Neal died ern Alumni Association 2004 Service Theater. She also contributed to the in 2010. to Society Award. She died in 2016. purchase of the theater’s lighting control system, named in honor of her late husband. In addition, she made donations to the Speech School Alumni Fund and to the Northwestern Library, the music school, and the art program. Barber died in 1999.

summer 2020 Dialogue 17 Legendary actress Cloris Leachman Lilla Heston (C49, GC65), a beloved Joann Torretta (C53) was a radio show (C48, H14), who has won an Oscar, a professor in the interpretation (now writer, television host, fashion director, Golden Globe, and eight Emmys, came performance studies) department, and entrepreneur. Torretta grew up in to Northwestern in 1944 to study educa- focused on drama and the interpre- Tampa Bay, Florida, and later told family tion. But after performing in the Waa-Mu tation of literature. A prolific author, and friends that attending Northwestern Show, she decided she preferred theatre. editor, and performer, Heston was a encouraged her to think big. After briefly Before embarking on an acting career, leading scholar in her field and lectured writing for a fitness radio show in New she took a brief detour into the world of and performed at many colleges and Orleans, she moved back home to Tampa pageants, winning the Miss Chicago title uni versities around the world. After Bay, where she became the host of her in 1946 and competing in the 1946 Miss teaching English at Vassar College, she own television show, Fashions for You. America pageant. returned to Northwestern, where she Ever the entrepreneur, Torretta Leachman’s big break came in 1948 was named a full professor in 1973. She opened First Impressions, a talent and when she appeared on Ford Television chaired the interpretation department, image development studio, in 1983. Theatre. That same year she earned her and her participation in campus groups Politicians, TV personalities, pageant first New York stage credit, and over was legendary. contestants, and business executives the next decade she appeared in 11 Younger sister of movie star and sought her advice and expertise. other Broadway productions. Her fellow Northwestern alum Charlton A fearless innovator who barreled illustrious career in television comedy Heston, she helped shape a number of through barriers to pursue her dreams, included The Mary Tyler Moore Show, programs that directly affected student Torretta died in 2017. The Joann Torretta its spin-off Phyllis, and Malcolm in the life, including the undergraduate life Award—given to a Northwestern stu- Middle. Leachman won a 1972 Academy program, the Fulbright Scholarship pro- dent who shows exceptional promise in Award for her portrayal of Ruth Popper gram, honorary degrees, study abroad, filmmaking, radio, television, or theatre in The Last Picture Show. In 2005, at age the graduate program in literature, and —was made possible through the 82, the hard-working performer set general faculty committees. generosity of her son, Paul Guagliardo a record as the oldest contestant on For the School of Speech, Heston (Guyardo) (C83, GJ84, P20). Dancing with the Stars. served as a faculty adviser to the student A five-time Emmy nominee for senate and on a number of performance her role as Phyllis Lindstrom on The committees. She was also an associate Mary Tyler Moore Show, Leachman editor for the Quarterly Journal of Speech won a Golden Globe for Phyllis and her from 1977 through 1980, editor of first Emmy in 1973 for the television Literature in Performance from 1979 to movie A Brand New Life. She is tied with 1984, and a member of the Illinois Speech Julia Louis-Dreyfus (C83, H07) for the editorial board. Heston died in 1984. most Emmy wins for a performer. Doris Johnson (GC55, GSESP71) began her teaching career in communication sciences and disorders at Northwestern in the early 1960s, a time when children with reading difficulties

18 Dialogue summer 2020 were simply shuffled into classes for five Golden Globes include a 1984 win those with mental and physical dis- for the television remake of A Streetcar abilities. Believing that not all these Named Desire. Her career has spanned children belonged in traditional special five decades, including Grumpy Old Men education classes, Johnson became a in 1993 and its sequel, Grumpier Old pioneer in the study of learning dis- Men, two years later. She has received abilities. With her colleague Helmer R. two Oscar, two Grammy, and two Emmy Myklebust, she coauthored Learning nominations, winning a 2010 Emmy for Famed movie producer Sherry Lansing Disabilities: Educational Principles and her special guest appearance on Law & (C66, H95) became the first woman to Practice, a landmark book that became Order: Special Victims Unit. head a major movie studio when she one of the foundational texts for under- became president of production at 20th standing otherwise healthy children Century Fox in 1980 at age 35. She went who have difficulty processing certain on to become chairman and CEO of information. Paramount Pictures and to oversee the For 19 years, Johnson was the direc- production, marketing, and distribution tor of Northwestern’s learning disabilities of three Oscar best-picture winners: program. She has served as the executive Forrest Gump, Braveheart, and Titanic. She director of the International Academy also produced a number of other box- for Research in Learning Disabilities Jerilyn Logemann (C63, GC64, GC68), office successes, including The Accused, and remains active in the Learning a pioneer in the study of swallowing dis- Fatal Attraction, and Indecent Proposal. Disabilities Association of America. orders, developed the modified barium In 1996, Lansing became the first swallow test as a less stressful alternative woman to be named Pioneer of the to a typical radiographic swallowing Year by the Motion Picture Pioneers study. It has become a standard diagnos- Foundation. She was also the first female tic tool worldwide. movie studio head to receive a star on Between 1963 and 1968, Logemann the Hollywood Walk of Fame. received bachelor’s, master’s, and doc- In 2005 Lansing stepped away toral degrees in speech pathology from from her film career to focus on charity Northwestern. She taught briefly at local work. She founded the Sherry Lansing Stockholm-born Ann-Margret Olsson universities before returning to her alma Foundation, which primarily supports (C60) immigrated from Sweden with mater to join the research staff and then cancer research, a cause she embraced her family as a little girl. They settled the faculty at the medical school as well after her mother died of ovarian cancer. in Wilmette, Illinois, and she enrolled as the School of Communication faculty. Lansing received the Academy of Motion at Northwestern in 1959. But after a Logemann worked tirelessly to Picture Arts and Sciences’ Jean Hersholt year she left college to sing with the advance knowledge of swallowing and Humanitarian Award in 2007 and was Suttletones, performing in Chicago and dysphagia treatment, and her clinic inducted into the National Women’s Hall then Las Vegas, where she was discov- on the Chicago campus helped thou- of Fame in 2017. ered by George Burns. sands of people. As chair of the Roxelyn The legendary singer and actor and Richard Pepper Department of would go on to star in more than 45 Communication Sciences and Disorders movies, including Bye Bye Birdie and for many years, she helped shape its Viva Las Vegas. She suffered a near-fatal top-rated program in speech-language fall from a 22-foot-high scaffold before a pathology. After Logemann’s death in 1972 show in Lake Tahoe but made a full 2014, former students and colleagues recovery, garnering an Academy Award established a fund in her honor to nomination for The Who’s Tommy. Her advance the study of dysphagia.

summer 2020 Dialogue 19 Pride and Prejudice, Paradise Lost, The is now known as Chicago’s annual Cherry Orchard, Hamlet, and her own GospelFest. adaptation of The Seagull. She has also As an arts activist, performer, and served as artistic director of the Indiana writer on the Chicago cultural scene Repertory Theatre, dean and artistic for many years, Cherry-Chandler director of the School of Theatre at the has researched identity politics and California Institute for the Arts, and social-disparity issues and has held head of the acting program at California academic positions at Columbia College Theatre director and actor Barbara State University, Long Beach. Chicago, Northwestern, and DePaul Gaines (C68) founded the Chicago Appel has worked with numerous University. Her writings include the Shakespeare Theater in 1986. Winner of other US companies—including two story collection The Winter Barrel. the 2008 regional Tony Award, the com- regional Tony Award winners, Chicago’s “I lived so many years in Chicago, pany presents as many as 20 productions Goodman Theatre and Atlanta’s Alliance and it is so much a part of who I am,” and 650 performances in a year-round Theatre. She has authored a book, Cherry-Chandler said in Northwestern’s season of plays, musicals, world pre- cowritten plays, and adapted a num- performance studies departmental news- mieres, family programming, and ber of canonical works. In 2010 Appel letter in 2009. “It gave me so much, and presentations from around the globe. received the Stephen and Christine I want to write about the gifts Chicago More than 225,000 audience members Schwarzman Legacy Award for Lifetime and my journey to Northwestern gave attend the performances annually, Achievement and Excel lence in Theatre me. My family was broke, and I applied and a quarter of them are children. from the John F. Kennedy Center for just because my counselor said it would The daughter of a film director, the Performing Arts. be impossible for me to get in. I didn’t Gaines grew up in the New York City know how I was going to get from suburbs with an appreciation for the Toledo to Evanston, and I arrived at arts. She has directed more than 30 Shepard Hall with $2.50 and a change Shakespeare plays, and her productions of clothes. It was an intense time in the have won three Laurence Olivier Awards country—protests against the Vietnam and 35 Joseph Jefferson Awards, includ- War, the Black Panther shootings on the ing her three wins for best director. West Side. It was a time of growing cul- A Northwestern life trustee, Gaines tural awareness, study, and activism. For a while, this was my promised land.” serves on the Shakespearean Council Eileen Cherry-Chandler (C73, GC97), for London’s Globe Theatre, Chicago’s known for her writing and her dedi- Cultural Affairs Advisory Board, and cation to community-based arts, is an panels for the National Endowment for assistant professor of theatre and film at the Arts. Bowling Green State University. While a Northwestern undergraduate, she started The Ritual, an annual initiation ceremony for Black Northwestern students. She also founded Black/Folks Theatre (the forerunner of Northwestern’s Kate Gottfred (GC73, GC79) is the African American Theatre Workshop) founder and president of the nonprofit with fellow student Kent Waters and Language Empowers All People (LEAP) helped organize the Northwestern Learning Systems, which created Libby Appel (C69) was the artistic Community Ensemble with L. Stanley Beginning with Babble, a free app director of the Oregon Shakespeare Davis. After graduation Cherry-Chandler designed to help parents improve Festival from 1995 to 2007. During her continued her work with music profes- their babies’ language skills. An advo- tenure she directed 29 plays, including sor Thomas Willis, which led to what cate for closing the language skill and

20 Dialogue summer 2020 literacy gap in low-print, low-verbal to a theatre company), the Illinois Arts the catalyst for a professional emphasis households, she is a former president Legend Award, and 9 of the company’s on communication disorders in multi- of the American Speech-Language- 12 Tonys. Lavey herself won the Sarah cultural populations. Her advocacy for Hearing Association, the industry’s Siddons Award, a Northwestern Alumni women, people of color, and underserved professional, scientific, and credentialing Merit Award, and an Alumnae Award, populations has garnered many awards, organization. along with numerous accolades from including an honorary doctorate of pub- Born and raised in Chicago, she was local and national enterprises. Also lic service from Southern Connecticut exposed to children’s socioeconomic acclaimed for her many acting roles at State Uni versity and the Dr. Dorothy I. divisions at an early age by her mother, Steppenwolf and beyond, she was the Height Vision Award from Meharry a learning disabilities teacher and pio- company’s first female artistic director. Medical College. neer who took young Kate along when She died in 2017. volunteering at orphanages, migrant camps, and summer reading programs in areas of need. Her mother told her at age six that she was being given the ability to read so as to help others do the same. Gottfred founded LEAP in 1986 and continues to oversee program development and implementation. Prolific theatrical writer and director Lorraine Cole (GC80), who earned her Mary Zimmerman (C82, GC85, GC94) PhD in communication sciences and dis- is the Jaharis Family Foundation Chair orders, has spent her career fighting for in Performance Studies at Northwestern. equity. Currently the chief diversity and A 1998 MacArthur Fellow, Zimmerman inclusion officer for the US Department won a Tony Award for direction in of the Treasury, Cole is one of two 2002 for her adaptation of Ovid’s recipients of the 2020 Service to America Metamorphoses. She has directed produc- Medal (“Sammies”) People’s Choice tions at some of the country’s most pres- Martha Lavey (C79, G86, GC94, H10) Award, known as the Oscars of govern- tigious institutions, including Rusalka at was the artistic director of Chicago’s ment service. The award honors her New York’s Metropolitan Opera, Eurydice Steppenwolf Theatre Company for two work to strengthen small and minority- at the Los Angeles Opera, The Odyssey decades, from 1995 to 2015. During her owned banks. at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, and tenure, Lavey oversaw the production of Previously she held a White House Treasure Island at Chicago’s Lookingglass hundreds of plays and transferred dozens appointment as vice chair of the Presi- Theatre Company, where she is an more to Broadway and abroad, including dential Advisory Council on Financial ensemble member. She has won more Tracy Letts’s Tony Award–winning Capability. Before entering government than 20 Joseph Jefferson Awards. August: Osage County. She doubled the service, Cole served as CEO of four Zimmerman grew up in Nebraska size of the ensemble and promoted national nonprofit organizations— and Europe, the child of academics. engagement with younger artists and including the YWCA USA—addressing When she arrived at Northwestern audiences, elevating Steppenwolf’s economic parity, the elimination of as a student, it was her first time on reputation as a leader in developing new health disparities, and racial, ethnic, the campus. work and cementing Chicago’s standing and gender equity. “When I was a young woman, it as a world-class center for bold, experi- Upon graduation from Northwest- never crossed my mind to be a director,” mental theatre. ern, Cole served for more than a decade she says. “You see actresses on stage, Under her leadership Steppenwolf as director of minority affairs for the and you see a pattern of what you think received the National Medal of the American Speech-Language-Hearing women can do. I always thought the Arts (to date, the only one presented Association, where she was credited as term ‘role model’ was a bit Pollyanna,

summer 2020 Dialogue 21 but what it really means is there’s just many accolades include Billboard’s Center’s 2018 Mark Twain Prize for an image, someone sort of like you, Executive of the Year and the prestigious American Humor. in a blunt physical way, to show you Power 100 list. Gerson serves on the In 2017 Louis-Dreyfus broke Emmy the possibility, and that’s so very board of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. Award records when she received her important. Now young women come sixth consecutive award as outstanding to Northwestern knowing they want lead actress in a comedy, the most ever to be directors.” by a performer for the same role and her eighth acting Emmy overall. She and fellow alumna Cloris Leachman (C48, H14) are currently tied for the most Emmy wins for a performer. Louis-Dreyfus is a member of the School of Com mu nication’s National Advisory Council. Eleven-time Emmy winner Julia Louis-Dreyfus (C83, H07), known for her hilarious, award-winning roles in Jody Gerson (C83) grew up listening Seinfeld and Veep, began her comic career to legends perform. Her father and her first year at Northwestern when she grand father owned the Latin Casino, was cast in Mee-Ow. “Getting into the a nightclub in Cherry Hill, New Jersey, Mee-Ow Show was gigantic,” she told where she saw Diana Ross, Frank Sinatra, Northwestern magazine in 2014. “It was and Dean Martin. That early education very exciting, and I met all of these guys would help her become one of the who led me on this path that changed Jane Steiner Hoffman (C86) is a most influential women in today’s my life.” In addition, she starred in a nationally renowned policy expert on music industry. wide variety of campus productions, consumer issues. As head of New York In 2008 she became copresident of including A Day in the Death of Joe Egg City’s Department of Consumer Affairs Sony/ATV Music Publishing; the first with future drama Pulitzer Prize winner in the 1990s, she led an antismoking artist she signed was the then-unknown Bruce Norris (C82). initiative that instituted inspections Lady Gaga. In 2015 she became the chair Louis-Dreyfus left Northwestern of retailers accused of selling tobacco and CEO of Universal Music Publishing her junior year when she, Paul Barrosse products to underage customers. A Group, Universal Music’s global publish- (C80), Gary Kroeger (81), and her future 2002 candidate for the Democratic ing division, and the first woman CEO husband, Brad Hall (C80), were hired nomination for lieutenant governor and of a major music publishing company. for the cast of Saturday Night Live—an formerly a senior producer for CNN, she Under her leadership the billion-dollar– unprecedented coup for a college four- also worked as a commissioner for pub- plus company saw its revenue jump by some and one that has yet to be replicated. lic authority reform in New York, where 56 percent. Gerson signed or extended Louis-Dreyfus then landed the pivotal her policy work was hailed as a model the contracts of many major talents, role of Elaine Benes on Seinfeld, a hit for the nation. including Elton John, Carly Simon, series that ran from 1990 to 1998. She In 1995 she served as president of Bruce Springsteen, Prince, Taylor won a Golden Globe for that role in the Sister Cities Program and as deputy Swift, Billie Eilish, Rosalia, Alicia Keys, 1994. The New Adventures of Old Christine commissioner of the New York City Coldplay, Justin Bieber, Jack White, premiered in 2006, resulting in her Commission for the United Nations. A Post Malone, Ariana Grande, H.E.R., first Emmy Award as outstanding lead renewable energy advocate, Hoffman and Harry Styles. actress in a comedy series. As VP-turned- wrote the book Green—Your Place in An advocate for women, Gerson president Selina Meyer for seven seasons the New Energy Revolution and founded cofounded She Is the Music, a nonprofit in HBO’s Veep, she cemented her position the Presidential Forum on Renewable that works for women’s equality and in the comedy pantheon—as recognized Energy to bring increased attention to inclusion in the music industry. Her when she was awarded the Kennedy sustainability and conservation issues.

22 Dialogue summer 2020 The support of Hoffman and her Media Award, and the Catholic Charities Chicago Black Excellence Award and husband, Michael Hoffman, was instru- Caritas Service Award. A consensus the American Alliance for Theatre and mental in helping launch the school’s builder, she was previously a board Education Award. Diamond teaches MFA program in documentary media, member of the bipartisan Congressional playwriting at the University of Illinois including its visiting artist and fellows Club, a spouse cochair for the National at Chicago. programs. She is a member of North- Prayer Breakfast, and a past cochair of west ern’s Board of Trustees and the the First Lady’s Luncheon. School of Communication’s National Advisory Council.

Meghan Markle (C03), Duchess of Sussex, is no stranger to headlines— Lydia R. Diamond (C91) is a prolific, from her dazzling wedding to Prince award-winning playwright whose Harry in 2018 to her announcement that April McClain-Delaney (C86) has works include Smart People, Stick Fly, she, her husband, and their son would be more than 30 years of experience in Harriet Jacobs, The Gift Horse, The Inside, stepping back from their roles as senior communications law, digital learning, and Voyeurs de Venus. Recently staged royals. But her work as an actor, social and child advocacy across a broad range at Northwestern, Voyeurs de Venus tells activist, and philanthropist has made of private-sector and nonprofit engage- the story of a modern woman research- her a trailblazer. ments. Her expertise ranges from FCC ing Saartjie Baartman, who was brought Markle grew up in Los Angeles and broadcast regulation to international from South Africa to London in 1810 double-majored in theatre and inter- satellite-service licensing to safeguard- to be exhibited in freak shows as “The national studies at Northwestern. After ing children’s digital privacy. In her role Hottentot Venus.” “All of the passages appearing in small roles in television as Washington director of the nonprofit read in this play were real passages and film, she achieved national fame as Common Sense Media, she championed from books,” Diamond told a postshow Rachel Zane on the USA Network legal digital citizenship and privacy efforts, audience in May 2019. “There are thou- drama Suits. She returned to the small advocated for government research sands of books of explorers and scientists screen in 2020 with the release of the addressing how media affect kids’ well- and anthropologists, Europeans who Disney nature documentary Elephant, being and mental health, and worked went to places with brown people and which she narrates. toward bridging the “digital divide” so wrote about them—us—as though we Known for her humanitarian work all children have equal access to educa- were animals.” and championing of feminist causes, tional opportunities. Myriad prestigious theaters have Markle has been a global ambassador Currently a member of Northwest- commissioned her work, including for World Vision Canada since 2016, ern’s Board of Trustees and the School Arena Stage, Steppenwolf, the Round- traveling to girls’ schools in Africa and of Communication’s National Advisory about, and the Humana Festival. A resi- lobbying for clean water in African Council, McClain-Delaney also serves on dent playwright at Chicago Dramatists communities. Recently she and her hus- the boards of Georgetown Law Center, for more than 15 years, she has held band delivered meals to the needy in Los the Sun Valley Community School, and multiple fellowships and residencies at Angeles during the COVID-19 pandemic the International Center for Research Harvard, Arena Stage, and Steppenwolf. as part of Project Angel Food. on Women. Her many honors include Diamond is a writer and consulting the Georgetown University John Carroll producer for Showtime’s The Affair. Service Award, a Northwestern Alumni Her many honors include the Merit Award, the 2018 Common Sense African American Arts Alliance of

summer 2020 Dialogue 23 24 Dialogue summer 2020 Twenty Years of Progress

Barbara O’Keefe reﬂects on her two decades as dean of the School of Communication

his spring the COVID-19 pandemic forced our University—and our school— to respond with extraordinary measures to maintain its programs and serve its Tstudents. Winter quarter activities were curtailed and students told not to return for spring classes. Faculty pivoted quickly to offer instruction remotely. In the School of Communication, over 90 percent of our courses were adapted for remote delivery, mini- mizing the number of canceled classes. The faculty enacted emergency provisions that permitted seniors to graduate on time, even if they could not meet existing degree require- ments. We will be back on campus to some degree in September, but most of our courses will continue to rely on some remote learning as we ﬁnd our way through the current crisis. Nonetheless, I view Northwestern’s future with optimism. My time as dean of the School of Communication, which began on July 1, 2000, and concludes 20 years later on July 31, 2020, was marked by a seemingly unending series of challenges, beginning with a recession and attacks on the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. When that hap- pened, I was a newcomer to Northwestern, working hard to get to know our community. A group of alumni, led by Carol Rothman Forster of New York’s Second Stage Theater, had planned a September 21 fundraising event there in connection with a performance of Mary Zimmerman’s Metamorphoses. After the 9/11 attacks, travel in the United States —and especially to New York City—was all but shut down.

Allie Woodson (C18) performing in the “Black Lives, Black Words” short play event at the Ethel M. Barber Theater in February 2018

summer 2020 Dialogue 25 Despite the shock and horror of those events, our North- Our school needed a strategy for western alumni insisted on going ahead with the event; I vividly recall what it was like to fly over Manhattan, in a addressing issues of diversity, equity, nearly empty plane, and see the still-smoking ruins. But I also and inclusion. The strategic plan we remember just as vividly my first experience of Mary’s play presented in 2001 identified three (which could not be a better vehicle for thinking through the uncertainties and challenges of human life) and, even more, priorities for rebuilding the faculty: my first encounter with the bravery, kindness, and warmth of diversity, interdisciplinarity, and our alumni community. That evening made me realize that internationalization. Northwestern would forever be my university and my home. The 9/11 attacks deepened a financial crisis that had begun with the Y2K scare in 2000. This was followed by the war with reach of media and culture, and the increasing convergence of Iraq in 2003 and continuing terrorist threats and attacks; the media and their uses. The school’s National Advisory Council mortgage crisis and market crash of 2007 and subsequent recommended a new name to reflect this new identity and recession; and in the past decade, increasing social and politi- did the market research and strategic planning for changing cal conflicts around the globe, leading to growing concerns the name from School of Speech to School of Communication. about the future of democracies. As I write this farewell to our The faculty overwhelmingly voted its approval, and the name community, we have been newly and forcefully reminded of change was ratified by the Board of Trustees in 2002. the racism and brutality in our world and are working as fast It was equally clear that our school needed a strategy as we can to design a constructive, actionable response for the for addressing issues of diversity, equity, and inclusion. The University and each of its schools. strategic plan we presented in 2001 identified three priorities Despite the challenges our community has faced during for rebuilding the faculty: diversity, interdisciplinarity, and these turbulent decades—and arguably because it was internationalization. The faculty appointments since then have challenged—the School of Communication has become changed the face of the school and its programs (see next page). a laboratory for reinventing the communication arts and sci- Between 2000 and 2004 the internet (which had been used ences. No one person deserves the credit for a transformation by a growing global community since the late 1970s) took that remade the 20th-century School of Speech into the shape as a set of platforms for social interaction. We foresaw 21st-century School of Communication: the ideas, the that “Web 2.0” would not simply transform existing communi- energy, and the resources for change were contributed by cation infrastructures but would continue to grow and evolve. our faculty, students, and alumni, all working together. Such a dramatic change in our commu- It was clear in 2000 that the school needed a more expan- nication ecology would in turn demand sive identity, one that acknowledged the now-dominant role that we shift how we study and practice of digital media in the public sphere, the increasingly global communication—away from a focus on

26 Dialogue summer 2020 DIVERSITY, EQUITY, AND INCLUSION

Since 2000, every strategic plan advanced by the School of Shayna Silverstein, Communication has identified diversity, equity, and inclusion as and Elizabeth Son. The top priorities to meet in every key area: faculty and staff recruit- school has assembled ment and retention, development of school leadership, student a brilliant group of recruitment, academic program development, and outreach to women directors, external communities. But to achieve systemic and sustainable including Shana change in any academic unit, it is important to focus on tenure- Cooper, Halena Kays, track faculty, who are responsible for research programs, cur- Anna Shapiro, Jessica ricula, and faculty hiring (they conduct searches, recruit new Thebus, Cristal Truscott, faculty, and make promotion and tenure decisions). Having a and Mary Zimmerman. diverse faculty encourages departments to be forward-looking The new MFA program and to consider multiple perspectives. And as the faculty in acting is headed by becomes more diverse, it is easier to recruit a diverse student Stan Brown, a distin- body and support the development of all our students, both guished expert on the graduate and undergraduate. African American voice; We are pleased by overall faculty gains in gender balance Latinx faculty Henry Godinez and Sandra Marquez have brought and diversity; in 2000, fewer than 38 percent of tenure-track new dimensions to the study of acting. The music theatre pro- faculty were women, whereas as of this September women make gram has been elevated by the appointment of two new African up 54 percent. We are also trying to increase recruitment of American faculty, Masi Asare (voice and creating the musical) faculty who are African or African American, Latinx or Hispanic, and Roger Ellis (choreography and directing). The dance pro- Asian or Asian American, and multiracial. In 2000 all those gram has been reenergized by Joel Valentín-Martínez. categories added up to fewer than 8 percent of the faculty, but Equally exciting new faculty are bringing fresh perspectives this year the total will be 30 percent. We have also increased the to our programs in dramatic writing, notably prolific playwright number of faculty born outside the United States. Of course, this Thomas Bradshaw, and in media arts, where distinguished is a work in progress, but we feel we have made a good start. documentarian Marco Williams, media platform specialist The numbers do not fully reveal the dramatic changes Aymar Jean Christian, and film historian Miriam Petty are that have occurred in our media and performing arts areas, showing students how marginalized voices can be heard. where most of our Latinx/ These and other brilliant artists, scholars, and leaders are Hispanic and African raising the stakes for the arts at Northwestern. E. Patrick Johnson American faculty teach. has led the University’s Black Arts Initiative, which supports The theatre and perfor- curricular innovation as well as collaborations among many mance studies faculty and of these faculty. With funding from the Mellon Foundation, his curriculum now provide colleague Ramón Rivera-Servera has organized a high-impact an understanding of iden- network initiative to open opportunities for Puerto Rican artists tity as performance and and make their work more visible and available to students the role of performance as throughout the United States. A. J. Christian’s OTV | Open Tele- social activism in addition vision developed a platform that is already being used to provide to their longstanding inter- a creative outlet for artists from marginalized groups in Chicago. ests in adaptation, devising, We will soon be opening a new downtown center for grad- and theatricality; this uate study in the performing and media arts, and it will include has been made possible space for the graduate acting program, the Black Arts Initiative, by the appointments of the OTV project, and collaborations across the graduate arts Danielle Bainbridge, Joshua programs. The goal is for this center to build partnerships with Chambers-Letson, Marcela Chicago-area cultural institutions and communities and use Fuentes, E. Patrick Johnson, that synergy to change the face of arts education and, we hope, Ramón Rivera-Servera, the creative industries.

summersummer 20202020 DialogueDialogue 27 stable practices and industries and toward understanding and managing technology changes and even designing new systems, policies, and platforms. In response, faculty from the communication studies and radio/television/film departments joined together to build a new cross-disciplinary doctoral program in media, technology, and society and began recruiting new faculty curricular modules in to help study the new world of converged, global, digital media. playwriting, screenwrit- As the program grew, it spun off a second doctoral program ing, game design, sound in screen cultures and then a third in technology and social arts and design, and behavior, a cross-school program focused on social computing. creating the musical. Developing these new programs has allowed us to build a The work we had faculty that puts us in the forefront of research on social com- done positioned us to see puting within networks, organizations, politics, journalism, the value in partnering and public health; on information access, policy, and practice; with the Medill School in on interactive media, sound design, and games; and on the 2008 to build a program design and evolution of media platforms. Many of these faculty for undergraduates in are active researchers in both media studies and computer Doha, Qatar. The major science and share interests in human-centered design. They we offer there reflects our proposed a new partnership with the McCormick School of new cross-disciplinary, Engineering and Applied Science to showcase and support cross-platform approach Northwestern’s emerging strength in the area of human- to media studies. And computer interaction, and later this summer we will open our teaching a global student new joint Center for Human-Computer Interaction and Design. body has helped us see how the field of communication should Our faculty also saw the opportunity to build the first set be positioned for a global audience. of cross-platform programs in content creation. The theatre Our departments saw a need to improve communication and radio/television/film departments partnered to build a new and health across the lifespan, encouraging faculty from com- master of fine arts program in writing for screen and stage to munication studies and communication sciences and disorders teach storytelling across the full spectrum of media. Emerging to build a new center to promote the analysis of communication as a leading MFA in writing, it has also allowed great expansion skills and practices within health systems and to design of writing instruction across our curriculum. We now offer new methods for improving care delivery. A group of our

28 Dialogue summer 2020 communication studies, we added professional MS degrees in leadership for creative industries and health communication. In the arts, we expanded staffing for the MFA program in We now offer curricular modules theatre design, built a world-class faculty for the MFA in theatre in playwriting, screenwriting, game directing, and most recently added an MFA program in acting. The Department of Radio/Television/Film recently added two design, sound arts and design, and new cross-platform programs, the MFA in documentary media creating the musical. and the MA in sound arts and industries. Together with the MFA in writing, they make up an innovative—and integrated— program for educating artists across platforms and disciplines. most exciting and well-funded faculty is advancing this The expansion of professional education has beneﬁted critical project. everyone in the school by adding faculty who engage with While the faculty were leading these shifts in staffing media and creative industries, thereby facilitating research on within our research and graduate programs, students and the creative economy and the activities through which it oper- alumni argued for improvements in the undergraduate experi- ates, helping serve students by strengthening the EPICS office, ence. Highlighting weaknesses in advising and career develop- and providing a bridge connecting our students to leading-edge ment, they prompted us to introduce key innovations: a dual research and creative work. advising model, with dedicated professionals to help students The events of this spring showed us that a school made navigate the University; an internship program; a modular for the 21st century will be well prepared to address its most curriculum to provide students with pathways to their goals as difficult challenges. We have built an outstanding technical well as associated career development and mentoring; and the infrastructure, and our community is comfortable with new Office of External Programs, Internships, and Career Services technologies and able to use them skillfully. We have not been (EPICS) to support the curriculum and connect students with daunted by seeing theaters closed during the pandemic; our stu- alumni and creative industries around the world. dents even found a way to perform the annual Waa-Mu Show As the undergraduate experience and doctoral programs online, and it was a triumph. Our modular curriculum and improved, we recognized a need and opportunity to improve professional programs provide durable connections to career and expand professional education as well. In communication opportunities. Strengthened support for career development is sciences and disorders, a wonderful new clinic and an expanded helping students navigate this difficult economy. clinical staff have allowed us to both expand our master of We look forward to being with one other again when we science program in speech, language, and learning and support can do so safely. In the meantime, we will continue to develop three new professional doctorates: doctor of audiology, doctor and implement whatever creative solutions we need, in the face of speech-language pathology, and combined PhD/SLPD. In of whatever new challenges may arise.

summer 2020 Dialogue 29 Our community

COVID-19 response

As news broke of the first US cases of the In addition, the staff enabled clinical e-visits York Senior Showcase was presented online, highly contagious COVID-19 coronavirus, and remote delivery of clinical education, thanks to prerecorded auditions—and with Northwestern moved swiftly to close cam- with appropriate security practices for a performances featured on BroadwayWorld’s puses and conduct spring quarter remotely. HIPAA-secured environment, and consulted website, industry exposure was magnified. Summer activities in Evanston and Chicago with labs’ principal investigators to convert Faculty have launched new research. were curtailed; the University continues to research data collection and analysis to Within days of Northwestern’s campus clo- assess how fall quarter will play out. The chal- remote environments. sure, associate professor Aaron Shaw began lenges have been significant—teaching dance, The Departments of Theatre and Perfor- the COVID-19 Digital Observatory to aggre- doing scene work, and accessing production mance Studies and the Virginia Wadsworth gate, distribute, and document public social facilities were just a few of the issues for Wirtz Center for the Performing Arts were data from digital platforms relating to the remote learning. But faculty reported success- among the entities feeling the biggest jolt and pandemic. Professor Michelle Shumate, an ful adaptations to Zoom classes and office yet found unique opportunities in the chal- expert on organizational networks, is being hours and are thinking critically about how lenge. MFA programs shifted the calendar to funded by the Army Research Office for her to continue to support students’ learning out- postpone collaborative and technical courses project “Improving Veterans Referrals by comes as the school considers sustained social and accommodate discussion-based classes in Optimizing Network Design in Response to distancing and other shifts in campus opera- spring; Wirtz Center programming canceled COVID-19.” Shumate and her lab are partner- tions. The following are just some of the extra- spring and summer shows—31 ticketed ing with the AmericaServes networks, the ordinary ways our community has adapted and events in all—but National Theatre Live, first coordinated US system of public, private, excelled in response to the pandemic. Danceworks, and many other offerings were and nonprofit organizations working together School of Communication Information streamed online; Wirtz staff enlisted faculty, in communities to serve veterans, transition- Technology converted over 200 courses to students, and alumni to create a new online ing service members, and their families. online delivery (roughly 90 percent of all Imagine U Storytime series for families; the Professors Noshir Contractor and Leslie spring quarter classes), including webinars, 89th annual Waa-Mu Show, State of the Art, DeChurch have launched “Teaming in the one-to-one faculty and graduate student con- called off its Cahn Auditorium performances Time of COVID-19: Understanding How Tech- sultations, and new digital assets. In partner- (a first since World War II) but staged a suc- nology Affordances Can Enable Collaboration ship with other schools and units, SoCIT cessful invitation-only Zoom reading; the during Sudden Workplace Disruption,” a created a virtual computer lab to offer free, 78th annual Dolphin Show staged a virtual National Science Foundation–funded RAPID browser-based access to Northwestern- cabaret featuring such special guests as project. They are examining the dynamics licensed creative and computational software. Adam Kantor (C08); and the annual New of remote work in four organizations with

30 Dialogue summer 2020 New Guggenheim fellow

Jeffrey Sconce, associate professor of radio/television/ film, is a 2020 recipient of the prestigious Guggenheim Fellowship, one of the highest honors awarded to scholars in the arts, humanities, and sciences. “I am thrilled,” says Sconce. “It’s an honor to be included among the many scholars and artists recognized by the Guggenheim Foundation.” A cultural historian of media and film, Sconce is the editor of Sleaze Artists: Cinema at the Margins of Taste, Style, and Politics which they have long-term contracts for ongoing research. (Duke University Press, 2007) and the author of Haunted Media: Professors David Tolchinsky and E. Patrick Johnson have each Electronic Presence from Telegraphy to Television (Duke, 2000), The enjoyed film festival wins, despite new online formats. In fact, Technical Delusion: Electronics, Power, Insanity (Duke, 2019), and this has been a boon to their work, as more people are able to numerous articles and essays. A Northwestern faculty member since access the screenings. Professional programs such as the master 2002, Sconce says his Guggenheim project will be an extension of of science in communication have been holding regular online his first two books, which examined the historical association of panels about crisis communication in the COVID-19 era. electronic media with “magical thinking.” The new project focuses Our clinical faculty working in Chicago at Northwestern especially on the idea of “paracosms,” imaginary fantasy worlds Memorial Hospital have been seeing COVID-19 patients and eval- of adolescence and adulthood that have become increasingly inter- uating and treating their swallowing functioning. As assistant dependent with media technologies and content. director of the Voice, Speech, Language Service, and Swallowing Funding from the Guggenheim Fellowship will support Center, Kristin Larsen leads a medical speech-pathology team that research trips to the archives of British child psychoanalyst mobilized early in the crisis to offer essential services and help D. W. Winnicott, the late Los Angeles artist Mike Kelley, and determine if a recovering patient can regain such a vital function. the BBC. The project will examine how various media, from the “This population is unique,” Larsen says. “A lot of the patients beginnings of popular print culture in the early 19th century to have been intubated—placed on a ventilator—and perhaps might today’s digital environments, became both objects and facilitators end up with tracheotomies. They span ages, but most are older of imaginary worlds. adults. After going through what they go through, a lot of them Sconce is the current radio/television/film faculty’s eighth are weakened and deconditioned; their vocal cords might be trau- Guggenheim Fellowship winner, along with incoming assistant matized, and we are there to assess their swallowing.” professor Erin Courtney, associate professors Eric Patrick and J.P. Even short-term intubation can affect swallowing function, Sniadecki, and professors Thomas Bradshaw, Laura Kipnis, Lynn and compromised swallowing can cause patients to aspirate food Spigel, and Marco Williams. or drink, potentially leading to infection and even death. The The John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation awarded team works to transition patients to an oral diet as quickly and the coveted fellowship to a select group of 175 individuals from a safely as possible, aiding in their recovery and ability to return pool of nearly 3,000 applicants from the United States and Canada home. Larsen says that wading into the uncharted waters of this year. In recognition of “exceptional capacity for productive COVID-19 was challenging—her group typically treats head and scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the arts,” the fellows neck cancer patients, those with neurodegenerative conditions, receive grants for up to one year of work on a special project. The or premature infants. Yet Larsen and colleagues Brittni Carnes, foundation has awarded more than $375 million since 1925 to Carolyn Chiu, Shauna Czarnik, Carissa Ernat, Kahla Graham, more than 18,000 fellows, including Nobel laureates, poets laureate, Jonelyn Langenstein, Chelsey Miller, Laura Cumby Olson, Jenna and Pulitzer Prize winners. —Katie Fretland Van Duyne, Sharon Veis, and Laura Vygantis were up to the challenge. “The resilience, compassion, and dedication of this team amaze me,” Larsen says. “Our patients appreciate this.”

summer 2020 Dialogue 31 Our community

High marks for communication sciences and disorders programs

Two dynamic communication sciences cochlear physiology, and auditory neurosci- and disorders programs were recently ence. The MS in speech, language, and learn- ranked among the nation’s top five for ing combines concept-based and immersive their categories in U.S. News and World curricula with clinical training, team-based Report’s latest evaluations of gradu- learning, and ample support and assessment ate-level education. The doctor of audiol- to prepare clinicians for leadership in this rap- ogy program now occupies the number 4 idly changing and explosively growing field. slot on the list of top audiology pro- Program director Stacy Kaplan oversees about grams, up from seventh, and the MS pro- 125 students in the two-year program. gram in speech, language, and learning Department chair and professor Pamela placed second, up from fifth, for speech-language pathology Souza says that high rankings often catch the attention of potential (U.S. News evaluates these programs at several-year intervals). students but that recruiting success rests on the strength of the pro- “It’s a validation of the work we’ve been doing over the last 10 grams. “When students are looking for a program and especially years,” says Sumit Dhar, professor of audiology and the school’s asso- when they decide to come here, they are looking for strong clinical ciate dean for research. “Some peer programs are deeply embedded training with a lot of different populations, and we absolutely have in medical centers, which is their strength, while some programs are that,” Souza says. “They are also drawn by our translational research stand-alone. We are somewhere in between, and we cherish having program, even if they aren’t intending to pursue a research career feet in both boats—basic science and applied clinical science.” themselves. The top programs bring the best teachers, and they know The highly specialized and selective doctor of audiology program that our faculty are creating the clinical evidence that’s going to welcomes about 18 students each year for 12 quarters of academics, direct practice. That brings us some of the strongest students as well supervised clinical practicums, and capstone research work. Led by as faculty members—those who recognize that the tight integration program director Kristine Riley, students can explore such areas as between clinical practice and research evidence is what drives us and hearing loss and management, speech perception, psychoacoustics, moves the field forward.”

New course promotes safe drug prescribing

Communication studies professor Bruce Lambert, drug at a time, encourage director of the Center for Communication and Health skepticism, learn about side and the master’s program in health communication, has effects, have a small personal launched Conservative Prescribing, a course that teaches formulary. Each one of them medical professionals the critical skills, strategies, and taken alone is pretty uncon- best practices for safe and cautious drug prescribing. “It’s troversial, but all together well known in medicine and pharmacy that drugs are they represent a prescribing dangerous,” Lambert says. “Hundreds of thousands of philosophy where the idea is people are hospitalized every year from adverse drug that if we’re not careful, drugs events, and millions go to the emergency room because will quite likely harm people of adverse drug events.” and not help them.” Created with Gordon Schiff, associate director of the Center for The pharmaceutical industry is extraordinarily profitable and Patient Safety Research and Practice at Boston’s Brigham and Women’s goes to great lengths to convince prescribers that its drugs are safe Hospital, and William Galanter, associate professor of medicine at under any circumstance, but Lambert says that’s far from the truth. the University of Illinois, the video course was launched this spring The opioid crisis is a great example; while opioids are useful when through the Institute for Healthcare Improvement’s Open School. used judiciously, overzealous prescribing and misleading industry Free for medical residents and medical, nursing, and pharmacy marketing helped trigger a public health crisis. But even insulin can students, it is available for a fee to all other practicing professionals. be problematic if not approached with care. Lambert’s course is “We’re not antidrug, we’re pro–drug safety,” Lambert says. “These intended to stress health and safety and reduce the chances that are very sensible principles: start with nondrug therapy, don’t treat the a provider unintentionally harms a patient. Completed more than side effects of one drug with another drug, don’t start more than one 1,500 times as of July, the course is available at ihi.org/prescribing.

32 Dialogue summer 2020 Johnson elected to prestigious academy 2019–20 faculty arrivals

School of Communication professor and incoming dean E. Patrick Johnson will be inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the prestigious honorary soci- Stan Brown, W. Rockwell Wirtz Professor and ety recognizing exemplary director of graduate studies for the MFA program contributions to the pursuit in acting. Brown is a 30-year veteran director, of knowledge, discourse, and voice and dialect coach, and actor of American advancing the common good. and British film, television, theatre, and radio. He was among the 2020 class’s He came to Northwestern from the University 276 inductees—and one of of South Carolina, his alma mater, where he eight from Northwestern— was a professor of theatre and dance and a across a range of disciplines. circuit, including the Audience Choice voice specialist in the graduate professional and “I am in a state of shock,” says Award for best documentary feature at undergraduate actor training programs. Classi- Johnson, the Carlos Montezuma Professor the Kansas City FilmFest International cally trained as a graduate acting fellow at the of Performance Studies and African and the Judges’ Choice Documentary Shakespeare Theatre Company in Washington, American Studies, who learned the news Award at the Longleaf Film Festival. DC, he began his teaching career at the Univer- on April 23. “As a scholar, you do your But for Johnson the American sity of Warwick in Coventry, England, where work and hope that you make a dent. Academy of Arts and Sciences news he worked with renowned voice expert Cicely But being inducted into the American was wholly unexpected. “All of the Berry—an experience that initiated Brown’s Academy of Arts and Sciences suggests living members get to vote on every exploration of culture’s perceptions and impacts you’ve made impacts in ways you’re not nominee, even if it’s outside their field on an actor’s voice and speech training. even aware of.” of expertise,” he says. “That’s why it’s Johnson is both a scholar and an so significant—and I would have poten- artist known for his explorations of race, tially had Barack Obama weighing in gender, sexuality, and performance. His whether I’m worthy!” books include Appropriating Blackness: This year’s other Northwestern Performance and the Politics of Authen- inductees are Edith Chen, Yonggang ticity (Duke University Press, 2003), a Huang, Teri W. Odom, Mary E. Pattillo, Hurston/Wright Legacy Award finalist Indira M. Raman, James P. Spillane, and Cristal Chanelle Truscott, assistant professor that won the Lilla A. Heston Award and Teresa K. Woodruff. Earlier School of of performance studies and theatre. Truscott the Errol Hill Book Award; Sweet Tea: Communication inductees include per- is the founder of Progress Theatre, a touring Black Gay Men of the South—An Oral formance studies alumni and faculty ensemble that uses theatre as antiracism engage- History (University of North Carolina Frank Galati and Mary Zimmerman. ment to encourage cross-community conversa- Press, 2008), recognized as a Stonewall The academy was founded in 1780 tions, connections, and consciousness. Winner Book Award Honor Book by the Rainbow by John Adams, John Hancock, and other of a 2019 Creative Capital Award, she has also Round Table of the American Library early scholar-patriots to honor excellence received the Doris Duke Impact Artist Award, Association; and the Lambda Literary among leaders who work “to cultivate which recognizes artists who shape powerful Award nominees Honeypot: Black Southern every art and science which may tend to creative movements in contemporary dance, Women Who Love Women (Duke, 2019) advance the interest, honor, dignity, and jazz, theatre, and related multidisciplinary and Black. Queer. Southern. Women.: An happiness of a free, independent, and work. She is currently writing SoulWork: Oral History (UNC, 2018). virtuous people.” It has inducted more Methodology from the Cultural Conservatory, The honor came amid an exciting than 13,500 lifetime members since its a book tracing the development, philosophy, run for Johnson. The documentary establishment. Johnson and other new and practical application of her generative Making Sweet Tea, which he produced members are scheduled to be honored method for training artists, building ensemble alongside his husband, Stephen Lewis, at a weekend celebration in Boston performance, and connecting communities. has been winning awards on the festival in October.

summer 2020 Dialogue 33 Our community

New 2020–21 faculty

Even amid a global pandemic, the School of Communication and political change. He comes welcomes a record number of new faculty who will be joining to Northwestern after recently Northwestern this summer and fall. completing doctoral studies at the University of Southern California’s Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism.

Lakshmi Padmanabhan, assistant professor of radio/ television/film. Padmanabhan’s work lies at the intersection Erik Nisbet, Owen L. Coon Bimbola Akinbola, assistant of postcolonial studies, experi- Chair in Policy Analysis and professor of performance studies. mental film, and global media Communication and associate pro- Akinbola’s research examines studies. She researches anti- fessor of communication studies. performance, visual art, and lit- colonial aesthetics, particularly Nisbet came to Northwestern erature being produced by Erin Courtney, assistant pro- how they are oriented around this summer from Ohio State women throughout the African fessor of radio/television/film. resistance, strikes, and civil University, where he was diaspora, with a particular A nationally recognized play- disobedience, and how those an associate professor and interest in self-making, wright whose works include A tactics are being represented the codirector of the Eurasian world-making, and belonging. Map of Virtue and The Tattooed and reconfigured in South Security and Governance Akinbola helps fill the scholarly Lady, Courtney was a beloved Asian experimental films and Program at the Mershon Center void in this research area left faculty member at Brooklyn digital media. Most recently for International Security by professor D. Soyini Madison, College, where she directed the a post doctoral fellow in Studies. Nisbet’s scholarship who retired this year. Previously MFA playwriting program. Her Dartmouth College’s Society centers on how strongly held a postdoctoral fellow with prestigious honors include an of Fellows, Padmanabhan holds partisan, national, religious, or Northwestern’s Black Arts Obie Award and a Guggenheim a PhD from Brown University. environmental identities bias Initiative, Akinbola is also Fellowship, and her plays have She will be teaching in the media and persuasive messages a creative practitioner with been staged at major theaters screen cultures program. that influence policy attitudes an investment in visual art across the country. She will or behavior, as well as on under- and performance. teach in Northwestern’s MFA Olga Kamenchuk, senior standing how macro structural program in writing for screen lecturer in communication factors interact with behaviors and stage. studies. Kamenchuk specializes to explain communication in conflict negotiation and outcomes. He explores these Matthew Kay, assistant pro- strategic communication, within the policy domains of fessor of communication studies. especially as they pertain to international affairs, democratic Kay is a computer scientist misinformation and US-Russia governance, and science and who designs, builds, and relations. She comes to North- the environment. Nisbet’s evaluates user interfaces western from Ohio State work has been funded by the and information visualiza- University and will be teaching National Science Foundation, TJ Billard, assistant professor tions. This work often in both undergraduate and US Department of Defense, of communication studies. results in communication graduate programs. US Department of State, and Billard researches political of uncertainty to nonexperts other sources. He will hold the communication and media and building usable statis- inaugural Owen L. Coon Chair activism, particularly how tical tools. He comes to in the school’s forthcoming they relate to the transgender Northwestern from the Center for Communication rights movement in the US. University of Michigan and Public Policy. In particular, he looks at how School of Information in a changing communication sys- shared appointment with tems have affected activists’ the McCormick School development of new and inno- of Engineering and Applied vative strategies to enact social Science’s Department of Computer Science.

34 Dialogue summer 2020 Faculty focus

American Mariachi

Aymar Jean Christian (PhD, California) is running for in May. With a cast featuring initiative Dance Studies in/ University of Pennsylvania) saw president of the International Lucy Godinez (C18) (above, far and the Humanities. Also now his distribution platform OTV | Communication Association. right), the production is now ten- in print is a cluster of essays Open Television nominated The election will be held in tatively planned for next winter. on South African dance artist for a Webby Award last spring September. Last spring, Pablo Nelisiwe Xaba that she edited in the category of video series– Boczkowski (PhD, Cornell John Haas (MM, Northwestern for the summer 2020 issue of public service and activism. OTV University) and new NU-Q dean University) taught his spring- TDR: The Drama Review. The recently launched new mobile Marwan Kraidy (PhD, Ohio quarter Sondheim Junior Tutorial essays emerged from the fall and TV apps and a new website State University) were named remotely—but with some spe- 2017 Black Arts International where users can register and fellows of the association. cial Zoom guests. They included conference and include her own eventually subscribe. As part Tony and Emmy Award winner “Cross-Viewing in Berlin and of that launch, in collabora- Henry Godinez (MFA, Mandy Patinkin (who created the Chicago” as well as contributions tion with Slo Mo and Reunion, University of Wisconsin– title role in Sondheim’s Sunday by Reggie Wilson, Mlondolozi OTV hosted 4theQultureFest, a Milwaukee) was directing José in the Park with George) and his Zondi, Mbongeni Mtshali, Eike virtual three-day Pride Festival Cruz Gonzalez’s American wife, veteran actress Kathryn Wittrock, Aimee Meredith sponsored by Red Bull, the AIDS Mariachi at Dallas Theater Grody, as well as Tony Award Cox, Brent Hayes Edwards, and Foundation of Chicago, and Center in March when the pro- winner Donna Murphy (the orig- Hershini Young. With coeditor Howard Brown Health Center. duction was suspended. The inal female lead in Sondheim’s Lizzie Leopold, she has launched show was a coproduction with Passion). The guests gave the class the new project Dancing on the Noshir Contractor (PhD, Chicago’s Goodman Theatre, firsthand accounts of their work Third Coast: Chicago Dance University of Southern where it was scheduled to open with Sondheim—who celebrated Histories. She continues work his 90th birthday this year—and on Critical Histories of Modern a look at the ups and downs of Dance: A Retrospective, her own life in the arts. book of essays for the University of Michigan Press. Susan Manning (PhD, Columbia University) coedited Stephan Moore (PhD, Brown the anthology Futures of Dance University) is the sound designer Studies (University of Wisconsin and composer for The Attendants, Press, 2020), a compilation of a six-hour movement-theatre research by young scholars in piece that was seen every the Mellon Foundation–funded Wednesday in June. Created The Attendants

summer 2020 Dialogue 35 Faculty focus

in 2011 for the New York and clinical science to design City–based theatre company tools that will be both engaging The Nerve Tank, the work was and efficacious. The center is reimagined for the COVID-19 era. testing that proposition.”

J.P. Sniadecki (PhD, Harvard University) received a 2019 Ford Foundation JustFilms grant and a 2020 LEF Foundation Production Grant for a collectively authored work-in-progress set in Cairo, Illinois. His latest feature film, A Shape of Things to Come, garnered positive reviews in Screen Daily and Modern Times when Madhu Reddy (PhD, University it premiered at CPH:DOX, the of California, Irvine) and David Copenhagen Documentary Film Mohr, professor of preventive Festival, and has been picked medicine at the Feinberg School up for distribution by Grass- of Medicine, were awarded a hopper Films. four-year, $6 million ALACRITY More CAREER Awards in Center grant from the National Ines Sommer (MFA, Art Institute of Mental Health. The communication studies Institute of Chicago) received grant will fund three major an Illinois Humanities Council projects in partnership with Two communication studies faculty recently received the grant (via a nonprofit film orga- Rush University Medical Center National Science Foundation’s prestigious Early Career nization) to tour her film Seasons and Northwestern Medicine to Development (CAREER) Award—and both are interested of Change on Henry’s Farm explore digital mental health throughout the state of Illinois; in the central question of how information is analyzed and interventions for young people, COVID-19 has forced postpone- disseminated using computational tools. Assistant profes- pregnant women, and older ment of the tour. The film won sor Agnes Horvat (PhD, Heidelberg University) will use the adults with depression. “A con- the award for best documentary cern in digital mental health is five-year grant funding to explore how scientific research at the Vail Film Festival in May. that we have tools people don’t articles are shared online, what factors contribute to larger often use,” Reddy says. “When dissemination, and whether sharing patterns might indi- Elizabeth Son (PhD, Yale people do use these tools with University) won the Book cate plagiarism or fabricated data. The findings will provide coaching and support, they’re Award in Humanities and Horvat (above, fourth from right) and her colleagues with effective. But there are a lot of Cultural Studies (Visual, Per- insights into complex systems and networks, the structural design challenges. Our approach formance, and Media Studies) is to combine methods from underpinnings of online inequalities, and networked crowd from the Association for Asian human-computer interaction computation. Assistant professor Nicholas Diakopoulos American Studies for her (PhD, Georgia Tech), whose grant began in 2019, is examining how algorithms and automation can improve news gathering, reporting quality, and story dissemination. With journalism in crisis, his intent is to empower journalists, aspiring data journalists, and regional news outlets to understand and employ computational tools to lower cost and increase efficiency and quality in news production. The CAREER Award recognizes junior faculty for outstanding research and classroom teaching, supporting those most likely to build a lifetime of leadership in integrating the two areas. Horvat and Diakopoulos join the department’s five previous CAREER winners: Leslie DeChurch, Darren Gergle, Brent Hecht, Madhu Reddy, and Michelle Shumate.

Seasons of Change on Henry’s Farm

36 Dialogue summer 2020 Honors for media, technology, and society program

Faculty, students, and alumni of the media, technology, and society program had an eventful spring, despite disruptions. Associate professor Aaron Shaw (PhD, University of California, Berkeley) received a COVID-19 A timely rebroadcast Open Innovation Grant from Protocol Labs for his COVID-19 Digital Observatory project (see page 30). Old South, a 2015 documentary produced and directed Student Erique Zhang won the 2020 Graduate Fellow by Danielle Beverly (MFA, Columbia College Chicago), Research Award from Northwestern’s Institute for was seen in July on Al Jazeera’s program Witness. The Sexual and Gender Minority Health and Wellbeing. film follows members of a historic African American Student Jabari “Naledge” Evans, a musician and half community in Georgia as they grapple with the expan- of the hip-hop duo Kidz in the Hall, is working on a sion of a white fraternity that lionizes the Confederacy. new album and was the subject of a May Chicago Al Jazeera moved up the broadcast date after US pro- Reader article about his work as artist and researcher. tests against racial injustice, particularly pertaining Students Soyeon Hwang, Breniel Lemley, and Maya to public removal of the Confed erate flag and related Lennon received National Science Foundation Graduate statues. Old South was originally broadcast nationally Research Fellow ships. Alumnus Jeremy Foote (GC19) on the World Channel/PBS as the fourth-season opener won two dissertation awards in the communication of the America ReFramed documentary series, airing and technology and information systems divisions of during African American History Month. It toured the the International Communication Association. festival circuit in 2015 and won the University Film and Video Association’s Documentary Award of Merit.

2018 book Embodied Reckonings: all-Black directing cohort in and welcoming. The all-Black May 15 on ALTER, YouTube’s “Comfort Women,” Performance, Northwestern’s history and cohort at Northwestern is an horror channel, and quickly and Transpacific Redress. perhaps at any US university. important victory for Black art- garnered nearly 60,000 views. Boasting high-profile inter- ists during this tumultuous time. It was nominated for best horror Jessica Thebus (PhD, North- national and domestic profes- This cohort is a part of a move- short and best production western University), director of sional experience, the three ment towards greater represen- design in the online Oxford graduate studies for the MFA exceptional candidates released tation, more autonomy for Black International Film Festival, program in directing, announced a joint statement: “We see in this artists, and more opportunities where Tolchinsky led a June that the incoming 2020–21 painful moment of reckoning for Black voices to be heard.” screenwriting master class on directing candidates are exclu- a moment of opportunity to Zoom. Additionally, Cassandra sively Black theatre makers. finally uproot the racism that David Tolchinksy (MFA, Uni- was nominated for best actor in Manna-Symone Middlebrooks, is still embedded in the world versity of Southern California) a short at Nightmares Film Fest Tor Campbell, and Jasmine B. of theatre—a world that many wrote and directed the short film and won awards for best thriller Gunter make up the first would assume is open, diverse, Cassandra, which premiered short and best editing at the

From left: Incoming MFA directing candidates Manna-Symone Middlebrooks, Tor Campbell, and Jasmine B. Gunter

summer 2020 Dialogue 37 Faculty focus

Women in Horror Film Fest and was slated to run at NU-Q last for best crime-short director at spring; though COVID-19 shut Anatomy: Crime & Horror Inter- down the production midway national Film Festival. The film through rehearsals, the cast has been accepted for the Mecal staged it on Zoom as The Cherry Barcelona International, Pasadena Orchard Quarantined. She and International, Blackbird, and the students also created The Paracinema Film Festivals. Cherry Orchard Quarantined: Living in a Pandemic, a website Marco Williams (MFA, Univer- providing images, information, sity of California, Los Angeles) and reflections about the chal- received a Sundance Docu- lenging process. mentary Fund postproduction grant for his film Murders That Jing Zheng (PhD, Michigan Matter. The film documents State University) cowrote the Movita Johnson-Harrell, an article “CAMSAP3 Facilitates African American Muslim Basal Body Polarity and the mother who, in the aftermath Formation of the Central Pair of of her youngest son’s murder, Microtubules in Motile Cilia,” vows to save all other Black accepted to the journal Proceed- sons on both sides of the gun. ings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States. Her Ann Woodworth (MA, North- coauthors are communication western University) directed the sciences and disorders research final production of her 40-year professor Mary Ann Cheatham Northwestern teaching career (PhD, Northwestern University) in anticipation of her retirement and Feinberg School of Medicine next year. Her adaptation of professor Claus-Peter Richter. Chekhov’s The Cherry Orchard Murders That Matter

The Cherry Orchard Quarantined

38 Dialogue summer 2020 Alumni achievements

Class notes are selected from stories Rocky Wirtz (C75) was listed of alumni featured in the media as by Crain’s Chicago Business as identified by the University’s Office one of the 25 most powerful of Alumni Relations and Devel op- Chicagoans. ment and updates sent to Dialogue by mail or by email at dialogue @northwestern.edu.

1960s

Kathy Pingel (GC76, GSESP78) will be honored with the American Association of Community Theatre’s Art Cole Lifetime of Leadership Award Documentary profiles Marshall at the AACTFest 2021 National Goodbye gray sky, hello purple. The Happy Days of Garry Festival in Louisville, Kentucky, Marshall, a documentary about the life and work of the film next June. Pingel served as artis- and television legend and Northwestern alumnus (J56), tic director of the Kate Goldman premiered May 12 on ABC. Written, directed, and executive Irene Wolff Leigh (C66), Children’s Theatre and for 10 produced by John Scheinfeld (C78) and produced by Dave professor emerita at Gallaudet years as director of education Harding (C78, GJ79), the documentary features Julia Roberts, University, coedited Deaf and youth programming for Ron Howard, Henry Winkler, Julie Andrews, Jennifer Garner, Identities: Exploring New Frontiers the Des Moines Community Jimmy Kimmel, and other Marshall friends and Hollywood (Oxford University Press). The Playhouse prior to her retire- celebrities, as well as his wife, Barbara, and children Scott book offers new insights into ment in 2015. She wrote the Marshall (C91), Kathleen Marshall LaGambina (C90), and Lori conceptualizing deaf identities. curriculum for the AACT Marshall (J86, GJ88). The writer, director, and producer often adjudication workshop and has dotted his films and series with nods to his alma mater. “Garry 1970s adjudicated theatre at the state, famously said, ‘I never wanted to change the world. I wanted regional, national, and inter- to entertain the world,’” said Scheinfeld. “And for more than national levels. Named an AACT Louis Stein (C72), artistic six decades, his work in television and films made us laugh, fellow in 2017, Pingel facilitated director of the North London– touched our hearts, and always left us feeling good.” its Theatre Education Directors’ based inclusive theater Chicken- Conference and is currently the shed, won two London Off-West organization’s co-coordinator Awards this year—for his for education as well as the musical Snow White (best pro- dramaturge for its NewPlayFest Deborah Matthews duction for children) and for 1980s competition. She has taught and Phillips (C78) has joined the Chickenshed (most welcoming directed in Florida, Kentucky, Independent Community theater). Last year, Don’t Stop Oklahoma, Iowa, Michigan, Bankers of America’s govern- Thinking about Tomorrow, his and Germany. ment relations team as senior musical about a young person’s vice president of payments and response to climate change, Renetta McCann (C78, technology policy. was named best production for GSESP12), chief inclusion young people. experience officer at Publicis Jim Boyle (C79) was named Groupe, was named the recipi- chief marketing and communi- William R. Clayton (C75, ent of the Chicago Advertising cations officer for BBB National L78) founded the new law firm Federation’s 2019 Silver Medal Programs, a nonprofit that deliv- Clayton Trial Lawyers in Fort Michael Thomas (C80) was Award, recognizing a dis- ers cost-effective third-party Lauderdale. He was previously named chair of the University of tinguished member of the self-regulation, dispute resolu- a principal shareholder at Cincinnati College of Medicine’s Chicago advertising commu- tion, and other programs. Greenberg Traurig. obstetrics and gynecology nity for outstanding career department. One of two pre-med accomplishments. radio/television/film majors

summer 2020 Dialogue 39 Alumni achievements

as a Northwestern student, he the executive producer of What has deployed 50 hemodialysis Caralynn Nowinski Collens received acceptances to the Hugh Knew, a full-length feature systems to New York City and (C99) was appointed CEO of University of Illinois medical documentary in postproduction Long Island hospitals to provide Dimension Inx, a Northwestern school and UCLA’s MFA pro- that explores technology’s lifesaving dialysis for patients spinout company harnessing the gram in television production impact on real-life connections. whose kidneys shut down due power of a patented 3D-printing on the same day but chose to COVID-19. biomaterials design and man- to pursue a medical career in Christopher Celentino (C84), ufacturing platform. She was reproductive endocrinology and a partner in the corporate Carey Crim (C93) was named previously with UI Labs. infertility. Since 1990 he has department of Dinsmore & a finalist for the 2018 Eugene been a faculty member at the Shohl, was named one of the O’Neill Award for her play Never Justin Donne (C99) has been University of Cincinnati, where “Top Lawyers of 2020,” based Not Once, which premiered appointed to the board of direc- he has helped couples conceive on peer reviews conducted by in Canada last fall, opened in tors of the Disneyland Alumni more than 5,000 children and Martindale-Hubbell. February at Rubicon Theatre Club. A worldwide business contributed to many advances Company of Ventura, and, strategy consultant, he also in fertility services and contra- Spencer Krull (C87) was before the pandemic, was slated chairs the board of trustees of ception research. Thomas has appointed managing broker for a British premiere in April. the UK’s Autistic Nottingham served since 2015 as a board of Southern California at Side, and Hucknall Round Table and member of the American Board a real estate brokerage that serves on the Nottingham City of Obstetrics and Gynecology exclusively partners with Council board for light rapid and has been the division direc- high-performing agents, teams, transport, the autism strategy tor since 2019. Also a charter and independent brokerages to board, and the UK Cabinet member of the Society for transform them into boutique Office for Disability Issues. Family Planning and the Cradle brands and businesses. Cincinnati Advisory Board, he 2000s has been the secretary of the Victoria Gallagher (GC89, Board of the American Society GC90), a professor in North Paula McDonnell (GC01) for Reproductive Medicine for Carolina State University’s Sarah Gubbins (C97, GC08) joined BMO Wealth Manage- the last three years. communication department, wrote the screenplay for Shirley, ment in Winnetka, Illinois, as was one of three recipients of a biopic starring Elizabeth Moss a private wealth adviser. Selene Mize (C81) was the Alexander Quarles Holladay as horror and mystery author appointed to the steering group Medal for Excellence, the uni- Shirley Jackson. The film pre- Brendan O’Donnell (C01) is of the New Zealand Law Society, versity’s highest honor. miered to critical acclaim at a partner at the venture capital which is undertaking an inde- the 2020 Sundance Film Festival firm Frontline Ventures, where pendent review of the statutory Tricia Rothschild (C89), and was named one of the 10 he will co-lead FrontlineX, a framework for legal services. former chief product officer best films (so far) of 2020 by new $80 million fund aimed at at Morningstar, has joined Vanity Fair. helping US software companies Drew Brown (C82) has joined Magnifi, a TIFIN company, expand into Europe. Skydance Television as execu- as board adviser. Melanie Hilliard (C98) was tive vice president of physical hired as a senior marketing Jodi Hildebrand (C02) production after previously 1990s consultant at Clarity Quest produced Peter Rabbit 2: The working at AMC Studios. Marketing, which provides Runaway, the sequel to Sony Tonya M. Evans (C91) is a services to healthcare and Pictures Entertainment’s 2020–21 visiting professor of technology companies across worldwide hit; its scheduled law at Penn State Dickinson the United States. She will be US release has been postponed Law. She is associate dean of based in the firm’s offices in from April until January. academic affairs and professor Ann Arbor, Michigan. Hildebrand runs Olive Bridge of law at the University of New Entertainment, a film and tele- Hampshire’s Franklin Pierce Sandy Rustin (C98), an vision production company School of Law. actress and award-winning play- owned by writer and director wright, is a staff writer at the Will Gluck. Leslie Trigg (C92) is CEO of Playwrights Project, an artistic Jennifer Regen Bisbee (C84) Outset Medical, a commercial- initiative aimed at generating Corinne Miller (GC02) wrote is celebrating the 25th anniver- stage company delivering global material to be considered for the book Reinventing Your Work: sary of Bisbee and Company, a dialysis technology. In collabo- future production. She is also 8 Powerful Tips for a Joyful Career. public relations and marketing ration with the New York State the founding co-artistic director communications agency based Department of Health, Outset of Midtown Direct Rep. in Orlando, Florida. She is also

40 Dialogue summer 2020 Emily Smith (C07) was pro- Spoon University, founded one of two finalists for the 2020 moted to senior vice president by Mackenzie Barth (C13) Pulitzer Prize in Drama and was of corporate development and and Sarah Adler (J13) while named one of 2019’s best plays operations at Energy Recovery, they were Northwestern stu- by the New York Times. The play a technology design firm that dents, was acquired by Her focuses on four alumni of a con- addresses challenges in indus- Campus Media, a company for servative Christian college grap- trial fluid-flow markets. college women and a 360-degree pling with current events and college marketing agency. how to reconcile their education Rishi Taparia (C08) was named with the broader culture. “My Jessica Redish (C02) wrote senior vice president of strategy greatest hope for my work is and directed the short film The and business operations at that it challenges, starts conver- Last Croissant, recently featured Legion Technologies, a manage- sations, and lets audiences and on Will Ferrell’s comedy web- ment platform provider for readers meet in that in-between site Funny or Die. She is a 2020 helping companies administer space of love, terror, and beauty,” Helen Hayes Award nominee for their workforces. Arbery said in a March inter- outstanding choreography in view for the Graduate School. a play for Chelsea Marcantel’s Airness at Keegan Theatre and Jerrell L. Henderson (GC15) 1st Stage in Washington, DC. Nayna Agrawal (GC15) is is a director, a puppeteer, and a writer for Dimple, a new an assistant professor of perfor- Michael Mahler (C04), children’s animation series mance studies at Chicago State Alan Schmuckler (C05), and distributed by Mattel about University. Recent directing Amber Mak (C03) adapted an Indian girl and her magical credits include Thurgood for the movie The Secret of My elephant; the series will pre- Philadelphia’s Walnut Street Success as a musical that premiere in 2021. She is also on Theatre and Mima’s Tale for miered in February at the the writing team for S.M.A.S.H., Chicago’s Griffin Theatre; the Paramount Theatre in Aurora, an animated series about super- latter was nominated for 2020 Illinois. As Paramount’s new hero kids attending camp. Her Jeff Awards for direction and production of a play. works development director, Joey Skladany (C09) is a New play Slut was scheduled for a Mak approached Mahler and York City–based writer and TV monthlong run in both Boston Hannah Ii-Epstein (GC18) Schmuckler about the project personality and the editor at and Los Angeles but has been was elected one of five new in 2013. large for CBS Interactive’s cook- postponed indefinitely because resident playwrights at Chicago ing website Chowhound. His of the pandemic. Dramatists, a company focused Michael Cicetti (C05) created debut cookbook, Basic Bitchen on nurturing playwrights and the award-winning 2019 queer (Simon & Schuster’s Tiller developing new plays. scripted series 5A5B, which Media), was released August 4. has secured distribution with It features more than 100 every- Joe Gaziano (C19) has signed RevryTV and is being shopped day recipes, plus tips and tricks with the Los Angeles Chargers to larger studios. “for the basic bitch in your life.” as an undrafted free agent. Alex H. Glaser (C06) was named a partner in the tax 2010s Gabrielle Torina (GC19) practice group of Jones Walker, was hired as engagement and Jeremy Fassler (C12) is communications manager a law firm headquartered in Will Arbery (GC15) is the attending Columbia Graduate at Transform Rockford, a grass- New Orleans. Tow Foundation Playwright in School of Journalism this fall roots movement for helping Residence at New York City’s Di Glazer (C06) was promoted to pursue an MS in journalism. that Illinois city become a Playwrights Horizons and the top community. to partner in the theatre depart- 2020 winner of the Whiting Stephen Rossi (GC12) was ment at ICM Partners, a talent Award for Drama. His play hired by the American Supply and literary agency. Heroes of the Fourth Turning was Association to lead its advocacy Geraldo Alvarez (C07) was efforts in the legislative, named soccer coach at his alma political, and regulatory areas. mater, Marmion Academy in Aurora, Illinois. He also works as a business relationship manager for JP Morgan Chase.

summer 2020 Dialogue 41 In memory

Bobbie Battista (C74), Virginia Z. Rose Delman (C39, David G. Wood (C57), April 17, veteran CNN reporter and GC46), October 23, age 101, age 84, Redwood Falls, Minnesota Claremont, California anchor, died on March 3 Paul A. Wischmeyer (C58), at age 67 in Davenport, Jocelyn Birch Burdick (C43), March 1, age 83, San Francisco Iowa. Battista’s CNN December 26, age 97, Fargo, Robert J. Bielecki (C59), career began when the North Dakota cable channel launched November 21, age 82, Arlington Florence Leffler (C47), April 6, Heights, Illinois its Headline News pro- age 94, Memphis, Tennessee gram in 1982. She stayed Marcia Quale Chellis Kay for more than 20 years, Pauline G. Higie (C49), (C61), December 27, age 79, covering such momentous February 14, age 93, Gibsonia, Palm Beach, Florida events as the fall of the Pennsylvania Lynne B. Smith Miano (C61), Berlin Wall, the Challenger Doris Celeste Sheehy (C49), May 20, age 81, Bridgewater, disaster, and 9/11. Born Barbara Ann Nusser in Iowa, she December 31, age 91, Bolivia, Connecticut grew up in New Jersey and majored in radio/television/film at North Carolina Northwestern. After graduation she worked as an anchor and Patricia Scherer (C62, producer with local news outlets and wrote and produced Carol Thornburg (GC50), GC64, GC68), April 26, age 89, Northbrook, Illinois the George Foster Peabody Award–winning documentary Fed May 14, age 96, Franklin, Tennessee Up with Fear. Throughout her award-winning cable network Stanley G. Rives (GC63), tenure, she was a fixture on CNN NewsDay, CNN NewsHour, Kathleen Blank (C51), November 13, age 89, Mattoon, CNN Daybreak, and CNN PrimeNews, and for three years she February 11, age 89, Irvine, Illinois hosted the weekday afternoon show Talkback Live. Battista California Sharon M. Kerikas (GC64), left CNN in the early 2000s to work in corporate communica- Suzanne McMurry (C51), April 18, age 77, Salt Lake City tions but continued to contribute to television programming. April 27, age 90, Tucson In addition to her husband, John Brimelow, she is survived by Peter D. Willis (C64), stepdaughter Halie Brimelow, brother Michael Nusser, sister Jerry Levin (C54), February 6, December 29, age 79 age 88, Birmingham, Alabama Amy Nusser Dawkins, and ex-husband James M. Battista. Earl Ross Genzel (GC65), Jamie M. Gilson (C55), May 3, age 78, Raleigh, North Riad Ismat, former Syrian February 11, age 86, Wilmette, Carolina minister of culture and a past Illinois Beverle Bloch (C69), April 27, School of Communication Karen J. Kuehner (C55), age 72, Chicago visiting artist, died on May 13 May 28, age 86, Northbrook, at age 73 in Glenview, Illinois, Mariana Newton (GC69), Illinois from COVID-19 complications. December 12, age 81, Greensboro, He studied in the United King- Donald E. Rondou (C55), North Carolina dom and was proud that his March 2, age 87, Green Bay, Richard A. Ludwin (GC71), Wisconsin education could bridge the November 10, age 71, divide between Western and Rodger H. Running (C55), Los Angeles Levant cultures. As Syria’s culture minister, the Damascus April 16, age 87, Jackson, Diane M. Smith (GC72), native organized three minifestivals celebrating the perform- Mississippi December 28, age 72, Evansville, ing arts of ethnic minorities, including Assyrians, Armenians, Indiana Charkas, and Kurds. A prolific writer whose plays, novelettes, Dorothy Soule (GC55), December 20, age 94, Springfield, and short stories were critical of totalitarianism and sec- Joseph A. Rozanski (C80), Illinois tarianism, he reached a point where he felt neither heard March 19, age 63, Chicago nor safe in Syria. After leaving his home for Paris, Ismat Anita Phillips (C56), Carol L. Wick (C82), May 23, came to Northwestern as a researcher with the help of New January 12, age 85, St. Louis age 60, Mt. Lebanon, York’s Institute of International Education. He then taught Marianna Sellers (C56), April 1, Pennsylvania at Naperville’s North Central College before returning to the age 85, Somerville, New Jersey School of Communication in 2015 to collaborate and interact Kathleen Ann Watson (GC01), with faculty and students in creating art and raising aware- John Boyd (GC57, GC65), December 31, age 75, Phoenix, ness as the first in a series of school-sponsored artists in December 19, age 92, London, Arizona Ontario, Canada residence from conflict zones. Ismat’s life was inspirational Brendan J. Ansier (C02), to those working for political freedom and to artists creating Carol P. Mower (GC57), January 20, age 39, Chicago amid wartime turmoil. He is survived by his wife, Azzah, and November 22, age 88, Orono, three children. Maine

42 Dialogue summer 2020 Communicating gratitude

A life of many stages

Elaine Cohen Rubin (C69) was born for the stage. support of Chicago arts insti- A native of Kansas City, Missouri, she spent tutions and Broadway shows; her childhood performing. At age three she Chicago’s Porchlight Music was dancing, and by age five she was onstage Theatre named them 2020 alongside show business legends at Kansas City’s Porchlight Luminaries. Starlight Musical Theater. By high school she For over 40 years the was a regular on local television programs—her Rubins have been loyal petite stature and indomitable work ethic made annual donors to the School her the go-to choice for dozens of roles. She was of Communication. Since nicknamed “the Shirley Temple of Kansas City.” the launch of Northwestern’s “I just remember growing up I was always American Music Theatre either in a performing class, a private lesson, a Project in 2005, that initiative rehearsal, or a performance,” she says. “That’s has been a focus of their sup- what my life was like.” port. AMTP connects profes- Cohen Rubin had friends who had gone to sional playwrights and actors Northwestern’s summer Cherubs program, so with Northwestern faculty she applied and attended the same year as Emmy and students to workshop new Award–winning actor Peter Strauss. Her expe- projects. The final products rience was transformative—she won one of the 10 “highest have ranged from staged readings to fully realized productions. awards in drama”—and inspired her to apply to Northwestern Elaine gives her time and expertise as a member of the AMTP as a theatre major. advisory board and in fall 2019 made a major gift commitment She was surprised to find that, in the 1960s, Northwestern to support and sustain its future. did not offer a curricular track in musical comedy. The Univer- “I love the whole production concept. I love the writing sity did have the Waa-Mu Show as well as the Dolphin Show, phase, I love the production phase, I love it all because I did it then staged in a swimming pool. “But I was allergic to chlorine, for so many years,” says Cohen Rubin. “This was a great way to so there was no way I was doing that,” she laughs. get back to the ‘real’ theatre, because I missed it. “The biggest value of my experience was from the inter- “We have to have this process in order for a show to make pretation department,” she says, “because they taught you how it to Broadway,” she continues. “But the thing I like most about to take a piece of literature, break it down, and really analyze it is that the students are the key linchpins in the process. They characters. They also taught how to produce live theatre. That will someday be able to use this experience to make a living honed a lot of my skills.” in theatre.” Cohen Rubin created opportunities for herself that would She notes that AMTP’s ongoing partnership with the capitalize on those skills, whether putting together a music Royal Conservatoire of Scotland to create new works and revue her senior year that was showcased at Second City or premiere them at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe has been a producing live musical industrial shows for the trade show boon to the program and that the soon-to-be-opened Virginia business, leading to her 42-year career as the founder of Live Wadsworth Wirtz Center for the Performing and Media Arts Marketing—one of the country’s top 100 event marketing on Northwestern’s downtown Chicago campus will advance agencies and winner of over 500 awards. Its team has performed the mission even further. in 42 countries and in 12 languages. “I see that path as a very smart move,” she says. “And the “Elaine brought all of the arts into my life,” says Arlen new MFA program in acting will give us a huge advantage. It Rubin, her husband of 48 years and a CPA who became a mem- will really help Northwestern be considered the place to be.” ber of the Chicago Board of Trade. “It’s been the delight of my Thanks to the generous support of Elaine Cohen Rubin life.” The couple is well known for enthusiastic patronage and and Arlen Rubin, it already is.

summer 2020 Dialogue 43 Welcoming E. Patrick Johnson as the school’s new dean

In June, E. Patrick Johnson was named the new dean of North- candidates. “I’m thrilled that E. Patrick Johnson will be our next western’s School of Communication. The Carlos Montezuma dean of the School of Communication,” she says. “Not only is Professor of Performance Studies and African American Studies he an outstanding artist, teacher, and scholar, he is also deeply in the School of Communication and the Weinberg College of committed to ensuring that the students, staff, and faculty in Arts and Sciences, Johnson joined the faculty 20 years ago and the school can continue to excel. He will provide visionary has served in significant leadership roles, breaking barriers leadership, deep expertise, and unwavering support as he along the way. He assumes his new position on August 1 as champions each member of the school community. I am eager the seventh dean in the school’s history. to begin working with him to address the many opportunities A first-generation college student, Johnson was the first and challenges that lie ahead.” African American from his hometown to receive a doctor- Since coming to Northwestern from Amherst College in ate, the first African American to be hired and tenured in the 2000 as an assistant professor of performance studies, Johnson Department of Performance Studies, and the first to hold a has chaired the performance studies and African American named professorship in the School of Communication. He has studies departments. He is also the founding director of the spent much of his career leveraging those opportunities to pro- University’s Black Arts Initiative, a cross-school collaboration vide others with a seat at the table and has worked to diversify established in 2012 to honor the past and celebrate the poten- the faculty through recruitment and mentoring. tial of Black arts. “I am truly honored and humbled to be selected as the next A prolific performer and scholar, Johnson has been pub- dean of the School of Communication. I stand on the shoulders lished widely in the areas of race, class, gender, sexuality, and of my grandmother and my mother, neither of whom ever performance. His research and artistry have greatly influenced stepped foot on a university campus except to celebrate my African American, performance, and sexuality studies, and graduations and accomplishments, but from whom I learned he is one of the progenitors of the field of Black queer studies. how to be a committed scholar, artist, and advocate for social In recognition of his work, Johnson will be inducted into the justice,” Johnson says. “As I step into this new role, I carry their American Academy of Arts and Sciences this fall (see page 33). tenacity and determination with me. He succeeds Barbara O’Keefe, the School of Communi- “While I understand the symbolism of being the first cation’s dean since 2000. She led a transformation of the African American appointed to this post—and particularly school’s curriculum and fostered highly interdisciplinary, during a global pandemic and persistence of anti-Black racism cross-platform programs at every level from precollege to —my focus as dean will be leading with a moral and ethical undergraduate, professional, and doctoral studies. imperative to make the School of Communication a place Johnson received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in where ‘first’ only refers to our ranking in the world.” speech communication from the University of North Carolina Interim provost Kathleen Hagerty said Johnson emerged at Chapel Hill and his PhD in speech communication from from a national search of highly respected, prominent Louisiana State University. —Jon Yates

44 Dialogue summer 2020 summer 2020 Dialogue 45