Marita Sturken, Professor and Former Chair of Media, Culture, and Communication
April 4, 2023
There are quite a faculty here who were in the department when I arrived in 2005, including those who just spoke, but there are also many faculty and staff here who came into the department since then. And I am happy to say that when I was chair, I hired many of them!
Now, that I am one of the longer-serving faculty members in Media, Culture, and Communication (MCC), and part of the “team” of former chairs in the department, I have had many occasions to reflect on its more recent history in what is often seen as the post-Postman era of MCC. I really do believe that MCC is well placed within the larger fields of media studies and communication because of its unique history. One way of thinking about this is that the term “media” is a much more flexible and versatile term through which to grapple with the complex world of information technologies, global media systems, personal technology use, social media, and brand cultures in which we are immersed today.
MCC’s strength is that it situates media and technology within the foundations of a liberal arts curriculum with a broad interdisciplinary and largely humanities approach. Some of us refer to this as the “English major of the future” – or, by implication, the default major of the future. In other words, we are preparing MCC students with flexible and versatile skills and knowledges, to navigate a world in which many of the jobs they will hold haven’t been invented yet.
In the last 15 years, the number of MCC faculty has doubled, and it now holds a roster of truly extraordinary scholars doing hugely important research, and our alumni in industry positions are movers and shakers, and it has been immensely rewarding for us to see our PhD students go on to publish amazing books and to postdocs and jobs in many different kinds of departments throughout the nation and the world.
So I like to think of the department as a kind of engine, moving at serious speed into the future and pulling the school and the university along with it.
Ok, so now I sound like I am trying to sell you on MCC! So let me just also say that this department knows how to do amazing events and, above all else, how to throw a party!
So I raise my glass to toast MCC’s spirit!