Before joining the James Madison University faculty in 2000, I studied media history and film theory at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill. My research and teaching interests include media literacy, visual communication, and the role of media in social change. My current research explores the role of women in journalism history, especially their contributions to cultural constructions of nationality, race, and gender in the popular press.

Recent publications include:

• “From Radical Agitation to Progressive Reform: Margaret Sanger and the Birth Control Movement, 1911-1921,” in Dulcie Straughan, ed., Rousing the Conscience of a Nation: Women, Public Relations and Progressive-Era Reform (Lewiston, NY: The Edwin Mellen Press, in press).
• “Meaning, Memory and Misogyny: Life Photographer Hansel Mieth’s Monkey Portrait,” Afterimage: The Journal of Media Arts and Cultural Criticism 33:2 (September-October 2005) 22-30.
• “Too Human for Life: Hansel Mieth’s Photographs of Heart Mountain Internment Camp,” Visual Communication Quarterly 11:3-4 (Summer-Autumn 2004): 4-17.

I serve as book review editor for American Journalism, the scholarly journal of the American Journalism Historians Association.

My professional experience includes print and broadcast journalism, advertising, and non-profit management. I worked as a reporter for the Bay City News Service in San Francisco. I was a producer and production assistant for public radio stations KQED (San Francisco) and KPFA (Berkeley). I worked in advertising sales at American Express Publications. After living for several months in the Philippines I directed the Philippine Resource Center in Berkeley.

Teaching Interests: Media Literacy, Media Analysis and Criticism, Media Theory, Media History, Visual Communication

Research/Creative Activities: Photojournalism History, Media and Social Change, Women in Media