On March 17, 2023, Klein College of Media and Communication hosted its annual Graduate Research Forum, and for the third year in a row, the event also featured the Klein-Carnell Awards.
Klein College has two Laura H. Carnell professors, Carolyn Kitch and Edward L. Fink, and each takes a turn convening the committees for the annual Carnell awards. This year, Fink convened the Klein-Carnell Distinguished Fellow award committee, and former Associate Dean for Research and Graduate Studies Brian Creech convened the committee for the Klein-Carnell Rising Scholar award.
The Distinguished Fellow Award honors an alumnus of the media and communication doctoral program that received their degree at least eight years prior to their nomination, while the Rising Scholar Award honors an alumnus that is less than eight years out of the program.
Klein-Carnell Distinguished Fellow: Betsi Grabe, KLN ‘95
This year’s Distinguished Fellow honoree is Provost Professor at Indiana University Betsi Grabe, KLN ’95. As the distinguished scholar, Grabe delivered a keynote address on the key problems of political persuasion at the end of the forum in March.
Grabe has a background in news and worked for the South African Broadcasting Corporation during the darkest years of apartheid. There, she was able to see the biases in media and exactly how propaganda is produced to influence the minds of citizens.
After becoming frustrated with the limited access to scholarly articles in South Africa, Grabe attended Baylor University to continue her degree from the University of Johannesburg. Shortly after returning to South Africa and finishing her first master’s degree, Grabe went back to Baylor for a second graduate degree before moving on to Temple University for her doctorate.
At Temple, Grabe learned new research methods that could help answer her questions about media representation and biases. Many of these methods she learned from Associate Professor and Media Studies and Production Department Chair Matthew Lombard, who also advised Grabe during her time in the doctoral program.
“Her talk was a nice summary of a whole long program of research that she’s been doing for many years,” Lombard said of her keynote speech. He was proud to see his first advisee ever address his current advisees at the forum and can see an academic lineage of mentorship forming between alumni and students because of the event.
Grabe is grateful not only for the honor but for the opportunity to come and speak to students and visit her alma mater.
“I saw tenacity and a can-do spirit. And, of course, they made it look effortless and professional,” Grabe said of the student work presented at the forum.
Currently, Grabe teaches a large introductory media psychology course at Indiana and loves working with undergraduate students taking their first steps into the field of media and communication. She is also finishing up her term as the editor of the International Communication Association’s journal, Communication Theory.
Klein-Carnell Rising Scholar: Ju Oak “Jade” Kim, KLN ‘16
This year’s Rising Scholar honoree is Associate Professor at Texas A&M International University Ju Oak “Jade” Kim, KLN ’16. At the forum, Kim hosted a Q&A session with current students about the impact the media and communications doctoral program has had on her career.
When Kim arrived on campus the week of the forum, she noted that she immediately felt like she was home. Though any award is special, to be recognized by her alma mater made her feel extra proud since the Temple community has seen her grow ever since she set foot on campus in 2010.
The Rising Scholar Award recognizes the achievements and potential of recent doctoral program graduates, and Kim has undoubtedly made an impact in the Korean media and cultural studies field.
In the early 2000s, before coming to Temple, Kim worked at a television station in Korea and saw the beginnings of Korean media expanding outside of the country. While getting her master of fine arts in television production at Brooklyn College, Kim noticed Korean popular culture making its way to America and the Western world.
Determined to study this phenomenon and get answers for why and how this expansion was possible, Kim enrolled at Temple.
“I think it matters as a scholar, expanding your curiosity,” Kim said.
When reflecting on her time in the program, Kim noted how she struggled to grasp academic writing since English was not her first language. Classes with Kitch and Acting Associate Dean for Research and Graduate Studies Fabienne Darling-Wolf helped her in writing and getting some of the answers to the questions she had about the de-westernization of global media culture.
“She’s one of those people who, I feel, really grew immensely in her time with us,” said Darling-Wolf. “I think she understood what it means to do a Ph.D.”
Darling-Wolf advised Kim during her time in the program and is proud to see that Kim has taken an interest in mentoring current students, especially international students. At the forum, Kim was able to share some of the struggles she had at the beginning of her studies and give advice to students that are in her position now.
Currently, Kim is heading home to Korea on a research development leave to focus on turning her dissertation about global culture and media into a book.
“Awards like these try to mark the impact of someone across the totality of their career as well as the demonstrable potential to have that type of impact,” Creech said.