Main Content
Mass Communications and Media Arts Faculty
The close relationships students form with our internationally renowned faculty lead to successes and paves the way for you to find your own path. Our people, working with students in small classroom settings, collaborating on numerous public service projects, or simply chatting in the hallway while going to a class, matter most.
William Babcock, Professor
School of Journalism
Professor Babcock teaches media ethics and public policy reporting.
View Full Bio

Office: COMM 1236
Email: wbabcock@siu.edu
Anita (A.J.) Barrett, Assistant Professor of Practice
School of Journalism
Visiting Assistant Professor Barrett joined SIU's faculty in 2005.
View Full Bio

Office: COMM 1050H
Email: ajstoner@siu.edu
Website: rvoyager.com
Lisa Brooten, Associate Professor
Radio, Television, and Digital Media
Lisa Brooten holds a Ph.D. in international telecommunications and an MAIA in international development studies from Ohio University. Prior to that, she worked for years in community radio in Philadelphia and had a professional stint in radio production with the show “Fresh Air with Terry Gross” distributed by National Public Radio.
View Full Bio

Office: COMM 1050G
Email: lbrooten@siu.edu
David R. Burns, Associate Professor
Radio, Television, and Digital Media
David R. Burns is a digital media artist and publishing scholar who explores the relationships between humans, technology, and nature in his creative-research. More specifically, he focuses on the tensions between technology, culture, and nature in the public and private spheres; mediating memory and postmemory; and participatory self-expression through visual music. Burns takes an interdisciplinary approach to creating digital media art by combining computer animation, 3D modeling, 3D printing, sound design, interactive media, and physical computing to push the boundaries of artistic expression. In addition to creating hybrid projects that are both artistic exhibitions and scholarly publications, Burns publishes scholarly essays where he contextualizes his artistic projects and critically analyzes contemporary issues in media arts.
View Full Bio

Office: COMM 2224
Email: drburns@siu.edu
Website: www.davidrburns.com
Cade Bursell, Professor
Cinema
Cade Bursell’s creative work engages both experimental processes and a socially engaged media arts practice with a focus on human rights and environmental issues, and grounded in an understanding of the relationship between medium and meaning. Her interests include queer studies, women’s studies, environmental and animal studies and Buddhist philosophy. Her creative practice is guided by a set of ethical principles that involves a deep regard, concern and recognition of the complex interdependence of all forms of life.
View Full Bio

Office: Northwest Annex B212
E-mail: cbursell@siu.edu
Mark Dolan, Associate Professor
School of Journalism
Mark Dolan’s teaching, research and personal media practice reflects more than 25 years of visual and multimedia journalism, working as a staff photographer, picture editor and director of photography, at newspapers in Florida, Alaska and Rhode Island. As a multimedia artist he traveled throughout the country to pursue his own personal project, using still images and audio to document “The Heart and Art of Barbecue in America,” a project he continues to work on, some of which can be viewed on his project website (www.bbqpilgrim.com).
View Full Bio

Office: COMM 1236
Email: mjdolan@siu.edu
William Freivogel, Professor
School of Journalism
Professor Bill Freivogel became Director of the School of Journalism in 2006. Hebegan his journalism career with the St. Louis Post-Dispatch in 1971. He was a member of the newspaper's Washington bureau for 12 years, where he served as assistant bureau chief, focused on the Supreme Court and reported on such historic events as the assassination attempt on President Reagan. He returned to St. Louis to become the deputy editorial page editor in 1997.
View Full Bio

Office: COMM 1202C
Email: wfreivog@siu.edu
Published Articles
Dong Han, Associate Professor
School of Journalism
Dr. Han comes to SIU from Eastern New Mexico University, where he worked as an Assistant Professor. Before entering graduate school at the University of Illinois, he received a Bachelor of Law at Beijing University in 1997. His research has appeared in several journals, including Television and New Media, and Global Media and Communication.
View Full Bio

Office: COMM 1226
Email: donghan@siu.edu
Jyotsna Kapur, Professor, Director Honors Program
Cinema
Jyotsna Kapur is a Professor of Cinema and Media Studies, who is also cross-appointed with Sociology. Her research and teaching interests include: Marxist-feminist theory of media arts and culture; The politics of labor, class, race, and sexuality in neoliberalism; contemporary Indian media culture; History and theory of the documentary idea especially its redefinations in contemporary practices and digital culture; Third Cinema; and Global children's media culture.
View Full Bio

Office: COMM 1121G
E-mail: jkapur@siu.edu
CV
Kavita Karan, Professor
School of Journalism
Before joining the Journalism faculty, Dr. Karan worked as an Assistant Professor at the WKW School of Communication and Information, Nanyang Technological University in Singapore.
View Full Bio

Office: COMM 1226
Email: kavitak@siu.edu
Vicki Kreher, Senior Lecturer
School of Journalism
Ms. Kreher came to SIU after working as an Account Executive for WSIL-TV, Channel 3 in Carterville IL, and for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
View Full Bio

Office: COMM 1236A
Email: kreher@siu.edu
Wago Kreider, Associate Professor
Radio, Television, and Digital Media
Wago Kreider, Associate Professor, is a media artist and experimental filmmaker. His creative work engages with contemporary strategies of artistic reenactment, the reconstruction of cinematic history, and the impact of film history on our perceptions of landscape and the environment. His films have screened at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, The Rotterdam International Film Festival, the London Film Festival, the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington D.C., the Hong Kong Film Festival, Views from the Avant-Garde at the New York Film Festival, the European Media Art Festival in Osnabrück, Germany, the Paris Festival of Different & Experimental Cinema, and at the International Film Festival of Vienna. He has participated in artist residencies at the Experimental Television Center in Owego, Harvestworks Digital Media Arts Center in New York City, Basement Films/Experiments in Cinema in Albuquerque, and at Berlinale Talents as part of the Berlin International Film Festival.
View Full Bio

Office: COMM 1050F
Email: wkreider@siu.edu
Website: Studio 27
Bridget Lescelius, Associate Lecturer
School of Journalism
Bridget Lescelius’ career spans over 30 years in advertising and marketing, including vice president and partner of Spark in Phoenix, Arizona; senior associate of marketing at the Institute for Supply Management in Tempe, Arizona; co-founder and principal at The Big Idea, Inc. in Alexandria, Virginia; senior account executive at The Washington Agency in Washington, D.C.
View Full Bio

Phone: 618-536-3361
Office: COMM 1221
Email: blescelius@siu.edu
Sarah Lewison, Associate Professor
Radio, Television, and Digital Media
Associate Professor Sarah Lewison is a media producer, artist, and writer whose work examines power, economics and political subjectivity. Her teaching and research areas include media and social change, ecological pedagogy and experimental performance. Her video work includes the documentary Fat of the Land which screened on PBS and in museums, festivals and community spaces worldwide, and is nationally noted for stimulating the do-it-yourself waste-grease bio-diesel movement. Prof. Lewison's writing about media aesthetics, social history, sustainability and culture has been published in Tema (Denmark), Journal of Northeast Studies (Hamburg, Germany), Area (Chicago), and "Failure! Experiments in Aesthetics and Social Practices" (Aesthetics and Protest Pub., LA). She holds a Master of Fine Arts degree from University of California San Diego.
View Full Bio

Office: Comm 1050E
Email: slewison@siu.edu
Website: sarahlewison.com
Scott McClurg, Professor
School of Journalism
Professor McClurg (Ph.D., Washington University, 2000) joined SIU Carbondale in fall 2001. He holds a joint appointment with Political Science and Journalism. His general areas of research focus on political communications, interpersonal communication, public opinion and voting behavior, and American politics. He is most recognized for his application of social network analysis to the study of political communication, with a particular focus on social influence. His current research projects focuses on the different role of men and women in social networks, as well as the impact of friends and family on political decisions. He is available for comment on the subjects of media and politics, elections and voting, and partisan politics in the United States.
View Full Bio

Phone: (618) 536-3361
Office: COMM 1234
Email: mcclurg@siu.edu
Walter Metz, Professor
Cinema
Walter Metz is a Professor of Film Studies who teaches film, television, theatre, and photography history, theory and criticism. As a researcher, Walter is interested in the relationship between popular media forms, such as the television sitcom and the Hollywood blockbuster film, and high, canonical literature. His book on Gilligan's Island was published by Wayne State University Press in March 2012. He is currently writing a manuscript about Dr. Seuss and the animated films made at Pixar Studios.
View Full Bio
H.D. Motyl, Associate Dean - CAM, Associate Professor
Radio, Television, and Digital Media
H.D. Motyl is an Associate Professor at Southern Illinois University Carbondale, where he teaches media production and writing for TV. His feature-length documentary about professional rodeo cowboys called Cowboy Christmas was honored as Best Feature Documentary at the Madrid International Film Festival and as Best of the Fest for Faculty Documentary at the Broadcast Education Association’s Festival of Media Arts.
View Full Bio

Phone: 618 453-6992
Email: hdmotyl@siu.edu
Jay Needham, Professor
Radio, Television, and Digital Media
Jay Needham is a sound artist, musician, image maker, writer-editor and cultural producer who utilizes multiple creative platforms to produce his works, many of which have a focus on sound and site-specific field research. As a hearing-divergent person, Needham makes work that often involves sensing and experiencing sound across many modalities. His sound art, works for radio, visual art, performances and installations have appeared at museums, festivals and on the airwaves, worldwide. His most recent sound installation is on permanent display in the BioMuseo, designed by Frank Gehry in The Republic of Panama.
View Full Bio

Office: COMM 1050D
Email: jayn@siu.edu
Heather O'Brien, Assistant Professor
Cinema
Heather M. O'Brien is an artist, filmmaker, and writer. Her work builds encounters with familial archives, constructs of nationhood, and the illusion of accurate memory. Interests include expanded cinema, photographic histories, and the contemporary essay film.
View Full Bio

Office: Northwest Annex B 213
Email: heather.obrien@siu.edu
Cinzia Padovani, Associate Professor
Radio, Television, and Digital Media
Cinzia Padovani is Associate Professor with Tenure in the Department of Radio Television and Digital Media, at Southern Illinois University Carbondale, U.S.A. She holds an MA in Education (1989, University of L’Aquila Italy) and a PhD in Media Studies (1999, University of Colorado Boulder).
View Full Bio

Office: COMM 2223
Email: padovani@siu.edu
Published Articles
Jenny Pape, Assistant Professor of Practice
Radio, Television, and Digital Media
Jenny Pape is an award-winning sound artist and songwriter.
View Full Bio

Office: COMM 2219
Phone: (618) 536-7555
Email: jennypape@siu.edu
Yuhosua "Josh" Ryoo, Assistant Professor
School of Journalism
Dr. Yuhosua (Joshua) Ryoo's research interests are at the intersection of digital advertising, medial psychology, and prosocial behavior. Specifically, his research focuses on individual, social, and situational factors of digital and social media and examines how these factors influence people's prosocial decision-making and behavior. In addition to various types of prosocial behavior, such as ethical consumption, environmental sustainability, donation, and corporate social responsibility, the roles of new media (e.g., Youtube) and technology (e.g., AI) are therefore in the scope of his research interests.
View Full Bio

Office: COMM 1226
Email: ryooyuhosua@siu.edu
Robert Spahr, Interim Director of the School of Media Arts, Associate Professor
Robert Spahr is a visual artist and educator who produces computational art using generative processes and genetic algorithms; digital and analog images; objects; live art and time-based media.
View Full Bio

Office: Northwest Annex 213B
Email: rspahr@siu.edu
Jan Thompson, Director - School of Journalism, Professor
Radio, Television, and Digital Media, Journalism
Professor Thompson is a 3-time Emmy award winning filmmaker and composer.
View Full Bio

Office: COMM 1050J
Email: janione@siu.edu
James Wall, Senior Lecturer
Radio, Television, and Digital Media, Journalism
James A. Wall teaches within the Electronic Media Marketing and Management sequence. Prior to becoming a full-time educator, Jim worked in the commercial broadcast industry for over twenty years in sales and marketing. He earned both a B.S. in Radio-Television and an M.A. in Media Management from SIUC.
View Full Bio

Office: COMM 1050C
Email: jwall@siu.edu
Hong Zhou, Associate Professor
Cinema
Hong is interested in fictional narrative filmmaking. His recent work includes "Night Train", a story about two strangers' encounters in a subway, "She Wears Yellow", a study of fictional characters, and "Sarah and Liz", a story about two sisters' adventures into the wildness. Initially influenced by surrealist painting and early experimental films, Hong's work explores the conflict and interplay between conscious and subconscious as narrative force in storytelling. Having recently worked as cinematographer on a new HD feature film, Hong is excited about the new creative possibilities of HD as a compelling narrative medium, and is planning on shooting his next project using the latest digital cinema technology.
View Full Bio

Office: COMM 1121H
Email: hzhou@siu.edu