By Perry Parks, Membership Co-Chair, Michigan State University, parksp@msu.edu
Matt Cecil
Where you work: Minnesota State University, Mankato is a 15,000-student regional comprehensive university about an hour southwest of the Twin Cities.
Where you got your Ph.D.: I received my Ph.D. from the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Iowa in 2000. #GoHawks!
Current favorite class: I currently serve as Interim Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs here, so unfortunately, I’m no longer in the classroom. I have been an administrator for the past 11 years, serving in positions ranging from department head to dean to provost. My favorite class was the large lecture survey course I taught every semester from 2000 to 2015, Introduction to Mass Communication.
Current research project: While my administrative duties don’t leave much time for research, I have published a few things of late, most recently an article looking at CIA public relations. That article has been sent out as a book proposal. The CIA work builds off of my prior books and articles exploring FBI public relations during the J. Edgar Hoover era.
Fun fact about yourself: I was an aimless and uninterested undergraduate student. Were it not for the intervention of several people who saw something in me, I doubt that I would have finished college. That experience, and the kindness of those individuals, is what inspired me to focus on academic administration and specifically to work on student success issues like belonging and mentorship.
Erin Coyle
Where you work: The Manship School of Mass Communication at Louisiana State University
Where you got your Ph.D.: The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Hussman School of Journalism and Media
Current favorite class: This semester I am teaching two mass media law courses – one for undergraduate students and one for graduate students. I am enjoying discussing the history and philosophy of free expression with these students. I also am grateful for the opportunity to guide graduate students’ research projects. Their innovative work inspires me.
Current research project: My current research focuses on free expression, fair trial, and privacy rights. I am reading archival papers, journalism publications, and legal experts’ writing about twentieth century cases in which news media provided extraordinary coverage of crimes and trials. My projects explore how journalists, legal experts, and members of the public perceived coverage of crimes, criminal defendants, and criminal trials. I am focusing on cases in which legal experts asserted that media attention harmed criminal defendants’ privacy rights or fair trial rights. I am analyzing how archival sources, news coverage, and legal documents suggest journalists and jurists may strike a balance between the press’s First Amendment rights and criminal defendants’ privacy and fair trial rights.
Fun fact about yourself: I once rode through a storm sewer in a skid steer loader’s bucket to report on whether clogged sewers were causing stormwater flooding.
Takeya Mizuno
Where you work: Meiji University (from April 2020)
Where you got your Ph.D.: Missouri
Current favorite class: Principles of Journalism
Current research project: Japanese American press history
Fun fact about yourself: Born and raised in Tokyo, but have never been to Tokyo Disneyland.