UMD Department of Communication

We have incredible promotion news to share! Congrats to Drs. Sahar Khamis, Anita Atwell Seate, Dan Foster, and Adam Nixon for being recognized for their hard work 🏆🎉

Senior Lecturer Dr. Adam Nixon moderated an event sponsored and funded by the State Department. It was a panel discussion about AI with the Theia Institute, The World Learning NGO, and 20 Arab journalists visiting from the Middle East.

It was a lively discussion around the role AI is playing in journalism across the planet, especially here in the US, and in the MENA region. Congrats, Dr. Nixon!

Congrats to Associate Professor Sahar Khamis for ending the semester on such an impressive note! Well deserved 👏

You can read the article on our website: https://communication.umd.edu/news/associate-professor-sahar-khamis-wins-three-major-awards

It’s not too late to spend your summer with us! ☀️☀️

With the end of the semester rapidly approaching, consider fitting us into your summer plans! ☀️ This is a GREAT time to get ahead or catch up on credits! Let’s go, COMM

See the details here: https://communication.umd.edu/news/register-comm-summer-courses-today

Now that it’s officially summer for UMD☀️, let’s celebrate our amazing Spring semester!

Check out our newsletter, showcasing our department highlights for Spring: https://mailchi.mp/umd/dive-into-summer-with-a-recap-of-a-great-year-10345904

If you're not signed up for our emails, you can do so quickly here: https://mailchi.mp/umd/sign-up-for-umd-comm-emails

So much congrats to our new graduate, Dr. Tatenda Mashanda!

Congrats to our new PhD graduates! 🎓 What a wonderful celebration yesterday was for our TEN new doctors! Please join us in honoring: Dr. Jin Choi, Dr. Jiawen Doh, Dr. Max Erdemandi, Dr. Taylor Hourigan, Dr. Umisha KC, Dr. Jeonghyun Kim, Dr. Rudy Kim, Dr. Ari Perez Montes, Dr. Tatenda Mashanda, & Dr. Crystal Stone ♥️💛🐢

Our grad students won FOUR awards at ARHU’s Graduate Awards Reception!

🏆 Tatenda Mashanda and Felicity Sena Dogbatse won the Graduate School’s Outstanding Graduate Teaching Assistant Award

🥇Kalin Schultz was recognized for ARHU’s James F. Harris Arts and Humanities Visionary Scholarship

✅ COMM PhD alum Alisa Hardy (now Assistant Professor at the University of Illinois), was recognized with an honorable mention for the Charles A. Caramello Distinguished Dissertation Award

Let’s go, COMM Terps!
University of Maryland College of Arts and Humanities

We lost our prolific and beloved former Department Chair, Dr. Ed Fink, earlier this week. 🤍 Fink’s legacy is woven into the fabric of our department, where he served with distinction. He is remembered for his kindness, mentorship, and friendship.

To read more about his life, work, and how our department is remembering him, see here: https://communication.umd.edu/news/remembering-former-department-chair-dr-edward-l-fink-1945-2026

It’s the best time of the year! On Friday, we honored our outstanding department members with awards in service, teaching, and research excellence 🏆

Outstanding Service Award: Tania Nachrin, Katie O’Malley-Perrin, Sylvia Edwards, Soyoung Bae

The Andrew D. Wolvin Outstanding Teaching Award: Seyeon Park, Courtnee Connon, Emma Newton, Sabeen Sheikh, Nana Kwame Osei Fordjour, Carina Zelaya

Student Choice Award: Rebecca Theim

The Raymond Ehrensberger Early Scholar Award: Marcus Wu

The Outstanding Graduate Student Research Paper Award: Felicity Dogbatse

The Charles Richardson Outstanding Graduate Student Award: Jin Choi and Rudy Kim

The Misti Yang Impact Award: Umisha KC

Arête Award: Dr. Hailey Otis

Outstanding Student-Centered Service and Advocacy Award: Dr. Shawn Parry-Giles

Read the full story and see more about our winners here: https://communication.umd.edu/news/congrats-our-2026-departmental-award-winners