Dean's Report 2023
In our first Dean's report, we reflect on some of the many achievements from calendar year 2023 at the Annenberg School for Communication.
A Look Back
My first four months as Dean came at a time of enormous global and local strife, tension and violence. As we all engaged in our various ways with conflicts of a national and global scale, I have felt enormously proud of our community — for the quality of our scholarship, our passion to engage with pressing issues in our communities and our world, and our ability to show compassion and care for one another. I am awed by the accomplishments collected in this report and hope that you enjoy and can appreciate this look back at what our community has achieved in the past year.
Sarah Banet-Weiser
Walter H. Annenberg Dean
New Leadership
Dean John L. Jackson, Jr. Named Penn Provost
January 25: Penn announced that Dean Jackson would join College Hall on June 1.
Sarah Banet-Weiser Named Sixth Dean
July 18: Penn announced that Banet-Weiser would assume the role of Walter H. Annenberg Dean on August 14.
Prof. Emily Falk Named Vice Dean
Sept. 1: Dean Banet-Weiser appoints Falk to the newly-created role of Vice Dean.
New Books
Believability: Sexual Violence, Media, and the Politics of Doubt by Sarah Banet-Weiser and Kathryn Claire Higgins (Polity)
Border Tunnels: A Media Theory of the U.S.-Mexico Border by Juan Llamas Rodriguez (Univ. of MN Press)
Democracy Amid Crises: Polarization, Pandemic, Protests, and Persuasion by the Annenberg IOD Collaborative (Oxford University Press)
Knowledge in Action
2023 in Video
Events at ICA honoring two legends of health communication: Professors Robert Hornik and Joseph Cappella
Doctoral Candidate Antoine Haywood tells the story of community media makers.
A recap of events at the 2023 International Communication Association conference in Toronto
An introduction to Professor Juan Llamas Rodriguez's new book on U.S.-Mexico border tunnels
A profile of Senior Director of Institutional Advancement Tim Wortham, Jr.
Emotional farewells to Dean John L. Jackson, Jr. as he leaves to become Penn Provost
Scenes from our welcome for Dean Sarah Banet-Weiser
Capturing the joy of graduation day for our students
Faces of Communication
Desmond Patton
Brian and Randi Schwartz University Professor and Director, SAFELab
Thandi Lyew & Brittany Zulkowicz
Doctoral Students
Deen Freelon
Presidential Professor
Dariya Orlova & Olena Lysenko
Visiting Scholars
Brendan Mahoney
Doctoral Candidate
Yoel Roth
2016 Ph.D. Alum & Knight Visiting Scholar
We're #1!
In November, The Daily Pennsylvanian named the Annenberg's Communication major to be the "Best Department" at Penn, citing student opportunity to "tailor their studies to their passions, further enriched by hands-on research experiences with esteemed professors."
The Communication Major
Our New Staff
Annenberg's staff is integral to everything we do. Meet the staff members who joined us in 2023!
Sofie Adams
Research Administrative Coordinator, APPC
Thomas Boccuto
DevOps Engineer
Lauren Cawley
Grants Manager
Samantha Dodd Summerbell, C.A.
Lead Archivist
Donna-Marie Johnson
Assistant Director, Alumni Engagement
Zachary Matthew
Administrative Coordinator, Media, Inequality, and Change Center
Aashir Nuri
Help Desk Support
Jessica Rodriguez
Assistant to the Dean
Kiara Rosario
Financial Administrative Coordinator
Andrew Williams
Processing Archivist
Kate Yandell
Staff Writer, FactCheck.org
Eszter Zimanyi, Ph.D.
Senior Research Manager, Center for Advanced Research in Global CommunicationCritical Conversations
A selection of our events
Job Market Success
Our graduates and the jobs they landed in 2023
Roopa Vasudevan is an assistant professor at UMass Amherst.
Emma Jesch is a postdoc at the National Cancer Institute.
Isabelle Langrock is a postdoc at SciencesPo.
Ava Kikut is a National Cancer Institute Postdoc at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.
Lauren Bridges is a fellow at the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard and then will be an assistant professor at the University of Virginia.
Moira McCammon is an assistant professor at Tulane University.
Diami Virgilio is an assistant professor at the College of Mount Saint Vincent.
Kelly Diaz is teaching at The City College of New York and TAing at Penn.
Mia Jovanova is a visiting scientist at MIT and then will be a scientific director at the CSS Health Lab at the University of St. Gallen and ETH Zurich.
Florence Madenga is the George Gerbner Postdoc at Annenberg from 2023-24 and then will be an assistant professor at Boston College.
Antoine Haywood will be an assistant professor at the University of Florida College of Journalism and Communications.
Annenberg In the Media
EL PAÍS: "Right-Wing Bias’: A Macro Study Confirms That Facebook Disinformation Is Consumed by Conservatives"
"We can’t decouple the algorithmic from the social. Ultimately, algorithms learn from user behavior, and that’s the loop we can’t quite break." — Professor Sandra González-Bailón, 07/27/2023
New York Times: "Perfect Storm for the Ambitious, Extreme Ideologue"
"It’s fairly clear that the current era of polarization in the United States started after the Civil Rights Act was passed, and political parties became far more homogeneous. The Republicans became conservative; the Democrats liberals.” — Professor Yphtach Lelkes, 09/20/2023
CNN: “Health Misinformation and Lack of Confidence in Vaccines Continue To Grow, Years After the COVID-19 Pandemic, Survey Shows”
“There are warning signs in these data that we ignore at our peril. Growing numbers now distrust health-protecting, life-saving vaccines.” — Professor Kathleen Hall Jamieson, 11/01/2023
Building the Future
Since the days of black-and-white TV, the Annenberg School has been thinking about what’s now and what’s next. In an age of AI, big data, increasing misinformation, and whatever comes next, we are reimagining our physical space to stay on the cutting edge of research for decades to come. In November, our Office of Institutional Advancement hired the School’s first dedicated alumni relations staffer, who will link the generations of our community together as we collectively build the future of Communication.
Alumni Achievements
Stories of just a few of the many Annenberg alumni who are helping to improve our world
Jessica Davis Ba
After two decades in the U.S. Foreign Service, Davis Ba (C ‘93, M.A.C. '97) is now the Ambassador to Côte d'Ivoire.
Emily Hund
Hund (Ph.D. ‘19) explores the multimillion industry behind social media influencers.
Michael Serazio
Serazio (Ph.D. ‘10) chronicles America’s obsession with “being real.”
Christopher Ali
Ali (Ph.D. '13) researches why so many rural Americans don't have affordable, high-speed internet connectivity.
Lyndsey Beutin
Beutin (Ph.D. ‘18) argues that the phrase "modern-day slavery" is a problematic way to discuss human trafficking.
Se-Hoon Jeong
Jeong (Ph.D. ‘08) recently brought a group of his students from Korea University to visit ASC.