Molly Frizzell Named 2026-28 George Gerbner Postdoctoral Fellow
At USC Annenberg, Frizzell has studied reproductive technology and its impact on social bonds.
Molly Frizzell has been named the 2026-28 George Gerbner Postdoctoral Fellow at the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania. Her appointment will begin September 1, 2026.
The George Gerbner Fellowship, named in honor of the school’s second dean, is based at Penn and awarded in alternate years to a graduate of Penn’s Annenberg School for Communication or USC’s Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism. The faculty of the opposite school selects the recipient from the group of applicants.
Frizzell will earn her Ph.D. in Communication from the University of Southern California Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism in June 2026 after completing her dissertation, “Technologies of Shame: Reproduction and the Ultrasound Sensorium.”
Her dissertation explores how reproductive technologies, like fetal ultrasounds, affect emotional connections and social recognition. She examines how the audio, visual, and tactile experiences of these technologies, along with the circulation of fetal images, shape emotional bonds and evoke complex feelings of belonging and shame.
As a Gerbner Fellow, she will build upon her dissertation research, continuing to investigate “how media and technology structure the emotional and political contours of social life, and how feelings circulate through images, sounds, and sensory encounters,” she says. “I plan to extend my research on reproductive technologies by examining their global circulation through professional networks and global initiatives. More specifically, I am interested in how imaging technologies produce affective attachments to ideas of development, expertise, and social belonging, as well as how emotions such as shame circulate through these institutional and sensorial encounters. Philadelphia offers a particularly rich environment for this work given its connections to medical institutions, public health organizations, and global research communities.”
Prior to beginning her doctoral work at Annenberg, Frizzell earned a dual M.A./MSc in Global Media and Communication from USC Annenberg and the London School of Economics, where she was awarded the Roger Silverstone fellowship in recognition of her outstanding achievements and potential for significant contributions to the field of communication. She also holds bachelor’s degrees in International Relations and Spanish from Tufts University
Frizzell has presented scholarship on nationalism and normativity at conferences for the International Communication Association (ICA), National Communication Association (NCA), Society for Social Studies of Science (4S), American Political Science Association (APSA), and International Political Science Association (IPSA). She also has nearly a decade of experience developing international media and communication campaigns in global health and social impact sectors.
