STRONG START: Amanda Reid, PhD 2005, an attorney with Holland & Knight in Jacksonville, says the College's doctoral program in media law operates as a "knowledgeable, caring support group."
Legal eagles
The College’s media law PhDs spread their wings
By Lauren Simo
Matt Bunker, PhD 1993, has published two books, co-authored a widely used textbook and written numerous academic articles. The University of Alabama Reese Phifer Professor of Journalism credits the College’s doctoral program in media law.
“I remember [graduate coordinator Bill] Chamberlin telling my class that we should enjoy our time at UF,” says Bunker, whose recent book received a distinguished scholarship award in freedom of expression. “It was hard to see that then because of all the work; but looking back, the program definitely helped me to get my job.”
Program graduates hold key positions around the world. Just to name a few:
• Missouri School of Journalism Associate Prof. Charles Davis, PhD 1995, recently became the first executive director of the National Freedom of Information Coalition.
• Seung Eun Lee, PhD 2005, landed a “dream job” with a prominent South Korean telecommunication firm, SK Telecom Research Institute, even before earning her degree in August.
• Indiana University Assistant Prof. Anthony Fargo, PhD 2000, is the third program alum to head the law division of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC).
• Milagros Rivera Sanchez, PhD 1993, heads the Department of Journalism at Singapore University, and Linda Perry, PhD 1993, is building a public relations department there.
The College’s program, which typically takes three to four years to complete, is comparatively young. It accepted its first student in 1988. It has 16 alumni, most of whom are professors at such universities as Indiana, North Carolina and Missouri.
Chamberlin, Joseph L. Brechner Eminent Scholar in Journalism, and Department of Telecommunication Chair David Ostroff have advised all the graduates so far.
“I was brought here [from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1987] to create a doctoral program that emphasized research and teaching in law,” says Chamberlin, who also directs the Marion Brechner Citizen Access Project.
Indeed, the eight classes offered focus on research and teaching in law. Besides Chamberlin and Ostroff, professors include Sandra Chance, JM 1975, MAMC 1985; Laurence Alexander, MAMC 1983; and Justin Brown.
The program stands out mainly because of the integration of additional Levin College of Law classes, says Susan Ross, PhD 1995, associate professor of journalism at Washington State University.
“It really made a difference,” she says. “It made it easier to gain access to legal data.”
The program expects students to write a conference-ready paper every semester, for every class. It admits one or two out of four or five applicants each year.
It’s a small, tight-knit group, says Amanda Reid, PhD 2005, an attorney with Holland & Knight in Jacksonville who is doing a federal clerkship in the Middle District of Florida. “Everyone on the team – the students, the teachers – they all were such a knowledgeable, caring support group,” says Reid, the second graduate of the recently created joint JD/PhD program with the College of Law (Irina Dmitrieva, PhD 2003, was the first).
“It’s vital that students have a sense that they’re part of a cohort,” Ross says. “I don’t know if every school out there does that, but I believe that it’s what sets the College apart.”
Chamberlin, an affiliate professor in the College of Law, recalls when a student’s house flooded during a hurricane: “We told her not to stress about it and that we’d make everything school-related work out. Then at least two of our students went to her home to help her manage her two children while helping to bail out her house.”
The program focuses on preparing students for success, Chamberlin says.
“We want to make sure that before they leave here,” he says, “students know how to teach and to produce the kind of research that will allow them to obtain tenure in any university in the country.”
