Two media and public affairs scholars were recently added to the list of prestigious Shapiro fellows.
The School of Media and Public Affairs announced the 2016 J.B. and Maurice C. Shapiro fellows last week, honoring Yong-Chan Kim, a communication professor, and Laura King, an international journalist, according to a release.
The fellowship was created in 1997 as part of the J.B. and Maurice C. Shapiro Charitable Trust. To qualify to be a Shapiro fellow, recipients must be active professionals in the field of media and public affairs. Fellows are involved in SMPA activities and are invited to campus for an academic semester to teach.
Kim is a communication professor at Yonsei University in South Korea, and serves as director of their Urban Socio-Spatial Informatics Center and principal investigator of Urban Communication Lab. He is currently teaching a course on communication and the city this semester in SMPA.
“This course is designed to help undergraduate-level students have a good understanding about how communication technologies and urban communities are shaping one another,” Kim said in the release.
Kim said that he enjoys speaking with people in SMPA and that the District is a perfect place to be since he is interested in urban communication.
King is currently on leave from her post as the Los Angeles Times Bureau Chief in Cairo, Egypt. She previously served as a correspondent for the Associated Press. This semester King is teaching a writing and war course in SMPA, exploring how a writer’s point of view can influence the reporting of an event.
“I’m delighted to be teaching ‘Writing and War’ this semester and to have a chance to spend time with such bright and engaged students,” King said in the release. “I’m looking forward to interacting with the larger GW community, with all its diverse interests.”
Both Kim and King will host brown bag talks on their areas of expertise for SMPA faculty and students.