Faculty, students attend JAWS Fall Camp

UM's J-school was well-represented at the Fall Camp of the Journalism & Women Symposium in Whitefish, Mont., last month. Top row: Faith Price (2002 grad) and Luella Brien (print). Middle row: Gwen Lankford (broadcast), Leigh Jimmie (photo), Courtney Lowery (print). Bottom row: professors Sheri Venema and Carol Van Valkenburg, broadcast student Trinity Blyth.

Six J-school students attended the Journalism & Women Symposium "Fall Camp" last month, along with professors Carol Van Valkenburg and Sheri Venema. The national organization, which always holds its annual conference in the West, met this year at Grouse Mountain Lodge in Whitefish, Mont. Keynote speakers were Gail Collins, editorial page editor of the New York Times, and playwright Wendy Wasserstein.

To read graduate broadcast student Gwen Lankford’s account of the conference, click here.
To read print senior Courtney Lowery’s editorial, click here.

Downs coaches writers at Bozeman
Michael Downs, a visiting assistant professor, recently worked as a writing coach for a three-day stint at the Bozeman Chronicle.

Downs worked with reporters individually and in groups, talking about ways to improve their writing. This coaching job was Downs' second of the year; last May, he spent five days working with reporters at the Billings Gazette.

National Geographic photog to visit J-school
Bill Allard, who has photograhed stories for National Geographic magazine for 38 years, will speak at the J-school on Oct. 29. Allard has done many stories on the American West, which he calls "a part of America that just might prove to be the country’s soul: a place where myth has long been in partnership with reality."

Allard’s most recent book, "Portraits of America," was published in August with a foreward written by author Richard Ford. Allard’s visit is scheduled for 4:30 to 6 p.m. Oct. 29 in Journalism 304. To view a gallery of his photographs, click here.

Open House at UM Homecoming

Photo by Josh Parker

The Journalism School held its traditional Homecoming open house on Sept. 20, the Friday of UM's homecoming weekend. Professor Michael Downs, Dean Jerry Brown, alum Don Kinney (class of 1964) and Professor Dennis Swibold share food and memories.

Reznet on the wire
Reznet, the J-school’s online news source for and by American Indian college students, was featured in an Associated Press story that went out on the Western regional wire late last month. Written by John Kuglin, chief of AP’s Helena bureau, the story details the fall startup of the online newspaper written by Indian college students around the country and edited by Dennis McAuliffe, the J-school’s Native American journalist in residence.

UM alum returns as Web guru
Gina Boysun, Web site content developer for spokesmanreview.com — the online presence of the Spokesman-Review in Spokane, will speak to Keith Graham’s New Media class on Tuesday, Oct. 22.
Boysun, who graduated from UM’s J-School in 1992, worked at the Kaimin as a reporter, editor and page designer. An internship at the Spokesman-Review turned into a job, and she has been Web site developer for the past eight years. Graham’s class meets from 12:40 to 2 p.m. in Journalism 212.

Florio returns
Gwen Florio, a Denver Post reporter who has covered the war in Afghanistan, returns to the J-School this month to speak to Tom Cheatham’s seminar on war correspondence. Florio, who returned just last month from another trip to Pakistan and Afghanistan, also spoke to students last spring about reporting on wars. Her visit with Cheatham’s class is scheduled for 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Oct. 21 in Journalism 211.

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