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During the summer of 2022, Tushar Varma recorded hours of video and logged 15,000 miles in his red Prius, which he affectionately calls “Lola.” The UNC Hussman advertising major spent 78 days driving across the country and back again, all for the love of books and the stores they’re sold in. The goal? To make a documentary unpacking what makes these spaces unique and special — and how they continue to thrive alongside monoliths like Amazon and other major booksellers.

UNC Hussman Professor Pat Davison has been awarded a Fulbright Scholar Award for the 2023-24 academic year to produce a series of documentary videos examining the evolution of Japanese culture. It’s Davison’s second Fulbright, having been selected in 2014-15 to produce films examining Japan’s aging population.

The Daily Tar Heel produced an article on UNC Hussman's Stephanie Brown, director of the school's Park Library, who will retire at the end of the semester. Read the full piece here or below.

UNC Hussman's "Week of Kindness" kicks off April 24! Sponsored by the school's Access, Belonging, Inclusion, Diversity and Equity (ABIDE) committee, the week will include several special moments April 24 - 28, 2023.

Associate Professor Trevy McDonald lives by a simple rule: “Do unto others as you would have them do to you.” Carved on a ruler she keeps in her office, the motto informs both her personal and professional choices and buttresses her work as UNC Hussman’s Associate Dean of Access, Belonging, Inclusion, Diversity and Equity (ABIDE) — a promotion she earned this year after serving as the school’s inaugural director of diversity and inclusion since 2020. “When you treat people how you want to be treated, it creates the inclusion and belonging that moves us forward as a society,” said McDonald, who joined the school’s faculty in 2010. “And inclusion gives space to the diversity of opinions and voices that bring out the best in all of us. Without diversity there is no excellence.”

The NC Media & Journalism Hall of Fame will induct six media luminaries at its annual gala on Friday, April 21, 2023, at the Carolina Inn in Chapel Hill. Robert J. Brown, David Crabtree, Curry Kirkpatrick, JJ Miller, Janet Northen and Kenny Smith will be honored this year in recognition of their achievements and influence across their respective fields of media and journalism

By University Communications
Carolina will celebrate Pride Week beginning April 10. This year’s celebration will center around the theme of  “For connection. For Community. For Change.” in honor of the LGBTQ Center’s 20th anniversary.

Rochelle Riley ’81 still remembers holding the green “Newswriting 101” book in her hand and knowing that she had found her path. She was a high school student in eastern North Carolina with a love of writing and an interest in people. The new journalism class at the lone high school in Tarboro, North Carolina, tied those talents and interests together and eventually led her to UNC where she studied journalism. They’ll lead her back this spring, when she gives the keynote speech at UNC Hussman’s departmental spring commencement ceremony at 3:30 p.m. on Saturday, May 13, 2023, in Carmichael Arena.

As Women’s History Month comes to a close, we’re spotlighting UNC Hussman doctoral student Contia’ Prince’s research around what history can tell us about stereotypical ideals for women’s bodies.

When she was a child, Nazanin Knudsen’s home shared a wall with an Iranian government building. In 1980s Tehran that meant listening to shells as anti-aircraft guns defended the city. The Iran-Iraq war was pervasive throughout Knudsen’s childhood, and the moments of noise and violence were unpredictable and varied in length. When they did happen, though, Knudsen’s father would lead her to the window. “It’s the very earliest memory I have of back home,” she shares. “To get me to calm down and not be afraid of it, my father would say, ‘Hey, look! Look at the lights! How beautiful it is!’” She was only 4 at the time, but she remembers those air raids like fireworks instead of anti-aircraft tracers thanks to her father. Now, as a UNC-Chapel Hill filmmaker and non-fiction writer, Knudsen is storyboarding that memory and intends to produce it as an animated film called “The Window.” She also plans to use it as the opening scene for her memoir, work that she hopes will allow American viewers to see Iran as more than a place of conflict.