Doctoral Student Activities
For years, doctoral students at both Annenberg Schools expressed a desire to collaborate with one another and learn from faculty on the opposite coast. C3 functions as the conduit to facilitate these collaborations.
At the same time, C3 can provide forums within each doctoral program to encourage collaboration among students and faculty who might not normally work together.
Joint Annenberg Schools Ph.D. Writing Workshop
The center also sponsors a joint Annenberg Schools Ph.D. writing workshop, where we paired a Ph.D. student with an Annenberg faculty member who offered feedback on a piece of writing in a one-on-one Zoom meeting. Students submitted dissertation proposals, chapters, and articles they were working on. This allowed students from each of the two Annenberg Schools to receive feedback and mentorship from a faculty member from the other School, getting a fresh perspective and additional support.
Annenberg Penn Book Club
In partnership with Making Worlds bookstore in West Philadelphia, C3 launched a book club this past year open to Annennberg School for Communication and other Penn doctoral students and post-doctoral researchers.
In its inaugural year, the book club’s theme was “race and popular culture,” which reflected the research interest of many students. The book club provided a generative space for meeting and discussing readings on the theme.
Many of the students mentioned how important such a space is for them; outside of campus and their required work, it was a way to have intellectual conversations about how scholarship in communication and media studies can impact issues and concerns that are occurring in culture outside of academia.
Annenberg East/West Student Exchanges
C3 facilitates doctoral student exchanges between the two Annenberg Schools. Students can live in University housing and work with faculty at the school. In the summer of 2022, Annenberg Penn doctoral student Azsaneé Truss was in residence at USC Annenberg, working with USC Annenberg professors Alison Trope and Taj Frazier. This exchange allowed Truss to do ethnographic field work in Los Angeles for her dissertation. C3 plans to continue this program each summer.
Hybrid Dual-Institution Ph.D. Courses
During the Fall 2021 semester, Professor Sarah Banet-Weiser taught the course Gender, Media, and Culture at both Annenberg Schools simultaneously. This has enabled students from both schools to be virtual classmates, and helped foster connections between the two schools.
In Spring 2022, she taught Gendered Media Economies at both schools. C3 anticipates sponsoring additional courses like this in the future.