Communication and Journalism

Yayra Ademadjiku is a Ph.D. Student in the Department of Communication and Journalism.

Rebecca Bendure joined our MA program in 2023. She earned a BS in Zoology here at UMaine in 2010. Her passion for science has grown into research interests like science communication and the peer-review process, as well as rhetoric and how we speak to others about politics.

Email: rebecca.bendure@maine.edu
Advisor: Dr. Laura Rickard
Courses Taught: Public Speaking (CMJ 103)

Alan Berry joined our PhD program in 2019. He holds an MS in Media Studies and a BFA in Film Production. His research interests include media literacy theory, practice, and policy; critical pedagogy and popular education; media ecology; misinformation and disinformation; screen studies; and the critique of news and advertising. Alan works full-time as Technical Advisor for media and information literacy with IREX. He’s affiliated with the Scholars Strategy Network and Media Literacy Now, and currently serves on the editorial advisory board for the Journal of Media Literacy Education.

Email: richard.berry@maine.edu
Advisor: Dr. Judith Rosenbaum-Andre
Courses Taught: Public Speaking (CMJ 103); Media Theories and Research Methods (CMJ 203); Film Criticism and Theory (CMJ/NMD 245)

Link: alanberry.net

Dr. Medha Bhattacharyya is a Graduate Teaching Assistant and Ph.D. Student at the Department of Communication and Journalism at the University of Maine. She is also an Assistant Professor, Department of Basic Sciences and Humanities (English) in Bengal Institute of Technology, Kolkata, India (on lien). She was a Fulbright Scholar and teaching Communication and English at a university in Greater Boston area 2021-22 and was awarded two Fulbright Outreach Lecture Funds in 2022. She was awarded Canadian-American Center fellowship for 2024-2025. She completed her first PhD from Ramakrishna Mission Vivekananda University (now known RKMVERI). Her book published by Routledge is titled: Rabindranath Tagore’s Śāntiniketan Essays: Religion, Spirituality and Philosophy,
London and New York, Routledge. She has been teaching in higher education for twenty years. She was the Academic Advisor for the entry on “Rabindranath Tagore” in Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism series by Gale-Cengage, Vol. 324 (2016). She obtained the prestigious award of ‘Certificate of Appreciation’ from Maulana Abul Kalam Azad University of Technology (formerly known as WBUT) on the occasion of Teachers’ Day 2018 celebration in West Bengal, India, for her outstanding contribution to “teaching, learning and research”. She has been invited to deliver talks in India and abroad including at Harvard University, Princeton University and University of Pennsylvania. Her current research areas entail Rabindranath Tagore Studies, Translation Studies, Religion, Creative Writing, ESL, Communication and South Asian Diaspora Studies.

Email: medha.bhattacharyya@maine.edu

Michael Clay is a Ph.D. Student in the Department of Communication and Journalism.

Ernest Darkwa joined our PhD program in 2022. He holds an MSc in International Development from the University of Birmingham, UK. He also received a BA in Linguistics and Political Science from the University of Ghana. His research interests are in contemporary media, particularly social media use and its impacts on democratic participation. He is also interested in how social media use affects the participation of minorities and historically disadvantaged groups in society.

Email: ernest.darkwa@maine.edu
Advisor: Dr. Judith Rosenbaum-Andre
Courses Taught: Public Speaking (CMJ 103)

Carter Emerson joined our MA program in 2024. He holds a BA in Communication and a BA in History. His research interests include risk communication & scientific communication in relation to climate change. He works with the CMJ Graduate Success Committee and the CMJ Departmental Life Committee, as well as serving as the Departmental Senator for the Graduate Student Government. He works with the University of Maine’s Advanced Structures and Composites Center in a professional capacity.

Email: carter.emerson@maine.edu
Advisor: Dr. Laura Rickard
Courses Taught: CMJ 103 Public Speaking
Link: LinkedIn 

Meng “Melanie” Gao joined our MA program in 2023. She earned an MS in Education at Johns Hopkins University and BS in Education at The Ohio State University. Her research interests include Intercultural and Organizational Communication.

Email: meng.gao@maine.edu
Advisor: Dr. Laura Rickard
Course taught: Interpersonal communication (CMJ102)

Faron Grossman joined our MA program in 2024 after earning their BS in environmental studies from Alma College. Their research interests are in communicating climate research using plain language in order to engage a wider audience in what’s one of the most pressing issues of our time.

Advisor: Dr. Laura Rickard

Courses taught: CMJ 103 (public speaking)

Link: (29) Faron Grossman | LinkedIn

Mario Guevara joined our MA program in 2023. After working with several civil society organizations in El Salvador, his interests include LGBTQ studies, identity, migration and political communication. 

Email: mario.guevara@maine.edu
Advisor: Dr. Michael Socolow
Courses Taught: Public Speaking (CMJ 103) and Storytelling (CMJ 106)
Link: LinkedIn

Yue Jiang is a first-year PhD student who joined in 2024. She holds a B.A. in advertising from Beijing Technological and Business University and M.A. in journalism from Michigan State University. Her research interests overlap in environmental communication, risk communication, and media effects. She focuses on how media messages about climate change influence the perceptions and behaviors of communities in areas prone to natural disasters under increasingly extreme climate conditions.

Email: yue.jiang@maine.edu

Courses Taught: Public Speaking (CMJ 103)

Casey Kelly is a part-time PhD student in the Department of Communication and Journalism. His research focuses on the history and political economy of the media, with a focus on the social and cultural impact of the transition from broadcast to digital in public media, particularly on the practices of news workers, outlets, and audiences. Casey completed his master’s degree at UMaine in 2019. His thesis was titled “Sound Commodity: Contemporary Public Radio and Podcasting.” Casey is a former public radio journalist himself, having spent almost a decade in Alaska, where his stories won several state and regional awards. He now works as the communications coordinator for the UMaine College of Education and Human Development. Casey lives near Bangor with his wife, their two boys, a medium-large dog, and a diminutive cat.

Email: casey.kelly@maine.edu
Advisor: Dr. Michael Socolow

Larissa Little joined our PhD program in 2024. They hold an MA in Communication studies from the University of Maine and a BA in Communication studies from the University of Minnesota – Twin Cities. Their research includes queer studies, rhetoric, and transgender studies. They currently serve as a departmental Academic Advisor and as a member of the Graduate Student Association and J-IDEA Committee. 

Email: larissa.little@maine.edu

Advisor: Dr. Liliana Herakova 

Courses Taught: Rhetorical Theory (CMJ 201)

Link: https://www.linkedin.com/in/larissa445/

Marissa Minor joined the PhD program in Fall 2024 and has a BA in Communication from Eastern Connecticut State University and a MA in Communication from Regis College. Marissa is currently the Communications & Brand Supervisor at Versant Power.

Mania Mohseni joined our PhD program in Fall 2023. She earned her BS in Geology from the University of Tehran, her MA in Cinema from Tehran University of Art, and her second MA in English (Creative Writing) from the University of Maine. Her focus is on television and her current research interest is media psychology including transportation into a narrative, character identification, and character development. Her study is also focused on cross-cultural readings of media content.

Email: seyedehmania.mohseni@maine.edu
Advisor: Dr. Judith E. Rosenbaum-Andre
Courses Taught: Public Speaking (CMJ 103)

Lara Naisbitt joined our PhD program in 2023. She holds a BA in Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies from the University of Maine and a MA in Gender and Cultural Studies from Simmons University, Boston. Her research interests include race theory, queer theory, Indigenous epistemology, rurality, and the Forest School movement.

Email: lara.naisbitt@maine.edu
Advisor: Dr. Hailey Schneider
Courses taught: Storytelling (CMJ 106)

Emmanuel Oduro joined the our MA program in Fall 2023. He holds a BA in Communication from the University of Cape Coast, Ghana. His interests include health communication and the media. 

Email: emmanuel.oduro@maine.edu
Advisor: Dr. Michael Socolow
Courses Taught: Public Speaking (CMJ 103)
Link: Linkedin

John Olmstead is a M.A. student in the Department of Communication and Journalism.

Email: john.olmstead@maine.edu

Gulsen Ozdemir is a first year PhD student whose focus is risk communication in national parks. Gulsen holds a B.A. in Cinema from San Francisco State University, and a M.A. in Communications from California State University, Fullerton. Gulsen also worked as a news producer for an international news channel and held communications/marketing coordinator positions priorly. In her leisure time, she enjoys hiking, exploring new places, and visiting museums. 

Email: gulsen.ozdemir@maine.edu

Advisor: Dr. Laura Rickard

Courses Taught: CMJ 103

Nathan Smith joined our PhD program in 2021. He holds an MSc in Global Environmental Leadership from Colorado State University in 2020. His research interests include the broad area of human dimensions of marine conservation: seafood and aquaculture; invasive species management; coral reef ecosystem services and conservation; marine protected areas; and more. While currently a qualitative researcher, he aims to incorporate quantitative and spatial methods into his research in the future. Nathan currently participates in NOAA’s Coral Reef Conservation Program’s re-assessement of U.S. coral reef ecosystem services as an Economic Research Analyst.

Email: nathan.r.smith1@maine.edu

Advisor: Dr. Laura Rickard

Sheena Hunter Sheffield joined our PhD program in 2023. She holds a BA in Women’s and Gender Studies from The University of Maine and an MA in Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies from Georgia State University. Her research examines how language constitutes what it means to age, and how women perform and negotiate their identities as they get older. In addition to teaching, she is an undergraduate advisor in CMJ. 

Email: sheena.sheffield@maine.edu
Advisor: Dr. Liliana Herakova
Courses taught: Public Speaking (CMJ 103), Modes of media criticism

Jennifer Smith-Mayo joined our PhD program in 2019. She earned an MA in New Media at UMaine in 2011 and a BA in Communication at Goucher College in 1991. Her research interests include environmental communication; visual communication; rhetoric; ethnography; and engaged participatory research. Jennifer is currently affiliated with the Maine-eDNA EPSCoR project and the Environmental Communication Community of Practice.

Email: jennifer.smithmayo@maine.edu
Advisors: Dr. Bridie McGreavy and Dr. Heather Leslie
Courses Taught: Digital Imaging (ART/NMD 272); Public Speaking (CMJ 103); Film Criticism and Theory (CMJ/NMD 245)
Link: Google Scholar | ORCID

Clinton Spaulding joined our PhD program in 2017 after earning both his MA and BA at UMaine in 2008 and 2002. His research interests include media ecology; critical pedagogy; media history; and participatory action research. He is an undergraduate advisor for the CMJ department and also currently affiliated with Spire, the Maine Journal of Conservation and Sustainability, which is housed at UMaine.

Email: clinton.spaulding@maine.edu
Advisor: Dr. Paul Grosswiler
Courses Taught: Public Speaking (CMJ 103); Public Relations (CMJ 367); Modes of Media Criticism (CMJ 376)

Glendon Zernicke is a M.A. Student in the Department of Communication and Journalism.