The Broadcast Education Association (BEA) has named Comm Arts alumnus Shawn VanCour the recipient of the 19th annual Kenneth Harwood Outstanding Dissertation Award. Established in 1955, the BEA is a professional association for professors, industry professionals and graduate students who are interested in teaching and research related to electronic media and multimedia enterprises. The Outstanding Dissertation …

Congratulations to Stuart Bass (Comm Arts, ’78), an accomplished freelance film editor for his outstanding accomplishment in the field of television editing. Bass won a Primetime Emmy Award from the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences at the 60th Primetime Emmy Awards in Los Angeles on September 21st, 2008. He was awarded for Outstanding Editing of a Comedy Series …

Walter Mirisch’s (History, ’42) autobiography, I Thought We Were Making Movies, Not History, provides a unique insider’s view of the film industry though the life and experiences of an industry giant whose name is synonymous with numberous film classics, including three that won the Acdemy Award for best picture — The Apartment (1960), West Side Story (1961), and In the Heat …

The Hollywood Badgers, a group founded in 2005 by Comm Arts alumni Lesley Feinstein (Comm Arts, ’03) and Mary Rohlich (Comm Arts, ’03), were featured in the Fall 2008 issue of On Wisconsin, UW-Madison’s magazine for alumni and friends. The Hollywood Badgers encourage students and new graduates to find their footing in Hollywood by joining the group, pooling resumes, …

Congratulations to award-winning Communication Arts colleagues Susan Zaeske and Kelley Conway. Dean Gary Sandefur has announced that Professor Susan Zaeske (pictured at right) was selected to receive a Hamel Family Faculty Fellowship. Ten such awards were made across the College of Letters and Science in a highly competitive review of nominees from all L&S departments. Fellowship winners will receive …

Former Wisconsin governor Lee Sherman Dreyfus passed away on January 2 at age 81. He is well remembered by Wisconsinites as an enlightened political leader (he signed the state’s 1982 gay rights legislation), a successful grassroots campaigner, and a flamboyant public figure sporting a distinctive red vest. Those of us in Communication Arts are proud …

Professor Lyn Van Swol, who joined our faculty this fall, won the National Communication Association Group Communication Division’s 2007 Dennis Gouran Research award for the best published paper in group research. She received her award at the past NCA meeting for her article “Differences between Minority, Majority, and Unanimous Group Members in the Communication of …